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Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Bernice Moore - 06-04-2011
Officer William H. (Joe) Cooper Saved a Vice President from assassination, but wound up dead after investigating J.F.K's Murder
Joe spent most of a decade tracking down possible links connecting the assassination of President Kennedy to the government intelligence network, particularly Naval Intelligence, ONI..
His investigation lasted till Oct.16, 1974, when 50 year old Cooper was found shot to death in his apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His death was ruled a suicide, but his wife and family and friends were convinced he was murdered. He enjoyed living too much, and only a few days before had called, newsman John Moulder, excited with what he considered new angles in his Naval Intelligence theory…
Moulder had met Cooper the summer of 74, when they were tracking down and interviewed two men who said they had been offered a bundle of money ….and had turned it down…….to fly two men from Dallas to Latin America on Nov. 22/63..the day the President was killed..
Joe Cooper, working for government intelligence had headed off a plot to assassinate Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.
The V.P.'s assassination conspiracy was carried out in Louisiana, where Jim Garrison said the conspiracy to kill J.F.K was hatched…
Cooper had filled Moulder in on the details during three separate interviews in the Baton Rouge area. The plot was begun by members of what Joe described as……. " the old original Ku Klux Klan" although, he did not have any solid evidence to indicate the conspiracy was an official Klan action. A former Baron Rouge policeman, Cooper was a paid informer for the F.B.I from 1963 to 65...
He attended Klan meetings in abandoned houses in the woods, abandoned buildings in town, private homes. One meeting was even held in a barn.
"My government contact encouraged me to take part in Klan activities" said Cooper… "The Klan would sometimes beat somebody up, fire gunshots into somebody's house. Intimidate integrated restaurants. Once 25 of us drove cars up and down the street all night long in front of an integrationist's house to intimidate him".
"The police didn't try to stop us. Hell, members of the Klan included state troopers, policemen and deputy sheriffs…
Cooper learned of the plot to assassinate V.P.Hubert Humphrey when he appeared before the Louisiana AFL-CIO state convention in Baton Rouge on April 9, 1965..Cooper was a member of the KBI…..the Klan Bureau of Investigation, the Klan's answer to the FBI.
As a FBI contact, Cooper had the code name ….."Lyons Bucks"….Which he used when he phoned his FBI contact to report on Klan activities. When he signed receipts for payments from the FBI, he used his real name. A fellow clan member had come to him and told him of the plan to assassinate the V.P. The member asked Cooper if he could use his intelligence contacts with the police to find out how much security would be used for Humphrey's visit. He also told Cooper the name of the man who was to be his back-up man...
Cooper immediately called his government contact. He met with the federal agent in a car near the campus of Louisiana State University.
Carrying out his instructions, he returned to his fellow Klansmen and reported the security along the route of the motorcade that Humphrey would be traveling would be heavy. He told the Klan that he did not know how heavy it would be at the Jack Tar Capital House Hotel, where the V.P was to speak...
The FBI instructed Cooper to stay away from the Hotel the night Humphrey would arrive. That night, the Klansman-spy was with other Klan members scattering anti Humphrey literature around the Louisiana State University campus. Meanwhile the Secret Service who were responsible for his safety ….urged him to cancel the trip to Baton Rouge..
Since Louisiana Governor John J. McKeithen was going to be with him at all times on the visit, Humphrey insisted on making the trip. The Secret Service sought the co-operation of Victor Bussie, president of the State AFL-CIO, a friend of Humphrey's. Cooper had also heard that an effort would also be made to assassinate Bussie. His home was bombed two years later...
Cooper was able to supply the FBI with the names of the two men involved in the attempt on Humphrey's life. Agents, using miniature cameras, obtained pictures of the two men, but didn't arrest them before Humphrey's visit, in case others would be sent in their place..
On the night of the Humphrey appearance at the hotel, the ball room was filled with FBI-Secret Service undercover agents and trusted union men serving as sergeants at arms. The entrance to the ballroom was arranged that all visitors could be observed..... Therefore the triggerman was spotted immediately, he was a union member and had a ticket to the event..... The undercover men serving as sergeants-at-arms escorted the man to a seat in the rear at the ballroom. Two FBI sat down in front of him, SS men on both sides, and two others sat behind the man.... Humphrey arrived in Baton Rouge and rode with the governor in a limousine to his mansion. Later they rode together to the hotel, security were everywhere along the route, they covered the route with high powered rifles from the roof tops…Humphrey and McKeithen arrived at the hotel, entered the ballroom, and walked to the speaker's platform.....
The gunman stood, a gun was tucked in his belt under his coat….federal agents grabbed him and pulled him out a kitchen door, the second man on the team was also grabbed and pulled from the room. He had no gun on him, but there was a gun in his car parked outside. From these men the Feds learned the name of a third man, who was in on the scheme, but he had left the convention hall, and backed out before Humphrey had arrived........ The men were questioned, but were never charged the FBI told him there was not sufficient evidence. Cooper said they handled everything so smoothly no one at the hall knew of an attempt, he said they had wanted to kill Humphrey because he was an integrationist…..
No word leaked out about the assassination plot until two years later when the New Orleans States Item printed part of the story. They described an attempt on Humphrey's life by a "right-wing organization" but did not mention the Klan, and of course there was no mention of Cooper nor anyone involved..
Within a few years all three men were dead. One was shot to death by his wife. Another was killed when a metal door fell on him. The third, a young man died of a heart attack. …..Cooper was paid an average of $200.00 a month as a federal informer. People close to Cooper knew of his effort in the Humphrey case.."There is absolutely no question in my mind that Joe saved Hubert Humphrey's life", Cooper's lawyer, Emile W. Weber, told reporter Moulder after Cooper's death.
