Convicted of mail fraud
Fred went too far with his oil stock scams and paid the price. The
judge was disgusted with the harm Cook had done to poor, rural people
by pocketing their life savings. In 1923 Cook was sentenced to 14 years, 9 months in federal prison. As he was
60 years old that was considered a death sentence. Unfortunately he
made
paroled after serving only 6 years and lived to a troublesome 75. Out of jail he
was vindictively unrepentant and tried to sue all his critics. Judges
dismissed everyone of his nasty but frivolous lawsuits.
Cook's Final Con job
Knowing
how much money he used to make, Fred tried a "come back" work
titled Return from The Pole. It was only published after he
died, and after World War 2 had ended. Return from The Pole is a
pointless rehash of the Cook saga, but at least he left out the
non-existent land he "discovered". Cook tried to write an
autobiography but thankfully he never finished this absurdly
sentimental, self-absorbed, exercise in laying bare his feelings of
persecution. Cook did succeed in conning a doctor, a
real doctor, into writing the most pathetic of all Cook books—The
Case for Dr. Cook.
Fred became an alcoholic
Although he was in denial about his alcoholism, he finally died from a stroke (photo at right)
after his family manipulated the President
(FDR) into pardoning
him for his mail fraud conviction. Cook died the same year Nazi Germany
stormed over Europe.
The Vetters vendetta
His daughter Helene then
took up the anti-Peary crusade. Helene Cook Vetters
(1906-1977) was a nasty troublemaker who went so far as to shamelessly
hound eighty year old surviving members of
the 1909 North Pole expedition—asking them to make statements mitigating
Cook's arctic hoax. Both the aged MacMillan and Henson rebuffed
her. Henson's wife, in fact, was hostile to Helene (as recorded in
Helene's personal notes) when she visited Matt in his home. Small wonder
considering the wretched mess Cook had made of Matt's North Pole
achievement. She and daughter Janet Vetters were behind
numerous anti-Peary magazine articles, books, and even
a pro-Cook
TV movie that infuriated National Geographic Society (NGS) head
Gil
Grosvenor. Vetter's encouraged Wally Herbert (Noose of Laurels)
(many letters between them in the Cook Archives), Dennis Rawlins (Peary
at The Pole, Fact or Fiction?), Hugh Eames (Winner Lose All),
etc. [all of this is a
matter of public record in the Ohio State Cook Archives]
The Frederick A. Cook Society
Helene's daughter, Janet, was an anti-Peary nightmare equal to the mother. Like
Mom, she continued their anti-Peary vendetta so far that she finally created the
US$1,000,000.00 Janet Cook Vetters Trust (a tax-exempt not for
profit educational corporation) which
to this day permanently funds "The
Frederick A. Cook Society". This organization encourages writers to promote
the long deceased hoaxer and prints negative literature about Henson &
Peary.
Just as there are groups who keep in print
the
writings of Adolph Hitler, the
Cook Society continues to publish Fred's absurd books, such as
his 1907 "To The Top of The Continent". Paid Cook Society
officers carry on the "Cook was
a great explorer" public relations scam along with Peary bashing, in
which they take particular delight. From time to time their members
show up as "polar experts" on TV talk shows or poorly researched
North Pole videos. They are proof that the media will believe anything.
The Big Cook Book
In the 1990's the Cook Society assisted a biography project of the bad doctor
by sharing previously secret Cook diaries, and anything else asked
for, with a junior college librarian
who wanted his chance to be the world's leading
authority on Dr. Cook. When his $50, 1,100 page book exposed Fred as a
career criminal, the Cook Society disowned the librarian. Now he is
a scorned
ex-confidant and they ridicule him for his bloopers.
The pretentiously titled tome
Cook
& Peary, or Crook & Peary Envy as some
call it, detailed the scandal and
criminal fraud of Fred Cook as it had never been revealed
before. Many readers were repulsed. Most
book reviewers were not willing to read the huge, unedited mass of
Fred Cook trivia scavenged from 90 year old
news quotes or from diary entries of disgruntled Peary
staff, etc. They simply reiterated the publisher's
promotional dust jacket remarks and moved on to better
things. In fact, the book was only the biography of Cook,
and had very little to do with Peary, except to hatefully
dismiss his Polar achievement.
With so much misinformation about Fred
distorting the media, this website was inevitable.
Only by presenting the ugly facts, the criminal resume of
Cook and the anti-Peary conspiracy, can the public achieve a balanced understanding
of the damage he did. Like the Holocaust, people must be
educated about the past no matter how ugly it may be. To
understand this, read what Judge Killits had to say about
Fred Cook
(next page) during sentencing.
Keep in mind
that this same Frederick Cook later got out of prison and
launched a family legacy of hatred against Peary &
Henson that is alive, and well financed, today.
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