Harris-Muscogee-Troup County GaArchives News.....Cecil Cook Faces Murder Charge In "Tip Top" Case December 1920
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Kermit Floyd Jr. kfloyd1742@bellsouth.net December 8, 2007, 4:21 pm

Columbus Ledger Enquirer December 1920
Columbus Ledger Enquirer, December 1920 

CECIL COOK FACES MURDER CHARGE IN “TIP TOP” CASE

Son of Hamilton Bank PRESIDENT Charged With Being Implicated In Killing of O. 
S. Williams on Mountain.

NEGRO SENTENCED TO HANG FEB. 4

State Claimed Cook and Irvin Sent Murrah Negro Into Room to “Finish” Wounded 
Man---May Be Tried in January.

     Cecil Cook, son of C. H. Cook president of the Bank of Hamilton, was 
indicted at Hamilton yesterday by the Harris County grand jurors who returned 
a bill charging the young man with murder, it being charged he was implicated 
in the killing of O. S. Williams.  The case grows out of the killing of three 
men at Tip Top.  While the grand jury was deliberating on indicting Cook, 
Judge J. Render Terrell passed the death sentence on Louis Murrah, negro, 
convicted Thursday of killing O. S. “Dock” Williams, one of the three men 
slain on the mountain in an altercation following gambling.  Judge Terrell 
sentenced the negro to hang February 4. 
     The Indictment of Cook who is well known in Harris and Muscogee County, 
having relatives residing in Columbus created a sensation in the Harris County 
capitol yesterday.
     Cook, who was at Tip Top in company with O. S. Williams, Milton and Henry 
Irvin, the three men dead as a result of the trouble, and two negroes, the 
latter being brothers who had been reared by the Irvins, is charged with 
murder.  Solicitor General C. P. McLaughlin, it is believed, intending to show 
that Cook and Henry Irvin had the negro return to another room after the 
shooting to “finish” Williams.
     During the trial of Louis Murrah, the negro convicted Thursday afternoon, 
the state brought out testimony to substantiate a confession made by the negro 
that he had slain Williams while the latter was on the floor groaning, the 
killing being done after the negro reported to Cook and Henry Irvin that 
Williams was alive.  The state succeeded in showing the negro had stated in a 
confession that Cook and Irvin told him to go back and “finish” Williams.  
This suggestion was followed, the state maintained by the negro taking a rock 
and beating Williams’ head.
     The state’s representative, solicitor McLaughlin, did not divulge the 
grounds, other than those set forth above, what the state would present at the 
trial of  Cook to show he had any other part in the killing of Williams than 
the alleged orders given him and Irvin to the negro to “finish” Williams.  It 
is presumed the state will seek to show Cook was implicated in the killing of 
Williams rather than he was actually involved in striking the wounded man.
     H. A. Hall, of Newnan, former attorney general of Georgia, and Judge been 
engaged as counsel for Cook, who was placed in the Harris County jail after 
the indictment was returned.
     Peavy and Hardy, counsel for Louis Murrah, the convicted negro, yesterday 
filed a motion for a new trial, which will be heard the second Monday in 
January. 


Additional Comments:
Louis Murrah (Murray) "Sugar Baby".  His mother was "Jute".  Louis and his 
brother were raised by the Irvins.  Cecil Cook was married to Fannie B. 
Robinson.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/harris/newspapers/cecilcoo2506gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/

File size: 3.8 Kb