In November 1923, 45-year-old Boulder police officer Elmer Cobb was shot while walking to work. He was found behind a ground-level billboard at 1006 Pearl Street, in uniform and critically injured. He died an hour or two later.
Everyone seemed to have an opinion as to who murdered the man, including District Attorney Louis Reed. “Cobb was killed because he knew too much,” he said. “There were men in Boulder who wanted to get him out of the way, and we believe they did.”
Based on hearsay, the district attorney quickly identified his two main suspects — Boulder Police Chief Claude Head and an alleged “hit man,” Norman “Spookey” Drake.
Half of Boulder’s population demanded the men’s arrests, while the other half disagreed. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office intervened and threw both Chief Head and his “hit man” into jail, in the basement of the county courthouse.
Officer Cobb’s death is Boulder’s longest unsolved homicide.
District Attorney Reed told newspaper reporters that Boulder was “a hellhole of protected vice, graft, and crime.” Cobb’s family agreed, stating that the officer had said he would be willing to go before a grand jury and tell what he knew about corruption in Boulder. Cobb never got that chance.
The officer’s murder came during the early years of national Prohibition, when illegal liquor manufacturers paid bribes for their protection. Boulder was no exception. Cobb likely heard the rumors that had spread around town — that a city truck was being used to haul sugar beets (the liquor’s main ingredient) to an undisclosed still. Meanwhile, open hostility had developed between the chief and his entire force of five officers under his control.
The five men, including Cobb, had asked Boulder’s city manager to fire the chief, as they believed he was aligned with the illegal liquor activity. The city manager refused and, instead, fired the five officers for insubordination. Then, the manager reinstated all but Cobb, whose murder occurred while he was fulfilling his last few days of duty.
After a coroner’s inquest concluded that Cobb’s death came from “gunshot wounds inflicted by a person or persons unknown,” the murder investigation dragged on for nine weeks. A witness, E.A. Harris, came forward and agreed to testify that he was “behind the billboard with a woman” the night before the murder. Harris told the district attorney that he had overheard Chief Head tell Drake (the alleged hit man), “Make a clean job of it,” and “Be sure and get him this time.” The prosecution expected the woman to corroborate, and her testimony to become its “ace card.”
In January 1924, District Attorney Reed charged both Chief Claude Head and Norman “Spookey” Drake with Cobb’s murder. Drake, it was noted, was “in a nervous condition bordering on lunacy as a result of being given truth serum.” In contrast, Chief Head wore his uniform in jail and claimed he was “as innocent as a baby.” Visitors brought him chocolates, cigars and flowers.
District Attorney Reed scheduled the arraignment hearing for the morning of Feb. 4, 1924. When 1,000 local residents showed up, the judge ordered everyone out of the courthouse and rescheduled the case for the afternoon. Then he instructed the bailiff to close the doors as soon as seats were filled.
Those in attendance were in for a surprise, as the district attorney suddenly moved for dismissal due to lack of evidence. Drake was able to prove that he wasn’t in Boulder at the time of the murder, and the testimony of witness E.A. Harris was refuted by his female companion.
Reporters rushed from the courtroom to telephone the outcome to their newspapers. After the men’s release, Drake disappeared into the crowd. Head hired a new police force and stayed in the position of chief of police for several more years.
Cobb’s grave is marked with a flat stone, behind a larger family memorial, in Green Mountain Cemetery. His widow, Bertha, later moved to California and remarried.
Before Bertha left, she filed for state compensation, but her claim was denied when the state investigators declared there was “not any presumption that Cobb’s death arose out of his employment.” The Boulder Police Department, though, acknowledges Cobb as one of its officers who gave his life in the line of duty.
That’s how we should remember him today.
I would like to say thanks to the Boulder Reporting Lab and the author, Silvia Pettem for this article. It was very interesting and brought remembrance to the young Boulder officer who was assainated. He gave his life to stand against corruption. Then to learn his widow was denied any compensation was a double tragedy. Also, it appears ND already deleted the two posts by some some very disrespectful adults making fun of the incident and turning it into a parody. How anyone can make fun of a murder, even one years ago is another tragedy.
Thank you. I, too, believe that he and all murder victims deserve our respect.
Makes you wonder what was in the “truth serum”—and if the Boulder PD still uses it.
Was there any relation between
Elmer and Harrison Cobb?
Harrison was a archaeologist who lived on 4th and Pine with a dinosaur bone in the front yard.
Thanks for thinking of Harrison Cobb. No, there is no connection, at least not in recent generations. Harrison Cobb (now deceased) was one of the last of Boulder County’s old-time miners. Years ago, I published his book “Prospecting Our Past: Gold, Silver & Tungsten Mills of Boulder County”…. still have a few copies.