The Strange, Sad Death of Sam Cooke (2024)

Sam Cooke in the Recording studio.

Itwas a semi-seedy Los Angeles motel, well removed fromthe glitz and glitter of Hollywood. In the weesmall hours of December 11, 1962 an out of place, gleaming red Ferrari screechedup to the office and a young, franticBlack man clad only in a sport coat and a single shoe leaped out and began pounding on the closed door of the manager’s apartment. Highlyagitated the man forced his way indemanding to know where the young womanwas who had checked in with him notlong before and accusing the female manager of harboring her. He screamed something about her stealing his clothes and money. He grabbedthe woman. They tussled and fell to the floor.She managed to wriggle freeand grab a pistol. She got off a wild shot that lodged in theceiling but the next bullet piercedthe man’s naked chest as headvanced on her again passing through his lungsand heart. “Lady,you shot me,” the astonished man reportedly said but had enough strength tocontinue to stagger toward her. The manager dropped the gun and used a broom handle to beat him on the head until he collapsed—andapparently for a while after—until the intruderwas dead. So went the account of the motel manager, which wasquickly accepted by the police,

Thewhole sordid event would have barelymerited a back page mention in the LosAngeles Times—just a bit of senselessurban violence, the possible inspiration for a late filmnoir at best. Except that the corpse had been 33 year old Sam Cooke, then the most popular Black singer in America with along string of hits and rare cross-over appealfor White audiences.

Hewas a musical innovator whose smooth style had practically invented romantic soul music who had mentored and influenced a risinggeneration of young artists, and openedthe door for the Motown sound. On the basis of his good looks and the easycharm of his personality he was on the verge of branching out into movies and perhaps his own TV variety show. He was also a shrewd businessman who had avoidedthe pitfalls that drained the moneyof many Black artists into the pocketsof White agents, producers, and investment hucksters and had formedhis own record label and strucka recording contract with RCAVictor. And with all of his success he was well liked and admired byhis peers and colleagues.

Naturallythere were headlines and scandal.

Cookewas born on January 22, 1931 in Clarksdale,Mississippi, one of a brood of eightchildren of the Rev. Charles Cook,a Baptist minister, and his wife, Annie Mae.The family moved early to Chicagowhere the Rev. Cook took the pulpit of the Christ Temple Church where Sam was soon singing with his siblings.When he was 9 years old they formed the Singing Children which was soon in demand for guestperformances at Black churches across the city.

Whileattending Wendell Phillips Academy HighSchool, the alma mater of Nat KingCole, Cooke moved up to lead singerof the popular Gospel music groupthe Highway QC’s at the age of 14. He was also a neighbor and close friend of LouRawls who sang with another Gospel ensemble.

Young Sam Cooke, bottom left, joined the established Gospel Group the Soul Stirrers and quickly became both their lead tenor and musical leader.

Whenthe QC’s broke up Cooke moved over to the established Soul Stirrers in 1950 taking over tenor and leadershipfrom the group’s founder, R.H. Harris. Despite—or because of—his youth hebrought a fresh sound to the Chicago Gospel scene and was soon attracting a younger crowd, including adoring teen girls and branchingfrom church appearances to secularvenues like theaters and even dance halls. The group signed a deal with SpecialtyRecords and made several successfulrecords, most arranged and some written by Cooke.

Despitehis deep roots in Church andreligious music young Cooke found theattention of his young female fans irresistible. At one point in the mid-50’s he was juggling three pregnant girlfriends,two in Chicago, and one in Cleveland.

In1956 Cooke was eager to explore secularmusic, but was leery of offendinghis loyal Gospel fan base which had turnedon other artists who moved on to pop. He recorded a couple of singles as Dale Cook. But hisdistinctive voice on the moderate hit Lovable which he adapted from theGospel song Wonderful did not deceiveanyone. He got the permission ofSpecialty Records head Art Rupe tomake secular records under his own name. But the two soon clashed over Cooke’s approach—Rupewanted a harder driving sound likethe label’s other Gospel star turnedRhythm and Bluesman Little Richard. Cooke was looking for a more mellow, romantic groove.

Cookbolted Specialty and signed a newdeal with Keen Records which in 1957released the blow out hit YouSend Me. The single became a number one hit on both Billboard ’sRhythm & Blues Records chart andthe Billboard Hot 100. The unprecedentedcrossover appeal was so deepthat You Send Me became the favorite record of my 43 year old mother, usually a devotee of the likes of Patty Paige, Eddie Fisher, and Tennessee Ernie Ford. When TheresaBrewer came out with a cover forWhite audiences, it was a #8 hit—but itrevived interest in Cooke’s original, sending it back up the charts and toppinghers in sales.

Inthe months and years that followedSpecialty Records scrambled to releasetwo records it had in the canand Keen released 12 singles. All became hits including now classics like I’llCome Running Back to You, Sentimental Reasons, and Wonderful World.

Cookeseized control of his own profitable publishing with the creation of Kags Music in partnershipwith gospel producer J.W. Alexander. The pair along with Cooke’s manager Roy Crain also founded a record label, SARRecords in 1961 which found successissuing sides by The Simms Twins,The Valentinos, Cooke’s close friendBobby Womack, and Johnnie Taylor.

