Weird S cenes Inside the Goldmine Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley was charged with murder in the first degree. The State of California charged that Spade "did willfully, on the night of April 3rd, kick, beat, and strangle Ella Mae Cooley, his wife." The crime took place at Spade's plush desert ranch near the community of Mojave, during a "wild, drunken attempt to reconcile their wrecked marriage." Spade entered a plea of ''not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity." Spade liked to dress in "some of those $500 handmade western suits, white Stetson and a string tie and expensive boots." 48 years old, Spade had money, n' plenty of money. The song that made him rich was "Shame." Shame on You. Runnin' round with other guys, now you think that's mighty wise, dern your heart. Oh, Shame on You!" In Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Oakland, and back east, crowds flocked to see and hear "The little man with a big talent in the land of the jig-saw beat". Spade was starting an all-girl hillbilly-western band, and he was "God love 'em, gonna put them girls on television. I'm gonna dress 'em up in white leather with fringes and I'm gonna make 'em stars no matter what anybody says. " Ella Mae "was just turned twenty" when the two wed. According to Spade, she was "the purtiest little filly in California." The girl band didn't work and Spade's "Big Show" was canceled, so Spade bought some Southern California San Fernando Valley Real Estate. A big chunk of it. He took Ella Mae and his daughter Melody there to live and threw himself into the Real Estate business. In the short months ahead, what had seemed to be an ideal love match turned into hate. Spade filed for a divorce from Ella Mae. He charged incompatibility and won custody of Melody, 14 years, and Donnell, 12 years. Ten days later, shortly before midnight, on April 3rd, Mojave ambulance driver Richard Stickel got a call. The erratic voice identified himself as Spade Cooley. Stickel said Cooley told him his Ella Mae was "bad hurt" and to come at once. When he arrived at The Cooley ranch, Stickel said Cooley appeared to be in shock. Two girls met him at the door and led him inside to Ella Mae, wrapped in a blanket. She was bloody and unconscious. At the nearby Tehachapi Valley hospital, Ella Mae was pronounced dead on arrival. The hospital notified the sheriff's department. Cooley was picked up. At first, he told the cops the various bruises on Ella Mae's body were caused when she fell from a car several days before. A few days later an announcement from Capitol Records said a song, entitled 'Cold Gray Bars," written by Donnell (Spade) Cooley, now in jail awaiting trial for murder, had been recorded for national distribution." Spade's "little sweetheart," Melody, and his daughter-in-law, Dorothy Lee, told the police a different story from the one Spade recounted. Melody told the jury she was "called" to the ranch from a nearby home where she had been staying since her parents separated. "When I entered, he (Spade) was on the phone. He was talking to his business partner and he said, 'Don't call the police.' He was real sweaty and he had blood spots on his pants. "He put down the phone and said, 'Come in here. I want you to see your mother. She's going to tell you something.'" Melody continued: "He took hold of my arm and took me into the den. The shower was running in the bathroom. Mother was in the shower. He opened the door and said, 'Get up. Melody's here. . . talk to her.' He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her into the den with both hands. She was undressed. He banged her head on the floor twice. He called her a slut. She couldn't move. She seemed unconscious. He turned back to Mother and said, 'We'll see if you're dead.' Then he stomped her in the stomach with his left foot. He took a cigarette which he had been smoking and burned her twice." Melody said at this point the telephone began ringing, and when her father went to answer it, she tried desperately to revive her mother with cold water. She couldn't. She said Spade came back into the room and told her not to "say anything to the police or I might have to kill you." Then she shuddered, and said: "He told me, 'You're going to watch me kill her, Melody. If you don't, I'll kill you too. I'll kill us all." When he walked out of the room again, the girl said she slipped out a side door and ran for her life. Spade's daughter-in-law, Dorothy Lee, told the jury she went to the ranch later in the evening, and found Cooley wearing bloodstained clothing. She said she left to call her husband in Los Angeles. Eight days after the trial began, Spade's daughter-in-law brought his five-year-old grandaughter into the courtroom to see him. When Spade saw the child, he bolted towards the big double doors at the back of the room. Just before he got there two deputy sheriffs raced over, grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. The room was in an uproar. The court bailiff roared an order. "Don't hurt him. He's not trying to get away from us! Bring him back here." As the excited hubbub quieted down, the daughter-in-law quickly grabbed her daughter and left the room by the side entrance. As she left the room the crowd heard the child ask: "Momma where was grandpa going?" The state rested its case. It was Spade's turn at the plate. He killed Ella Mae in a fit of rage after she had revealed her involvement in a sex cult. He refused to name the cult itself, but his descriptions of acts of sodomy was a lurid, graphic one. But this story didn't satisfy the Jury. On August 19, 1961, Cooley was found guilty of murder one. He had three routes left: commitment to a State Institution for the Criminally Insane, San Quentin Prison--life imprisonment, or he would walk into a small octagon-shaped room painted green. The Golden State uses gas instead of electricity for its legal executions. On Aug. 22, after Spade had withdrawn an insanity plea and had waived a penalty finding, Superior Judge William L. Bradshaw sentenced him to life imprisonment. Spade's defense attorney announced that he would appeal the conviction, however the appeal was unsuccessful. http://www.hotad.com/spade.HTML Jeffery G. Scism, IBSSG, (http://blacksheep.rootsweb.com) ~~ Coordinator, C h u r c h i l l Nevada U S G e n W e b Site Co-Coordinator, Inmontgo-L, Montgomery County, Indiana, U S G e n W e b Site manager of the following Rootsweb Lists: B l a c k s h e e p, L a n d e s, L a n d i s, P e f f l e y, S c i s m, E n d i c o t t, S h i p w r e c k, Inmontgo (Mont. Co. Indiana), NVChurch (Churchill Co. Nv.)