Spade Cooley is granted parole

KPIX-TV news footage from August 5, 1969 with reporter Rollin Post featuring scenes from an interview at the Vacaville prison hospital unit with with musician Spade Cooley (1910-1969), who has just been granted parole, to take effect in February 1970. He was convicted in 1961 for the first-degree murder of his second wife Ella Mae Cooley. Cooley says he's feeling quite well and hopes to work in future to help rehabilitate prison inmates, reflecting that: "I will never completely pay, in any way, for the taking of my wife's life." Cooley goes onto discuss how jail time has changed him, explaining that although he's writing music again: "I've not been able to appear because the appearance on the stage bothers me. I don't know: it just gets the old pump working a little too hard, I'm afraid." Note that during a 72-hour furlough, Cooley died of a heart attack backstage following a standing ovation at the Edgewater Hyatt House Hotel on Hegenberger Road in Oakland, on November 23, 1969. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.

This 16mm reversal film print was scanned in 4K (4096 x 2970) using a Lasergraphics ScanStation film scanner, in July 2024