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From the Archives: February 28, 1925: The Yatko case
The front page of the February 28, 1925 San Diego Union-Tribune carried the headline "Scores of Marriages Here Declared to Be Illegal."
In 1925 prosecutors in a Los Angeles murder trial invoked an almost forgotten state law in order to void a San Diego marriage. The 1872 law prohibited marriages between persons of different races.
The court ruled that Lola Butler Yatko, who was white, could not have been legally married to Timothy Yatko, a Filipino man, under California law, and that therefore she should be permitted to testify against him.
Yatko was convicted of the murder of Harry Kidder, and sentenced to life in prison.
Despite the headline on this story in the Evening Tribune, the ruling in the Yatko case did not invalidate scores of California marriages. However, the case did highlight racial tensions of the era.
Read more at: From the Archives: February 28, 1925: The Yatko case.
The following photograph of Timothy Yatko was published on May 6, 1925 in the Los Angeles Times with the caption:
"Almost Forgotten State Law was invoked yesterday to free Lola Butler from the marital ties that bound her to Timothy Yatko, Filipino sheik, on trial for the slaying of Harry L. Kidder, to permit her to testify against Yatko."
Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection
OpenUCLA Collections
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