Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

American history is loaded with episodes of shame. A large percentage of our less memorable moments, as a nation, have been swept under the rug, kept out of classrooms, and largely forgotten as time progresses. But these events are real and all it takes is a skilled author to bring the lost history back to life. Such is the case with Killers of the Flower Moon. I did not know anything about these murders against the Osage until I read this book, so this was a definite eye- opener for me. I had heard of the Osage tribe, yes, but I did not know they fell into tremendous oil wealth and, subsequently, saw their members slowly dying off, either through gunfire or poisoning, as greedy individuals tried to get their hands on some easy cash. The book details several of the known killings and the cold, callous, calculated murders are chilling and puzzling. Chilling, because of the gruesomeness of the murders; puzzling, because of the nonchalant behavior of those who plotted the killings. Even when confronted with the murders, most of the guilty individuals seem to have no remorse at all. They don’t even perceive what they did as immoral in any way. This book reads like a mystery thriller, however it isn’t a page- turner, like some mystery genre books. You do start to make guesses as to who is responsible, but rather than get wound up in the who- done- it, the book grips you more for its educational aspects. You learn all sorts of things about the Oklahoma region that the Osage called home. You learn about the newly formed FBI and its role in solving the mystery. You learn about the problems of racism and the feelings of superiority that people felt against Indians. And you learn just how evil people can be when vast amounts of wealth are at stake. There are several surprises in this book, and one is the book’s final section. The book leads you to believe that the mystery has been solved and it sounds like everything is coming to a close. Then suddenly, the book continues for dozens more pages as the author tries to solve more of the mystery on his own, with the aid of local Osage tribe members. No one will ever know exactly how many people were killed during this reign of terror but I like how the author took it on himself to investigate and try to answer more questions. This book is another solid, educational wakeup call on the prevalence of racism and superiority that pervaded society in the past and is rearing its ugly head once again today. I like how the book includes pictures so that you can get to know the many characters involved. With so many names and so many people involved, it’s easy to lose track of who is who. The pictures help you put a face with the name. But the most important part of this book is its educational value. It’s another sad, shameful episode from America’s past and one that we all need to know about and, hopefully, learn from.

