National Affairs: 300 Years Is Not Enough

• Share

A covey of psychiatrists clustered in Oklahoma City federal court one day last week to do a job of head-candling on Missouri's droop-eyed killer, Billy Cook. But their numbers only seemed to cloud the issue at hand—whether Billy, who killed six people in cold blood on a transcontinental murder spree (TIME, Jan. 22), was sane enough to stand trial for his crimes. Three said he was, four said he was not. Confronted with such guidance, Federal Judge Stephen Chandler decided next day that Cook was sane enough to plead guilty but not sane enough to be given a death sentence. He sentenced the killer to serve five consecutive 60-year terms in Alcatraz—a total of 300 years. But there were those who thought 300 years was much too good for bloodthirsty Billy Cook.

The prosecutor bayed for a death penalty, left the courtroom snapping: "The goddamdest travesty on justice, ever." The Justice Department, apparently dissatisfied with Judge Chandler's decision too, agreed to surrender the killer to Imperial County, Calif., where officials felt certain they could send him to the gas chamber for the desert killing of a vacationing Seattle salesman.