I was lucky enough to find a criminal record of my gr gr grandfather John Cook. He was charged with robbery in the first degree and given a $2000 bail..We are talking the year 1875.. What would of constituted first degree robbery back then and doesn't the bail seem awfully high? Of course he was released with a writ of habius corpus and the witness never showed..

Robbery was defined then pretty much as now but usually meant theft by force to another person. If firearms were involved the bail is not high. Bail also takes into account past record and flight risk. Where did you find the record? It might be possible to order the whole jacket and trace the subsequent proceedings.

I found the records at the courthouse in Carthage Mo. It has quite a bit of info including the plaintiffs name but nothing on the crime itself only that it was robbery in the 1st degree. I was recently in oklahoma and johns grandson who is still living says that his mom always told them that her dad was a cousin to Bill Cook. I don't know where Bill was from or what his lineage is but I'm sure someone out there does...