The Two Killings of Sam Cooke Review

Image from Netflix 

Sam Cooke was legendary because of the big impact he had on soul music and civil rights. But the mysterious way he died has also alway fascinated me. This is why the Netflix documentary The Two Killings of Sam Cooke (an episode of the ReMastered series) caught my attention. It gives a more detailed look on his life, his career, his civil rights activism and his death. Way more detailed than you can read in books or the internet.

From his birth in Mississippi to his youth in Chicago to his time as a singer of The Soul Stirrers to his success as a solo artist to his friendship with Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Malcolm X to the record company that he opened to give black people royalties to his feud with Allen Klein shortly before his death… Everything is told in very big detail by Cooke’s friends, family and fellow artists. It also gives great insight into Cooke’s personality: how he wanted to be more than just a entertainer, he wanted to spread a message to end the way Afro-Americans were treated in the USA (which is also a thing the movie makes you sink in). He is portrayed as a principle man, who didn’t let fear of sales get in the way of his principles. He refused to play in front of a segregated audience for example. 

The documentary also shows things I didn’t know: how Sam Cooke popularised the Afro-hair.

But the documentary also gives more perspective on his mysterious death, it changed the way I look on it.  The official story was that Cooke stayed in a cheap motel with a woman named Lisa Boyer, who did flee his room. Cooke apparently then stormed naked (wearing only a jacket and shoes) into the manager’s office aggressively asking where Boyer was and the manager Bertha Franklin shot and killed Cooke in what she called “self-defence”. According to Boyer, Sam Cooke kidnapped her and wanted to rape her and Boyer fled accidentally grabbing his clothes. Later Boyer was arrested for prostitution and Bertha Franklin apparently has a criminal past as well so it’s more likely Boyer robbed Cooke and Franklin was her pimp and they were in this together. There is also a third option: that it was all a set up, that Cooke was murdered by the FBI, Allen Klein or the mob.

I was always skeptical of the third option, until watching the documentary. Because of the narrative, and the way Cooke is portrayed, it is very out of his character to aggressively attack Franklin. The documentary also makes clear how deep the racism was in the USA and that many racist people saw a popular black artist being friends with Malcolm X and supporting the civil rights movement as a threat. This makes it not unlikely the FBI is behind this. Other’s think Allen Klein was behind this. Cooke was very upset that Allen Klein changed paperwork and made himself the owner of Sam Cooke’s record company. Cooke’s plan was to fly to New York on Monday and make some changes and firing Allen Klein, but never made it through the weekend.

And what also is very shocking that the documentary brings to clear light: the lack of investigation the LAPD did, which also shows the racism in that era. Like Muhammad Ali rightfully mentioned if this was Sinatra or The Beatles the FBI would have investigated this. The police instead described him as “Just another N-word killed in Watts” and didn’t take this very serious.

The documentary also shows many rare audio from Sam Cooke’s interviews and ita lso features the 911 call from Elisa Boyer tot he police.

If you have a Netflix account, please watch it!!!