Four months before Joe Cooper's death, the ex-policeman, ex-government intelligence man, private detective, assassination researcher, wrote to Moulder with information about the Klan and similar right-wing organizations....... "There are a few of these birds left in Baton Rouge and in Mississippi that would kill me", he noted "I have ridden with some of the bad ones and know what they can and will do"…..Cooper explained how groups such as the KKK and the American Nazi Party have been infiltrated by the various governmental intelligence agencies." ....The FBI, CIA, the IRS and the Secret Service may each have representatives in a single group…all the spies unknown to each other," he said......The disclosures that came about since Watergate proved that Cooper was not exaggerating.
Example: The New York Times disclosed on May 20, 1973, that one of the most militant outspoken members of the radical Weatherman organization during it's peak period of bombing and other violence …Larry Grantwohl of Cincinnati…..was a informer and agent provocateur of the FBI.
In 1966 the year after the Humphrey plan, the House Un-American Activities Committee in Ohio was hearing testimony that an Ohio "grand empress" of the Ku Klux Klan, had plotted to kill both President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson…The Warren Commission also reveals other bits and pieces of threats by Klan members against Kennedy that had come to Federal Agencies shortly before Kennedy's death.
..
But by this time, Joe Cooper was off on his own Kennedy conspiracy investigation by then……and his efforts involved Naval Intelligence, not necessarily the Far Right civilian groups.
The Detective had begun a project that would last nine years, until he was found shot to death in his apartment on Oct.16, 1974….
Putting together huge packets of strange coincidences he felt pointed to Naval Intelligence being involved in the J.F.K. assassination. At the time of Kennedy's Presidency, Cooper was against his Civil Rights policies as a typical Southerner of that time.
But his political views were tempered by a strong sense of patriotism and an instinct as a top researcher and investigator.
"I love my country, but this was not the way to change it….by killing a President", he said. Cooper was convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald, that the W/C said alone was responsible for Kennedy's death, was a Naval Intelligence agent....... Cooper was an ex-Navy man who had received a citation when his ship, the U.S.S Smith, was rammed by a kamikaze pilot in 1942, killing 58 men...... He picked up his investigatory knowledge as a Baton Rouge policeman for almost 10 years and later as a law enforcement officer in two Florida towns.
He became convinced a week long cruise aboard the aircraft carrier Shangri La in August 1963…..three months before Kennedy's death …involved an intelligence operation. As a policeman in Florida he began making written enquiries to the Pentagon to find out the names of those aboard the carrier. He received 9 names, but two turned out to be aliases...
He continued to press the Navy Department for more information on the two mystery men. Meanwhile, he left Florida and returned to Louisiana.
"A Naval Intelligence agent followed me from Florida to Baton Rouge to find out how I got this information," he said..
The Shangri La cruise, billed as a pleasure junket, was sponsored by then Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth of Fort Worth..... Korth knew Oswald's family before the youthful onetime Russian defector was arrested for killing Kennedy, and subsequently then murdered by Jack Ruby.
As an attorney, Korth had represented Edwin Ekdahl, former husband of Oswald's mother, in a divorce suit....
Korth succeeded Kennedy appointee John B. Connally, as Secretary of the Navy…After the assassination, the names of both Korth and Connally were found in Oswald's address book…….A month before the assassination, Korth resigned his cabinet post during the political controversy over the TFX fighter plane, which was used in the Vietnam war.. General Dynamics in Korth's hometown, Fort Worth, finally received the $6.5 Billion TFX contract after Lyndon Baines Johnson became President..
The seven Shangri La guests the Navy identified for Cooper were business or political leaders in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area.
One had worked for the same insurance company with Lee Harvey Oswald's father...... Another was a close friend of Dallas law enforcement officials who investigated Kennedy's assassination. Another had connections with a local Nazi leader..
Oswald had some interest in the Nazis...... The names of George Lincoln Rockwell and Daniel Burros, both Nazi Party leaders, were written in his address book. Both Rockwell and Burros were later shot to death….Rockwell assassinated by an ex-Marine, Burros death ruled a suicide.
The two names on the Shangri La list that Cooper couldn't identify were Adolph Vermont Jr. and William Craver Jr. After being referred from one department to another, finally the Pentagon told him the information couldn't be found in the files and there was no way to track it down.
In his research…..the significance of which may never be determined…hekept running across the name "Vermont" time and again.
He wrote to Moulder "When the records are released in 2039 you will see the "Vermont" project was involved in killing Kennedy"….
In 1968 when Cooper was chasing the Naval Intelligence theory, he got in touch with D.A Jim Garrison's staff probing the Kennedy assassination. On July 9, 1968, he was asked to testify before the New Orleans Parish grand jury. Five days later, the steering post came loose on his auto and it crashed into a culvert. The detective's back was broken in three places. His wife had a serious head injury, Cooper said he never believed it was an accident.
In 1974 Moulder and Cooper located two men in Baton Rouge who had once been friends but hadn't seen each other in several years. They had worked together at the sprawling Ling-Temco-Vought defense factory plant in Dallas in Nov, 1963....
Both men, in separate interviews, said they had been offered a large sum of money to pilot a small aircraft with two passengers to South America on Nov. 22nd…..Both men said they had turned down the offer because the flight would be in a no-questions-asked basis and they feared it involved something illegal...
