Born Eva Curry in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, she moved to Toronto while a teenager. There, she met and married William Coo, and together they moved to upstate New York in 1921.
Eva Coo was entrusted with the care of one of her employees, a slow-witted handyman named Henry Wright, after the death of Wright's mother. Coo embezzled Wright's inheritance and burned down his house for insurance money. After purchasing several life insurance policies on Wright, Coo then conspired to murder him with another employee, Martha Clift. On 14 June 1934, the two women drove Wright to an isolated location outside Oneonta, New York. There, Eva allegedly hit him with a mallet and Martha ran over him with a car, a Willys-Knight. They then dumped his body beside a road to simulate a hit-and-run accident. Though little evidence has been provided to corroborate the bludgeoning with the mallet, it remains the symbol of the murder and the trial to this day.[citation needed]
Police suspected homicide and Clift confessed after an interrogation. She was convicted of second-degree murder and served thirteen years in prison, while Coo received a death sentence. New York Post writer and editor, Joseph Cookman, wrote an account of Eva Coo's execution.
Eva's victim is Harry Wright
Body Unclaimed
---------------------
Although a gravestone in the little
cemetery at Portlandville bears the
inscription, "Eva Coo, 1892," the remains
of the woman who went undaunted
to death in the electric chair
now lie in a private plot in a cemetery
at Adams Corners, Putnam county,
not far from Peekskill.
Only a few witnesses, including three
prison matrons, Mrs. Lewis E. Lawes,
wife of the Sing Sing warden, and the
Rev. Anthony M. Peterson, the prison
chaplain, were present when the body
of Mrs. Eva: Coo, who Thursday night
was electrocuted for plotting the murder
of Harry Wright, was buried Friday.
Unclaimed by relatives,.the body was
taken in charge by the Mutual Welfare
League, an organization of Sing
Sing prisoners administered by officials
of the .prison.
In burying the remains of the former
roadhousc keeper far away from
scenes familiar to her, Warden Lawes
carried out her last wish. She had
told him "I want to go any place but
up there," meaning the Portlandville
cemetery.
There Harry Wright, whose life she
insured and then plotted to take, although
she maintained her innocence
to the last, lies. Her name is inscribed
on the Wright family gravestone directly
beneath that of her shuffling
handyman whose life was crushed
under the wheels of an automobile
driven by Martha Gift.
Prison officials at Bedford Hills,
where Mrs. Cliff is serving a twentyyear
sentence, refused to divulge her
reaction to the news that Mrs. Coo had
paid the supreme penalty for plotting
the deed in which Martha took part.
------------------------------------
The Otsego Farmer - Friday, July 5, 1935
Eva Coo was entrusted with the care of one of her employees, a slow-witted handyman named Henry Wright, after the death of Wright's mother. Coo embezzled Wright's inheritance and burned down his house for insurance money. After purchasing several life insurance policies on Wright, Coo then conspired to murder him with another employee, Martha Clift. On 14 June 1934, the two women drove Wright to an isolated location outside Oneonta, New York. There, Eva allegedly hit him with a mallet and Martha ran over him with a car, a Willys-Knight. They then dumped his body beside a road to simulate a hit-and-run accident. Though little evidence has been provided to corroborate the bludgeoning with the mallet, it remains the symbol of the murder and the trial to this day.[citation needed]
Police suspected homicide and Clift confessed after an interrogation. She was convicted of second-degree murder and served thirteen years in prison, while Coo received a death sentence. New York Post writer and editor, Joseph Cookman, wrote an account of Eva Coo's execution.
Eva's victim is Harry Wright
Body Unclaimed
---------------------
Although a gravestone in the little
cemetery at Portlandville bears the
inscription, "Eva Coo, 1892," the remains
of the woman who went undaunted
to death in the electric chair
now lie in a private plot in a cemetery
at Adams Corners, Putnam county,
not far from Peekskill.
Only a few witnesses, including three
prison matrons, Mrs. Lewis E. Lawes,
wife of the Sing Sing warden, and the
Rev. Anthony M. Peterson, the prison
chaplain, were present when the body
of Mrs. Eva: Coo, who Thursday night
was electrocuted for plotting the murder
of Harry Wright, was buried Friday.
Unclaimed by relatives,.the body was
taken in charge by the Mutual Welfare
League, an organization of Sing
Sing prisoners administered by officials
of the .prison.
In burying the remains of the former
roadhousc keeper far away from
scenes familiar to her, Warden Lawes
carried out her last wish. She had
told him "I want to go any place but
up there," meaning the Portlandville
cemetery.
There Harry Wright, whose life she
insured and then plotted to take, although
she maintained her innocence
to the last, lies. Her name is inscribed
on the Wright family gravestone directly
beneath that of her shuffling
handyman whose life was crushed
under the wheels of an automobile
driven by Martha Gift.
Prison officials at Bedford Hills,
where Mrs. Cliff is serving a twentyyear
sentence, refused to divulge her
reaction to the news that Mrs. Coo had
paid the supreme penalty for plotting
the deed in which Martha took part.
