It is interesting when I began searching Spade Cooley, he dubbed himself as the “King of Western Swing”, and his contemporary Bob Wills did not do that. It seems (as far as internet truth goes) that Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys gained that title from an adoring public. However, there are strange things lurking in the Stooges closet that perhaps even BeaStooge or Piper or Dunrobin may not have known about ... Spade Cooley had a seemingly enduring career until he was convicted of murdering his second wife.
(Copied from the “never wrong” internet)
Cooley suspected his second wife, Ella Mae, 38, who was a singer in his band, of repeatedly being unfaithful. In March 1961, she told a friend she'd had an affair with Roy Rogers in 1952 or 1953, who then reported that back to Cooley. On March 23, Cooley filed for divorce, citing "incompatibility" and seeking custody of their three children.
On April 26, 1961, Cooley was indicted by a grand jury for the murder of his wife on April 3 at the couple's home. Cooley's 14-year-old daughter, Melody, reportedly told the jury she watched in terror as her father beat her mother's head against the floor, stomped on her stomach, then crushed a lit cigarette against her skin to see whether she was dead. Cooley claimed his wife had been injured by falling in the shower, and was convicted of first-degree murder by a Kern County jury on August 21, 1961 after unexpectedly withdrawing an insanity plea. He was spared death in the gas chamber and sentenced to life in prison.
