--- title: Billy 'Cockeyed' Cook: Portrait of an American Spree Killer, 1951 description: LIFE recalls a terrifying killing spree from the 1950s -- a reminder that the unspeakable and the sensational often go hand in hand. canonical: https://time.com/3879488/billy-cockeyed-cook-portrait-of-an-american-spree-killer/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-01T21:40:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:44.943Z og:title: Billy 'Cockeyed' Cook: Portrait of an American Spree Killer, 1951 og:description: LIFE recalls a terrifying killing spree from the 1950s -- a reminder that the unspeakable and the sensational often go hand in hand. og:url: https://time.com/3879488/billy-cockeyed-cook-portrait-of-an-american-spree-killer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63e419e31ba374d2/6988490ea988ca6a0b6b1cb4/10_111696952.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: The Kid With the Bad Eye, 1951 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Billy 'Cockeyed' Cook: Portrait of an American Spree Killer, 1951 twitter:description: LIFE recalls a terrifying killing spree from the 1950s -- a reminder that the unspeakable and the sensational often go hand in hand. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63e419e31ba374d2/6988490ea988ca6a0b6b1cb4/10_111696952.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'I'm Gonna Live by the Gun and Roam': Portrait of an American Spree Killer > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Apr 1, 2014 9:40 PM UTC  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951. Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Apr 1, 2014 9:40 PM UTC The story of the American mass murderer Billy “Cockeyed” Cook — who killed six people, including an entire family of five, during a terrifying three-week spree across several American states in early January 1951 — is barely remembered today. But as [mass, random attacks](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/us/stabbings-franklin-regional-high-school-murrysville.html) continue, with distressing frequency, to dominate the national dialog, LIFE.com recalls William Cook’s killing spree of more than a half-century ago — if only as a reminder that the unspeakable and the sensational frequently go hand in hand, and that any lessons that might be gleaned from such savagery are, all too often, quickly forgotten. William Edward Cook’s early life in his native Missouri was an unremitting series of disasters. His mother died when he was 5 years old; his father abandoned him — and his _seven_ siblings — in an old mine. William Edward Cook became a ward of the state before his 10th birthday; had a nasty temper (exacerbated by the teasing and bullying he endured due to a deformed eye); and eventually ended up in Missouri State Penitentiary. The El Topo director came this close to realizing his ambitions to make a thrilling film of Frank Herbert's classic science-fiction novel. Maybe this doc is it When he was released from prison in 1950, the 21-year-old told his father, with whom he briefly reunited after more than a decade of estrangement, that his ambition was now to “live by the gun and roam.” He headed west from Missouri, drifting to California and then eastward again, down into Texas. There, in late December 1950, his crime and killing spree began. He kidnapped an auto mechanic who picked him up hitchhiking and forced the man into the trunk of the car. The man escaped shortly afterward. The family of an Illinois farmer named Carl Mosser, en route to New Mexico, wouldn’t be so lucky. In Oklahoma, the Mossers — Carl, 33; Thelma, 29; Ronald, 7; Gary, 5; and Pamela Sue, 3 — picked up Cook, who was once again hitchhiking. Cook pulled out the .32 caliber snub-nosed pistol he had bought in El Paso, and told Carl to drive. Over the next three days, Cook and the Mossers wove their way back toward Cook’s hometown of Joplin, Mo. On the third day, Cook shot them all — including the family dog — and dumped the bodies down a well not far from Joplin. Again he headed west. Outside Blythe, Calif., where he had once worked, he took a deputy sheriff hostage. The sheriff’s life was spared, Cook later reportedly said, because the deputy’s wife, who had once briefly worked with Cook, “treated him like a human being and had been nicer than anyone had ever been to him in his life.” Cook killed once more during his spree — shooting to death a salesman from Seattle named Robert Dewey and dumping his body in a ditch — then kidnapped two hunters and forced them to drive him across the border into Mexico. There, in a town called Santa Rosalie, the local police chief, Luis Parra, improbably recognized Cook, plucked the .32 from his belt, and arrested him. A short time later, he was handed over to the FBI. William Cook was sentenced to 300 years in prison after being tried and convicted of the Mosser killings in Oklahoma, but was then tried, convicted and sentenced to death in California for the murder of Robert Dewey. On Dec. 12, 1952, at San Quentin, Cook was executed in the famous prison’s gas chamber. He was 23 years old. Less than a year after he was put to death, a movie based on Cook’s spree and helmed by the actress-turned-powerhouse director Ida Lupino, _The Hitch-Hiker_, was released by Lupino’s independent production company, The Filmmakers. The movie is notable not only because it’s a better-than-average noir film, but because it’s one of the first films ever made in Hollywood that was quite clearly based on a killer whose crimes were still fresh in the minds of filmgoers. ![Caption from LIFE. "Circulars on Cook were posted through the Southwest and Mexico. \[Robert\] Dewey's murder spread panic. Citizens avoided lonely roads, 'recognized' Cook from Albuquerque to Los Angeles, where for two days police averaged a phone tip every four minutes."](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1bd38e6797ac72d/69868639f983e7ec7c04cd43/01_00728139.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp) Caption from LIFE. "Circulars on Cook were posted through the Southwest and Mexico. \[Robert\] Dewey's murder spread panic. Citizens avoided lonely roads, 'recognized' Cook from Albuquerque to Los Angeles, where for two days police averaged a phone tip every four minutes." Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. A crowd in Tijuana, Mexico, watches as spree killer William Cook is sent back to the United States after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. In Tijuana, Mexico, spree killer William Cook is sent back to the United States after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Pleased throng watched Cook's 'extradition' at Tijuana. Since the U.S. has no extradition treaty with Mexico, he simply was pushed over the border as an undesirable alien -- and into U.S. hands." Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Tijuana police chief, F. Kraus Morales, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook prior to being sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "At bay in Mexico, Cook blinks his good eye against photographers' flashes." Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook sent back to the United States from Mexico after capture, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Unwilling companions were campers Forrest Damron (right) and James Burke, who ... were his prisoners eight days. At night they did not dare jump him; since one eye was always open, they could not tell when he was asleep." Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Cook's arsenal was captured with him when Morales, after inspecting towns from the air, landed at Santa Rosalia, saw him in car, arrested him." Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer William Cook's small arsenal of weapons, January 1951. Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Spree killer Billy "Cockeyed" Cook, 1951. 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