October 10, 1917: "Murdered by Human Wolves"

SUMMARY: Katherine Cross, age 18, died October 10, 1917 after an abortion perpetrated in Seminole County, OK by Dr. Abraham H. Yates.

The Seminole County News in Oklahoma reported that Katherine died October 10, 1917, from a "criminal operation" performed by Dr. A. H. Yates and his assistant, a schoolteacher named Frederick O‘Neal. 

Katherine, who had been born in August of 1899, was 18 years old. She was about 3 months into her pregnancy.

Katherine was the second victim Yates was charged with murdering by abortion in as many months. Elise Stone had died in August.

Katherine was the oldest of the eight children of John T. and Mary Cross, who had moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas with their large farming family. Katherine was, according to public records, the oldest of eight children. Her siblings ranged in age from 13 months to 15 years at the time of her death.

The day after Katherine's funeral, the case made the front page of the Shawnee Daily News-Herald under the headline, “Under Bond, Dr. Yates to Face Murder Charge; Konawa Physician Arrested Following Death of Katherine Cross; Charge Death Result Criminal Operation; Doctor Is Brought to This County for Safe Keeping.”

Katherine's parents told officials about the entire tragic turn of events. Yates reportedly bullied Katherine's mother into consenting to the abortion by saying that Katherine was threatening to kill herself.

Eleven years after Katherine's death, her parents were approached by political rivals of the county sheriff, Fred Bowles, convincing them to sign an affidavit accusing him of complicity in the abortion that took their daughter's life. Bowles's rivals were found guilty of libel and slander and were jailed for a year and fined $1,000 each.

After their daughter's death, Katherine's family moved away from the area to a farm about 100 miles southwest of Konawa, Yates died at the age of 64 in 1931, and is buried in the same cemetery as Katherine, within sight of the maker inscribed, "Murdered by human wolves."

Sources:

• Find-a-Grave
• "Under Bond, Dr. Yates to Face Murder Charge," The Shawnee (OK) Daily News-Herald, October 18, 1917
• "Konawa Physician Faces New Charge," The (Oklahoma City) Daily Oklahoman, October 18, 1917
• "Doctor Faced by Charge," The Erick (OK) Democrat, October 25, 1917
• "The Human Wolves of Konawa," M. J. Alexander, Slice: The Magazine of Central Oklahoma, October, 2013