4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL OCTOBER 11, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: Murderer of Mystery
By Finn JD John
On the
evening of
December
1, 1878,
all four prisoners in the Wasco County
Jail, in the back of the county court-
house, were out of their cells and relax-
ing in the common area near a glowing
woodstove. One, a horse thief named
Tharp, was sitting by the stove with a
Chinese man (whose name is not giv-
en in the newspaper account); James
Cook, a great burly man with an En-
glish accent, was pacing up and down,
dragging his heavy shackle (probably
an “Oregon boot”), apparently lost in
thought; and George Craig, a slender
tow-headed young man of 22, was sit-
ting on a bench contemplating his fall
from grace.
He had indeed fallen a long way.
Craig was in jail, and on his way to the
state prison, for a crime three months
before, when he and Cook had robbed
Baldwin’s Saloon in The Dalles.
Craig’s involvement in this crime had
shocked the little community; he was
the son of the late Polhemus Craig,
M.D., a highly respected physician and
druggist. The son hadn’t risen to the
heights of his father, though, and had
taken a job as a fl atboat operator on the
river, then fallen in with a bad and dis-
solute crowd — a crowd that included
James Cook.
After the robbery, Craig had fl ed to
Portland, and it had taken a month or
two for authorities to catch up with
him. When they had, he’d quickly con-
fessed — and implicated Cook.
The news had traveled faster than the
law, and by the time Deputy Marshall
Haine was knocking on Cook’s door,
he’d already heard they were looking
for him. His Native American wife (or
girlfriend; the newspapers don’t say)
had told the sheriff he’d gone to Boise.
Haine had thanked her kindly and then
asked what was in the giant crate sit-
ting in a corner of the room.
“Cultus ictas,” she replied — which
For The Sentinel
is Chinook for “Bad things,” or “gar-
bage.” This seeming suspiciously
vague, Haine pulled his six-shooter and
covered the box with it while directing
the other deputy to tip it over.
“The box was upset and Cook
stepped out, coolly remarking, ‘Well,
you ‘ave got me coppered,’” the Morn-
ing Oregonian’s The Dalles correspon-
dent wrote.
Cook’s coolness didn’t last, though.
When he learned that Craig had ratted
him out, it turned to hot fury. At his tri-
al, he fi rmly denied any involvement;
and when he was convicted, it was al-
most solely on Craig’s testimony.
But that was all over now. Craig and
Cook both were on their way to the
state pen to serve seven-year stretches.
And Cook had fi nally gotten over his
anger against Craig.
Or so it seemed until suddenly Cook,
walking past Craig while pacing the
jailhouse, suddenly pounced.
There was a terrible cry — a scream
of “Oh God, take him off!” — and then
came a horrible gurgle and a splashing
sound.
Sheriff James B. Crossen hurried
into the room from the front offi ce,
where he’d been working on some pa-
perwork. By the time he got through
the door, it was all over. Cook, with
a straight razor he’d somehow gotten
hold of, had seized his former partner
by the hair and sliced his throat open
to the spine.
Crossen pulled his pistol out, put it
against Cook’s head, and demanded to
know where the razor had come from.
Cook refused.
“Go ahead and shoot,” he said. “I’d
rather hang or have you shoot me than
spend seven years in the penitentiary.”
(No one ever did fi gure out where
Cook got that razor from; but his Na-
tive American wife had been in to see
him the day before, and it seemed most
likely that she’d slipped it to him then.)
Just a few minutes later, Craig’s aged
mother arrived, intending to spend the
night there in the jail with her son be-
fore his departure the following morn-
ing on the boat for Salem.
“Her cries would have melted the
heart of any man not steeped to the
very lips in crime,” the Oregonian’s
correspondent wrote — almost cer-
tainly referring to Cook and his cocky
heartlessness in the aftermath of the
killing.
The gruesome nature of the crime
made a great impression on the public,
and the newspapers got right on the
story, trying to learn as much as they
could about this cold-blooded razor
killer. Who was he? What kind of life
would lead to such an end?
James Cook was ready for them —
with a real whopper.
“My earliest recollections of life
are of being among the Indians — the
Sioux,” he told an Oregonian reporter
in a jailhouse interview a few weeks
later, lounging insouciantly on his
bunk in the prison cell. “I never could
fi nd out who my parents were but I am
under the impression that they were
captured and murdered by the Indians
while traveling ... I remained with the
Indians for 16 years, and during that
time was twice engaged in war against
the whites. The Indians called me La-
veris. ... While with the Indians an En-
glishman, a Dr. Roach, who was hunt-
ing on the plains, came into our camp
... I was selected to guide the intruder
out of our hunting grounds. The doctor
took a fancy to me, and I concluded to
accept his offer to accompany him in
his travels as a body-servant and leave
the Indians.
“After journeying about six months
in the United States we left for India,
where for 20 months we remained ti-
ger hunting in the jungles ... Tired of
India, we left for Africa ... We spent
portions of the time in Abyssinia, the
country surrounding the Red Sea, af-
ter which we crossed the great desert;
thence to Alexandria, and after a short
stay in Egypt we sailed for England.
Remaining
at the doc-
tor’s home
for a short
time, we left
for Australia
where I left
the service
of the doctor
and started
off on my
own hook
for America.
