Abraham Cooley
Libby Cooley
The Richmond Review, March 29, 1892 [Special]
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
Abraham Cooley, of Richmond, cuts his wife's throat with a knife.
And as she rushes from him sends a bullet through her head.
Then shoots himself in the head and breast and cuts his own throat.
This morning, between the hours of 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock, Abraham Cooley, a well-to-do farmer, aged 62 years, living one mile north of this village, murdered his wife in cold blood and then finished his horrible work by committing suicide.
It is supposed that he first attacked her in the kitchen by the pantry door, first cutting her throat, when she started for the outside of the house. He pursued, and when she was about one rod and a half from the house he fired at her with a revolver, the ball taking effect in the back of her head, passing through her head and lodging in her nostrils, causing instant death.
After doing this deed he placed the pistol behind his right ear and fired, the ball striking his skull and glancing upwards. This being a failure he placed the weapon to his left breast, intending to shoot himself through the heart, but the ball spent its force in his clothing, merely setting fire to his garments. This not having the desired effect he took the knife with which he had cut his wife and inflicted the death wound on himself, cutting his throat from ear to ear.
Mrs. Cooley was his second wife, to whom he had been married about a year. She has two sons in Chicago and one is supposed to be in Texas. They are children by her first husband, and she had a daughter, 10 years old, by her second husband, from whom she had been divorced, she having been married three times in all.
Mr. Cooley had five grown sons: F. M. Cooley, of Mayville, Myron Cooley, who lives on his father's farm, Andrew Cooley, residing in Richmond, Asa Cooley of Marlette, Frank Cooley, the youngest, who resides in Richmond.
Mr. Gillespie (sic. = Glaspie), who had recently purchased the farm, was the first person to discover the tragedy. His team was in the barn and he was there taking care of the horses when he dicovered smoke issuing from the woodshed. It was caused by the burning coat and vest of Mr. Cooley, which he had taken off. Mr. Gillespie (Glaspie) started at once for the house but when about a rod and a half away he discovered the dead body of Mrs. Cooley, lying on her face in a pool of blood. As he advanced and got near the woodshed door he found the dead body of Mr. Cooley lying in about the same position as that of Mrs. Cooley.
The motive which prompted this terrible deed can be best obtained from a paper which Justice Heath took from a book in Cooley's inside vest pocket, which appeared to have just been written. It reads as follows:
"The act which I am about to commit I hope God will forgive me for. Lib has robbed me of my living and happiness, and now is agoing to rob the family, because the law allows a woman to do as they please, and for other reasons not becoming of a woman. I told Mr. Wicks (sic=Weeks) that he must look to her for the money he let her have, as I would not be responsible for it. The papers is in the little box in the tool chest. Mr. Acker, please pay those checks to Frank and he can settle with the rest of the boys. Sell the farm to my son and he can pay the rest off. Good-bye to my family. Don't bury Lib on my lot. Search her boxes and take what belongs to me".
We understand that the woman was willing to settle with her husband for $300 they having had trouble, and was willing to leave, but he was very penurious man and refused. He was a man worth probably $10,000. He married this woman when his former wife had been dead only about four months.
Cooley will be buried today and the woman's body shipped to her former home in Chicago.
(Abraham Cooley b. 17 April 1829, d. 29 March 1892, buried in Richmond cemetery.)
Her name was Betsey Elizabeth Harger born March 5, 1833 in Lee, Oneida, New York and died on May 29, 1892 in Richmond, Macomb, Michigan.
Libby Cooley
The Richmond Review, March 29, 1892 [Special]
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
Abraham Cooley, of Richmond, cuts his wife's throat with a knife.
And as she rushes from him sends a bullet through her head.
Then shoots himself in the head and breast and cuts his own throat.
This morning, between the hours of 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock, Abraham Cooley, a well-to-do farmer, aged 62 years, living one mile north of this village, murdered his wife in cold blood and then finished his horrible work by committing suicide.
It is supposed that he first attacked her in the kitchen by the pantry door, first cutting her throat, when she started for the outside of the house. He pursued, and when she was about one rod and a half from the house he fired at her with a revolver, the ball taking effect in the back of her head, passing through her head and lodging in her nostrils, causing instant death.
After doing this deed he placed the pistol behind his right ear and fired, the ball striking his skull and glancing upwards. This being a failure he placed the weapon to his left breast, intending to shoot himself through the heart, but the ball spent its force in his clothing, merely setting fire to his garments. This not having the desired effect he took the knife with which he had cut his wife and inflicted the death wound on himself, cutting his throat from ear to ear.
