Police Charge Door-To-Door
Salesman With Murder
By Dave Bullard/Fulton Daily News

Diana Cooper was killed by a traveling magazine salesman who used glass jars to kill her, police allege. (Cooper's obituary can be read here.)

Matthew Maxson of Lockport, near Buffalo, was arrested Saturday at a hotel in Geddes.

He is scheduled to return to court tomorrow for a preliminary hearing.

Cooper was killed last Wednesday evening, and was discovered by her daughter the following morning inside Cooper's apartment at 251 1/2 West Second Street.

Fulton Police spent more than two days examining evidence at the home.

According to documents filed for the arraignment, police believe Maxson used broken shards of glass jars in Cooper's home to stab her in the head.

Cooper lived alone, but police found a blood-soaked man's shirt in another room.

Meantime, at the Holiday Inn on Farrell Road in Geddes, a co-worker of Maxson's noticed that Maxson was wearing a woman's sweater. Later, Maxson offered to sell his sneakers to the co-worker for $25. The sneakers had blood on them.

Neighbors told police that a magazine salesman had been in the area on Wednesday evening.

They arrested Maxson without difficulty at the hotel.

Maxson pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, and offered no confession in his statement to police. Instead, he mentioned seeing a "psycho-looking guy" while traveling his route that day.