The proposed pilot, Billy Kemp, 52, told Moulder .."After the assassination, I was glad I didn't have anything to do with it"….Both men said that since Kennedy was killed in Dallas the day of the proposed flight, they felt it was linked to the assassination. Both Kemp, a decorated WW 11 fighter pilot, and his former partner told Moulder the name of the man, also a LTV employee, who made the offer.
Kemp said they were never told the destination of the proposed flight "but only that it was some South American country"....
He feared the occupants of the plane might be arrested on the spot if they attempted an unscheduled landing in a Latin American country.
Another coincidence: Kemp was married in 1963 to Maxine Kemp, an employee of the Louisiana State Mental Hospital at Jackson.
Mrs. Kemp was a witness in Garrison's investigation. She said that Lee Harvey Oswald went to the hospital and filled out a job application ……which had since disappeared….in August of 1963…
Kemp's Partner said the fee for the flight was to be $25,000……and that he concluded Kennedy might be murdered after reading in a newspaper the President would be in Dallas on Nov.22, the day of the proposed flight.
"I said, " Billy do you know what they want for $25,000? I said, Kennedy ain't gonna get out of Dallas. They're gonna kill him"..
Kemp's partner agreed to an interview only if his name was not used…
Two months later in 1974 Cooper was found shot to death in his bedroom.
After Cooper's death John Moulder went back to the Baton Rouge businessman who wanted to remain anonymous.The businessman held him to his commitment to also not print his name..
In a packet of notes that Moulder received in the mail from Cooper the day before his death, he noted that the stories in the Tattler, after two other stories had appeared in issues in Aug. 74,( which I do not have) had some people in Baton Rouge " stirred up"..
Then his death reminded Moulder of the other mysterious deaths concerning the witnesses and others involved in some way with the J.F.K assassination, and of what Cooper had written to him in a letter the previous summer…
"I am convinced everyone involved will be killed if this thing is not exposed quickly"…..
Information from
John Moulder…….The National Tattler June 8, 1975…….
The only other mention I have found re Joe, is that he at one time was working on proving a voting scam in Louisiana,
and did so.....and also ran for Sheriffs Office I believe, but lost out....at election time.
On Mae Russells site, as well as in the Penn Jones mysterious death article, it states that he was shot with the wrong
hand...but nothing further, will check the Jones books...that I have....
Nothing available on him, at Mary Farrells site..either.....so... Until.....
Bernice…
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Bernice Moore - 06-04-2011
The tragic career of William H. "Joe" Cooper
Compiled by Claude B. Slaton
5 July 1996; updated 16 Dec 1996
I first knew of Joe Cooper when Jeff Caufield sent me a memorandum from the files of Jim Garrison during the summer of 1995.[1] At the time, the mention in the memo about the two men who had been offered $25,000 to fly two mysterious passengers on a "...one-way flight to Mexico City..." two days before the assassination did not ring a bell with me because the names of the parties mentioned were not familiar to me. One of the pilots was not named by name. When I received a Tattler article (written by John Moulder just after the death of Joe Cooper) that was sent to me by Jeff Caufield on July 3, 1996, the significance of combining the documents was apparent.First, some background on Joe Cooper himself. He was born in Robertsdale, Ala., on May 2, 1924. His actions in the Pacific in WWII earned him a Presidential Citation when his ship, the USS Smith, was hit by a kamikaze pilot in 1942, killing 58 men. He served as a Baton Rouge City Police officer from 1945-47, was a Ft. Walton, Fla. Marshal in 1947-48, and served again on the
Baton Rouge force 1955-59. He had received the "Outstanding Officer of 1956, Traffic Division" award from the B.R.P.D.[2] I know a retired La. State Policeman who worked on the Baton Rouge force in 1956, and when I asked him about Joe Cooper he replied, "Strange guy. But I wouldn't want anyone else beside me going into a tough situation. He was a good cop." He requested his name not be used.[3]
Cooper made news in 1960 when he charged publicly that there were at least two ways of rigging state voting machines_a charge vehemently denied by public officials like Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr.
He ran for mayor-president of Baton Rouge in the election of 1960, and finished last in a seven-man Democratic election. In 1963 and again in 1971, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish.[4]
A Tattler article written by John Moulder a year after Cooper's death (1975)[5] credits Cooper with infiltrating the "Feliciana Klan" for the FBI from 1963 to 1965. Moulder, a Tattler staff writer, wrote in an article dated June 8, 1975:
"I first met Cooper last summer when we tracked down and interviewed two men who said they had been offered a bundle of money (and had turned it down) to fly two men from Dallas to Latin America on Nov. 22, 1963, the day John Kennedy was killed...Cooper, working for government intelligence himself, headed off a plot to assassinate Vice President Hubert Humphrey."
During the time Cooper was undercover, he foiled an assassination plot against Vice President Hubert Humphrey, when Humphrey was invited to speak in Baton Rouge by Victor Bussie, friend of Humphrey and head of the La. AFL/CIO Unions. The date set for the speech was April 9, 1965, at the Jack Tar Capitol House Hotel in Baton Rouge. Cooper served in the Klan's KBI_The
"Klan Bureau of Investigation". The article continues:
"One day a fellow Klan member came to him and told Cooper of the plan to assassinate Humphrey. The man asked Cooper if he could use his intelligence contacts with the police to find out how much security would be used for Humphrey's visit."
Contacting his FBI people, Cooper received the instruction to tell them that Humphrey's security would be heavy "...along the route of the Vice President's motorcade..." but to suggest it might not be as tight at the Capitol House.
"Based on Cooper's information, the Secret Service_directly responsible for the Vice President's safety_urged him to cancel his trip to Baton Rouge."
Humphrey, citing that La. Gov. John J. McKeithen would be with him during the entire trip, refused to cancel.