Mrs. Cooley was his second wife, to whom he had been married about a year. She has two sons in Chicago and one is supposed to be in Texas. They are children by her first husband, and she had a daughter, 10 years old, by her second husband, from whom she had been divorced, she having been married three times in all.
Mr. Cooley had five grown sons: F. M. Cooley, of Mayville, Myron Cooley, who lives on his father's farm, Andrew Cooley, residing in Richmond, Asa Cooley of Marlette, Frank Cooley, the youngest, who resides in Richmond.
Mr. Gillespie (sic. = Glaspie), who had recently purchased the farm, was the first person to discover the tragedy. His team was in the barn and he was there taking care of the horses when he dicovered smoke issuing from the woodshed. It was caused by the burning coat and vest of Mr. Cooley, which he had taken off. Mr. Gillespie (Glaspie) started at once for the house but when about a rod and a half away he discovered the dead body of Mrs. Cooley, lying on her face in a pool of blood. As he advanced and got near the woodshed door he found the dead body of Mr. Cooley lying in about the same position as that of Mrs. Cooley.
The motive which prompted this terrible deed can be best obtained from a paper which Justice Heath took from a book in Cooley's inside vest pocket, which appeared to have just been written. It reads as follows:
"The act which I am about to commit I hope God will forgive me for. Lib has robbed me of my living and happiness, and now is agoing to rob the family, because the law allows a woman to do as they please, and for other reasons not becoming of a woman. I told Mr. Wicks (sic=Weeks) that he must look to her for the money he let her have, as I would not be responsible for it. The papers is in the little box in the tool chest. Mr. Acker, please pay those checks to Frank and he can settle with the rest of the boys. Sell the farm to my son and he can pay the rest off. Good-bye to my family. Don't bury Lib on my lot. Search her boxes and take what belongs to me".
We understand that the woman was willing to settle with her husband for $300 they having had trouble, and was willing to leave, but he was very penurious man and refused. He was a man worth probably $10,000. He married this woman when his former wife had been dead only about four months.
Cooley will be buried today and the woman's body shipped to her former home in Chicago.
(Abraham Cooley b. 17 April 1829, d. 29 March 1892, buried in Richmond cemetery.)
Her name was Betsey Elizabeth Harger born March 5, 1833 in Lee, Oneida, New York and died on May 29, 1892 in Richmond, Macomb, Michigan.
Abraham Cooley
Libby Cooley
The Richmond Review, March 29, 1892 [Special]
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
Abraham Cooley, of Richmond, cuts his wife's throat with a knife.
And as she rushes from him sends a bullet through her head.
Then shoots himself in the head and breast and cuts his own throat.
This morning, between the hours of 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock, Abraham Cooley, a well-to-do farmer, aged 62 years, living one mile north of this village, murdered his wife in cold blood and then finished his horrible work by committing suicide.
It is supposed that he first attacked her in the kitchen by the pantry door, first cutting her throat, when she started for the outside of the house. He pursued, and when she was about one rod and a half from the house he fired at her with a revolver, the ball taking effect in the back of her head, passing through her head and lodging in her nostrils, causing instant death.
After doing this deed he placed the pistol behind his right ear and fired, the ball striking his skull and glancing upwards. This being a failure he placed the weapon to his left breast, intending to shoot himself through the heart, but the ball spent its force in his clothing, merely setting fire to his garments. This not having the desired effect he took the knife with which he had cut his wife and inflicted the death wound on himself, cutting his throat from ear to ear.
Mrs. Cooley was his second wife, to whom he had been married about a year. She has two sons in Chicago and one is supposed to be in Texas. They are children by her first husband, and she had a daughter, 10 years old, by her second husband, from whom she had been divorced, she having been married three times in all.
Mr. Cooley had five grown sons: F. M. Cooley, of Mayville, Myron Cooley, who lives on his father's farm, Andrew Cooley, residing in Richmond, Asa Cooley of Marlette, Frank Cooley, the youngest, who resides in Richmond.
Mr. Gillespie (sic. = Glaspie), who had recently purchased the farm, was the first person to discover the tragedy. His team was in the barn and he was there taking care of the horses when he dicovered smoke issuing from the woodshed. It was caused by the burning coat and vest of Mr. Cooley, which he had taken off. Mr. Gillespie (Glaspie) started at once for the house but when about a rod and a half away he discovered the dead body of Mrs. Cooley, lying on her face in a pool of blood. As he advanced and got near the woodshed door he found the dead body of Mr. Cooley lying in about the same position as that of Mrs. Cooley.
