Cooke died at the age of thirty-three on December 11, 1964, at the Hacienda Motel 1937 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, California. Bertha Franklin, manager of the motel, told police he had shot and killed Cooke defend himself because he had threatened her. Police found the body of Cooke exercise in the apartment of Franklin, wearing only a jacket and sneakers, but no shirt, pants or underwear. The shooting was finally considered justifiable homicide. The funeral took place in Chicago at the AR Leak Funeral Home, where thousands of fans queued for more than 4 blocks to see his body. Cooke was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Some posthumous releases followed, many of which became hits, including "A Change Is Gonna Come," an early protest song which is generally regarded as the greatest composition. After Cooke's death, his widow, Barbara, married Bobby Womack. Cooke daughter, Linda, later married Bobby's brother, Cecil.
Controversy
The details of cases involving the death of Cooke is still in dispute.Police said that official documents Cooke was shot dead by Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in early evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office-apartment in anger, only a sport coat to wear shoes and demanded to know the whereabouts of a woman who accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said she was not at the office and they said Cooke, but Cooke disbelief and anger took ill, asked again about the existence of women.According to Franklin, Cooke face it, both fell to the ground, then got up and ran to retrieve his weapon. He said he then fired at Cooke defend himself, because he feared for his life. Cooke was hit in the torso, according to Franklin, he exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me," before getting his last bill. She said she was beaten on the head with a broom before he finally fell, was seriously wounded by gunfire.
According to Franklin and the motel owner, Evelyn Carr (name and is identified by several sources as a map, rather than Carr), they were on the phone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr said he heard about the intrusion Cooke and the ensuing conflict and gunshots. Carr called the police to ask them to go to the motel, informing them that he believed the shooting had taken place.
A coroner's examination was conducted to investigate the incident.The woman who accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who also called police that night, just before Carr.Boyer called police from a phone booth near the motel, telling them he had just escaped from the kidnapping.
Boyer told police he met Cooke earlier that night and spent the night in his company. He stated that, after leaving a local nightclub together, she repeatedly asked him to take her home, but it has taken against his will to the Hacienda Motel. He said that once in a motel room, physical Cooke forced to bed and he believes he torape. According to Boyer, when Cooke went into the bathroom briefly, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. He said that in an emergency, he also won most clothing Cooke by mistake. She said she initially ran into the office of door to door looking for help. However, he said that the manager is too long to respond, yes, fear Cooke will soon be after him, he fled the motel in total before the manager ever opened the door. He said he then put his own clothes back, hide the clothes Cooke, and went to the phone booth where she called the police.
Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between the two that night, but its history has long been disputed.Inconsistencies between his version of events and details reported by other witnesses and evidence (for example, reportedly carrying money that Cooke never recovered, and Boyer arrested shortly after for prostitution), [15] invites speculation that it may Boyer ready to go to a motel with Cooke, and then slipped out of the room with clothes from Cooke to steal, not to escape an attempted rape.
These issues ultimately considered outside the scope of the investigation, whose aim is to establish a state role in the shooting of Franklin, not to determine precisely what happened between Cooke and Boyer events earlier. Boyer left the motel room with almost any outfit Cooke, regardless of exactly why he did it, combined with the fact that tests showed wasinebriated Cooke at the time, provided that the jury's consideration is considered a reasonable explanation for the strange behavior Cooke and condition of coat, as indicated by Franklin and Carr. This explanation, in conjunction with the fact that Carr's testimony corroborated Franklin's version of events, and the fact that the officer testified that both Boyer and Franklin had passed the polygraph test was enough to convince the jury thecoroner to accept Franklin's explanation, and again justified the murder verdict. With this decision, the government officially closed the case of the death of Cooke.
Some of the family and supporters Cooke, however, rejected the version of events Boyer, as well as those given by Franklin and Carr. They believe there is a conspiracy to assassinate Cooke and that the killings took place in a completely different way from the three official languages. In her autobiography, Rage to survive, the singer Etta James claimed he saw the body of Cooke at the funeral home and that the injuries he observed well beyond what can be explained by the official record Franklin alone having fought with Cooke. James Cooke is described as having been so badly beaten that his head almost separated from his shoulders, his arms broken, and broke his nose.
There is no concrete evidence to support a conspiracy theory has been delivered to date.
