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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:
[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.
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