Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-06-09
WAS HE MURDERED9
John Cook Fomd Dead this Morning
Bullet Hole Through His Body-It Could Not Have Been suicide-An
 Overdose of Morphine.

| HHuas morning about ten o'clock
 prospector named W. A. St. John
 brought word to Coroner E. J. Smith
 that a man named John Cook had com.
 mitted suicide in corral at the north
 end of Main street, the first gate above
 No. 3OS, on that street.
 A CITIZEN reporter repaired i'm
 mediately to the scene. 4 Mexican.
 standing at the corral gate, was asked:
 "ls there a dead man here?" -No
 sabe," was his dull, laconic reply.
 Mastering up all the mongrel Spanish he
 knew, the question was repeated, when
 back came the answer varied to "Ouieu
 sabe?' Passing by the individual who
 exists III blissful ignorance of news
 gathering, the reporter passed through
 the gate, and found Coroner Smith with
 an assistant lifting the corpse into the
 wagon. The body had been discovered
 ID an adobe building in the center
 or the corral. It was lying across a bed. One foot was
 resting on the ground. A repeating
 magazine rifle laid beside him. The means of hIs death was not known until the coroner commenced to search when | the mouth of the rih ewas found point
 Ing to Cooks left breast. Closer iu l spectlons revealed big powder-burned
 hole Tn the clothing, and the wound in
 the flesh made by the ball. St John. , who first discovered the dead body.
 thought Cook had poisoned himself. The
 body was removed to the morgue. There
 were no men iu the corral at the time of
 the suicide. A Mexican family lived m
 an ell of the house. The woman did not
 hear the gun-shot, and did not know. so
 she says, of Cooks death till the coroner
 came. The children were playing Tn
 the yard, and every one replied mo sa-
 De nada Tn answer to all questions
 A pocSet-book belonging to Cook, and Tn possession of St. John, contained letter signed by F.. c. Abbott, of Mott
 yllle, \. |. In this letter was Cooks family record, winch showed that he was born May 22, 1895. which makes him past $ years of age.
 w. A. St. John, who lives in the cor ral. said that he had known Cook for 24 years, most of the time in California. Cook was Mason. though St. John could not remember the Lodge of which he was member. Cook had lived in San Luis Oblspo county, California, where he had a wife with whom he had had trouble. It had been over seven years since he had met Cook till about two weeks ago. Cook then told him that he had left his wife m San Luis Oblspo county last fall, when he had gone to the state of New York, where he | had fallen heir to legacy of Sl0OOO l which he had settled. He also said that | he expected hIs brother-lu-law to arrive | ID Tucson from New York State on next | Wednesday. St. John proposed to him | to go on prospecting trip some seventy | miles north of Tucson, and they had | purchased their burros, and were intend | ing to start to-day. Cook appeared de- | pressed in mind for several days past. | As St. John expressed it, Something | told hIm he was going to die" On | Wednesday he gave St. John his pocket | book, containing hls family record. His | eyes were then blood-shOt Cook had | been drinking little during the past few days, and that he went yesterday to Dr. Rogers, who administered some to him in Dr. c. P. V. WatsOn's drugstore. Last night Cook and St. John slept together on the same cot in the open air. Cook was very thirsty, and St. John got up and gave him some water to drink out of caIteen. This St. John told Cook to go and lie down on the bed indoors, where he was afterwards found dead. St. John then went out to get some beer, and on hls return discovered Cook tO be dead. He immediately notified the coroner
 \ jury was summoned at , o'clock this afternoon to investigate the cause Of Cooks death. The body was opened and the stomach was taken ont. and ex- lmined by a commission of doctors to ascertain the effects and amount of nor phine. At three o'clock, after viewing the body 1t was the general opinion of the jury that it was impossible for Cook himself to have fired the fatal shot, The ball went straight through the body. and ssme out at the back through the spinal column. To do this the gun would have To have been held directly from the body. In that position the length of he gun would have forbid Crook reach ing the trigger with his hand. If the Dall had ranged upward or downward, t k the opinion of individual mem Ders of the jury and the coroner that the suicide theory might be true. But this vas not the range of the ball. It was straight through the body. It is evil lent, then, that Cook did not kill him 'elf. The gun was Henry rifle of 45 ,alibre, and the property of man named Barney Hassen.
 Coroner Smith told CITIZEN reporter hat in his opinion Cook was shot by l tome one at the time he WAS dying from he overdose of morphine. A search had )een made for the bullet in the room ;; where Cook died, but it had not been ound.