William Cook

Case overview

William Cook, also known as “Billy Boy” or “Cockeyed Cook,” committed a spree of abductions and murders over a brief period in 1950-51.

Cook was born in 1929 near Joplin, Missouri, and spent his childhood in and out of reform schools and prisons. His upbringing included living in an abandoned mine shaft after his father moved the family there following the death of his mother. His right eye never closed, due to a congenital deformity. He later had a tattoo reading “HARD LUCK” across the fingers of his left hand.

The offence

Cook abducted and held multiple victims captive, including a family of five and a deputy sheriff. He forced captives to drive while he threatened them at gunpoint, and he shot several victims to death. He also shot and killed a dog and disposed of bodies in a mine shaft.

Mossers

Cook abducted the family of Carl Mosser, including Mosser’s wife Thelma and their three children. Cook forced the family to continue driving for about 72 hours. Cook then shot and killed all five family members and their dog. Cook dumped the corpses in an abandoned mine shaft outside of Joplin, Missouri.

Shooting of Robert Dewey

Cook took a motorist identified as Robert Dewey, 32, and forced him to head for California. Cook then killed Dewey execution-style and used Dewey’s car. Cook’s murder of Dewey was the offence for which he was tried and sentenced to death.

Investigation

Lawmen and investigators conducted a nationwide manhunt after the Mossers were murdered and several other abductions occurred. The search drew thousands of law enforcement officers, game wardens, and private citizens.

A duffel bag with clues was found in the car of Lee Archer after the hitchhiker overpowered Archer and locked him in the car trunk. Police later used newspaper wire photo machines to obtain pictures and Missouri penitentiary records of Cook, identified as being 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 145 pounds, and having a right eye that never closed. Investigation included laboratory tests of mud found in the Mosser car, which showed a heavy shale content and linked Cook to abandoned zinc mines.

Police Chief Carl Nutt and Detective Walter Gamble later made a connection between shale and zinc mining and Cook’s upbringing around Second and Oliver streets. They associated bodies in one flooded shaft with the Mosser family.

Arrest

Mexican police recognized William Cook from FBI posters and arrested him at gunpoint in a cafe on January 15, 1951, in Santa Rosalia. The arrest followed Cook’s kidnapping of two other men—James Burke and Forrest Damron—who were amateur prospectors and captives with Cook for the next week.

Trial

Cook was tried and convicted for the murder of Robert Dewey. A jury found Cook guilty in November 1951, in a trial in Imperial County, and sentenced him to death. Another earlier trial under federal kidnapping statutes resulted in a judge, trying the case without a jury, giving Cook 300 years, including the possibility of parole, and public outrage followed.

Sentencing

Cook was sentenced to death after being convicted for the murder of Robert Dewey. Appeals were exhausted before his execution.

Appeals

Cook’s appeals were exhausted before his execution on December 12, 1952.

Outcome

William Cook was executed by asphyxiation-gas in California at San Quentin Prison on December 12, 1952.

Three days after execution, Cook’s body was on display at a funeral home in Comanche, Oklahoma. Fifteen thousand people viewed the body before relatives stopped the showing. Cook was then buried in Peace Cemetery in Joplin.

Timeline

• December 30, 1950 — Cook abducted a motorist at gunpoint near Lubbock, Texas.
• January 2, 1951 — Between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m., Cook shot each member of the Mosser family and dropped their bodies down a mine shaft in the Chitwood section of Joplin.
• January 3, 1951 — A grimy blue 1949 Chevrolet sedan was found mired in a ditch 3 miles northwest of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• January 6 — Cook reached Blythe, California by bus and hitchhiking.
• January 15, 1951 — Mexican police recognized Cook from FBI posters and arrested him at gunpoint in a cafe in Santa Rosalia.
• December 12, 1952 — Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison.

Other details

• Cook tattooed “HARD LUCK” across the fingers of his left hand.
• After release from prison in 1950, Cook flagged down a car and forced a family of five to drive aimlessly through four states.
• Cook forced captives to drive through multiple locations: Wichita Falls, Texas; Carlsbad, New Mexico; Houston; Winthrop, Arkansas; Joplin; Blythe, California; and crossed into Mexico after killing Robert Dewey.
• Cook kidnapped a deputy sheriff in California and ordered the officer to chauffeur him around for a forty-mile road trip.
• During the road trip with the deputy sheriff, Cook bragged continuously about murdering the Mossler family; he later ordered the lawman to stop, told him to get out of the car, and tied the officer’s hands behind his back before driving away.
• Cook later came across a motorist identified as Robert Dewey, 32, and shot him execution-style.
• Cook fled to Mexico and kidnapped two other Americans, James Burke and Forrest Damron.
• The captives said they were afraid to try to escape because they never could tell when Cook was asleep; Cook’s right eye remained open.
• Before his execution, Cook stated he hated “everybody's guts.”
• Cook was classified as a spree killer.
• The story of William Cook was the basis for Ida Lupino’s 1953 film The Hitch-hiker.
• An earlier pursuit included an account of Lee Archer picking up a hitchhiker near Lubbock, Texas on Dec. 28, 1950; the hitchhiker overpowered Archer and locked him in the car trunk the next morning near Oklahoma City; the stolen car later disappeared westward on U.S. 66, and the hitchhiker called police after freeing himself from the trunk.
• Cook was described with a right eye that never closed due to a botched operation to remove a congenital growth from the eyelid.
• Cook was sentenced to death for the murder of Robert Dewey after a jury took 50 minutes to find him guilty in November 1951.
• After execution, Cook was buried in Peace Cemetery in Joplin.
• William Cook was one of eight children fathered by an alcoholic miner.
• Cook’s siblings were placed in foster homes after their father deserted them; Cook found placement only when the court agreed to pay his room and board.
• Cook’s appointed foster mother was more interested in earning money from the boy than raising him correctly; two years running, Cook received bicycles for Christmas that were immediately repossessed for lack of payment.
• Cook began running the streets at night and practicing petty theft; after his first arrest he told the court he would prefer reform school to his foster home.
• After release a few months later, Cook robbed a cab driver of eleven dollars, resulting in a five-year stretch in the reformatory.
• Violent outbursts in the reformatory resulted in a transfer to state prison; Cook earned a reputation as a brawler, and nearly killed a fellow inmate with a baseball bat.