In our continuing series of revealing the interesting back stories behind the lives and deaths of iconic celebrities and rockers, the shooting death of R&B sensation Sam Cooke has two parallel themes, both of which are fascinating.
Sam Cooke was influential - not only musically. He was also a strong activist in the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Cooke was friends with Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, and NFL great and activist Jim Brown. Sam Cooke influenced amazing artists like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, Bobby Womack, and Marvin Gaye.
Between 1957 and 1964, Sam Cooke had a series of notable smash hits, including, “You Send Me,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Wonderful World,” “Chain Gang,” and “Bring It On Home To Me.” Some of Cooke’s hits were covered by other artists and became big hits for them. Rod Stewart’s cover of the Sam Cooke song “Twistin’ The Night Away” became a major hit in 1973; and Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf, had a hit with his cover of the Cooke song, “Another Saturday Night” in 1974. More recently the hard rock band, Greta Van Fleet produced a dramatic cover of Cooke’s civil rights message song, “A Change Is Gonna Come” in 2017.
It is impossible to ignore the superstar status bestowed upon Sam Cooke, both while he was alive and after his death.
In December of 1964, Sam Cooke was seemingly on top of the music world when he was shot and killed by the manager of a motel in Los Angeles.
The shooting involved a young woman Cooke had checked into the motel with. A police investigation into the murder rules it “justifiable homicide.” But was the murder of Sam Cooke justifiable homicide, or was it an arranged murder?
Sam Cooke was 33 years old in 1964, and his music was climbing up the charts. It has been said that he was on the verge of moving to a new level of crossover success.
Cooke was dining at a Los Angeles restaurant with his producer and his producer’s wife. Their dinner was occasionally interrupted by people who recognized him who wanted to say how much they loved his music. At one point, Cooke was lured away from the table and was hanging out and buying drinks for some music industry people who knew at the bar of the restaurant.
While at the bar, a 22-year-old woman caught Cooke’s eye. She was sitting with 3 men in a booth, one of whom was a guitar player Cooke knew. He introduced Cooke to Elisa Boyer, and before long the two of them were snuggling up to each other in a booth.
Cooke and Boyer left the restaurant bar at 1:00 am in Cooke’s new red Ferrari and headed to a nightclub where they were supposed to meet up with the producer and his wife that Cooke was having dinner with earlier. At the nightclub, Cooke got into a verbal confrontation with a guy whom he thought was hitting on Boyer. At that point she asked Cooke to drive her home. It was about 2:00am.
According to Boyer’s story to police, Cooke ignored her request to be taken home. He pulled onto the freeway and then exited and pulled into the Hacienda Motel near LAX. Stopping at the manager’s office of the motel, Cooke got out while Boyer remained in the Ferrari. It’s important to note that she remained alone in the car.
When Cooke went to register, the manager saw that he had a female in the car; and she told him he would have to register as Mr. and Mrs. It was 1964, and you just didn’t check into a motel with a young woman. Sam Cooke did register as Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cooke.
After registering, Cooke drove around to a room in the back section of the motel. Boyer told police that Cooke pushed her into the room and onto the bed where she said he began to rip off her clothes. She later said, “I knew he was going to rape me.”
She managed to excuse herself to go to the bathroom. Boyer tried to lock the bathroom door, but the latch was broken. She also discovered that the bathroom window was sealed shut from being freshly painted. When she came out of the bathroom, she said that Cooke was naked and groped her before he went into the bathroom. While Cooke was in the bathroom, Boyer grabbed her clothes and ran out of the room wearing only a slip and her bra.
Boyer immediately ran to the manager’s door and knocked; but the manager, Bertha Franklin, did not answer. Boyer spotted a phone booth and called the police.
Cooke panicked when he came out of the bathroom in the motel room and did not see Boyer. He got back in his Ferrari and began looking for her. He went to the manager’s door and pounded on it asking, “Is the girl in there?” Franklin replied “No.”
The door to her office was locked, but Cooke began hitting the door with his shoulder in an attempt to get into the office to see if the girl was there. The frame of the door eventually gave way; and Cooke was in the office confronting Franklin. “Where’s the girl?”
That was followed by a physical altercation between Cooke and Franklin. Franklin told police that he fell on top of her, and she tried to bite him and scratch him to get him off of her. Franklin told police that she kicked Cooke and dashed to grab a pistol. She shot him 3 times at very close range. By the time police arrived at the motel - the popular R&B star was dead.
Tests revealed that at the time of his death, Sam Cooke’s blood alcohol level was .16 and .08, and he was considered the point of being legally too drunk to drive. Cooke’s credit cards were missing, but $108 in cash was still on him. Police ruled the shooting “justifiable homicide” and the case was closed.
But there were some problems with the stories from Boyer and Franklin, the motel manager.
Boyer testified that she did meet Cooke at a dinner party, but did not mention the stop at the nightclub.
About a month after the shooting death of Sam Cooke, Boyer was arrested in Hollywood on a charge of prostitution. It was also learned that the Hacienda Motel offered a rate of $3-per-hour and was known to cater to prostitutes. At this point, it seemed possible that Sam Cooke, who was known for enjoying the services of prostitutes, might have paid Boyer for sex that night.
In 1979, Boyer was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend.
Bertha Franklin, the motel night manager, was actually a madam with a criminal record and ultimately left her job at the motel. She sued Cooke’s estate for $200,00 for punitive damages and injuries but lost the case.
The story doesn’t end there, though.
Sam Cooke’s wife, Barbara Cooke, was well aware of her husband’s cheating. She was even having an affair with a bartender at a local bar. In fact, on the day of Sam Cooke’s funeral, that bartender was reported to be wearing Cooke’s watch and his ring.
Barbara Cooke broke things off with the bartender and married one of Cooke’s back-up singers - Bobby Womack - 77 days after Sam Cooke’s death.
Womack and Barbara were married at the Los Angeles courthouse, and Womack actually wore one of Sam’s suits to the wedding ceremony.
Some had observed that Sam Cooke had developed a massive ego and did make enemies. Cooke was also a known drug user. It was even suggested that Cooke’s wife, Barbara, was insanely jealous and set up the shooting. Others believed that Sam Cooke’s shooting death was inspired by racist views since he was becoming such a major Black artist.
What really happened in the tragic shooting death of legendary R&B singer Sam Cooke may never be known since most of those directly implicated are dead.
Over the years, I have always marked the anniversary of Sam Cooke’s death by mentioning that he was shot and killed by the night manager of a motel in Los Angeles, but I never knew the real story or the speculation that Sam Cooke’s death was not justifiable homicide - but that it could have been a set-up murder.