------------------------------------
The Otsego Farmer - Friday, July 5, 1935
Born Eva Curry in Haliburton, Ontario, Canada, she moved to Toronto while a teenager. There, she met and married William Coo, and together they moved to upstate New York in 1921.
Eva Coo was entrusted with the care of one of her employees, a slow-witted handyman named Henry Wright, after the death of Wright's mother. Coo embezzled Wright's inheritance and burned down his house for insurance money. After purchasing several life insurance policies on Wright, Coo then conspired to murder him with another employee, Martha Clift. On 14 June 1934, the two women drove Wright to an isolated location outside Oneonta, New York. There, Eva allegedly hit him with a mallet and Martha ran over him with a car, a Willys-Knight. They then dumped his body beside a road to simulate a hit-and-run accident. Though little evidence has been provided to corroborate the bludgeoning with the mallet, it remains the symbol of the murder and the trial to this day.[citation needed]
Police suspected homicide and Clift confessed after an interrogation. She was convicted of second-degree murder and served thirteen years in prison, while Coo received a death sentence. New York Post writer and editor, Joseph Cookman, wrote an account of Eva Coo's execution.
Eva's victim is Harry Wright
Body Unclaimed
---------------------
Although a gravestone in the little
cemetery at Portlandville bears the
inscription, "Eva Coo, 1892," the remains
of the woman who went undaunted
to death in the electric chair
now lie in a private plot in a cemetery
at Adams Corners, Putnam county,
not far from Peekskill.
Only a few witnesses, including three
prison matrons, Mrs. Lewis E. Lawes,
wife of the Sing Sing warden, and the
Rev. Anthony M. Peterson, the prison
chaplain, were present when the body
of Mrs. Eva: Coo, who Thursday night
was electrocuted for plotting the murder
of Harry Wright, was buried Friday.
Unclaimed by relatives,.the body was
taken in charge by the Mutual Welfare
League, an organization of Sing
Sing prisoners administered by officials
of the .prison.
In burying the remains of the former
roadhousc keeper far away from
scenes familiar to her, Warden Lawes
carried out her last wish. She had
told him "I want to go any place but
up there," meaning the Portlandville
cemetery.
There Harry Wright, whose life she
insured and then plotted to take, although
she maintained her innocence
to the last, lies. Her name is inscribed
on the Wright family gravestone directly
beneath that of her shuffling
handyman whose life was crushed
under the wheels of an automobile
driven by Martha Gift.
Prison officials at Bedford Hills,
where Mrs. Cliff is serving a twentyyear
sentence, refused to divulge her
reaction to the news that Mrs. Coo had
paid the supreme penalty for plotting
the deed in which Martha took part.
------------------------------------
The Otsego Farmer - Friday, July 5, 1935
Eva Coo was entrusted with the care of one of her employees, a slow-witted handyman named Henry Wright, after the death of Wright's mother. Coo embezzled Wright's inheritance and burned down his house for insurance money. After purchasing several life insurance policies on Wright, Coo then conspired to murder him with another employee, Martha Clift. On 14 June 1934, the two women drove Wright to an isolated location outside Oneonta, New York. There, Eva allegedly hit him with a mallet and Martha ran over him with a car, a Willys-Knight. They then dumped his body beside a road to simulate a hit-and-run accident. Though little evidence has been provided to corroborate the bludgeoning with the mallet, it remains the symbol of the murder and the trial to this day.[citation needed]
Police suspected homicide and Clift confessed after an interrogation. She was convicted of second-degree murder and served thirteen years in prison, while Coo received a death sentence. New York Post writer and editor, Joseph Cookman, wrote an account of Eva Coo's execution.
Eva's victim is Harry Wright
Body Unclaimed
---------------------
Although a gravestone in the little
cemetery at Portlandville bears the
inscription, "Eva Coo, 1892," the remains
of the woman who went undaunted
to death in the electric chair
now lie in a private plot in a cemetery
at Adams Corners, Putnam county,
not far from Peekskill.
Only a few witnesses, including three
prison matrons, Mrs. Lewis E. Lawes,
wife of the Sing Sing warden, and the
Rev. Anthony M. Peterson, the prison
chaplain, were present when the body
of Mrs. Eva: Coo, who Thursday night
was electrocuted for plotting the murder
of Harry Wright, was buried Friday.
Unclaimed by relatives,.the body was
taken in charge by the Mutual Welfare
League, an organization of Sing
Sing prisoners administered by officials
of the .prison.
In burying the remains of the former
roadhousc keeper far away from
scenes familiar to her, Warden Lawes
carried out her last wish. She had
told him "I want to go any place but
up there," meaning the Portlandville
cemetery.
There Harry Wright, whose life she
insured and then plotted to take, although
she maintained her innocence
to the last, lies. Her name is inscribed
on the Wright family gravestone directly
beneath that of her shuffling
handyman whose life was crushed
under the wheels of an automobile
driven by Martha Gift.
Prison officials at Bedford Hills,
where Mrs. Cliff is serving a twentyyear
sentence, refused to divulge her
reaction to the news that Mrs. Coo had
paid the supreme penalty for plotting
the deed in which Martha took part.
------------------------------------
The Otsego Farmer - Friday, July 5, 1935
Family Members
Spouse
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
