Bob White

Case summary

Incident

On June 11, 1941, Bob White was on trial in a Polk County, Texas courtroom. White, a Black man, had been accused of raping Rubye Cochran, a white woman, on Aug. 10, 1937, while visiting his widowed mother, Martha Coachman, in his hometown of Livingston. Texas Rangers aided local law enforcement in identifying and arresting a suspect. Officers arrested White and forced him to stay awake for over four days. During that time, they took White into the woods each night, chained him to a tree, and whipped and beat him.

Eventually, White signed a confession written for him by Zemmie Foreman, close friend and personal attorney for the Cochran family, and recorded by county attorney Ernest Coker. Other evidence, including fingerprints and a plaster of a footprint left at the scene, did not indicate White was present at the scene of the crime. Several witnesses also testified he was asleep in his mother’s house at the time of the attack.

White was first tried on Sept. 1, 1937 and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction on April 16, 1938 and ordered a change of venue. A second trial that began on Aug. 5, 1938 also resulted in a death sentence. That conviction and sentence was affirmed and rehearing denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The defendant appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and in White v. Texas (1940) the Court ruled that White’s coerced confession violated his right to due process. The case was set to be retried for a third time. W.S. “Dude” Cochran, Rubye Cochran’s husband, was identified in newspapers as a wealthy and influential white property owner in Livingston. He attended the June 11, 1941 proceedings in what would have been the third trial with his two brothers and his wife.

At noon, the judge called for a recess after a morning of jury selection. Jurors began filing out of the courtroom as W.S. Cochran approached the front of the room, where White was sitting, holding a .38 pistol in both hands. He shot White in the back of the head.

White’s wife, Ruby Lee White, later told delegates to a NAACP conference meeting, “The gun sounded like a bomb. I had to stop my ears. When I looked up there was a big hole in Bob’s head and blood was running down the back of his neck.” White died instantly.

Reporters described Cochran as “calm” as he laid down his weapon. One witness told a newspaper reporter that Foreman, the prosecutor, approached Cochran and told him he would make sure Cochran got bond. Newspapers reported that the courtroom was quiet and then the gallery broke into cheers as men approached Cochran to shake his hand. Cochran was arrested by the sheriff, though newspapers reported he was “released in ten minutes.”

J.P. Rogers, White’s attorney, later told reporters that in the aftermath “the presiding judge made no comment one way or the other, and that the only comment the Sheriff made was that it was too bad that such things had to happen.”

Aftermath

Ruby Lee White told the NAACP that when she tried to approach her husband’s body, a deputy asked her, “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” so she left to find White’s mother. Later, she returned to the courtroom and asked for his body. She was told his body had been moved to a funeral home across the street, and she arranged for a funeral home in Conroe to take his body and later transport him to the Huckaby Funeral Home in Houston for burial. His family feared they could not safely bury him in Conroe. White told reporters, “I feel that the last thing I can do for poor Bob is to give him a decent burial, even though he was shot down like a dog, for a crime I know in my heart he did not commit.”

Cochran was tried for murder in a Texas court on June 16. In his closing argument, the district attorney, William Cleo McClain, addressed the jury , “I ask that each man on this jury find the defendant not guilty.” He continued, “In my opinion, the guilty person got justice.” He told the jury he would never ask them to do something he would not do himself and said, “If I were a member of the jury I would not hesitate … I would find him not guilty.” Newspapers reported that the courtroom broke into applause when McClain finished. The San Antonio Register reported that the state made “no attempt” to present a case against Cochran. The Houston Post reported that Cochran’s attorney did not offer an argument. “We want to thank Mr. McClain for the nice things he has said about Mr. Cochran,” the defense attorney said, “And we want to thank you gentlemen of the jury now for the verdict we know you will bring in.”

After two minutes of deliberation, the jury acquitted Cochran of murder. Newspapers reported that the crowded courtroom cheered and clapped after the verdict was read, and a group swarmed the rail to shake Cochran’s hand.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and President Franklin D. Roosevelt received several letters from concerned citizens and organizations, including the NAACP and the Texas Commission on Interracial Cooperation, urging investigation into Cochran’s killing of White. The DOJ responded to those letters that they had given the case “careful consideration” but that “it appears to be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the State of Texas” and the federal government could not intervene.

William Smith Cochran died on Oct. 9, 1956 at age 57. Rubye Cochran, then Rubye Claudine Jones, died on Aug. 28, 1966 at age 63. Foreman died on Dec. 7, 1977 at age 83. McClain died on Aug. 28, 1993 at age 90. Coker died on July 2, 1992 at age 88.