“I reached
San Francis-
co all right,
and after re-
maining there some little while I fol-
lowed the crowd then rushing to Ne-
vada ... then traveled through the state
continuing my journey through Col-
orado and fi nally brought up in Texas
where I was engaged as a stock driver.
To this capacity I went to Arizona, and
in 1865 found myself in Montana, from
which place I returned to San Francis-
co.
“One morning I found myself on
board the ship Yenisei. How I came
there I could not comprehend at fi rst,
but shortly realized that I’d been
shanghaied.
“We were bound for China, but nev-
er reached our destination. The ship ran
on a reef, and myself and four others
were the only ones that escaped to the
mainland after being in an open boat
for nine days without food and water.
After our rescue we tooted it through
South Anam, and then on to Canton.
We were then sent to Hong Kong, from
which place I returned to San Francis-
co. I came to Oregon about 16 months
ago, and have lived in and about The
Dalles during the time.”
Well, all righty then.
“Such is the history of his life that
Cook gives,” the Oregonian writer dry-
ly concludes. But, he adds, “there was
not one of those present who listened to
the recital that believed it.”
And yet this mouthful of malarkey is
all there is about James Cook’s past ...
except for one thing: a newspaper re-
port from the Oregon City Enterprise
a little over a year before the killing:
“James Cook, for trying to aid prison-
ers to make their escape from the pen-
itentiary, goes back to that institution
for a period of fi ve years for his trou-
ble, by order of Judge Boise.”
This may refer to a different man,
also named James Cook. And it doesn’t
explain how Cook got out of the pen-
itentiary just a year or so into a fi ve-
year stretch. But, given the conditions
in the state prison in the 1870s, it might
explain his decision to avoid a prison
sentence by escalating the charges to
Murder One with a bit of revenge, and
getting hanged instead.
On the morning of Feb. 7, 1879,
James Cook went through the fl oor
of the gallows with his lips still shut
tight. He’d eaten a hearty breakfast
that morning, visited briefl y and unpro-
ductively with a Catholic priest, and
declined to say anything further when
invited by the sheriff to do so. Seven-
teen minutes later, he was dead.
We still have no idea even what his
real name was.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Opinion on test scores
Dr. Fuhrman: Apple season is here
How sad is it that South Lane School District employees are so
apathetic with regard to the current state rest results? The accep-
tance of our "average" performance and our standing of 48 of 50
states within the comment "It's a conversation starter" is beyond
belief. With the amount of dollars spent being thrown at education,
the parents of our school-aged children should be outraged at this
poor performance.
John Caloia
Crisp, juicy apples are a fall
tradition. Take advantage of
the bountiful selection of ap-
ples available this time of year.
There are hundreds of varieties
to sample. They range from red
to yellow to green, crunchy to
tender, sweet to tart and simple
to complex.
Apples contain a wide vari-
ety of phytochemicals, many of
which have been found to have
strong antioxidant activity. They
are particularly high in querce-
tin, a fl avonoid antioxidant.1
Epidemiological studies have
linked the consumption of ap-
ples with reduced risk of some
cancers, cardiovascular disease,
C ottage G rove
S entinel
(541) 942-3325
By Joel Fuhrman, MD
For The Sentinel
asthma, diabetes and obesi-
ty.2-7 Not only can eating an
apple a day help keep the doctor
away, an apple a day might keep
the pounds away too; adding ap-
ples to the diet has been shown
to enhance weight loss.8-9 To
optimize phytochemical con-
tent, it is important to eat the
pigment-rich apple skin, not
just the fl esh. Choose whole, or-
ganic apples over applesauce or
apple juice.
Apples are also a rich source
of pectin, a type of soluble fi ber
that is found in plant cell walls
and tissues. This soluble fi ber
works to lower cholesterol by
reducing the amount that is ab-
sorbed in the intestines. Studies
have shown that the pectin in
apples interacts with other ap-
ple phytonutrients to achieve
an even greater reduction in
cholesterol.10 Researchers have
also discovered that apples can
boost intestinal health by in-
creasing the numbers of healthy
gut bacteria which feed on ap-
ple pectin.11 Apple polyphenols
are thought to help lower blood
pressure, and apple intake is
also linked to a reduced
risk of multiple cancers.12,13
Portable and easy to pack,
apples are great to include in
your on-the-go meals. For an
easy dessert, enjoy them baked
with a sprinkle of cinnamon and
nutmeg. I like to dice an apple,
toss it with baby greens, some
chickpeas, maybe a handful of
walnuts or pumpkin seeds and
then top it off with fl avored vin-
egar or perhaps a dressing made
from nuts and seeds.
Experiment with the many
different varieties of apples to
discover which ones are your
favorites. Have fun seeking out
your local organic apple grow-
ers, farm stands and farmers
markets and look for different
types of interesting apples. They
do not have to look perfect. The
smaller and more imperfect they
look, the better they taste. If you
go apple picking and get lots
of them, don’t worry, you can
store them for several months.
Just wrap each apple in a pa-
per towel to prevent them from
touching each other and store in
a closed cardboard box in a cool
place such as the basement or
garage.
Administration
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