This is an excellent true crime book. I would not place it in the same league as the best true crime books (The Onion Field, In Cold Blood, Sidney Kirkpatrick’s wonderful A Cast of Killers, e.g.) but it is very good. The problem is that true crime entails historical restraints. The key lesson (mini-SPOILER) of Killers of the Flower Moon is that there were a multiplicity of killers; the omnipresent examples of human cruelty and greed result in a judgment of human nature itself, one far more extreme than expected. The problem is that the actual narrative is compromised in the process. We think we know who did it; then we find out that someone else did it as well and someone else and someone else. The narrative becomes complicated and extended, the cast of characters grows; everything becomes a little confusing and the tidy outline of the Aristotelian plot is lost. Bottom line: the book is a little too difficult to follow and it becomes difficult to keep the characters straight. The subtitle suggests that the ‘birth of the FBI’ will be a key part of the story. It is, but only in the sense that one Bureau agent in particular is a key element in the investigation. The material on J. Edgar and his personality is common knowledge and ultimately the birth of the Bureau is tangential to the story of the Osage murders. The story of the black gold and how it is finally replaced by the windmills of an Italian energy company is, in some ways, more interesting. The horrific treatment of the Osage is well-known; what is not so well-known is its extent. In other words, the psychological/moral elements of the story are ultimately more interesting than the investigative ones. My bottom line: the story was chilling and moving but not riveting. Given the breadth of its readership and the resources invested in the film, I expected more. The book is essentially an examination of the depths of the darkness within the human soul; the murder investigations are less interesting. Four stars.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann New York: Doubleday $28.95 - 339 pages “The whites have bunched us up down here in the backwoods, the roughest part of the United States, thinking ‘we will drive these Indians down to where there is a big pile of rock and put them there in that corner.’” Now that pile of rock has turned out to be worth millions of dollars; now everybody wants to get in here and get some of the money.” --Osage Chief Bacon Rind. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon is the fact that despite the author’s painstaking research, and his marvelous use of period photographs and documents, this factual account of historic events attending “The Osage Murders” contains the atmospheric suspense and tension that is normally associated with a classic murder mystery. In fact, Grann has written a murder mystery - One that asks who methodically killed hundreds of Osage Indians during a four-year reign of terror (1920-24). Osage history reveals the tragic details of how and why. Forced to move from Kansas to Oklahoma, the Osage tribe seemed to be destined to lives of abject poverty when they suddenly found itself catapulted into a world of excessive wealth. Oil is discovered on tribal land. Suddenly, every member of the tribe is potentially wealthy. In an attempt to control the chaos that ensued, the federal government created a document called a “headright” which gave each Osage household legal rights to the oil on their land. After a period of uncontrolled spending in which members of the Osage tribe acquired mansions and fleets of automobiles, the government attempted to control the excessive spending by establishing a “guardian system” which assigned a “legal guardian” to each Osage family. This “guardian” (usually a white banker, businessmen or “civic-minded citizen” was given the power to approve or deny all expenditures for the Osage tribal member (who had been judged to be “incompetent”) by the government. The system was badly flawed, and many of the guardians used their position to embezzle huge sums of money. In time, the guardian documents became bargaining chips in investing in business ventures. Hundreds of guardians used their position as a means of acting as a “middle-man” who would purchase items on behalf of Osage tribal members. The guardian would then sell the item to the Osage for an inflated price. For example, guardians could purchase automobiles on behalf of the Osage tribal member for $250 and then sell them to the Osage member that they represented for $2,500. As the wealth of the Osage grew, so did the schemes for exploiting the tribe. Hundreds of criminals were drawn to the region with schemes designed to acquire a portion of Osage wealth. Many of these new arrivals openly stated that they had come to Oklahoma “to marry an Osage squaw.” It was a method that frequently succeeded. However, some of these opportunists sought a more direct method: murder. Author Grann’s research discovers one individual, William Hale who had arranged for the murder of 24 members of the Osage tribe. By soliciting the help of associates, Hale became one of the wealthiest men in Oklahoma. The astonishing catalogue of slaughter is carried out by men willing to resort to any means to accomplish Hale’s goal. Dozens of victims were poisoned with tainted moonshine and corrupt medical personnel performed autopsies that listed “acute alcoholism” as the cause of death. Others were dispatched with a bullet to the back of the head or between the eyes and the victim’s body was found in his new car on a remote road. One family was killed by a dynamite blast that demolished their home. Often, Hale simply paid an assassin to kill a designated victim. Then, Hale would frequently hire a second assassin to kill the first. In those instances in which murderers were apprehended, Hale bribed juries and law officials and if all else failed, he simply paid another killer. Time and time again, government agents are assigned to investigate and in some instances, just as they uncover significant evidence, they are murdered and the evidence destroyed. One dedicated investigator called the FBI headquarters to report that he was on his way back with conclusive evidence against Hale. The next day his mutilated body is found near a railroad track. He had been murdered and thrown from the train. Another investigator’s body was found in another state, hundreds of miles away. What is most disquieting about the crimes in Killers of the Flower Moon is the awesome extent of corruption that is revealed in the book. State and government officials, medical personnel and lawyers - all are contaminated with the vice of greed. The corruption is so pervasive, the few moral and courageous individuals seem helplessly outnumbered. However, there are two remarkable people in this gruesome tale. One is Molly Burkhart, and Osage who survived the systematic murder of her family...murders in which her husband was implicated. Molly was diagnosed as a diabetic by two doctors who poisoned her insulin injections, in an attempt to slowly kill her. Molly survived and divorced her husband. The second remarkable character is Tom White, the FBI agent that pursued Hale until he brought him to justice. Much of the credit of for this amazing piece of investigative work went to the Director of the newly-created FBI agency, Hubert Hoover who turned out to be a man dedicated to his own self-interest. Through much of the investigation conducted by Tom White, Hoover managed to take credit for White’s courageous work. Jealous of any publicity directed toward agents other than himself, Hoover invariably succeeded in manipulating the factual data to his advantage. This is a remarkable work. Most noteworthy is Grann’s comprehensive account of the primitive nature of investigations in a time before forensics emerged. As a consequence, much of Tom White’s heroic pursuit of a villain who seemed to have the protection of most of Oklahoma’s judges, lawyers and public officials. However, Grann’s greatest achievement is the fact that he uncovers evidence that the total number of victims in the Osage murders exceeded the original 24 and possibly exceeded over 200.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann A meticulously researched story that unveils a haunting chapter of American history with profound emotional depth. The book's measured pacing allows readers to absorb the devastating true story of the Osage murders, creating an immersive and memorable reading experience.

This was an interesting book about a subject I knew nothing about and certainly didn’t read about it in school. Which is a shame but it does put a very poor light on our country’s history and the FBI. This book goes through the history of the Osage Indians and their rise and fall in Oklahoma. So many murders that were never reported. The Osage’s were treated so poorly and unfairly by our government. Some very interesting facts and the book was good but it was very long and could have been a little shorter.

