Overview
On 28 June 1959, police discovered Raymond and Daisy Cook along with their 5 children shot and bludgeoned to death in the grease pit of their garage in Stettler, Alberta. Robert Cook, Raymond Cook's son by his first wife, had been arrested in Stettler a day earlier, and charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses after he had traded the family's 1958 Chevrolet station wagon for a '59 Impala convertible. Despite being implicated in the deaths of all of his family members. Robert Cook was only charged with the murder of his father in order to speed trail processions.
At just after midnight on July 11, 1959, Cook escaped from the Ponoka Mental Institution after he was denied permission to attend the funerals of his family members. He was found several days later hiding at a pig farm near Bashaw, Alberta.
It took two trials and just under 16 months for Cook to be convicted of murder. He maintained his innocence up until his execution. Cook was sent to the gallows at Fort Saskatchewan Provincial Gaol at midnight, November 14, 1960, and pronounced dead at 12:19AM on November 15, 1960. The case has been the subject of several books and two plays.
Read more about this topic: Robert Raymond Cook