A Family of 7 Was Slain in Their Sleep — the Suspect's Identity Was Haunting, and So Was His Final Poem

It was one of the worst murder cases in the history of Canada — and one that still draws debate in Alberta today.

Robert Raymond Cook was executed roughly 65 years ago after being found guilty of killing his father Raymond Cook while being suspected of murdering his stepmother Daisy Cook, and bludgeoning his five young half-siblings — between the ages of 3 and 9 — to death in their sleep.

The 23-year-old convicted murderer was the primary police suspect in all the killings, though he was only tried for his father’s murder in an effort to expedite the trial, according to the Red Deer Advocate. Cook defended himself until his final days, even penning a dramatic poem proclaiming his innocence, as the Ponoka News recalled in its report on what is considered the most notorious murder in Alberta’s history.

But despite his pleas, Cook was executed on Nov. 15, 1960, becoming the last man ever to be hanged in Alberta. PEOPLE is looking back at what led to his execution.

An Arrest Leads to a Gruesome Discovery

Cook was frequently in-and-out of jail throughout his life, according to his defense attorney David MacNaughton, who told the Ponoka News that his client was only out of jail 243 days between the ages of 14 and 22 because he was consistently being arrested for petty crimes like theft.

The newspaper reports that Cook’s family was murdered just days after he was released from serving a two-year prison sentence. After his release, Cook was arrested again when he tried to trade in his father Raymond’s car and was accused of falsifying documents. The newspaper reported that in the trunk of the vehicle, police found family documents — including the family members’ birth certificates, his father’s marriage certificate, his siblings’ report cards and a photo album with pictures of Cook’s mother, among other family possessions.

Police decided to visit Cook’s father to ask him directly about his son’s attempt to trade his car in — but when they got to the house, officers noticed blood throughout the residence and couldn’t immediately locate the family. Raymond, 53, stepmother Daisy Mae, 37, and Cook’s five half-siblings, Gerald, 9, Patrick, 8, Christopher, 7, Kathy, 5, and Linda Mae, 3, were soon found dead in a mechanic’s grease pit beneath the family garage, according to the Ponoka News.

The Cook Family Murders

The Ponoka News reported that Cook was soon charged with murdering his seven family members: Raymond and his wife Daisy were found slain by shotgun blasts, while the children were found dead from being bludgeoned by the butt of the weapon. Blood was found in the family members’ beds, leading investigators to believe the Cooks had been killed while they slept.

Cook was sent to Ponoka Hospital for a 30-day psychiatric assessment after being charged with the murders, but he wasn’t there long. Historical documents from Cook’s trial show that he escaped the hospital just days into his stay, launching one of the largest manhunts in the history of Alberta. Cook’s escape caused “wide-spread alarm and terror among residents” in the area,” an arrest affidavit from 1960 reads.

Cook was taken back into custody after a dramatic several days, which included two car chases and worried headlines across the country, according to the Red Deer Advocate.

A Son’s Trial and Execution

Cook maintained his innocence throughout the trial, even testifying that he was breaking into an Edmonton dry cleaning business the night his family was murdered in their home, according to the Advocate. But he was found guilty on circumstantial evidence, according to the newspaper. Despite winning an appeal shortly after, Cook was found guilty a second time and sentenced to death for his father’s murder. 

His 1960 execution was the last hanging in Alberta history, according to Canadian legal archives. Cook was never convicted for the six other murder charges he faced for the deaths of his stepmother Daisy and her five young children.

In the decades since, Cook’s guilt has continued to be debated among locals, according to the Ponoka News, whose 2019 piece about the mass murder includes locals’ dueling perspectives on the case.

On the day before his hanging, the convicted murderer wrote a poem in which he blamed an unnamed suspect. “I sit here in my death cell, I know not why / For the evidence proved me innocent, and that is no lie,” Cook’s poem begins, according to a copy kept in the Canadian legal archives.

“So I ask you is it strange that I am sentenced to the noose / While my family’s killer is on the loose,” Cook repeats throughout.

Many locals still believe Cook was truly innocent and wonder whether his family’s “real” killer had gotten away by framing the family’s eldest son, according to the Ponoka News. “He may well have done it but there was doubt,” MacNaughton, Cook’s defense attorney, told the outlet decades later, admitting, “I’m probably a fence sitter.”