A well researched, very well written (including organizationally) narrative history on a subject that has been given attention in the literature but remains relatively unknown by the general public. The murders of the oil rich Osage numbered over a couple dozen and for some brief period a mystery to Osage and authorities alike. I should say, federal authorities. While the murders were another reflection of the shameful treatment of the First Nation people in a historical context, in the instance the perpetrator was a local prominent white man living as a friend of the Indians in their midst. The book deals with how the murders were solved and involved a whole cast of characters including tribal members themselves, for several their lives well recounted. Were it not for the underlying disregard for their race and therefore worth as human beings, this story is very much the age old story about human greed. But thanks to the efforts of federal law enforcement as came to be embodied with the founding of the FBI, the perpetrators, largely Whites but not exclusively, were caught and prosecuted. It is how the author weaves together the story to solve the mystery and in the process ties in side stories about the Indian plight in America and how the Osage by virtually total accident came to reside in one of the richest oil reserves in the country and as a consequence became for a time, the richest Americans because of royalties from the mineral rights, that provides for compelling reading. A positive aspect of the writing is that while the author engages in a handful of side stories to add perspective, they are efficient and accretive to the story, not mini books in themselves that become tedious distractions to the story that characterize too many works of non-fiction. When the main story ended about three quarters through and the author embarked on an epilogue I began to fear his story discipline had broken down. But as it happened the author used the epilogue to tie together loose ends of the story post solving of the murders in the mid 1920s. Very satisfying. If the book has a shortcoming it regards the treatment of the rise of the FBI. It’s superficial at best and is limited to the role the Osage murders played in the evolution of the FBI as a national police investigative agency, the first in the country’s history. Whether that merits being included in the title is open to question.

I ordered this book when I saw a deal on Amazon, plus I knew it had been made into a movie, though I had not seen it yet. The thing that intrigued me was not only the subject matter, but the location. My grandmother was born in Hominy, Oklahoma in 1898. She moved north while a teenager (around 1914) and settled in central Oregon, where she married. She did not live in Hominy during the reign of terror noted in this book. But I always found it fascinating that she was born on a reservation and yet, there is no Native blood in my veins. I remember her telling me that her family moved north in a covered wagon. Not everyone had cars in those days. She also told me that sometimes she would be teased and called a squaw. That's very interesting since I don't have Osage or Cherokee blood or a tribal affiliation of any kind. Since my grandmother died in 1996 at the ripe old age of 98 1/2 I will never know as my father also died in 2011. He knew precious little information when I asked him in the late 1990s about his mother's Hominy upbringing. That said, I found myself saddened when reading about what the people went through and how they were exploited and killed for their head rights. This place where my grandmother called home for most of her childhood was not a safe place for the Osage. I also find it interesting that the family moved away in the middle of the boom. But I will never know why. I do know they could not have been wealthy if they did not own a car. At any rate, I enjoyed reading this book. It sort of read like a novel and at the same time it reads like a non-fiction fact-based book drawn from trials, newspaper clippings and manuscripts. I did find it quite illuminating how deep the corruption went in those days and how rare it was to find an honest white person among the native people. Most were unscrupulous, it seemed, at least those related to murdered Osage tribal members with head rights. Prior to the murders they were a happy people despite being moved to a reservation and nearly starved to death by our government. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history. It will be especially enjoyed by amateur sleuths who want to find out more about the origin of the FBI and how the Osage Murders created the need for a national investigative agency that is still in operation today. The history of this country is littered with many stories like this. I am glad someone took the time to carefully research documents that are the basis for this book.

