The H-A-R-D L-U-C-K tattooed guy!!

    William Edward "Billy" Cook (December 23, 1928 – December 12, 1952)

Billy Cook was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1928.He lost his mother at the age of 5 and he had a difficult childhood .His father after the death of his wife left his children to an abandoned mine .All the children were  placed into foster care except Billy.A woman finally took care of Billy but they hadn't a "stong" family relationship.Τhe coming years as a teenager was a passage between reformers institutions.In 1950 he came came back to Joplin and he met again  his father.He told him his intention was now to “live by the gun and roam.”.His crazy death route starts On December 30, 1950.His first victim was a texan mechanic Lee Archer who was driving his car near Lubbock, Texas.Lee picked up Βilly and soon he was
into the trunk of his own car!!Lee was a lucky one.He escaped when Billy made a slow turn and opened the trunk wih the help of  a tire iron.Billy left the car near Oklahoma because it ran out of fuel.Then he found his new victims.Carl Mosser from Illinois,picked up Billy who was en route to New Mexico with his wife, three children, and a dog.He pulled his gun and forced Carl to drive around aimlessly for 72 hours!!!!!Mentally unstable and increasingly tired, Billy shot the entire family and their dog shortly afterward. He dumped their bodies in a mine shaft near Joplin, Missouri.He left the car near Oklahoma with a receipt
of his gun , providing police with a name for their suspect.Near California he kidnapped Homer Waldrip.
Homer was a deputy sheriff .Billy forced Homer to drive for 40 miles when he finally told him to stop the car.He orderd Homer to lay down.He was ready to kill him but fortunately for him, changed his mind.Later he said that he was thinking to kill him with a bullet in the head but he changed his mind because Hommer's wife.Deputy's wife Cecilia  had worked with Billy for a short period of time in Blythe.As he told later to police Cecillia was "nice to him, she treated him like a human being and had been nicer than anyone had ever been to him in his life."Billy continued his crazy death road!He kidnapped another guy,Robert Dewey, from Seattle.During driving Robert tried to escape from Billy but he was wounded by his gun.Finally Billy murdered Dewey with a shot to the head.Billy doesn't stop.He kidnapes another two guys James Burke and Forrest Damron, who were on a hunting trip.He forced them to drive across the Mexican border and on down to Santa Rosalia.Billy was recognized by Santa Rosalia police chief Luis Parra, who simply walked up to him, snatched the .32 revolver from his belt, and placed him under arrest. Billy Cook was then returned to the border and handed over to waiting FBI agents.Cook was returned to Oklahoma City to answer for the Mosser killings, and sentenced to 300 years in prison. In 1951, a California jury sentenced him to death for killing the salesman from Seattle, Robert Dewey. On December 12, 1952, Cook was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. "I hate everybody's guts," he said at the time of his arrest, "and everybody hates mine."Billy's life with tje inspiration for the 1953 film noir The Hitch-Hiker, directed by Ida Lupino

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