Pop star shot dead in hotel

from ANTONY CURRAH
NEW YORK, Friday   (December 11, 1964)

Pop singer Sam Cooke was shot dead by a hotel manageress today when he smashed his way into her room.
Cooke, one of America's leading negro artists whose best-known record is Twisting the Night Away, was searching for a girl who had fled from his room at the Los Angeles hotel.
The girl 22-year-old Lisa Boyer, told police that Cooke forced her to go to the hotel and booked a room under the names of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cooke.
Cooke undressed and forced her to undress. But she grabbed her own and Cooke's clothes and escaped.

HIDING
Police found her hiding in a telephone box near the hotel.
The hotel manageress, 55-year-old Mrs. Bertha Franklin, said that Cooke, who was wearing nothing but a sports jacket, kicked open the door of her room and knocked her down, shouting: "What did you do with the girl?"
Mrs. Franklin told police: "I grabbed a revolver lying on the television set and fired three times.
Cooke staggered to the door yelling. "You Shot Me."
Then, Mrs. Franklin clubbed him to the floor with a piece of wood. He died within seconds.

HIS HITS
Mrs. Franklin was talking on the telephone to a friend, Mrs. Evelyn Carr, when Cooke began to bang on her door. Police said Mrs. Carr heard the drama over the telephone.
The police did not detain Mrs. Franklin.
Twenty-eight-year-old Cooke, son of a Baptist minister, made dozens of hit records, including Chain Gang, Cupid, and Only Sixteen. His latest long-player was Ain't That Good News.
He lived in Los Angeles with his wife Barbara, and two young daughters.
A third child was drowned in the family swimming pool three years ago.
At about the same time Cooke narrowly escaped death - in a car crash that killed his best friend.
Cooke said after the crash: "God, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to let me stay around a little longer."