Michael Cook Sr. Sentenced to 25 Years to Life

02:03PM / Friday, October 11, 2024Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On Thursday, Oct. 10 Michael A. Cook Sr. was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for the 2nd degree murder of his wife, Charli Cook.

The sentences for the remaining four charges will be served concurrently to the lead charge, Murder in the Second Degree. The remaining charges are:

Assault with Intent to Murder
Assault and Battery by Means of a Dangerous Weapon Causin Serious Bodily Injury
Assault and Battery on a Family/Household Member
Armed Assault with Intent to Murder

Michael Cook Sr. will serve his sentence in State Prison.

On July 11, 2019, Michael Cook Sr., of North Adams, broke into the house of his estranged wife Charli Cook. Charli was in her bed when Cook assaulted her with a hammer to the back-side of her head. The assault resulted in significant injury to Charli's skull causing traumatic brain injury. Charli passed away approximately five months after the assault. The Medical Examiner ruled Charli's cause of death as a direct result of the brain injury from the July 11th assault.

The Commonwealth requested that the four lesser charges be sentenced to be served on and after the lead charge. This would extend Cook's sentence by 18 to 20 years; however, the judge denied the request. The Commonwealth made this request based on Cook's extensive, violent criminal history which spans 28 years. The history includes domestic assault and battery of past intimate partners and other violent actions. Michael Cook is a registered level 3 sex offender.

District Attorney Shugrue was in the courtroom for sentencing. Judge Flannery presided.

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Tina Packer, Founder of Shakespeare & Company, Dies at 87

Staff Reports 06:51PM / Saturday, January 10, 2026

LENOX, Mass. — The doyenne of Shakespeare's plays, Tina Packer, died Friday at the age of 87.

Shakespeare & Company, which Packer co-founded in 1978, made the announcement Saturday on its Facebook page.

"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company's founding artistic director and acclaimed director, actor, writer, and teacher," the company said on its post and in a press release.

Packer, who retired a the theater company's artistic director in 2009, had directed all of Shakespeare's plays, some several times, acted in eight of them, and taught the whole canon at more than 30 colleges, including Harvard. She continued to direct, teach, and advocate for the company until her passing.

At Columbia University, she taught in the master of business administration program for four years, resulting in the publication of "Power Plays: Shakespeare's Lessons in Leadership and Management with Deming Professor John Whitney" for Simon and Schuster. For Scholastic, she wrote "Tales from Shakespeare," a children's book and recipient of the Parent's Gold Medal Award.

Most recently her book "Women of Will" was published by Knopf and she had been performing "Women of Will" with Nigel Gore, in New York, Mexico, England, The Hague, China, and across the United States. She's the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the Commonwealth Award.

"Our hearts are heavy with the passing of Tina Packer, a fiery force of nature with an indomitable spirit," said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. "Tina affected everyone she encountered with her warmth, generosity, wit, and insatiable curiosity. She delighted in people's stories, and reached into their hearts with tender humanity. The world was her stage, and she furthered the Berkshires as a destination for the imagination.

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