"Cooper had been able to supply the FBI with the names of only two men to be involved in the attempt on Humphrey's life.
Agents, using miniature cameras, obtained pictures of the two men, but didn't arrest them before Humphrey's visit.
Cooper said the Secret Service obviously feared that others would be sent in their place.
On the night of the Humphrey appearance at the hotel, the ballroom was filled with FBI-Secret Service undercover spies and trusted union men serving as sergeants at arms.
The entrance to the ballroom was arranged so all visitors could be observed [and photographed?_CBS]. Therefore, the would-be-triggerman was spotted immediately. He was a union member and had a ticket to get into the ballroom.
Undercover men serving as sergeants-at-arms escorted the man to
a seat at the rear of the ballroom. Two FBI agents sat down in front of him. Secret Service men sat on both sides. Two others sat down behind the man.
Humphrey arrived in Baton Rouge and rode with the governor in a limousine to the governor's mansion. Later they rode together to the hotel. Security forces were everywhere on the routes, covering the motorcade with high-powered rifles from the roofs of buildings. Humphrey and McKeithen arrived at the hotel, entered the ballroom and walked onto the speaker's platform.
The gunman then stood and reached for the pistol stuck in his belt under his coat. The federal agents grabbed him and pulled him out a kitchen door.
The second man on the assassination team was also grabbed and pulled from the room. He had no gun on him, but there was a gun in his car parked outside.
From the men, federal agents learned the name of a third that was in on the scheme. He had been in the convention hall, but backed out and left before Humphrey arrived.
The men were questioned, but were never charged. Cooper said the FBI told him there was not sufficient evidence.
`I know this guy would have killed Humphrey,' Cooper said. `He was a crack shot. He could part your hair without touching your scalp.'
Cooper said the men had wanted to assassinate Humphrey because he was an intergrationist. Feelings about desegregation were still high in the Deep South in 1965."
Word about the attempt on Humphrey's life was not allowed to leak out until two years later, when the New Orleans States-Item printed part of the story. They described an attempt on Humphrey's life by a "right-wing organization" but did not mention the Klan by name.
Within a few years, all three of the men picked up in the assassination plot were dead. One was shot to death by his wife. Another was killed when a metal door fell on him. The third, a young man, died of a heart attack.
"`There is absolutely no question in my mind that Joe saved
Hubert Humphrey's life,' Emile W. Weber, Cooper's attorney, told me [Moulder] after Cooper's death."[6]
By 1966, Joe Cooper was off on his own Kennedy investigation, focusing on Naval Intelligence, not necessarily the Far Right civilian groups. From 1966 to 1975, the detective put together bits and pieces of strange coincidences that he felt pointed to U.S. Naval Intelligence being involved in the Kennedy assassination.
An intensely patriotic man, Cooper felt he had to do whatever he could to help find the truth. "I love my country, but this was not the way to change it_by killing a president," he said.
Cooper was convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald was a Naval Intellegence agent, and was certain that nine mysterious passengers on a cruise on the aircraft carrier Shangra-La
sponsored by Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth in August of 1963 had something to do with the assassination. While a policeman in
Florida, he made written inquiries to the Navy Department to find out their identities. He first received nine names, but two of them wound up aliases. The seven identified by the Navy Department were all business or political leaders in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area. One had worked for the same insurance company as Lee's father, and another was a close friend of Dallas law enforcement officials who investigated the Kennedy assassination, and another had family connections with a local Nazi Party leader. The two names on the list Cooper couldn't identify were Adolph Vermont, Jr., and William Craver, Jr. This is the theory Cooper was working on when he contacted Jim Garrison's office offering "...definitely new evidence..." concerning at least three people "¬in the Orleans area." [7]
Apparently, Cooper had come across the Billy Kemp story while working as an infiltrator in the Klan for the FBI. The story from Cooper's viewpoint went like this: Two days before the assassination of President Kennedy, Kent Whatley of Garland,
Tex., offered Leroy Wheat and "his pilot" Billy Kemp $25,000 to pilot a small aircraft with two passengers to South America on Nov. 22nd, no questions asked. Both men, in separate interviews, confirmed the story and added that they had been suspicious of the offer and declined it.[8] The Tattler article said that Whatley, Wheat, and Kemp were working at the Ling-Temco-Vought "...defense plant..." in Dallas [another document says the men were "working in Louisiana" when the offer was made.][9]
The astonishing thing about this is that William "Billy" Kemp, the pilot mentioned above, was from Jackson, La., [the home city
of barber, later Voter Registrar, Edwin Lea McGehee, and State Representative Reeves Morgan, two of Garrison's "Clinton Witnesses"] and was married to Maxine Kemp in 1963. Mrs. Kemp worked in the records department at East Louisiana State Hospital and supplied information to Garrison investigators about the application for employment supposedly filled out by Lee H. Oswald during his visit in the first week of September, 1963, in company with persons identified by Jim Garrison as David Ferrie and Clay Shaw.[10]
Imagine that! Maxine Kemp of the East Louisiana State Hospital supplies information to Garrison's investigators pertaining to Oswald's job-hunting visit to the hospital, while her husband is informing Joe Cooper and other Garrison investigators about a suspicious offer to them for their flying talents. Is it just coincidence? Or could it be that the Kemps had both been instructed by someone to provide misleading information to the investigators?
