Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1953: an impoverished Cherokee named Buster
Youngwolfe confesses to brutally raping and murdering his
eleven-year-old female relative. When Youngwolfe recants his
confession, saying he was forced to confess by the authorities, his
city condemns him, except for one man—public defender and Creek
Indian Elliott Howe. Recognizing in Youngwolfe the life that could
have been his if not for a few lucky breaks, Howe risks his career
to defend Youngwolfe against the powerful county attorney's office.
Forgotten today, the sensational story of the murder,
investigation, and trial made headlines nationwide.Oklahoma's
Atticus is a tale of two cities—oil-rich downtown Tulsa and
the dirt-poor slums of north Tulsa; of two newspapers—each taking
different sides in the trial; and of two men both born poor Native
Americans, but whose lives took drastically different paths. Hunter
Howe Cates explores his grandfather's story, both a true-crime
murder mystery and a legal thriller. Oklahoma's Atticus is full of
colorful characters, from the seventy-two-year-old mystic who
correctly predicted where the body was buried, to the Kansas City
police sergeant who founded one of America's most advanced
forensics labs and pioneered the use of lie detector evidence, to
the ambitious assistant county attorney who would rise to become
the future governor of Oklahoma. At the same time, it is a story
that explores issues that still divide our nation: police brutality
and corruption; the effects of poverty, inequality, and racism in
criminal justice; the power of the media to drive and shape public
opinion; and the primacy of the presumption of
innocence. Oklahoma's Atticus is an inspiring true underdog
story of unity, courage, and justice that invites readers to
confront their own preconceived notions of guilt and innocence.