Most haunted places harbor vague myths and legends of blood and mayhem. Others have more than a grain of truth to their ghost stories. That’s the case with Dead Woman’s Crossing near Weatherford, a small, unincorporated community in Oklahoma. The name comes from a woman’s unsolved murder that occurred along Deer Creek. Some people believe that Mrs. James got mixed up with the wrong people. Other true crime buffs believe that the young mother fell victim to a devious plot while trying to escape her abusive husband. Did Katie die in a robbery attempt? Or in a homicide covered up by her husband? It’s up to you to decide.
Unless you’re from the Sooner State or haunt true crime websites, you’ve probably never heard of Dead Woman’s Crossing. On July 6, 1905, Katie Dewit James, a 30-year-old asked her husband, Martin James, for a divorce. According to reports, Martin physically abused his wife during their marriage. The next morning Katie and her 14-month-old baby daughter Lulu Belle boarded a train at Custer City. Katie planned to stay at the house of a cousin who lived in the town of Ripley. Katie’s wealthy father, Henry Dewitt, watched them leave. Kate’s soon-to-be ex-husband did not appear at the station. When Katie’s father said goodbye, he had no idea that he would never see her alive again. But when he didn’t hear anything from her, Henry started to worry. When he found that Katie never showed up at her cousin’s house, he reached out to the sheriff. The sheriff advised that Henry hire Sam Bartell, a local detective. Like a hound on the trail, Bartell started tracing Katie’s steps from Clinton, but no one recalled seeing a strange woman with a baby. On July 28, Bartell tracked Katie to the house of a man named William Moore. Katie with the baby stayed the night with Moore after Fannie Norton, his sister-in-law, brought her there. A known sex worker in Clinton, Fannie also went by Mrs. Ham. On July 8, the two women and baby Lulu Belle climbed into a buggy and headed towards Hydro. Sometime later, eyewitnesses saw the buggy turn off the road into a field that ran along Deer Creek. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing two men on horseback following the buggy. After about 45 minutes, Fannie emerged alone.
A local boy claimed that Fanny gave him the baby, who wore clothes covered with blood, and told the boy to take the baby home. When the detective found the baby, he confirmed that she remained unhurt. Now the race was on to find Katie. Local people hunted for missing Katie while Bartell made a beeline for Fannie’s house. He also spotted blood on a wagon wheel there. When the detective questioned her, Fannie swore that she didn’t murder Katie. Later that same day, Fannie died from poison. Finally, on August 31, two days after what would have been her 31st birthday, a fisherman found Katie James’ remains hidden in some bushes along Deer Creek, only around 20 miles from Clinton. Katie’s severed head, with a bullet in her skull, lay near her skeletonized body.
Law enforcement passed the murder off as a case of highway robbery despite the fact that Katie still wore her gold wedding ring on her finger. Despite Katie’s claims of physical abuse, Martin called himself an invalid. He claimed that is the reason why he couldn’t have had anything to do with Katie’s murder. Due to his close friendship with the local sheriff, no one ever arrested Martin or considered him a prime suspect. At first, Lulu Belle’s maternal grandparents, Henry and Lucy Dewitt gained custody of the baby after Katie’s death. At some point, Martin James showed up and took the baby away. He never allowed her grandparents to see her again. In another chilling twist, Lulu Belle died at age 8 while in her father’s care. The official cause was spinal meningitis.
Spooky white mist rises from Deer Creek which meanders under a concrete structure that replaced the old wooden bridge. Legend says that Katie’s spirit haunts the bridge over what became known as Dead Woman’s Crossing. If you go there at dusk, locals say that you can hear the wailing sound of a woman crying for her baby. Ghostly wagon wheels rumble over the bridge where Katie met her gruesome end. Katie’s murder remains unsolved today.
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