Bio

She was born Eva Currie (sometimes spelled Curry) in Haliburton, Ontario. Sources give her birth year as either 1889 or 1894. While still a teenager she moved to Toronto.

In Toronto she met a rail worker named William Coo. They ran away together to Canada’s western frontier and got married. The marriage lasted only a few years.

In 1921 Eva moved to upstate New York. She opened and ran a roadhouse in Oneonta called Little Eva’s Place. Oneonta was a busy railroad town between Albany and Binghamton.

Her roadhouse was a popular stop for truck drivers, railroad employees, college students and construction workers. She employed several local people to work as bartenders and hostesses. A woman named Martha Clift went to work there in 1933.

Eva was described as boisterous and outgoing, with a quick sense of humor. One account gave her height as 5 feet 7 inches and her weight as about 170 pounds. She was well known in the town and knew many people, including local officials. She managed to buy property and run a business during the Depression years and at one point owned several automobiles.

Murder Story

Eva Coo, also called "The Mallet Murderer," was accused of killing Harry "Gimpy" Wright on June 14, 1934 near Oneonta in Otsego County, New York. The case was classified as murder and investigators said the motive was to collect insurance money. Wright was 52 and worked as a handyman at Eva’s roadhouse. Several life insurance policies had been taken out naming Eva as beneficiary.

On June 14, 1934, Eva Coo and Martha Clift drove Wright to an isolated spot outside Oneonta. According to testimony and confessions, Eva hit Wright with a wooden mallet and Clift ran over him with a car. They then left his body beside a road to make the death look like a hit-and-run.

Police first treated the death as a traffic accident. The insurance company grew suspicious and asked police to investigate. An autopsy and a coroner’s inquiry led officers to view the death as suspicious. Deputies later searched Eva’s home and found many insurance policies naming her as beneficiary.

Both women were arrested. Martha Clift confessed and agreed to testify against Eva. Each woman at times blamed the other for the killing. Wright’s body was exhumed during the investigation and again during the trial so officials could examine his wounds and compare statements.

The trial began in August 1934 in Cooperstown, New York. After deliberating, the jury found Eva Coo guilty of first-degree murder. Martha Clift was convicted of second-degree murder. Eva was sentenced to death while Clift received a long prison term and later served about thirteen years.

Eva Coo was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 27, 1935. Sources list her date of birth variously as 1889 or 1894. Reported amounts of insurance taken out on Wright ranged in contemporary reports from $1,000 to $10,000. After her execution, her body was not claimed and she was buried in a potter’s field.