The Georgia Peach Stumped by the Storyteller WILLIAM R. COBB INTRODUCTION provide new insights into other myths about Georgia’s In his December 29, 2005, Internet blog, John Thorn, most famous baseball player—where they began and the noted baseball author and SABR member, men- how they grew. This investigation also demonstrates tioned that the shotgun that killed Ty Cobb’s father in that new information to be found in the realm of high- 1905 had been part of the famous Barry Halper col- end baseball memorabilia, often well known among lection of baseball memorabilia—an incredible, if not collectors and authenticators but not widely publicized, unbelievable, assertion.1 How could such an artifact of can be highly relevant to the efforts of baseball re- tragedy have survived for 100 years to become part of searchers and historians. the most famous collection of baseball memorabilia ever assembled? And more importantly, why? THE SHOTGUN As a lifelong fan of Ty Cobb (but not a descendant The first step in my investigation was to review the or close relative) and a member of the Board of Advi- Sotheby’s catalog for the 1999 sale of the Barry Halper sors to the Ty Cobb Museum in Royston, Georgia, I Collection, which had netted something over twenty was fascinated by these questions when I discovered million dollars.4 This unindexed, three-volume set, Thorn’s blog in mid-2006. A discussion among the which provides descriptions, some photos, and the re- museum board members resulted in an e-mail to John alized prices of the auctioned items, is practically a Thorn, seeking further information about his assertion baseball history in itself and would be an interesting and about the relic itself. This exchange digressed read for any SABR member. My first perusal, however, quickly into a disagreement as to whether a pistol or yielded no information on the Cobb shotgun. a shotgun had actually been used in the incident that Recalling that I had once read that Major League took William Herschel Cobb’s life, and Thorn declined Baseball had purchased about twenty percent of the to discuss his statement further.2 Halper collection before the auction and donated it to A few months later, the Ty Cobb Museum received the Cooperstown Hall of Fame Museum, I asked friend a phone call from a representative of the New York and research director Tim Wiles if the Cobb shotgun Yankees organization, inquiring about the shotgun that was among the Halper items that had been received was used to kill Ty Cobb’s father.3 The caller, who by the Hall of Fame. His reply a few days later was that identified herself only as a member of the Yankees’ no such item was in their collection and that he and marketing department, wanted to know if the museum his colleagues could not imagine that the Hall of Fame had any information that could be used to confirm that Museum would ever accept such a sordid relic were it a shotgun, which the caller said was now held in the to be offered.5 collection of an undisclosed Yankee player, was actu- A subsequent e-mail exchange with Robert Lifson, ally the weapon that had been used in the shooting of the memorabilia expert who managed the auction of the W. H. Cobb. Halper collection for Sotheby’s, revealed that the John These two events inspired me to begin a thorough Thorn blog had indeed been correct.6 The Cobb shotgun investigation to review all of the information that could had been listed in the Sotheby’s auction catalog. This be located about the August 8, 1905, shooting of Ty discovery prompted my second review of the Halper Cobb’s father at the hand of Ty’s mother. I wanted, once catalogs, in which I found this description on page 439 and for all, to either confirm or disprove the shotgun of volume 1, with no accompanying photo: element of this tragic event in Ty Cobb’s life story. And, if disproved, I wanted to identify and understand the 1227 Ty Cobb’s Shotgun . source of this particularly distasteful part of the myth. “Tyrus R. Cobb” is engraved near the trigger An unintended result of this investigation has been to of this early twentieth-century double-barrel 84 COBB: The Georgia Peach shotgun. Cobb’s biographer Al Stump told Barry COLLECTION PERSONAL AUTHOR’S THE FROM Halper that this was the gun that Mrs. Cobb used to shoot Mr. Cobb, when Ty was still young. The younger Cobb kept the gun through- out his life and used it on many of his hunting expeditions.7 Lifson also replied that the shotgun originally was to be included in the auction and thus had been in- cluded in the catalog, but