The Billy Kemp story was known to some other East Feliciana Parish residents, such as Tom Williams, who voluntarily furnished information to Garrison's office concerning the Billy Kemp money offer, in addition to a very strange, tangled story involving a Jackson, La., resident named Gladys Palmer, the wife of Matthew Palmer. Williams called Garrison's office and talked to C. J. Navarre. The same day, Navarre wrote a memo to Louis Ivon giving the following information:
"Mr. Williams telephoned from his residence on March 17, 1966, at 1:55 P.M. and was received by C. J. Navarre. Mr. Williams stated that one Matt Palmer of Jackson, Louisiana, told him that Palmer's ex-wife, name unknown [found from newspaper accounts to have been Gladys Fletcher Palmer], was employed for [sic] Jack Ruby in his nightclub in Dallas. Two weeks before the assassination, his ex-wife arrived in Jackson, Louisiana, driving a black Lincoln Continental. She was placed in the Jackson Sanitarium [East Louisiana State Hospital at Jackson, La.] for treatment of alcoholism. Two hours before the assassination she stated `this is the day of the president's assassination'. Mr. Williams states that he could show anyone the residence of Matt Palmer, Jr., in Jackson, Louisiana. Mr. Palmer is remarried.
Mr. Williams states that a Billy Kemp of Clinton, Louisiana, is a pilot and friend of his. Billy Kemp told Williams that a congressman approached him (Kemp) and asked if he would be willing to fly a secret mission. This took place just before the assassination."
Readers knowledgeable about the details of the Jim Garrison investigation will readily notice that the details of Mrs. Palmer's story have apparently been interlaced with the Rose Ceramie (predicting the assassination beforehand, a patient at the hospital) and Oswald visit details (driving a big, black Lincoln). My independent research uncovered no substantiation for the notion that Mrs. Palmer was in any way connected with Jack Ruby or predicted Kennedy's assassination, unless, of course, the locals knew her as Gladys, the wife of Matt Palmer,
and others knew her as ...Rose Cheramie! During my interviews with local residents over the past two years, several people have
mentioned the Gladys Palmer story, with varying details.
During the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's race of 1971, Cooper's home sustained damage from a bomb. In August, 1972, Cooper was arrested (by deputies of the Sheriff to whom he had lost the election) for aggravated arson, criminal mischief, and possession of explosives with intent to commit a crime. Newly-elected Sherrif Al Amiss said that the first two charges were from the explosion at Cooper's home the year before, while the last allegation was the result of a "...tip..." to the Sheriff's Department that Cooper planned to assassinate Sheriff Amiss.[11]
In September, 1974, Joe Cooper was indicted by a U.S. Grand Jury in Baton Rouge for "...possessing an explosive device and possession of an unregistered explosive device without a serial number." Cooper's wife, Lillian, and their 19-year-old daughter were also indicted by the same grand jury for "alleged conspiracy to make a false bomb threat." Later, the two women were additionally charged with "...conspiring and conveying false information...", supposedly telling authorities first, that Cooper possessed a bomb and held them hostage, then changing their stories to say the statements were made because they were mad at Cooper. At the time of his death, these charges were still pending.[12]
What became of Joe Cooper? At about 7:30 on the morning of Wednesday, October 16, 1974, Cooper and his wife Lillian were just getting out of bed in their apartment.[13] Joe got up and put the coffee on and came back to bed. Lillian then got up to see about the coffee in the kitchen. Living with them was their 19-year-old daughter and the daughter's 18-month-old child, and a younger teenage daughter, who were still asleep. Mrs. Cooper
was in the kitchen when she heard a shot from the bedroom, dashed in and found her husband's body with a bullet wound in the head. The shot from the .38-calibre pistol entered his right cheek and angled upward to the top of the head. Investigators said there were heavy powder burns on the right cheek near the entry wound.
Some materials for cleaning the pistol were found nearby, leading to the speculation that he might have died from an accidental discharge of the pistol during cleaning. But, the ultimate ruling by the Sheriff's department and coroner was suicide.[14]
Suicide seems most probable in this case unless, of course, someone who was in the apartment when he died actually committed the murder, which seems unlikely.
Despite the claim by Moulder, which said Cooper "...was asked to testify..." at the Garrison New Orleans Grand Jury hearing, the Baton Rouge newspaper reported at the time that "He [Cooper] said he sent a telegram to Garrison this morning informing him of his wish to testify before the grand jury in connection with the assassination case, but that he had not yet received an answer at noon."[15]
It seems likely that Cooper contacted Garrison's office, but they apparently didn't get around to talking with him until October 14, 1968.[16] Five days after Cooper offered to testify, on July 14, 1968, he and his wife were seriously injured in a wreck in which it was claimed that the "steering post came loose". A photo of the wrecked car is shown in the Tattler article.[17] I could find no evidence in the Baton Rouge newspapers that Cooper ever testified at the grand jury. In fact, Garrison was very busy with gathering information from European intelligence sources at this time and probably didn't take time to answer Cooper until after the car accident.
See Memo 1 for other claims Cooper made to the Garrison investigators.
Memorandum: October 14, 1968
From: Andrew J. Sciambra, Assistant D.A.
To: Jim Garrison, District Attorney
Re: Interview of Joseph Cooper, Baton Rouge, La. Relative to Lee
Harvey Oswald
I interviewed Cooper who informed me that he and Marguerite Oswald communicate with each other by telephone from time to time. He said the last time he talked to Marguerite Oswald was about a month ago after he got out of the hospital.
Marguerite Oswald's private telephone number in Dallas, Texas is: A/C 817-732-6839.
Cooper said that he has established a fine relationship with Marguerite and would be glad to go to Dallas and talk to her for us.
