Newspaper Articles





Cowsill files as bankrupt
July 19, 1975
Newport Daily News
Newport, Rhode Island

The singing Cowsill family’s meteor-like career has descended to bankruptcy court. William J. Cowsill, who managed his wife, his daughter and five sons to the top of the popular music charts in the 1960s, filed for bankruptcy in federal court in Providence. He listed his debts at $445,339 and his assets at $4,873.

Most of the debts were incurred in the course of managing the singing group and are owed to dozens of hotels, recording studios, credit card companies, insurance companies, lawyers, agents, airlines and banks around the country.

The financial status of the other family members was not known, and Cowsill’s lawyer, Paul Borges, said he had no idea where any of the young Cowsills were.

There were reports that two of his sons occasionally sing in a local bar in Narragansett and that a third is a medical student in California.

According to Cowsill’s bankruptcy application, foreclosures took the 23-room mansion in Newport where the family used to live, as well as 184 acres in West Greenwich.

The application indicated that all but one of the several Cowsill cars had been repossessed, and that he retained only a panel truck valued at $125.




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