True Crime Chronicles: Murder of young Tulsa youth pastor came at the end of a violent multistate crime spree
- Dennis McCaslin
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
On a warm Sunday evening in June 1956, Tommy Robert Cooke, a 23-year-old theological student and assistant pastor at a Tulsa Baptist church, stopped his car at the traffic light at Third and Cheyenne Streets in Tulsa. It was around 5:30 p.m., and the intersection was quiet.
Cooke, described in court records as a young divinity student, had no reason to expect danger.
Edward Leon Williams, a man in his late 20s or early 30s who had recently committed an armed robbery at a Hudson Service Station the night before, approached the vehicle. Williams later told investigators that his 1937 Pontiac, which he said he bought in Fort Smith from "Dog "Smith's Used Cars on Towson Avenue, had broken down the night of the service station robbery.
Armed with a .38 caliber pistol, Williams forced his way into the passenger side and ordered Cooke to drive south on Highway 64.
The abduction marked the beginning of a series of crimes that ended in murder.
Williams directed Cooke to Bixby, where he took $5 from Cooke's billfold at gunpoint to pay for gasoline. He then forced Cooke to continue driving south. They traveled to a remote dead-end road about three miles east and four miles north of Taft in Muskogee County, an area Williams appeared to know well.
There, he marched Cooke into the weeds off the road. According to Williams' later confession, Cooke pleaded not to be tied up. Williams shot him once behind the right ear, killing him instantly. The act was described in court as cold-blooded, intended to prevent identification.
Williams stole Cooke's car and fled. He drove to Talihina,, where he robbed his former employer of $1,000 at gunpoint. Authorities later linked these events through Williams' actions and statements.
Cooke's body was discovered in the Muskogee County location. Williams was apprehended on June 19, 1956, while riding a bus near Poteau, by a Highway Patrol officer. He soon confessed to the murder, led officers to the discarded gun in Le Flore County, and ballistics confirmed it as the murder weapon.
Prosecutors charged Williams with murder in Muskogee County District Court. He pleaded guilty and received a life sentence for that offense. Separately, in Tulsa County District Court, he faced charges for the kidnapping of Cooke under Oklahoma statute 21 O.S. 1951 § 745.
Williams initially entered a not guilty plea but withdrew it and pleaded guilty before Judge Leslie W. Webb. On December 17, 1956, he was sentenced to death by electrocution for the kidnapping. The sentence reflected the severity of the crime, which involved abduction across county lines and resulted in death.
Wlliams appealed the death sentence to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. In 1957, the court affirmed the judgment, upholding the execution date, later set for January 6, 1958, after delays from the appeal. Williams then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing issues related to the sentencing and prior crimes introduced during proceedings. In Williams v. Oklahoma (1959), the Supreme Court addressed whether the trial court's consideration of other offenses violated due process but ultimately affirmed the state court's decision.
The case drew attention because of the dual prosecutions: life for murder in one county and death for kidnapping in another, stemming from the same sequence of events. Williams, sometimes referred to as "Pete" in records, became one of the last individuals executed in Oklahoma before changes in capital punishment practices
.Edward Leon Williams was executed in the electric chair at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on July 28, 1960. He was listed as white, age 30 at the time of execution. The crime claimed the life of a promising young minister and highlighted the risks of random violence in mid-1950s Oklahoma.
For the Cooke family and community, the loss remained a tragic footnote in local history, resolved through confessions, guilty pleas, and the finality of the state's highest penalties.
