William Edward Cook Jr., known as Billy Cook, was born in Joplin and became a nationally known Route 66 crime figure in the early 1950s.
Known forWilliam Edward Cook Jr., known as Billy Cook, was born in Joplin and became a nationally known Route 66 crime figure in the early 1950s.
William Edward Cook Jr., known as Billy Cook, was born in Joplin on December 23, 1928. His early life and later crimes made him one of the most notorious Joplin-connected figures of the Route 66 era.
Cook's story should be handled with care. He is historically significant because of the national attention surrounding the 1950-1951 killings connected to him, his capture, trials, and execution at San Quentin on December 12, 1952. For the People directory, the strongest local angle is the Joplin origin of the story and the way the case entered Route 66 and regional true-crime history.
The local archive appears to have unusually strong material for this profile, including a PDF, story draft, video script, and case-file text. Those local materials should be the main source for a fuller article before this is marked complete.