Louis William Cook
Cincinnati Post and Times Star, Monday, 1 April 1963, page 5
POLICE CHIEF-Louis W Cook, police chief of Ft Thomas, from its rough and tumble days before World War I to 1955, died Saturday in St Luke Hospital. Mr. Cook, 81, 1043 S Ft Thomas Ave was the father of Louis William Cook III, former Ft Thomas police lieutenant and now chief deputy sheriff of Campbell County; Newport attorney Henry J Cook, legal counsel to the reform Committee of 500 and former United States district attorney and John F Cook, Ft Thomas City Councilman.
When Mr. Cook became Ft Thomas police chief 47 years ago there were a few strings to the job. Besides maintaining law in a lusty neighborhood, he was head of a horse drawn fire department, mended the board walks, repaired roads, caught dogs and malingering schoolchildren and he and his wife, Nevada, collected the taxes that paid his wage. As Ft Thomas became more sophisticated, Mr. Cook was relieved of his extra duties. When he retired he was a police chief proper with a department of 10 men.
Louis Cook Jr. was something in the line of an old time sheriff. At the beginning of World War I, son Henry J Cook, said, the military camp at Ft Thomas injected new spirit along the midway. Mr. Cook was called to one of a line of cafes there to take in a troublemaker. The culprit hid behind a door and slugged Mr. Cook with a stone door stop. Despite the blow Mr. Cook dragged the prisoner to jail then collapsed. The wound in his head needed 21 stitches.
During Prohibition, Mr. Cook said, his father and another policeman took up a "cops and robbers" chase along Highland Avenue, Ft Thomas, shooting it out with moonshiners in a fleeing truck. Mr. Cook drove the pursuing car wile the other lawman fired from the window. At one point Mr. Cook leaned over to shout at his colleague. A bullet smashed through the windshield where his head had been. the chase ending in the seizure of 100 gallons of moonshine whiskey.
Mrs. Nevada Cook died in 1948. Survivors include the three sons; two daughters, Mrs. Catherine Krogman, Ft Thomas, and Mrs. Betty Fillmore, Columbus; two sisters, Mrs. Minnie Knarr and Mrs. Clara Trutschel, both of Ft Thomas; 10 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. Services will be held at the Erschell Funeral Home, Ft Thomas, at 2 pm Tuesday. Friends may call from 3 pm to 9 pm Monday. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery.