In the mid-20th century, a grisly murder stunned the community of Brunswick, created bold headlines across the state and challenged investigators to unravel a flurry of confusing details.

Shortly after midnight on Jan. 18, 1951, Brunswick Police received a strange phone call from South Portland physician Dr. Waldo T. Skillin. As a result, Sergeant Chester Soucy and Officer Robert Racine rushed to apartment F-4, in the Bowdoin Courts Apartments, at 279 Maine St.

There, officers discovered a naked, 45-year-old Eva Cooper in the kitchen, “her hands tied behind her back, with a cloth over her face.” Worse yet, officers also discovered the lifeless body of Eva’s husband, 56-year-old Lancelot H. Cooper, lying in a pool of blood.

Soon, Maine State Police Trooper George Buzzell and Brunswick Police Chief Joel Lebel arrived on the scene and began investigating. After a closer look at the body, it was clear to investigators that Lancelot Cooper had been hacked to death, a victim of multiple whacks to his head.

Eva told police that as she and her husband were going to bed, Eva answered a knock at the front door. Suddenly, a man wearing a Halloween mask and holding a gun rushed through the doorway, forcing her back inside the apartment, where she then lost consciousness.

When Eva awoke, sometime just after midnight, she crawled to the phone, took the cord in her teeth and somehow dialed her doctor in South Portland. The doctor then notified police.

Through the night, neighbors were awoken and questioned as evidence was gathered from the scene. Two occupants of the apartment below the Cooper’s second-floor unit stated that at about 10:30 p.m. they “heard a noise and thud, like someone tripped over a piece of furniture.”

Eva, now dressed, was taken to the police station and questioned by investigators. Eva soon identified a man whom she had a previous relationship with, a former South Portland prize fighter named Ernest Zachow, who she now believed was the armed intruder.

Investigators interviewed Zachow, who swore he didn’t know the victim. Moreover, Zachow had an alibi for the night of the murder and he also passed a lie-detector examination.

Investigators then turned back to Eva for further interrogation. Suddenly, the woman’s story began to change as Eva contradicted her own sworn testimony. Eva now claimed to have been struck by the armed assailant, which accounted for her unconscious state.

Then police asked her if there were any knives in the apartment, to which she replied, “If you find any blood on the cleaver, it was planted there!” She later admitted that “she disrobed, blindfolded herself, and tied her hands together with a woolen scarf.”

By Saturday, Jan. 20, 1951, shortly after Eva Cooper was formally charged in the gruesome hacking-murder of Lancelot Cooper, deputies escorted Eva to the Corliss Street Baptist Church in Bath to view the body of her late husband, just two hours before Cooper’s funeral. From there, Eva was placed in the Cumberland County Jail to await trial.

Lancelot Cooper had been a “Boss welder” at Bath Iron Works and had also been an alderman and city councilor in the City of Bath, and a former president of the Bath Country Club. Lancelot and Eva were married in 1933; this was Lancelot’s third marriage.

By June 11, 1951, the trial of Eva Cooper was underway at the “Superior Courthouse” in Portland. For the next six days, the jury heard testimony from evidentiary experts, Brunswick police and Cooper’s neighbors.

On Sunday, June 17, after just two and a half hours of deliberations, “the jury of eleven men and one woman” returned the verdict: “guilty of manslaughter.” Justice Albert Beliveau sentenced Eva Cooper to 10-20 years in prison. Eva Cooper was then transferred to the “women’s reformatory in Skowhegan.”

Eva Cooper would not appeal the court’s verdict and she would serve a nearly full term in prison, and later be released to live out her life in Old Orchard Beach, where she would die on Oct. 17, 1985, at the age of 77.

For Brunswick Police, the murder of Lancelot Cooper had been a case they quickly solved, with a suspect formally charged and a swiftly delivered verdict that placed the murderer behind bars. But Brunswick Police Chief Joel Lebel and his officers could not rest on their laurels.

Another murder had already been committed in Brunswick, but this time, with few clues and no clear suspects to charge. Brunswick would see this newest murder remembered as the infamous and unsolved “Red Scarf Murder.”

Brunswick’s history is rich with incredible tales of legendary people and infamous events, all combining to write memorable chapters in Maine’s history, and in the annals of our local Stories from Maine.

Lori-Suzanne Dell is a Brunswick author and historian. She has published four books and runs the “Stories from Maine” Facebook page.