13. Cooper’s Dead For The Second Time

One month before the end of the war, the family in the United States receives another information about the death of Merian Cooper. His plane was hit with a series from a machine gun, he survived, but Budyonny’s riders got him, ready to scatter the aviator on the spot. He was saved by the scars on his hands and the pants of Franck Moser’s. Showing his burned hands, he managed to convince the rebels that he was not an officer but a simple soldier. When the Soviets stripped him of his uniform, it turned out that he was wearing underwear with the name of the corporal – Franck Moser. This convinced the Bolsheviks that he is not one of the hated American aviators. Of course, the prisoner had to stand before the re-tribunal, which included, among others, the famous writer Izaak Babel. He was kindly sentenced to stay in a labor camp. Crushing the ice, which was splinting the rails, was a murderous activity, two to three prisoners were dying each day. Cooper would not have survived if it was not for the help of Marqueritte Harrison, an American war correspondent who also dealt with espionage. She managed to get a permission to help the prisoners, so she smuggled food for sick and weak Cooper.