Originally published in the July 1, 2013 issue of This Land under the headline Youngwolfe Accused, this story was written by the descendent of one of its central characters. Hunter Howe Cates recalls how his grandfather, Bill Howe, defended Buster Youngwolfe against a criminal justice system eager to pin a brutal crime on an innocent 21-year-old Cherokee.
Phyllis Jean Warren was missing for three weeks when she was found strangled in a brush pile 300 yards from her home. Wrenched around her swollen neck was her blue plastic belt and stuffed in her pocket were her own blood-stained panties. It was April 2, 1953. She was 11.
It was a short hunt before the police found their man in Warren's neighbor, a 21-year-old Cherokee Indian named Buster Youngwolfe. Childlike himself despite being a husband and father, Buster was always friendly with his gleeful neighbor, no doubt suspecting he was the object of her adolescent affections. Already on probation for a botched burglary committed in his teens, he’d twice lied about his alibi for March 12, the night Phyllis disappeared. First he told the police he was at the movies. Then he admitted he was out drinking.
After five days and nights in a Tulsa County jailhouse, Youngwolfe broke. Re-enacting the crime, he confessed to taking Phyllis out to a field, crushing her jaw, then raping her. When she threatened to tell his wife, he covered her mouth until she stopped moving. Not sure if she was dead, he unfastened her belt and strangled what life she had left. He then dug a hole with his bare hands and buried her body in the brush.
Her daddy did always warn her to stay away from that Indian man.
The police made an announcement and all that remained was the formality of a trial. A penniless roofer, Buster was assigned a public defender named Elliott “Bill” Howe, only 33 and barely out of law school. Making $250 for 50 cases a month, he did this job part time without an office or secretary. But not much was needed for a case this cut and dried.
Attorney and client met the day Buster confessed. The case wasn’t even discussed, as the two men shared a cigarette and not much else. But the next morning Buster called his lawyer and said it was urgent. Not sure what to expect, Bill arrived as soon as he could.