John Edwin Cook was an educated abolitionist who abandoned a law career to fight with free-state militias, meeting and becoming a trusted scout for John Brown in Kansas. Cook lived in Harpers Ferry for a year before the raid, serving as a scout and marrying his landlady's daughter, which made him the only married raider. During the raid, Cook successfully captured Lewis Washington, but was later captured himself, betrayed his colleagues in a full confession, and was ultimately tried, convicted, and executed on December 16, 1859.