a little more on Sam Cooke
The personal inventory of Cooke’s corpse included a wristwatch and a jacket with a money clip containing $108 and some loose change in the pocket. Oh, and a single shoe. Police found a bottle of Scotch and a copy of the newspaper “Muhammad Speaks” in the back seat of Sam’s cherry red Ferrari. The pile of clothes Elisa said she stashed under a stairwell were never found as was Cooke’s wallet containing a driver’s license and credit cards (no subsequent purchases were ever made with the cards). A search of Boyer’s purse showed that she had only a twenty dollar bill. Sam Cooke is believed to have retrieved $5,000 in cash from a safe deposit box earlier in the day. Al Schmitt reported that Sam was flashing about $1,000 at the bar the night before. It has never been determined where that money went.
At 6 a.m., Sam’s widow Barbara greeted the news with hysterics, trying to shield their two young children from reporters and fans who were gathering at their house. At a coroner’s inquest five days later, Elisa Boyer, Bertha Franklin, Evelyn Carr and other witnesses recounted their stories in a short hearing that barely allowed Sam’s lawyer enough time to ask one question. In just two hours, the inquest was complete. Tests showed that at the time of death, Sam had a blood alcohol level of .16 (twice the legal limit for driving). The shooting was ruled “justifiable homicide.” and the case was closed.
Sam Cooke’s L.A. funeral included three full days of viewing. His $4,000 casket was specially fitted with a glass top to allow his fans (including heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay, a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) one last look. Cooke’s remains were flown to Chicago for a funeral service in his hometown then returned to Hollywood for another funeral. The Staple Singers, Lou Rawls, Billy Preston and Ray Charles all presented musical tributes to Sam. Sam Cooke’s body was buried in the “Garden of Honor” in Hollywood’s Forest Lawn cemetery just a few miles away from his home. There he rests alongside some of the biggest names in the history of Hollywood: Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Jimmy Stewart, Jean Harlow, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Pickford, Errol Flynn, Spencer Tracy, George Burns & Gracie Allen, W.C. Fields, Tom Mix, Sammy Davis Jr., Walt Disney, Red Skelton, Ted Knight, Nat King Cole, William Boyd (“Hopalong Cassidy”) plus western author Louis L’Amour and the Wizard of Oz’s L. Frank Baum.
Although he sang like one, Sam Cooke was no angel. He was always known as a womanizer. As his friend Bumps Blackwell once said, “Sam would walk past a good girl to get to a hooker.” Over the span of a five week period from March to April 1952, three young women each gave birth to a daughter fathered by Cooke. He was beset by paternity lawsuits up until his death and most were quietly settled with payoffs. Despite his gospel music roots, he epitomized the Hollywood lifestyle: Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse.
As for Barbara Cooke, her husband’s infidelity was nothing new to her and likewise, she was no angel herself. Keep in mind that the couple was still dealing with the loss of their toddler son Vincent, who drowned in the pool of the family’s Hollywood home in June of the previous year — a tragedy that many said Sam still blamed her for. At the time of Sam’s tragic death, she was having an affair with a local bartender. On the day of Sam’s funeral, friends and family were aghast when her paramour showed up wearing Sam’s ring and the watch he was wearing at the time of his death.
