Spade Cooley

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Donnell Clyde 'Spade' Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American western swing musician known for stomping his second wife, Ella Mae Evans, to death in front of their daughter.[1]

Cooley's 18 month engagment at Santa Monica's Venice Pier Ballroom was record breaking for the early half of the 1940s. His "Shame on You", released on Columbia's OKeh label, was recorded in December of 1944, and and was No. 1 on the folk music charts for two months. [2]

Cooley made many b-westerns, usually playing bit parts, and starred in his own syndicated television show from 1949 until 1959. John Gilmore has written an indepth portrait of Spade Cooley's life and tragic end in Shame on You, a segment of Gilmore's nonfiction work, L.A. Despair. Cooley is also a recurring character in James Ellroy's fiction.

He would often bill himself as the 'king of western swing'. His sound was closer to conventional dance-oriented pop orchestras than that of Bob Wills or others in the genre, which accounts for his work having been more popular with mainstream audiences during his 1940s and 1950s heyday, but at the same time not having enjoyed the continuing popularity of Wills.

He died of a heart attack while on temporary release from prison, where he had been serving time for the murder of his wife. The state of California had given him the temporary release in order to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.

It has been reported that Dennis Quaid plans to make a bio-pic about Cooley.