Fred J. Cook

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Fred J. Cook (March 8, 1911 – April 4, 2003) was an investigative journalist whose career spanned from the 1950s to the late 1970s. His reporting focused mainly on crime. His 1964 exposé The FBI Nobody Knows was central to the plot of one of Rex Stout's most popular Nero Wolfe novels, The Doorbell Rang (1965).

Contents

[edit] Early Career

Fred James Cook was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. On his mother’s side, he was descended from an old New Jersey family, the Comptons. He grew up in a house on Bay Avenue near the border with Bay Head. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1932.[1]

Fred J. Cook wrote predominately for the New York newpaper World-Telegraph where he focused on crime reporting and where he uncovered the confession of John Francis Roche in the murder case of Navy sailer Edward S. Bates, which freed Paul A. Pfeffer, who earlier was convinced of the murder.[2] He began his career in journalism at the Asbury Park (NJ) Press. [3]

While the editor for the weekly New Jersey Courier (Lakewood, NJ), he covered the Hindenburg disaster in 1937. [4] Having witnessed the airship flying overhead at Toms River, he first wrote about its anticipated safe arrival at the Lakehurst Naval Base, then had to quickly rewrite the story after getting to the crash site while the ship was still in flames. A few hundred copies of the earlier edition, with the wrong story, were already on their way to newsstands, "so I knew I had to collar them and get them back," Cook said.[5]

Though conservative in many ways, Cook wrote several articles for the left-wing Nation, and took positions usually identified with the left. For instance, he opposed the death penalty, taking the position that it was cruel and didn't deter crime. He was also highly critical of the FBI, CIA, the Alger Hiss perjury conviction and oil and defense companies. His writing made him the target of FBI investigations against him.[6]

His book Goldwater: Extremist on the Right, led to the Supreme Court decision in what is known as the Red Lion case. After the book appeared in 1964, Mr. Cook was attacked by Reverend John M. Norris on his daily Christian Crusade radio broadcast on WGCB in Red Lion, PA. Mr. Cook sued arguing that the FCC’s fairness doctrine entitled him to free air time to respond. The case went to the Supreme Court in 1969. The Court ruled unanimously that the fairness doctrine was constitutional. [7] [8]

[edit] Cook and the Hiss case.

Cook had written four articles for The Nation by the time then editor Carey McWilliams asked Cook to write an article about the perjury case of Alger Hiss. Cook did not want to do the article, thinking Hiss was "guilty as hell." After two more requests by McWilliams for Cook to do the article, McWilliams said, "Look, I have a proposition to make you. I know how you feel about the case, but I've talked to a lot of people who I trust. They say if anybody looked hard at the evidence they'd have a different opinion. You're known as a fact man. Will you do this for me? No obligation. Will you at least look at the facts?" Cook decided that, as a good journalist, he was obligated to look at the facts and see where they took him.

The September 21, 1957 issue of The Nation was dedicated entirely to Cook's investigation of the Hiss case, which was called, "Hiss: New Perspectives on the Strangest Case of our Time." In the article Cook wrote for The Nation, he ultimately was of the opinion that Hiss was not guilty of the accusations made by Whittaker Chambers who accused Hiss of being a Soviet spy while working for the State Department.

Cook expanded on the article and wrote a book called, The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss (Morrow, 1957).[9] Cook continued to believe Hiss was innocent up to his death.

[edit] Works

This is an incomplete list that doesn’t include all the nonfiction written for children and young adults, his fiction and his works published in magazines.[10]

  • ”The Unfinished Story of Alger Hiss”, Morrow, 1958.
  • "The Warfare State," Macmillan, 1962.
  • ”What Manner of Men: Forgotten Heroes of the Revolution”, Morrow, 1959.
  • "Rallying a Free People: Theodore Roosevelt", Kingston House, 1961.
  • ”The FBI Nobody Knows”, Macmillan, 1964.
  • ”Barry Goldwater: Extremist of the Right", Grove, 1964.
  • ”The Corrupted Land: The Social Morality of Modern Americans”, Macmillan, 1966.
  • ”The Secret Rulers: Criminal Syndicates and How They Control the U.S. Underworld”, Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1966.
  • ”The Plot against the Patient”, Prentice-Hall, 1967.
  • ”What So Proudly We Hailed”, Prentice-Hall, 1968.
  • ”The Nightmare Decade: The Life and Times of Senator Joe McCarthy”, Random House, 1971.
  • ”The Army-McCarthy Hearings, April-June, 1954: A Senator Creates a Sensation Hunting Communists”, Franklin Watts, 1971.
  • ”The Rise of American Political Parties”, Franklin Watts, 1971.
  • ”The Cuban Missile Crisis, October, 1962: The U.S. and Russia Face a Nuclear Showdown”, Franklin Watts, 1972.
  • ”The Muckrakers: Crusading Journalists Who Changed America”, Doubleday, 1972.
  • ”The U-2 Incident, May, 1960: An American Spy Plane Downed over Russia Intensifies the Cold War”, Franklin Watts, 1973.
  • ”Dawn over Saratoga: The Turning Point of the Revolutionary War”, Doubleday, 1973.
  • ”Mafia”, Fawcett, 1973.
  • ”American Political Bosses and Machines”, Franklin Watts, 1973.
  • ”The Pinkertons”, Doubleday, 1974.
  • ”Lobbying in American Politics”, Franklin Watts, 1976.
  • ”Privateers of `76", illustrated by William L. Verrill, Jr., Bobbs-Merrill, 1976.
  • ”Julia's Story: The Tragedy of an Unnecessary Death”, Holt, 1976.
  • ”Mob, Inc.”, Franklin Watts, 1977.
  • ”The Ku Klux Klan: America's Recurring Nightmare”, Messner, 1980.
  • ”The Crimes of Watergate”, Franklin Watts, 1981.
  • ”The Great Energy Scam: Private Billions vs. Public Good”, Macmillan, 1982.
  • ”Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting” (autobiography), introduction by Studs Terkel, Putnam, 1984.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cook, Fred J. Maverick: Fifty Years of Investigative Reporting. Putnam: 1984.
  2. ^ Cook, Fred J. "Capital Punishment: Does it Prevent Crime?" The Nation. 10 March 1956.
  3. ^ Fred J. Cook, journalist, questioned theory on JFK death. Obituary, Star-Ledger, The (Newark, NJ) - April 7, 2003.
  4. ^ “Cook was classic old-time journalist “Ocean County Observer (Toms River, NJ) April 27, 2003
  5. ^ Moore, Kirk. “OH, THE HUMANITY': On May 6, 1937, world's largest aircraft burst into flames at Lakehurst, killing 36. Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ) May 5, 2002
  6. ^ Cook, Fred J. "On Being an Enemy of the FBI." The Nation. 22 March 1986.
  7. ^ Lavietes, Stuart. “Fred J. Cook, 92, the Author of 45 Books, Many Exposes” The New York Times, obituary May 4, 2003 p54
  8. ^ Joyce, Tom. “His call for a reply set up historic broadcast ruling Fred J. Cook, whose book was attacked on Red Lion radio station WGCB in 1964, died recently at age 92. “York Daily Record (PA), May 6, 2003
  9. ^ Interview with Fred J. Cook.
  10. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2004. Subscription required database. Accessed August 24, 2007.