The Carmack-Cooper Shooting: Tennessee Politics Turn Violent, November 9, 1908

On November 9, 1908, five shots rang out near the Tennessee capitol building in Nashville. Two shots came from the pistol of U.S. Senator Edward Ward Carmack; three came from the gun of Robin Cooper, who had leaped in front of his father, Colonel Duncan B. Cooper, Carmack's target. When the shooting was over, Senator Carmack lay dead on the streets. Neither Duncan nor Robin Cooper served time in jail. Colonel Cooper was pardoned by Governor Malcolm Patterson; Robin was acquitted in a retrial. Through trial documents, the papers of Colonel Duncan Cooper and Carmack, and extensive research, the background, political intrigue and consequences of this pivotal event in Tennessee politics are studied.