Duringthese years Cooke was touringextensively and appearing on TVshows. He continued to chase skirts and he also began to drink regularly and heavily. He was brieflymarried to singer-dancer Dolores Mohawk, who divorced him over his serial infidelity. But when she was killed in a California carcrash in 1959, Cooke paid all of herfinal medical and burial expenses. The same year Cooke married Barbara Cambell, a former teenage sweetheart with whom he had a daughter, Linda.

Cupid was just one of Sam Cooke's big hits for RCA Victor.

In1961 Cooke’s recording career really slippedinto high gear when he signed with mainstreamRCA records. A new string of hitsbegan with Chain Gang, and included Cupid, Bring it on Home to Me, AnotherSaturday Night, and Twistin’ the Night Away. In all he posted 29 top 40 hits and several more on the R&B charts. Although he concentrated on singles, RCA issued hugely successful albums and compilations.

Cookewas at the peak of his career thatDecember. He had laid down more tracksfor RCA including his great Civil Rightsanthem A Change is Gonna Come and Shake, both of which the label laterreleased and became posthumous hits.

Thatfateful night Cooke left his wifeand three children at their posh HollywoodHills home to meet a businessassociate for drinks and dinner at the popular Martoni’s Italian restaurant off Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood, a popular hangout for music industry types, wannabes, and hangers-on. After a fewdrinks, Elisa Boyer a striking 23 year old attracted hisattention. After a few more drinks thepair departed in his Ferrari.

Elisa Boyer, the woman Cooke picked up during an evening of drinking at an Italian restaurant and took to a seedy motel miles away. She claimed he tried to rape her and that she fled with his clothes. Cooke's family has always disputed her account and portrayed her as a hustler in a jack rolling scheme.

Whathappened next is a source of controversy. Boyer would later testify that she asked Cooke to drive her home but that instead he made the 30 minute drive to the Hacienda Motel on Figueroa Street in L.A.Cooke checked in for a $3 a night room. Boyer accompanied him. No one reported a struggle.

Onceinside she said that Cooke stripped herclothes off and began to attack her.She said that when he went intothe bathroom for a moment, she swoopedup her clothes—and almost all of his—andbolted out the door. She sprintedto the motel office where she pounded on the manager’s apartment door yelling that she had been kidnapped. The manager was slow to respond so she ranaway, still clutching Cooke’s clothing, including his pants with his wallet in it, fearing that he would be after her.

Hewas. When Cooke emerged from thebathroom he threw on his jacket, one shoe and grabbed a towel and jumped in his car to speed to the office. The manager, Bertha Franklin may have been slow to be roused by Boyer butmoments later she said that she was onthe telephone with the motel owner, EvelynCarr who later testified that she heardthe whole incident. It was Carr whoplaced the first of several shootingreports to the police.

The hotel manager who shot Cooke and the small gun she used. She also beat him repeadedly with a broom handle.

Investigatorstook Franklin’s and Carr’s testimony at facevalue—certainly the evidence seemeddamning to Cooke. When they trackeddown Boyer later they found little todoubt in her story. The case wasquickly ruled a justifiable homicide Franklinwas not charged in the death.

Cooke’sfamily never bought the story. They pointed out that despite his history ofwomanizing, Cooke had no history of violence or coercion. Singer Etta James viewed Cooke’s body and wrote he was so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled, more damage than a woman alone was likely to be able to administer with a broom handle.

Thefamily believed that Boyer luredCooke to the Motel in a classic John roll in which his clothing wastaken with his wallet in order to preventthe victim from pursuing.Perpetrators of this kind of operationusually work in collusion with roomrenters and often have pimps or thumpers on hand in case the victim gets unruly. Although this sounds like a possible scenario, no connection betweenthe three women involved was everestablished and no evidence of enforcers ever brought forward.

LaterFranklin sued Cooke’s estate alleging physicalinjuries and mental anguish andseeking $200,000 in compensatory andpunitive damages. Cooke’s widow, Barbara, who had married BobbyWomack just three months after her husband’s death, counter sued for $7,000 to cover the cost of her husband’s funeralexpenses. In the 1967 trial Boyerand Carr testified on Franklin’s behalf.A jury ruled in favor of Franklinon both counts, awarding her $30,000 in damages. All three women then essentially vanished from public record.

Thefamily’s brush with bizarre scandal wasnot over. Barbara and Bobby Womackhad apparently launched an affairwhile Cooke was still alive. Their rapidmarriage scandalized and offended the rest of the family. Then, Barbara discovered that Womack was secretly molesting teenage Linda. She helda gun to his head and threatened tokill him before chasing him out ofher house. That caused a breach between mother and daughter. Linda eventually married Womack’s brother.

Inthe fifty years plus since his death, Cooke’s enduring popularity, reaching near cult worship status has tendedto give credence to the family’s conspiracy theory, despite the angry accusations of some feminists thatdefenders of his reputation were blamingthe victim.

Itlooks like many of Cooke’s devoted fans may have to divorce his art from his life.