The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-09-01
NOW SUSPECT
BLACK MAlL
Police of Nashville Working
on Entirely New Theory for
Murder of Robin Cooper.
VICTIM BORROWED $4,000

Nashville, sept. !. - Hopln D.
Cooper was killed by two or more
men and the murderers will soon be
apprehendee," was the statement
made by Chief of Police A. J. Barth-
ell this morning. The chief did not
reveal the theory upon which the do
partment was working. That It was
not bIackmal was indicated by his
positive statement that no woman
was connected in any way with the
tragedy so far as the police know
In pursuing a suggestion that Mr..
Cooper might have been the victim
of bootlegeers, a men suspected OF
connection with that traffic have been
made to disclose to the satisfaction OF
the police their movements on Thurs
day night when Mr.. Cooper was
called from his home in Belle Meade
park to be seen no more by the mem
bers Of his household until Saturday
after his battered body had been
found in Richland creek. This in
vestgation is said to have exploded
that theory.
HEARD SOME ONE CALL COOPER
A house girl In the Cooper home,
Maude Perkins, says about 9 o'clock
Thursday night she heard some one
calling Cooper, Cooper" and went
to a window overlooking the front
porch. The man did not come. on the
porch, but joined Mr.. Cooper in the
yard and went with him to the garage
and left with him in the automobile
From this mysterious caller address
ing Mr.. Cooper as Cooper" it is now
considered certain that the caller was
some more or less intimate sacqualnt-
anoe. The identity of that caller and
tho significance of Cooper's remark
made as the automobile left the home,
"If you had asked for moro you could
have had it," are believed to be the
all-important questions involved in
tho extraordinary case.
Mrs. Cooper, who was visiting In
Evanston, Ill.,, at the time of the trag-
edy. reached Nashville yesterday, ac-
companied by her father, Milton n.
Smith, of Louisville.
Mr.. Cooper's funeral was held to-
day at Christ church, Bishop Thomas
F. Galor officiating.
Nashville, Sept. AFTER abandon
ing several theories, the police to-
day concluded that Robin Cooper,
whose mutilated body was found
Saturday morning near his home in
Belle Meade Park, was the Victim of
blackmailers. They abandoned the
theory on which they had been work
ing for twenty four hours that Cooper
was lured from his home by boot
logger who had promised to secure
for him a shipment OF liquor.
Cooper borrowed 100000 on the
day of the tragedy for purpose
which his intimate associates cam
not explain. He was not known TO
have been in financial difficulty, nor
was he thought 10 have been invest |
ing heavily in some commercial en-
terprise. HIS major business was the
law. at which he was prospering.
Thursday night, when called from
his home by q mysterious stranger |
shortly before 10 o'clock, his gardener |
heard him make this remark in an
exasperated tone as he went 10 his
garage:
You could have had moro II you
had asked for IT.
Cooper was not seen again until |
his body was found.
Having concluded that hlackmail
was the motive Of the crime the po-
lice Immediately sought to divine the
answer why"
Why should a man now respected
in the community, whose private life
held no skeleton, be blackmailed.
Domestic Life Exemplary.
His domestic life had been oXem-
olary. His private affairs, excepting
the one blot which was known to the
world, contained no skeletons in
mythical closets. His business was
he law-an hOnored profession. Had
Young Cooper? And here the
police are silent.
Every Nashville man who could
nave been connected with n transac-
ion which tho police think was the
oasis of the tragedy IS being closely
Before nightfall an an
,wer to the unfinished question Had
,ouug COOPER is expected to be
nay he in jail.
Cooper's life tragedy rivals the '
most lund fgmcnt of a French nov {
lists brain. A scion of the Polk 5
amily and a principal in the killing s
If ex Senator Edward CarmaCk, he {
fought to regain the confidence Of
lis fellow citizens following that I
lark page in his life. l
For twelve years he lived quietly,
pursuing his vocation. l
.ast Sunday night his wife, the
LAUGHTER of Milton H. Smith, OF 7
louisville, president of the Louis
lille & Nashville railroad, left for A |
.isit to Evanston, III. Then. Thurs I
ay night, an unknown man called t
{ the Cooper home. Cooper himself l
nswered the doorbell, and after '
hort colloquy slammed the door {
hut. He ran up the stairs, kissed l
is two children, Robin and William
ood-by. descended the stairway and
vent out to the garage.
The stranger. who had not Jeen 9