Phoenix, Feb. 20—Thomas E. Cooper, brother of former Lieutenant Governor W.B. Cooper, boarded a train here this afternoon at 4 o’clock, bound for Atlanta, where tomorrow he begins serving a three year sentence in the federal penitentiary, imposed by Judge J.C. Rose of Baltimore, following conviction Saturday on four counts charging violation of the national banking act in connection with the failure of the Commercial National bank.
Unperturbed, with his wife, little daughter, Jane, and Mrs. L. Crocker, a friend of the family, by him, Mr. Cooper arrived here at 2:20 o’clock. He drove up in a Buick limousine driven by Mrs. Crocker with whom in the front seat sat Deputy United States Marshal I.D. Harrelson. The Cooper family sat behind them.
There was no crowd at the station although yesterday afternoon at the union station in Wilmington a very large number of persons had gathered for his expected departure. He sat calmly in the automobile for a while, then walked about, and cranked an obstinate Ford for a friend. He appeared anxious to know if the remaining indictments against him in the state courts would be dropped, and said that Irvin B. Tucker, United States district attorney, had agreed to drop the remaining charges in federal court if he would go to Atlanta prison.
Little Jane, aged 7, was playing with a little yellow dog when her father picked her up and kissed her goodbye, and afterwards she played some more with the dog behind the tiny yellow station, which bears the fable name of Phoenix, “rising from his own ashes.” He bade Mrs. Cooper an affectionate farewell, appearing determined to rise from his own ashes.
To a newspaper reporter he said he had no further statement to make, but furnished him with a copy of a statement issued Tuesday, when he asserted: “I never intended to injure the bank, nor any bank, nor any depositor. I was trying my best to save the bank from failure and our depositors from loss.”
In this statement he said that he did not profit one cent from the transaction upon which he was indicted. “I told the truth in court, and no one denied it,” he said. “According to my undisputed testimony, I technically violated the banking law. It was a mistake of my head and not of my heart.”
“This long suspense and torture is killing me,” he continues the statement, “Of all men, I had most to lose by the bank failure. I put in all I had, and I lost all when Mr. Folger suddenly closed it. I know every depositor and stockholder suffered, but I suffered more. As they pass judgment on me I beg them to remember that my plight, then and now, is doubly worse than theirs. Were I able I would long ago have gladly repaired all their losses but I was stripped of all by the failure.
“Let me say that my brother, W.B. Cooper, is absolutely innocent of the charge against him. If any one is to blame, it is I, not W.B. Cooper. God in heaven knows this and I know it. I am sure of his ultimate vindication.
“With malice towards none, with love for all, and with gratitude for the boundless kindnesses shown me, I shall come back as fast as God and the law will allow. I shall take my medicine with all the grace I can, and finish my sentence with my face towards and sun and with a heart resolved to live worthy the esteem and love of all. To that end I beg the help and prayers of all.”
Just before the train pulled into Phoenix, a youth astride a pony was driving the cows home from the pasture; several aged men were sitting on the bench in front of a general store. One was whittling, while the chickens crossed the road, and roosters crowed, and the little tot, who fell while romping about, cried.
The topic of the little group was Mr. Cooper, and not one failed to express genuine sympathy for Mrs. Cooper and Little Jane. These backwoodsmen among themselves poured forth the milk of human kindness towards the little Cooper band, one may saying he would give $10 to a fund to repay the depositors and get “Tom out of the penitentiary”—magnanimity that truthfully told of the soul of Brunswick county. But of course, there are others who feel very differently, those who are pleased perfectly with the punishment meted out to Thomas E. Cooper.
However, there has been quite a reaction in public opinion in Wilmington since the judgment of the court was pronounced, and apparently those who clamored most for Cooper’s conviction, now that it has been done, are sorry for Tom Cooper.
Marshal R.W. Ward of Raleigh will meet Cooper in Hamlet, and there Deputy Harrelson will turn the prisoner over to him for the remainder of the trip to Atlanta.
From page 4 of the Wilson Times, Feb. 24, 1925
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073953/1925-02-24/ed-1/seq-4/#words=February+24%2C+1925
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