Hunter Howe Cates - Oklahomas Atticus: An Innocent Man and the Lawyer Who Fought for Him

In this haunting story of his courageous grandfathers successful defense of a young Cherokee man wrongfully accused of the brutal murder of an eleven-year-old girl, Hunter Howe Cates delivers a powerful book that makes true-crime fiction seem tame and predictable. Oklahomas Atticus does not sensationalize violence and human suffering but offers context and depth to a horrific crime that remains unsolved.

Michael Wallis, bestselling author of The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny

Oklahomas Atticus is a book that readers will not want to put down until they find out who wins, the young public defender or the experienced prosecutor, and which prevails, manipulation of the law or the rule of law.

Daniel Littlefield, director of the Sequoyah National Research Center

What an eye-opener! I was born and raised in Bartlesville and am a Cherokee Nation citizen, yet I had never heard of Phyllis Jean Warren or Buster Youngwolfe. Hunters book intersperses the story of this tragic murder with the tainted and intriguing history of Tulsa. I couldnt stop reading this book. It has movie written all over it!

Becky Hobbs, singer, songwriter, and playwright

Hunter Howe Cates

University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln

2019 by Hunter Howe Cates

A brief account of this story first appeared in This Land 4, no. 13 (July 2018): 17, 19.

Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover image is from the interior.

Author photo by Mandy Gross, Graine Photography.

All rights reserved

Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the Friends of the University of Nebraska Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cates, Hunter Howe, author.

Title: Oklahomas Atticus: an innocent man and the lawyer who fought for him / Hunter Howe Cates.

Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019005310

ISBN 9781496200907 (cloth: alk. paper)

ISBN 9781496218339 (epub)

ISBN 9781496218346 (mobi)

ISBN 9781496218353 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH : Youngwolfe, Buster, 19322008,Trials, litigation, etc. | Trials (Murder)OklahomaTexasHistory20th century. | Howe, Elliott, 19192007. | Public defendersOklahomaBiography.

Classification: LCC KF 224. Y 68 C 38 2019 | DDC 364.152/3092dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005310

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For Mac and Bill

Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat. (Proof lies on him who asserts, not on him who denies.)

Julius Paulus Prudentissimus

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. Its when you know youre licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Oklahomas Atticus is the result of years of instruction and inspiration from countless teachers, many of whom I know only through their work. As the written word is the transfer of ideas and virtues across time and space, cultures and generations, I have eternal gratitude for the authors of the past. They are as much my teachers as anyone who ever formally held the title.

However, one teacher did help me in a very literal way with this bookProfessor Joli Jensen, formerly of the University of Tulsa. A few years after graduating from the university, I wrote a heavily condensed version of this story for This Land Press. Professor Jensen read the piece and encouraged me to expand it into a book, even going so far as to coach me during the writing. Dr. Jensen offered this act of altruism because she believed in the story and in me. So much so, she mentioned the book to the young woman who would become my agent and who found a publisher for this story. Had Dr. Jensen not done this, I dont know what would have happened to this story. Perhaps it would be collecting dust in a drawer somewhere. Thus, the book you hold in your hands right now is the result of a teacher living up to the highest standards of her profession. Words cannot describe how grateful I am.

I would also like to thank Michael Mason of This Land Press; Mark Brown, a former editor for This Land; and Michael Wallis. Transitioning from writing advertising copy to nonfiction is akin to changing sports for an athlete, so being coached by these skilled nonfiction writers was a tremendous help. However, their greatest contribution was the confidence they instilled simply by welcoming me into their hallowed ranks.

I would also like to thank Sheri Perkins of the Tulsa City-County Library. This story is about everyday people caught up in extraordinary events in the early 1950s. As such, many of the participants stories have been lost to time, particularly concerning their lives before and after the events this book details. Ms. Perkins kindly and diligently tracked down what happened to these people when I came up short. Libraries are gifts from one generation to the next, and librarians are the keepers of their treasures. This book is proof.

I would also like to thank the Youngwolfe and Howe families for their participation and involvement in this book, especially Kim Youngwolfe. After reading my article in This Land, she reached out to the magazines editor, who contacted me. Ms. Youngwolfe connected me with other members of the family and tied up loose ends in the story. I am grateful not only for her contributions but also for her encouragement. I am also grateful to Busters great-niece, Bessie Lee Youngwolfe, who filled in numerous gaps in his story. Unfortunately, Bessie passed away on May 19, 2018, just two months shy of her thirty-seventh birthday. I was blessed to be able to connect with her before her passing.

Though they are no longer around to accept my gratitude, I would like to extend my thanks to the journalists of the Tulsa World and Tulsa Tribune who covered this story, especially Troy Gordon and Tim Dowd, respectively. Their extensive coverage of the investigation and trial was absolutely invaluable to this book. I knew the story from my childhood, but I only realized how much I didnt know when I read these reporters work.

History is not simply the passing down of knowledge from one person to another, such as recalling yesterdays events to someone who does not know them. So much of it is knowledge that has been forgotten. Its humbling, even frightening, really, to think about how much knowledge of the past is lost simply because nobody passes it down. I am lucky. I knew this story because of my mother, Nancy Haven Howe. It was important to her that her fathers legacy be passed down to my brother and me, and for that I am proud and grateful. I cannot stress enough how important it is to know your familys history and share it with your loved ones. You never knowa book may be in there somewhere.

In the spring of 1953, an eleven-year-old girl named Phyllis Jean Warren was found raped and murdered in the slums of Tulsa, Oklahoma. When a young Cherokee man named Buster Youngwolfe confessed to killing her, the authorities thought the matter was settleduntil Buster recanted his confession.