Politician, Murder Victim. A Michigan 9th District State Senator, and a 4th generation descendant of Declaration of Independence Signer William Hooper, he served in the Michigan House of Representatives beginning in 1938, and was elected to the Michigan Senate in November of 1944. After serving only two weeks in office in January of 1945, he was scheduled to testify about corruption and bribery that existed in the Michigan Legislature (of which he had been a part). Three days before he was scheduled to testify, he was murdered in gangland style north of Springport coming back home to Albion from Lansing. Members of the notorious Purple Gang were suspected of carrying out the murder at the direction of political bosses. Four Gang members were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to murder Senator Hooper. "The Hooper murder has endured as one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in the annals of Michigan crime," stated authors Rubenstein and Ziewacz in their book on the crime "Three Bullets Sealed His Lips," published in 1987. A sequel to the book, "Payoffs in the Cloakroom, the Greening of the Michigan Legislature" was published in 1995. Another book "The Purple Gang" by Paul Kavieff in 2000 also deals with the Hooper murder.

Politician, Murder Victim. A Michigan 9th District State Senator, and a 4th generation descendant of Declaration of Independence Signer William Hooper, he served in the Michigan House of Representatives beginning in 1938, and was elected to the Michigan Senate in November of 1944. After serving only two weeks in office in January of 1945, he was scheduled to testify about corruption and bribery that existed in the Michigan Legislature (of which he had been a part). Three days before he was scheduled to testify, he was murdered in gangland style north of Springport coming back home to Albion from Lansing. Members of the notorious Purple Gang were suspected of carrying out the murder at the direction of political bosses. Four Gang members were subsequently convicted of conspiracy to murder Senator Hooper. "The Hooper murder has endured as one of the most intriguing unsolved mysteries in the annals of Michigan crime," stated authors Rubenstein and Ziewacz in their book on the crime "Three Bullets Sealed His Lips," published in 1987. A sequel to the book, "Payoffs in the Cloakroom, the Greening of the Michigan Legislature" was published in 1995. Another book "The Purple Gang" by Paul Kavieff in 2000 also deals with the Hooper murder.

Bio by: Frank Passic, Albion Historian