In addition to some of the information which he has given us in the past, Cooper said that Marguerite told him that she called Clem Sehrt after the assassination and asked him to help her son. Sehrt informed her that he no longer practiced law. She said she had known Sehrt and Victor Schiro when she was living in New Orleans.
Marguerite told Cooper that she is very suspicious of Fred Korth and told him that Lee's discharge from the Marine Corps was handled by Fred Korth. [Written in the margin in Garrison's distinctive pen is: "Great Job! General Dynamics_thru bank"]
Cooper said he found out that the house Marguerite was living in at the time of the assassination belonged to a close friend of Fred Korth, a Mrs. Mary E. McCarthy, Jr. Cooper said Marguerite also told him that Fred Korth played a part in Lee's life but did not explain any further.
Marguerite also told Cooper that Lee also assisted with the Civil Rights movement from time to time.
Marguerite heard there was a hired killer out of Garland, Texas, who was involved in the assassination.
Cooper said the person who could give us a lot of information about Van Buskirk is Seargent Pitcher.
Cooper told me that a man named Leroy Wheat told him that Kent Whatley of Garland, Texas, offered Wheat and his pilot $25,000 to make a one-day flight to Mexico City two days before the
assassination.
He also said there was a man trying to contact Russell Long to give him some information about the assassination. This man was killed before he could contact Long.
Cooper said Marguerite also asked him some questions about Lee's CAP outfit that he was unable to answer. [Emphasis added by the author]
Additional information added after the above article was written (6/5/97):
Research done 6/5/97 @ EBRP Clerk of Court Office by Claude B. Slaton.
Notes from the following suits:
East Baton Rouge Parish Civil Suits
Joseph A. Gladney v. William H. or Joe Cooper
Computer number: 7910706794
Suit number: 81948
Date filed: May 8, 1961
East Baton Rouge Parish Civil Suits
Joseph A. Gladney v. William H. or Joe Cooper
Computer number: 7910707043
Suit number: 82035
Date filed: May 12, 1961
(supplimental papers to above suit)
Joseph A. Gladney, 130 St. Louis St., Baton Rouge, and his wife, Melva McCormick Gladney, sued Cooper for possession of Cooper's home on Alaska St. Gladney is owed money from Cooper dating back to the fall of 1959, when Cooper resigned from the Baton Rouge City Police Deptartment to run for Sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish. BRCPD refused to allow Cooper to return to work after losing the election. Cooper became very desperate for money. He could not make payments on a Nash Rambler station wagon he had purchased.
With a loan from Gladney, Cooper formed an investigative agency called "CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATORS". Some of his clients included:
Mrs. Audrey Robertson
Mrs. L. B. Smith, Aubin-Lane (investigation and photos)
Mrs. H. L. Adams
Cooper's wife's maiden name was LILLIAN BROXSON. They are said in the suit papers to have had four children. On July 30, 1960, Gladney assisted Cooper in the purchase of a 1960 Fiat automobile (previous owner Mrs. Thornton).The annual City Directory for Baton Rouge was searched for William H. "Joe" Cooper, with the following results:
YEAR NAME SPOUSE OCCUPATION WHERE HOME ADDRESS
1948 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. Stockrm Clk General Gas Corp. 3750 Dalton
1949 Cooper not listed; 3750 Dalton resident: C. Edgar Mikronis
1950 Cooper not listed
1951 Cooper not listed
1952-53* Cooper not listed
1953 Cooper not listed
1954 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian city police 1150 Boyd Ave.
1955 Cooper, Wm H. J. Lillian E. city police 856 Iris Rd.
1956 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian A. parolman police dept. 3176 Alaska
1957 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. city police 3176 Alaska
1958 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. city police 3176 Alaska
1959 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian city police 3176 Alaska
1960 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 3176 Alaska
1961 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 3176 Alaska
1962 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. supervisor Gulf Janitorial Service 3176 Alaska
1963 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. supervisor Gulf Janitorial Service 3176 Alaska
1964 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 955 Aberdeen Ave.
1965 no copy in library
1966 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. salesman Raymond Auto Sales 939 Camilia Ave.
1967 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. parts mgr. Rogers Auto Parts 620 Wiltz
1968 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian salesman Polk Chevrolet 576 Rapides St.
1969 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. salesman Polk Chevrolet 4622 Hyacinth Ave.
1970 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian salesman Polk Chevrolet 4622 Hyacinth Ave.
1971 not listed
1972 not listed
1973 not listed
1974 not listed
* In this year, the 52-53 editions were combined into one, issued 1953
Footnotes:From: Andrew J. Sciambra, Assistant D.A.
To: Jim Garrison, District Attorney
Re: Interview of Joseph Cooper, Baton Rouge, La. Relative to Lee
Harvey Oswald
I interviewed Cooper who informed me that he and Marguerite Oswald communicate with each other by telephone from time to time. He said the last time he talked to Marguerite Oswald was about a month ago after he got out of the hospital.
Marguerite Oswald's private telephone number in Dallas, Texas is: A/C 817-732-6839.
Cooper said that he has established a fine relationship with Marguerite and would be glad to go to Dallas and talk to her for us.
In addition to some of the information which he has given us in the past, Cooper said that Marguerite told him that she called Clem Sehrt after the assassination and asked him to help her son. Sehrt informed her that he no longer practiced law. She said she had known Sehrt and Victor Schiro when she was living in New Orleans.
Marguerite told Cooper that she is very suspicious of Fred Korth and told him that Lee's discharge from the Marine Corps was handled by Fred Korth. [Written in the margin in Garrison's distinctive pen is: "Great Job! General Dynamics_thru bank"]
Cooper said he found out that the house Marguerite was living in at the time of the assassination belonged to a close friend of Fred Korth, a Mrs. Mary E. McCarthy, Jr. Cooper said Marguerite also told him that Fred Korth played a part in Lee's life but did not explain any further.
Marguerite also told Cooper that Lee also assisted with the Civil Rights movement from time to time.
Marguerite heard there was a hired killer out of Garland, Texas, who was involved in the assassination.
Cooper said the person who could give us a lot of information about Van Buskirk is Seargent Pitcher.
Cooper told me that a man named Leroy Wheat told him that Kent Whatley of Garland, Texas, offered Wheat and his pilot $25,000 to make a one-day flight to Mexico City two days before the
assassination.
He also said there was a man trying to contact Russell Long to give him some information about the assassination. This man was killed before he could contact Long.
Cooper said Marguerite also asked him some questions about Lee's CAP outfit that he was unable to answer. [Emphasis added by the author]
Additional information added after the above article was written (6/5/97):
Research done 6/5/97 @ EBRP Clerk of Court Office by Claude B. Slaton.
Notes from the following suits:
East Baton Rouge Parish Civil Suits
Joseph A. Gladney v. William H. or Joe Cooper
Computer number: 7910706794
Suit number: 81948
Date filed: May 8, 1961
East Baton Rouge Parish Civil Suits
Joseph A. Gladney v. William H. or Joe Cooper
Computer number: 7910707043
Suit number: 82035
Date filed: May 12, 1961
(supplimental papers to above suit)
Joseph A. Gladney, 130 St. Louis St., Baton Rouge, and his wife, Melva McCormick Gladney, sued Cooper for possession of Cooper's home on Alaska St. Gladney is owed money from Cooper dating back to the fall of 1959, when Cooper resigned from the Baton Rouge City Police Deptartment to run for Sheriff of East Baton Rouge Parish. BRCPD refused to allow Cooper to return to work after losing the election. Cooper became very desperate for money. He could not make payments on a Nash Rambler station wagon he had purchased.
With a loan from Gladney, Cooper formed an investigative agency called "CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATORS". Some of his clients included:
Mrs. Audrey Robertson
Mrs. L. B. Smith, Aubin-Lane (investigation and photos)
Mrs. H. L. Adams
Cooper's wife's maiden name was LILLIAN BROXSON. They are said in the suit papers to have had four children. On July 30, 1960, Gladney assisted Cooper in the purchase of a 1960 Fiat automobile (previous owner Mrs. Thornton).The annual City Directory for Baton Rouge was searched for William H. "Joe" Cooper, with the following results:
YEAR NAME SPOUSE OCCUPATION WHERE HOME ADDRESS
1948 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. Stockrm Clk General Gas Corp. 3750 Dalton
1949 Cooper not listed; 3750 Dalton resident: C. Edgar Mikronis
1950 Cooper not listed
1951 Cooper not listed
1952-53* Cooper not listed
1953 Cooper not listed
1954 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian city police 1150 Boyd Ave.
1955 Cooper, Wm H. J. Lillian E. city police 856 Iris Rd.
1956 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian A. parolman police dept. 3176 Alaska
1957 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. city police 3176 Alaska
1958 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. city police 3176 Alaska
1959 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian city police 3176 Alaska
1960 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 3176 Alaska
1961 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 3176 Alaska
1962 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. supervisor Gulf Janitorial Service 3176 Alaska
1963 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. supervisor Gulf Janitorial Service 3176 Alaska
1964 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian E. private investigator 955 Aberdeen Ave.
1965 no copy in library
1966 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. salesman Raymond Auto Sales 939 Camilia Ave.
1967 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. parts mgr. Rogers Auto Parts 620 Wiltz
1968 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian salesman Polk Chevrolet 576 Rapides St.
1969 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian B. salesman Polk Chevrolet 4622 Hyacinth Ave.
1970 Cooper, Wm H. Lillian salesman Polk Chevrolet 4622 Hyacinth Ave.
1971 not listed
1972 not listed
1973 not listed
1974 not listed
* In this year, the 52-53 editions were combined into one, issued 1953
[1] Memorandum from Andrew J. Sciambra, Asst. District Attorney for Orleans Parish, La., to Jim Garrison, D.A. of Orleans Parish dated 14 Oct 1968, "Re: Interview of Joseph Cooper, Baton Rouge, La., Relative to Lee Harvey Oswald". Photocopy in possession of
the author. Referred to as "Memo 1" and reproduced at the end of this article.
[2] Baton Rouge Morning Advocate newspaper, Thurs., Oct. 17, 1974. Article: "Ex-Lawman, Candidate Found Dead", p. 1-A, cont. 8-A. Photocopy in possession of the writer. Referred to as "Article 1".
[3] Author's interivew with {name deleted on request}, Sept., 1996.
[4] Article 1, p. 8-A
[5] Article by John Moulder "Joe Cooper Saved Vice President From Assassination But Wound Up Dead After Investigating JFK's Murder" National Tattler, June 8, 1975; photocopy in possession of the author. Referred to as "Article 2".
[6] Ibid
[7] State Times (Baton Rouge newspaper, July 9, 1968, p. 1 "BR Man Claims New Evidence in JFK Death Probe"). Photocopy in possession of the author. Referred to as "Article 3".