This is a terrific read. Very compelling and thoroughly, exhaustively researched. David Grann does a truly masterful and heartfelt job of relaying this heartbreaking tale of murder, betrayal, and deceit. Grann has a unique and captivating way of telling this wrenching story of the Reign Of Terror on the Osage Indians to murder them and steal their 'headrights' on the massive mineral deposits (oil and gas) on their federal lands given them by the US government, finally in 1877. This came only after all the white immigrants and settlers had killed thousands of them, starved them, by disease, pushed them off, outright stole the bulk of all their other beautiful, lush, and rich lands, originally in what is now Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas, where their ancestors had lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. The US government broke one treaty after another until they were eventually moved to a portion of what is now Oklahoma. "Osage: (Ni-u-kon-ska), "People of the Middle Waters", is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 BC along with other groups of its language family. They migrated west after the 17th century, settling near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as a result of Iroquois invading the Ohio Valley in a search for new hunting grounds." - Wiki There were many more than the 24 innocent Osage murdered during the "Reign Of Terror" after oil was discovered on their Osage Reservation in 1906. Grann in his scrupulous research and interviews eventually discovers over 650 suspicious deaths, predominantly Osage tribal members, but also anyone white who attempted to help them or knew too much about the murderous gang of conspirators. Even after rich cattleman and Osage 'guardian', William K. Hale, his two nephews, Ernest, and Byron (aka Bryan) Burkhart, and their heinous fellow henchmen were finally proven guilty and locked up in Leavenworth from June 1926- June 1929, the murders and mysterious deaths went on, ignored, and uninvestigated by all local Oklahoma authorities. From sheriffs to mayors, judges, Representatives, Senators, governors, police, state and county officials, doctors, coroners, from the very rich and influential to the penniless down and outers, ruthless whites led and together participated in the entire travesty. The murders were carried out by various insidious means, be it shooting, blowing them up as they slept, beatings, countless chilling heartless methods, often by poison or morphine injections, and all by greedy whites time and time again. Their recurring method of marrying into the tribe was always only for one reason: to inherit their money. Unfortunately, it seems they never married for love. The betrayals are endless. I won't spoil it for you, but the disappointment over the lack of followthrough of the Oklahoma justice system left me disgusted. Let me know how you feel about Bryan Burkhart's marriage after you finish the book. It's a real shake your head, life can't get any stranger tale... or can it? It is my hope that one of my all-time favorite film directors, Martin Scorcese, and co-producer and exceptional actor, Leonardo DeCaprio, do justice to Mr. Grann's marvelous book in their upcoming film, but most of all I hope that they honor the Osage Nation, all their ancestors, and descendants that have suffered so deeply for generations of ominous, immeasurable, and callous cruelty. I find it both odious and telling that this story, the film based on Grann's book, the telling of mass murder and racial oppression, should come into the light on exactly the 100th anniversary of Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood Massacre. The final injustice would be if these shameful and outrageous events in our American history continued to be removed from our history books. That would be a national sacrilege. One of my favorite lines from Killers Of Flower Moon is a quote of the Osage descendant and retired teacher, Mary Webb. At the end of her interview with the author, she said, "This land is saturated in blood." Then, she repeated a quote when God cried out to Abel after he killed Cain "The blood cries out from the ground." Good book, highly recommend.

Uno di quei casi in cui si legge il libro dopo la visione del film. Un racconto molto interessante e dettagliato sull'avidità e sulle conseguenze dell'avidità dell'uomo

I have not heard about the Osage nation nor the atrocious crimes committed against them before I read this excellent work of researching and storytelling by David Grann. Hence, as I proceeded page after page, I was utterly enthralled by the sinister nature of the conspiracy that took place in the Osage County (if I had not read this, I would probably think the so told story was a work of fiction). This book is an outstanding reminder of the violence, corruption and greed directed to the indigenous people and that hitherto affects the life of its descendants. It is also a nice portrait of the United States in the 20th century, as well as the FBI birth and the oil boom.

David Grann masterfully uncovers a chilling chapter of the past that reflects the true colors of human greed. As you turn the pages, you'll find yourself ensnared in a web of silent conspirators, where virtually every social element in the Osage community is complicit in a murderous system. Grann's meticulous research and storytelling prowess make this book an engrossing and haunting exploration of one of America's most shameful episodes

Can’t wait to see the movie

This is a fascinating yet deeply disturbing multi-layered account of how greed drove men to murder and of how a combination of uncaring and sloppy police work allowed them to almost escape justice. Truth be told, it was the dogged efforts of one man, Tom White, a former Texas Ranger recruited into the fledgling FBI (before it was even so-named) that must receive the lion’s share of credit for solving these crimes. The Osage Indian Nation would prove to be a wealthy one; at one time considered to be among the richest in the world. After years of struggles and hardship - mostly imposed on them and every other Native American tribe by a federal government which considered them to be “non-humans” (a belief widely held among the White population as well), the Osage finally got what they’d long sought, a permanent home. They purchased a non-descript piece of land in Oklahoma; rocky, barren and not much good for farming, but they were satisfied as were, it seems, the Federal Government and the Whites. But the satisfaction of the latter two would soon sour when it was discovered that “worthless” land sat atop one of the (at that time) largest known oil reserves in the world. The sour note was struck by the fact the lawyer the Osage hired to negotiate the land purchase got mineral rights (the rights to underground resources whatever they might be i.e., oil, coal, gold, uranium, etc.), included in the deal so that when oil was discovered on their land, every Osage tribal member became entitled to a percentage of any revenue that would flow from oil production. And some unscrupulous men wanted to not just share in that wealth, but to take control of it entirely. That is what forms the basis of David Grann’s factual accounting of all the evil these men enacted and the long hard battle to finally find justice for, and return a sense of peace to, the Osage people. Grann has written a well-laid out, researched, and what proved to me to be, a truly horrific story. I believe this to be a book of historical significance that which, upon reading, caused me to reflect on many similarities existing in the way our First Nations people (in Canada) were used and abused by governments, religious orders, and the broader “white” population. And while on the surface it would seem efforts are being made to examine past events; to expose the truth and to seek reconciliation for the many wrongs imposed or inflicted, there remains a long road ahead. We must all work hard to complete that journey.