The motive which prompted this terrible deed can be best obtained from a paper which Justice Heath took from a book in Cooley's inside vest pocket, which appeared to have just been written. It reads as follows:
"The act which I am about to commit I hope God will forgive me for. Lib has robbed me of my living and happiness, and now is agoing to rob the family, because the law allows a woman to do as they please, and for other reasons not becoming of a woman. I told Mr. Wicks (sic=Weeks) that he must look to her for the money he let her have, as I would not be responsible for it. The papers is in the little box in the tool chest. Mr. Acker, please pay those checks to Frank and he can settle with the rest of the boys. Sell the farm to my son and he can pay the rest off. Good-bye to my family. Don't bury Lib on my lot. Search her boxes and take what belongs to me".
We understand that the woman was willing to settle with her husband for $300 they having had trouble, and was willing to leave, but he was very penurious man and refused. He was a man worth probably $10,000. He married this woman when his former wife had been dead only about four months.
Cooley will be buried today and the woman's body shipped to her former home in Chicago.
(Abraham Cooley b. 17 April 1829, d. 29 March 1892, buried in Richmond cemetery.)
Her name was Betsey Elizabeth Harger born March 5, 1833 in Lee, Oneida, New York and died on May 29, 1892 in Richmond, Macomb, Michigan.
Libby Cooley
The Richmond Review, March 29, 1892 [Special]
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
Abraham Cooley, of Richmond, cuts his wife's throat with a knife.
And as she rushes from him sends a bullet through her head.
Then shoots himself in the head and breast and cuts his own throat.
This morning, between the hours of 7 o'clock and 8 o'clock, Abraham Cooley, a well-to-do farmer, aged 62 years, living one mile north of this village, murdered his wife in cold blood and then finished his horrible work by committing suicide.
It is supposed that he first attacked her in the kitchen by the pantry door, first cutting her throat, when she started for the outside of the house. He pursued, and when she was about one rod and a half from the house he fired at her with a revolver, the ball taking effect in the back of her head, passing through her head and lodging in her nostrils, causing instant death.
After doing this deed he placed the pistol behind his right ear and fired, the ball striking his skull and glancing upwards. This being a failure he placed the weapon to his left breast, intending to shoot himself through the heart, but the ball spent its force in his clothing, merely setting fire to his garments. This not having the desired effect he took the knife with which he had cut his wife and inflicted the death wound on himself, cutting his throat from ear to ear.
Mrs. Cooley was his second wife, to whom he had been married about a year. She has two sons in Chicago and one is supposed to be in Texas. They are children by her first husband, and she had a daughter, 10 years old, by her second husband, from whom she had been divorced, she having been married three times in all.
Mr. Cooley had five grown sons: F. M. Cooley, of Mayville, Myron Cooley, who lives on his father's farm, Andrew Cooley, residing in Richmond, Asa Cooley of Marlette, Frank Cooley, the youngest, who resides in Richmond.
Mr. Gillespie (sic. = Glaspie), who had recently purchased the farm, was the first person to discover the tragedy. His team was in the barn and he was there taking care of the horses when he dicovered smoke issuing from the woodshed. It was caused by the burning coat and vest of Mr. Cooley, which he had taken off. Mr. Gillespie (Glaspie) started at once for the house but when about a rod and a half away he discovered the dead body of Mrs. Cooley, lying on her face in a pool of blood. As he advanced and got near the woodshed door he found the dead body of Mr. Cooley lying in about the same position as that of Mrs. Cooley.
The motive which prompted this terrible deed can be best obtained from a paper which Justice Heath took from a book in Cooley's inside vest pocket, which appeared to have just been written. It reads as follows:
"The act which I am about to commit I hope God will forgive me for. Lib has robbed me of my living and happiness, and now is agoing to rob the family, because the law allows a woman to do as they please, and for other reasons not becoming of a woman. I told Mr. Wicks (sic=Weeks) that he must look to her for the money he let her have, as I would not be responsible for it. The papers is in the little box in the tool chest. Mr. Acker, please pay those checks to Frank and he can settle with the rest of the boys. Sell the farm to my son and he can pay the rest off. Good-bye to my family. Don't bury Lib on my lot. Search her boxes and take what belongs to me".
We understand that the woman was willing to settle with her husband for $300 they having had trouble, and was willing to leave, but he was very penurious man and refused. He was a man worth probably $10,000. He married this woman when his former wife had been dead only about four months.
Cooley will be buried today and the woman's body shipped to her former home in Chicago.
(Abraham Cooley b. 17 April 1829, d. 29 March 1892, buried in Richmond cemetery.)
Her name was Betsey Elizabeth Harger born March 5, 1833 in Lee, Oneida, New York and died on May 29, 1892 in Richmond, Macomb, Michigan.
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