40 years ago tonight, Sam Cooke was shot to death.

[NightTrain]

On Saturday night, December 11, 1964, Sam Cooke was shot to death at the seedy Hacienda Motel in Los Angeles. All sorts of theories and speculation about the incident have come about over the years, but Cooke's biographer, Daniel Wolff, offers the likeliest scenario:

Sam was a ladies' man who had an unspoken agreement with his wife: she had a boyfriend and he basically slept with any woman who interested him. At a party (or perhaps a nightclub), Cooke met a woman named Lisa Boyer, who he took to the Hacienda. Boyer was a known prostitute who was not above petty larceny. Wolff suggests that while Sam was in the bathroom, Boyer may have emptied his wallet and left the room with his pants so that he would not give chase. But he gave chase anyway and ended up enraged in the office/apartment of motel manager Bertha Franklin, who panicked and shot him to death.

Whatever the circumstances, Cooke's death at thirty-three was a tragedy that shook both the music world and the civil rights movement. He is still missed and will be for many years to come.

For a fuller biography of Cooke, check out this link: http://www.soulexpressradio.com/soulbioc.htm#cooke

[madrchsod]

1. god am i getting old----

i remember when that happpened. truly a great artist on so many levels.
"change gonna come" was a treasure. otis redding 37yrs ago-"sitting on the dock of the bay". two artist that had they lived may have changed the course of music..who knows.

[NightTrain]

2. Tonight, I'm dedicating the first 2 hours of my radio show to Sam & Otis.

For more information, click here:

http://www.soulexpressradio.com

[tilsammans]

3. Remembering . . .

What a voice. What a style.

We miss you, Sam . . .

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I remember reading an article that the hotel owner or manager may

have been involved in a set up of Cooke. Either way, a tragic loss of a great singer..can you imagine the career he MIGHT have continued to have..his voice was SOOO smoothe

[HEyHEY]

5. Yeah..they don't make like that anymore