The Boy (22 page)

Afterword

The Boy
began as a work of fiction, but shortly thereafter, I recalled the 1959 Cook murders and the story of Louise and her stepson became entangled in the research I felt compelled to do around that real crime story. The chapters titled “The Boy” are purely fiction. Those titled “Roads Back” chronicle my journey through the writing of this book and adhere as closely to fact as I am capable of in the telling. The name of my childhood friend in the chapter recalling the summer of 1959 is the only one I have changed. I have had no contact with “Rose” in more than 40 years, and failed in my attempts to find her in order to match my memory of that time with hers. For this reason, I felt I owed her anonymity.

The voice of Louise, who pops in and out of the narrative, is very real to me indeed. In all my fiction, there seems to be at least one strong voice demanding to be heard. Many of my stories have female characters that bear strong resemblance to the author in either life experience or personality. Often I end up in dialogue with those characters, but never before have I allowed that conversation a place on the page. Here, it seemed the only way to tie together this braid of fiction, memoir, and investigation.

A summary of the events that led to Robert Raymond Cook's execution for the murder of Ray and Daisy Cook and their children, Gerry, Chrissy, Patty, Kathy, and Linda:

On Tuesday, June 23, 1959, Robert Raymond Cook was released from the Saskatchewan Penitentiary (more commonly referred to as “Prince Albert”, for the town in which it was located, or simply “P.A.”) He was serving a three year term for break and entry and car theft and was not due to be released until October. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had arrived on June 18 for the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and a general amnesty was granted to certain classes of prisoners to honour the sovereign's visit. Cook and about 120 other prisoners were sprung early.

It seems unlikely that Robert Raymond Cook gave even passing thought to Her Majesty when he walked into the open air and stepped onto the bus that would take him and his fellow inmates to Saskatoon from where they'd disperse. Dressed in a prison issue blue suit and black oxfords, and a white shirt, yellow socks and red tie that had been sent by his stepmother for the occasion, Cook was bound for
Edmonton. One wonders if the royal couple, during the forty-five days they toured Canada, heard anything of Cook.

After spending Wednesday, June 24 in Edmonton, celebrating his freedom with some of the friends he'd made in previous incarcerations, Cook headed for home; for Stettler, where his father, step-mother, and their five children awaited his arrival. Robert Cook was twenty-two years old, and since his first prison term when he was fourteen, he had spent all but 243 days in jail. He arrived in Stettler early in the afternoon, and wandered everywhere but home. His father, Ray Cook, was seen meeting up with him later in the evening, and the two drove off together. Later that night, Robert Cook returned to Edmonton in his father's car. The next morning, Friday, he appeared at a car dealership and traded Ray's 1958 Chevrolet station wagon in on purchase of a new white Impala convertible. Then, looking for yet another of his ex-con acquaintances, he drove to Camrose, halfway between Edmonton and Stettler, and on a vague suggestion that his friend might have gone to Whitecourt, picked up three teenagers and took them along on a joy-ride to Whitecourt and back. Finally, on Saturday evening, he ended up back in Stettler, cruising the main street in his new car. He had made a quick stop at home, he would say later, and finding the house empty, the family gone, assumed they had left for British Columbia in search of a service station that father and son were going to operate together.
Saturday night, after a call from Edmonton alerting the Stettler RCMP that Robert Raymond Cook was wanted for questioning on false pretence charges for using his dad's identification to buy the Impala, Cook was stopped on the street and asked to come back to the station. He was held overnight.

Meanwhile, stirrings of unease at the convoluted story about the sale of the car, and the ever-changing versions of the family's departure prompted one of the RCMP officers to visit the Cook home. After a quick look inside with his flashlight, he determined that the house was empty, and went back to the station to arrange for a further search in the morning. By the light of day it was clear that the house had been the scene of horrendous violence and that someone had attempted to wash blood-stained walls and had piled clothing and bed linens atop the soaked mattresses under which a blood-spattered blue suit and white shirt were concealed. Finally, in the garage, under sheets of cardboard, a grease pit was uncovered and the badly decomposed bodies of the seven members of the Cook family were found.

Robert Raymond Cook was charged with the murder of his father, Raymond Cook, and was remanded for thirty days for psychiatric examination at the Provincial Mental Hospital at Ponoka. Eleven days later, just before midnight on July 10, Cook escaped from Ponoka and set off the biggest manhunt in the history of the province of Alberta. More than two hundred men fanned out over the countryside on foot and in jeeps, trucks, armored cars, boats and planes. Still, it wasn't until Tuesday, July 14, that Cook stepped out of a pig barn in view of a farm wife, and waited to be arrested.

Cook's trial took place before a judge and jury and lasted eleven days. On December 10, 1959, after one and a half hours of deliberating, the jury returned a verdict of guilty and Cook was sentenced to be hanged on April 15, 1960. An appeal was filed and a new trial granted. The second trial took six and a half days, and the jury this time returned in half an hour with the guilty verdict. Cook was sentenced to be hanged on October 11. A second appeal was filed and turned down. An application to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada postponed the execution date from October 11 to November 15, but the application was dismissed. A final plea was made to the federal Cabinet for an executive grant of clemency that would commute Cook's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment. An Order in Council was issued saying there would be no interference with the sentence. Robert Raymond Cook was executed just after midnight on November 14, 1960.

Acknowledgements

In the four years I spent writing
The Boy
, many people shared their recollections of the Cook murder case. My particular thanks to The Honourable Judge David P. MacNaughton, Clark Hoskins, Doreen Scott, Gary Anderson, and Marion Anderson. To Jack Pecover, whose book,
The Work of Justice, The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook,
became my well-thumbed reference, I am indebted for a wealth of information, the acuity of his analysis, and his understanding of my obsession with finding the family buried in this infamous case. I am grateful to Jack as well for reminding me of the pleasures of old-fashioned correspondence, of opening an envelope and holding a real letter in hand.

My thanks to UBC's Creative Writing program for the course of studies that helped me find my way through the story, and to Terry Glavin for his encouragement, and the wisdom of “truth matters” and “the inviolable trust that exists between the writer and the reader.”

As always, love and thanks to Robert, Elisabeth, Eric, and Stefan, my ordinary family, extraordinary each of you in the best of ways.

Other Oolichan Titles By Betty Jane Hegerat

A Crack in the Wall (2008)

The stories in
A Crack in the Wall
take the reader on a voyeuristic walk down suburban streets, a glimpse into open windows at people yearning for what was, and making their reluctant peace with what is, and what will be.

Delivery (2009)

A “domestic” novel in the tradition of Carol Shields, Delivery is a story with a large theme painted on a small canvas. Betty Jane Hegerat delivers an elegantly written mother-daughter story most mothers and daughters will adore – and plenty of dads and sons too.

~ Dave Margoshes.

Betty Jane Hegerat
is the author of two novels, a collection of short stories, and a book of creative non-fiction. She lives in Calgary, and teaches creative writing at the University of Calgary and the Alexandra Writers Centre.
Delivery
(Oolichan, 2009) was a finalist for the George Bugnet fiction prize in the Alberta Book Awards. Juror's comment: “Domestic dysfunction never had it so good. This novel lactates with life.”

Visit
www.bettyjanehegerat.com
.