Unknown Gender History: Pandora Cooke, Military Bride Con-Artist With 14 Husbands

FULL TEXT: San Diego, Calif. – Go-go dancer Pandora Cooke, who allegedly married 14 servicemen for their allotment checks, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for making a false statement to the Federal Housing Administration.

Mrs. Cooke, 29, a San Diego mother of three, wept as she was sentenced yesterday by U. S. District Court Judge Dennis F. Donovan stayed execution of sentence for two weeks and said she would be eligible for parole at any time during imprisonment.

The judge also dismissed 10 other counts against Mrs. Cooke who pleaded guilty Jan. 20 of making a false statement to obtain FHA credit for a loan on a house. She had been indicted on nine counts of defrauding the Government of $1348 in allotment checks and one count of claiming to be a Vietnam war widow to receive the benefits of a $10,000 insurance policy.

One of her husbands, Seaman Robert D. McColm, 23, testified at an annulment proceeding in Denver last October the FBI informed him Mrs. Cooke had 13 other husbands and was receiving allotment checks from them.

McColm, who said he was intoxicated when her married Mrs. Cooke in Las Vegas, Nev., after meeting her the previous night in a local bar, was granted an annulment.

The dark-haired entertainer was arrested here by the FBI last Aug. 23. She was released on $250 bail and has become the feature attraction at a San Diego cabaret.

[“Marrying Go-Go Girl Sentenced in Loan Bilk,” Philadelphia Daily News (Pa.), Feb. 17, 1967, p. 35]

***

FULL TEXT: San Diego, Oct. 13 – Pandora Cooke, 29, a go-go girl who allegedly had 14 husbands, mostly servicemen, was indicted on charges of defrauding the Federal Government.

Mrs. Cooke, who also used the name Anita Simons and other aliases, was charged in nine counts with defrauding the Government of a total of $1348.40 in military allotment checks.

She was accused in the 10^th count of falsely claiming to be the widow of a marine killed in Vietnam to receive benefits of his $10,000 insurance policy.

The San Diego mother of three, who was arrested here by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is free on $250 bail. She is expected to be arraigned in federal court Oct. 24.

Her most recent husband, Seaman Robert D. McColm, 23, received an annulment Tuesday in a Denver court on grounds he was intoxicated at the time of the wedding. He testified he met Mrs. Cooke in a San Diego bar June 30, danced and drank that night and woke up in Las Vegas, Nev., the next morning a married man.

Most of the names of husbands were “not available,” an FBI spokesman said. But, he added, “our file is about as thick as your fist.”

[“Girl Go-Goes To Altar Often – Had 14 Husbands, FBI Charges,” The Pittsburgh Press (Pa.), Oct. 13, 1966, p. 18]

***