A 2015 Houston Chronicle article revealed that a deputy sheriff at the time of White’s death, Hershel Surratt, and his wife, Fannie Pearl Surratt, who would later become the first female sheriff of the county, kept the blood-stained oak chair White was sitting in when he was killed. At the time of the article, their grandchildren retained ownership of the chair.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

Genealogical Records

• Death Certificates for Harris County, Texas, United States, 1966, Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics
• Death Certificates for Montgomery County, Texas, United States, 1941, Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics
• Death Certificates for Polk County, Texas, United States, 1956, 1967, Texas Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics
• Marriage Records for Harris County, Texas, United States, 1938
• Population Schedule for Polk County, Texas, United States, 1910
• Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File, Texas, United States, 1967, 2003
• Texas, United States, Death Index, 1941-1945
• U.S. Court of Criminal Appeal Index, Texas, Polk County, 1919-1947

Newspaper Articles

• “5 Lynchings Listed for ‘41,” Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), August 8, 1942
• “Action by Grand Jury Pending in Conroe Slaying,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), June 11, 1941
• “Again Faces Death; Attacks White Woman,” The Eagle (Bryan, TX), August 6, 1938
• “Alleged Rape Victim’s Husband Kills Negro on Trial for Crime,” Schenectady Gazette (Schenectady, NY), June 12, 1941
• “Bob White Killed in Conroe Courtroom,” Dallas Express (Dallas, TX), June 14, 1941
• “Bob White Killer Freed in Two Minutes,” San Antonio Register (San Antonio, TX), June 20, 1941
• “Bob White Will Ask Venue Change in Assault Case,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), April 7, 1938
• “Cochran Indicted in Courtroom Shooting,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), June 13, 1941
• “Condemned Man Gets Married,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), June 11, 1938
• “Court Killing Case Comes Up,” Times Record News (Wichita Falls, TX), June 14, 1941
• “Courtroom Murder Stirs Interest in NAACP Meeting,” San Antonio Register (San Antonio, TX), June 20, 1941
• “Doomed Negro to Appeal,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), August 7, 1938
• “East Texan Goes on Trial Monday in Court Killing,” Austin American (Austin, TX), June 14, 1941
• “ETexas Planter Acquitted of Killing Negro,” Austin American (Austin, TX), June 17, 1941
• “Fatal Shot Ends Series of Trial on Attack Count,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), June 11, 1941
• “Fear No Bill in Bob White Killing,” Dallas Express (Dallas, TX), June 14, 1941
• “Five Lynchings, NAACP Reveals,” Atlanta Daily World (Atlanta, GA), December 30, 1941
• “Grand Jury to Probe Negro Assault Charge,” Wichita Daily Times (Wichita Falls, TX), August 19, 1937
• “ILD Lists 4 Lynchings, Five Near Lynchings,” Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), July 19, 1941
• “Kills Race Man in Texas Courtroom,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), December 6, 1941
• “Livingston Attack Trial Opens Today,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), August 30, 193
• “Livingston Attack Trial Set for Aug. 30,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), August 25, 1937
• “Love Laughs at Electric Chair,” Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), June 11, 1938
• “NAACP Sees New Lynch Technique in Courtroom Killings; Reports Five Known Lynchings for 1941,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), January 3, 1942
• “Negro Admits Attack Charge at Livingston,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), August 19, 1937
• “Negro Charged in Livingston Attack,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), August 19, 1937
• “Negro Gets Death Penalty in Attack,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), September 1, 1937
• “Negro Man Once Doomed to Die Is Wed in Jail,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), June 2, 1938
• “Negro Shot Dead in Court,” San Antonio Express (San Antonio, TX), June 11, 1941
• “Negro Shot in Texas Court– Murderer Freed on $500 Bail,” Labor Action (New York City, NY), June 16, 1941
• “Negro Under Death Penalty in Polk County Case Wed by Judge in Office Here,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), June 2, 1938
• “Negro’s Second Trial Jury Locked for Night,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), August 5, 1938
• “New Lynching Technic Seen in Tex. Slayings,” Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), January 3, 1942
• “Man Shoots Negro at Third Trial for Raping His Wife,” Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), July 11, 1941
• “Man Who Kills Negro Freed,” San Antonio Express-News (San Antonio, TX), June 17, 1941
• “Pretty Wife of Polk County Planter Takes Stand at Trial and Accuses Negro of Attack,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), September 1, 1937
• “See New Lynching Trend in Courtroom Murders,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), January 3, 1941
• “Slain by Husband of Victim as Third Trial Opens,” San Antonio Express-News (San Antonio, TX), June 11, 1941
• “Slayer of Negro Accused of Raping White Woman Is to Go on Trial Monday,” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (Lubbock, TX), June 14, 1941
• “Slayer of Negro Attack Suspect to Be Tried,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX), June 13, 1941
• “Slayer of Negro in Court Room at Conroe Acquitted,” Corsicana Daily Sun (Corsicana, TX), June 16, 1941
• “Testimony Starts in Assault Case,” Austin American (Austin, TX), September 1, 1937
• “Texas: Decision Reversed,” Time, June 23, 1941
• “Texas Governor Asked to Save Bob White’s Life,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, PA), January 6, 1940
• “Victim’s Husband Slays Negro Rapist in Crowded Courtroom,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, TX), June 11, 1941
• “W.S. Cochran Slaying Trial to Open Monday,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), June 14, 1941
• Roy Grimes, “Jury Acquits Cochran in Courtroom Slaying of Negro Charged With Assault,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), June 17, 1941
• Roy Grimes, “Probe Complete in Killing of Negro on Trial,” Houston Post (Houston, TX), June 11, 1941
• Don Hingra, “Cochran Wins Acquittal in Two Minutes,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), June 16, 1941
• Cindy Horswell, “Sheriff’s Badges Back in Town,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), August 23, 2015
• Louis Wortham, “Attacker of White Woman Given Death,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), September 1, 1937
• Louis Wortham, “Confession in Rape Case Read to Jury,” Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX), August 31, 1937