[8] Article 2
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid; Other persons at the hospital that identifed Lee Oswald as the man who applied for a job there in the summer of 1963
were: Bobbie Dedon, who gave him directions on how to get to the personnel office, and Aline Woodside, who told Reeves Morgan (State Representative) that she had seen the application at the hospital but didn't know what had become of it. (Memorandum from Andrew Sciamba to Jim Garrison, Jan. 29, 1968, Interview with Bobbie Dedon, East Louisiana State Hospital, August 4, 1967; Memorandum of interview with Mrs. Aline Woodside by Robert Buras, HSCA (RG 233); Memorandum of interview with Mrs. Meryal
Hudson by Robert Buras, HSCA document)
[11] Ibid
[12] Article 1
[13] Elms Apartments, 12254 Lamargie, Baton Rouge, #146; State
Times, Oct. 16, 1974.
[14] Article 3
[15] Ibid
[16] Memo 1
[17] Article 2
E-mail any questions of comments to the author
Copyright Claude B. Slaton, 1997
Reprinted with permission of the author.the author. Referred to as "Memo 1" and reproduced at the end of this article.
[2] Baton Rouge Morning Advocate newspaper, Thurs., Oct. 17, 1974. Article: "Ex-Lawman, Candidate Found Dead", p. 1-A, cont. 8-A. Photocopy in possession of the writer. Referred to as "Article 1".
[3] Author's interivew with {name deleted on request}, Sept., 1996.
[4] Article 1, p. 8-A
[5] Article by John Moulder "Joe Cooper Saved Vice President From Assassination But Wound Up Dead After Investigating JFK's Murder" National Tattler, June 8, 1975; photocopy in possession of the author. Referred to as "Article 2".
[6] Ibid
[7] State Times (Baton Rouge newspaper, July 9, 1968, p. 1 "BR Man Claims New Evidence in JFK Death Probe"). Photocopy in possession of the author. Referred to as "Article 3".
[8] Article 2
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid; Other persons at the hospital that identifed Lee Oswald as the man who applied for a job there in the summer of 1963
were: Bobbie Dedon, who gave him directions on how to get to the personnel office, and Aline Woodside, who told Reeves Morgan (State Representative) that she had seen the application at the hospital but didn't know what had become of it. (Memorandum from Andrew Sciamba to Jim Garrison, Jan. 29, 1968, Interview with Bobbie Dedon, East Louisiana State Hospital, August 4, 1967; Memorandum of interview with Mrs. Aline Woodside by Robert Buras, HSCA (RG 233); Memorandum of interview with Mrs. Meryal
Hudson by Robert Buras, HSCA document)
[11] Ibid
[12] Article 1
[13] Elms Apartments, 12254 Lamargie, Baton Rouge, #146; State
Times, Oct. 16, 1974.
[14] Article 3
[15] Ibid
[16] Memo 1
[17] Article 2
E-mail any questions of comments to the author
Copyright Claude B. Slaton, 1997
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Peter Lemkin - 07-04-2011
B., That's very interesting stuff......and needs more work. It looks like he should be added to the already VERY long list of deaths related to the JFK Assassination coverup! Has any researcher taken this matter on? Someone really should....ASAP...it was a long time ago.
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Albert Doyle - 07-04-2011
It doesn't fit the pattern of suicide to get up and make coffee and then wait for your wife to go check the coffee and commit suicide. If Cooper had such a drastic intention would he have gotten up and mundanely made coffee and then gone back to bed? Are we being asked to believe he went back to bed and thought to himself "the wife's gone to check the coffee, now is a good time"? Sorry that doesn't make sense to me.
How many people commit suicide by shooting themselves through the cheek and up into the brain? I would guess few to none. To me that pattern suggests a ninja-type black ops spook who silently crept into position and shot Cooper while he was still asleep in bed. This black ops creep probably intended to shoot Cooper through the roof of his mouth but decided the kill opportunity had to be done quickly and put the gun to his cheek as he shot him in a sleeping position. The cheek shot is an in-bed sleeping position give-away and explains the odd wound, in my opinion.
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Vasilios Vazakas - 04-02-2012
there is a book titled "Act of Retribution" by J.P. Phillips that discusses the story of William Cooper.
It's author blames the military industrial complex, Fred Korth and Charles Campell for instigating the assassination.
More false sponsors?
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Bernice Moore - 23-02-2012
Vasilios Vazakas Wrote:there is a book titled "Act of Retribution" by J.P. Phillips that discusses the story of William Cooper.
It's author blames the military industrial complex, Fred Korth and Charles Campell for instigating the assassination.
More false sponsors?
thanks vas i did not know of the book,.but this is a Joe Cooper ??.what i first posted was from a like a research flyer i had come upon, some years old, and posted the info on Rich's, some time later the second posted info appeared on a site, but nothing more has come to light, nothing on research, but perhaps some day, and agreed his suicide comes across as a fumbled act of error, i think also he was one of the many that paid the full price..
Officer William H.(Joe) Cooper & JFK's Murder - Vasilios Vazakas - 23-02-2012
This book talks about the same Cooper. Also John McAdams (surprise surprise) has an article about him.
[URL="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/weberman/jcooper.htm"]http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/weberman/jcooper.htm
I[/URL]s it a coincidence that McAdams has presented two theories in his site blaming the military industrial complex?
The other story is about Garrison's phone call to journalist Hincle [URL="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jimloon1.htm"]http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/jimloon1.htm
A[/URL]lthough McAdams does not agree with tis theories he mention them as possibilities. By presenting a theory that blames Fred Korth,
an ex CIA man Cabell with ties to military complex, and naming Oswald a DIA agent absolves the CIA and
the real instigators. Isn't that what his purpose is?
And the act of retribution argues that individuals like Cabell and Korth who represented General Dynamics
revenged JFK out of personal motives. How convenient. So you can add Ferd Korth and General Cabell to the list
of false sponsors.