that ultimately it had been rejected because the only provenance was Al Stump’s statement. There was also a question as to whether Sotheby’s was licensed to auction such a firearm.8 The shotgun, as lot 1227, did not appear in the published prices realized list, confirming Robert Lifson’s recol- lection that it had been pulled from the auction. According to the Sotheby’s catalog, the source of the shotgun in the Halper collection was sportswriter Al Stump, who had collaborated with Ty Cobb on his 1961 autobiography and during that process spent time with Cobb in the last year of his life. I was to later learn that Al Stump was very well known to experts and collectors of high-priced baseball memorabilia. But some obvious questions remained. Why would Ty Cobb, who according to all accounts had been deeply and permanently affected by the un- timely death of his beloved father at the hand of his mother, have kept the shotgun supposedly used in the tragedy for the rest of his life? Why would he have Exhibit 1. A copy of an excerpt from the August 11, 1905, Atlanta Journal used this weapon in many of his later hunting expedi- article quoting Amanda Cobb’s statement to the jury of the coroner’s tions? Indeed, why would he have had his own name inquest. Amanda testified that she fired two shots from a pistol that her inscribed on the weapon? husband had bought for her. No newspaper or court records have been found that dispute her testimony. She also testified that Clifford Ginn was first to assist her and made no mention of Joe Cunningham having been THE RECORD the first to arrive on the scene. The August 8, 1905, death of William Herschel Cobb, a former Georgia state senator, Franklin County school of Georgia Archives discovered numerous other board commissioner, and owner and editor of The newspaper articles available digitally and some legal Royston Record, was widely covered in newspapers documents from the Franklin County court records.10 throughout the state. All discovered contemporary The weekly Macon Telegraph carried this description of news articles that provided details of the shooting Amanda Cobb’s testimony on September 28, 1905: death of W. H. Cobb and the subsequent trial of his “According to a statement made by her soon after the wife, Amanda Cobb, referred to the weapon used in shooting she was roused in the night by someone at the shooting as a revolver or pistol. her window. She rose quickly, and with a revolver The August 11, 1905, Atlanta Constitution includes fired at a crouching form. Then she screamed.”11 this description of Amanda Cobb’s testimony before Several articles in The State (Columbia, South the coroner’s jury: “When she heard a noise at the Carolina), the Savannah Tribune, and the Augusta window during the night, she took a revolver from the Chronicle covered the 1905 coroner’s jury and the reading table where she had left it and fired two shots March 1906 trial but failed to mention the weapon at a figure crouching outside.” Mrs. Cobb’s full testi- used.12 mony before the coroner’s jury was included in the The Superior Court records found online at the same article (see exhibit 1).9 State of Georgia Archives include the 1905 criminal A diligent online search by researchers at the State docket, the 1905 application for bail, and the 1906 jury 85 THE NATIONAL PASTIME: BASEBALL IN THE PEACH STATE verdict, none of which make any reference to the record is the absence of any mention whatsoever of weapon used in the shooting. a shotgun in the press coverage or in the surviving In a 2004 SABR Deadball Committee e-mail group Superior Court records. To conclude as a result of this dialogue, some of these newspaper articles casting study that a handgun was used in the shooting death doubt on the shotgun theory were presented and dis- of W. H. Cobb, against the widely held belief that a cussed. From the ensuing e-mails, the consensus shotgun as used, would hardly be unreasonable. How- conclusion seemed to be that these documents were ever, as described above, it is doubtful that such a insufficient to dispel the well-known and long-ac- conclusion would be widely accepted, even among the cepted “fact” that a shotgun had been used in the SABR community. shooting death of W. H. Cobb. The principal argument To finally conclude that the shotgun story is false, was that press coverage would have been friendly, a more compelling piece of evidence is required. even lenient, toward Mrs. Cobb, due to the promi- Thanks to the research of Wesley Fricks, also a board nence of W.