Cook, David J.

Cook, David J., 1840–1907, American law enforcement officer, b. near La Porte, Ind. He moved (1855) with his family to Kansas, went (1859) to the Colorado gold fields, and returned to enlist (1861) in the Union army in the Civil War. Army service as a sort of military policeman led him to found the volunteer Rocky Mountain Detective Association to suppress outlawry in Colorado, and he had a long career as marshal, sheriff, and police chief, mostly around Denver. He brought many train, bank, and express-company robbers to justice, helped to quell the Ute revolt of 1878, and was arbitrator in the mine strike at Leadville in 1880.

Bibliography

See his reminiscences (new ed. 1958).