Cockerill was a journalist who served in the Civil War as a drummer boy when he was just 15 years old. He worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as the editor. In one editorial he criticized the conduct of James Overton Broadhead of the law firm of Broadhead, Slayback & Haeussler. Nine years after the incident Broadhead was selected to be a candidate for Congress by the same interests that the Post-Dispatch had long fought. The affair escalated into a personal feud between Cockerill & Alonzo Slayback, a partner in the law firm. On October 5, 1882 Slayback & a friend, William Clopton, went to the Post-Dispatch & entered Cockerill’s office to demand an apology. During the ensuing scuffle Cockerill shot & killed Slayback. Cockerill’s supporters claimed he shot in self-defense, but Clopton insisted that Slayback was unarmed.    The famed lawyer Charles P. Johnson defended Cockerill & the jury’s verdict was a “justifiable homicide committed in self-defense.” Cockerill left St. Louis under a dark cloud. He resumed his newspaper career at the New York World as the editor & later at the New York Herald. He was interred in the Elks Rest section of Bellefontaine Cemetery on May 21, 1896.    An interesting note: Alonzo Slayback, the man killed by Cockerill, was also a member of the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, whose motto is “Brotherly Love.” (bio by: Connie Nisinger)