Murdered By Human Wolves

The other day on a nature program was a fascinating first-person account of a 21st century wolf attack.  It was gripping, especially when one realized the wolves we know today in North America and in the few remaining pockets elsewhere around the globe are far smaller than those known in the middle ages or to the ancients who chose the suckling twins and the mother wolf as symbols of Rome.  Although abbreviated in size, they retain a strong determination and intent when stalking their prey - as the young man who was nearly carried off by the wolf could attest. Although nearly ten years later, his head and face still retained the scars of those fangs digging deep into his scalp and face.  Some say the menace of the wolf was the silence in which they hunt, often slipping in out of the shadows to clutch a morsel (small child, stock, or meat waiting to be cooked) and then are gone.

In that context, it is a little easier to understand the strange tombstone in a small Oklahoma cemetery.  Its bizarre inscription has stirred more than imagination "murdered by human wolves."   One blog detail this grave of Katherine Cross who died in 1899.

Most believe she died at the hands of a local doctor, who was probably responsible for at least one other death of a young women. He was said to have performed an unlawful operation.  Given the time period, the operation may have been an abortion, but could have been something else.   In the end, Katherine and and another young woman were dead.

Some say the menace of the wolf was the silence in which they hunt, often slipping in out of the shadows to clutch a morsel (small child, stock, or meat waiting to be cooked) and then are gone.  Sometimes, however, the only difference between a human two-legged wolf and a werewolf is only the amount of fur showing.