Killers of the Flower Moon: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis - LitCharts July 3, 2022 . And not long after that, Mollie had another sister, a woman named Rita Smith who lived in a house not far away from Mollie. GRANN: Yeah. But then, he never arrived. make certain you understand what it means. So Mollie - who had an enormous amount of courage because, by crusading for justice, she was putting a bull's eye right upon herself, but she did. And that's why there were so many of them. 25. He had a particular profile of the kind of man he wanted to be an agent for the Bureau of Investigation. And questions arise about him. The Osage had shrewdly retained the rights to any mineral discoveries, and oil barons such as J. Paul Getty, Harry Sinclair and Frank Phillips paid grand sums for leases at outdoor auctions held under the boughs of a vast tree dubbed the Million Dollar Elm. Each member of the Osage tribe received quarterly royalty payments, and as the years progressed, so did the number of digits on their check, growing into the hundreds and then the thousands of dollars. The Osage trusted him. Talk about what services you provide. And at that time, the Osage had some hint that there was some oil, but nobody thought they were sitting upon a fortune. And the challenges that Tom White and his men faced were just enormous, almost Herculean in that, one - there was enormous corruption. And the third chronicle is told from my perspective in the present. White was able to crack the murders of Mollie Burkharts family members, but many of the Osage killings remained unsolved. Journalist David Grann tells the story. Initially it was for maybe $100, and then it grew to 1,000. Thats one of the more outrageous details, Grann says. Blood for Oil - Reason.com Nobody could pinpoint what was happening. Failed Protectors: The Indian Trust and Killers of the Flower Moon Vaughan complied, and the two men met that night. DAVIES: OK. That said, there was a lot of wealth controlled by the Osage. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Hale lived to be 87 and is buried in Wichita, Kansas. The Osage "Reign of Terror" Murder Trials - Famous Trials Yeah. 0. He was part of a tribe of lawmen. Register now and get started. And you realize when you speak to someone like Margie Burkhart how much these crimes still reverberate in the present, how much this history is still living in the present. It makes your whole body convulse as if with electricity. William Hale | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers Here they were able to track and follow a man all the way to Washington, D.C., had enough information to know he was going and had the power to follow him and to kill him, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Oklahoma. So there were only about 2,000 Osage who were registered on the tribal roll. Lewis: Drummond family has place in Pawhuska history They released an outlaw named Blackie Thompson hoping he would work as an undercover informant, but he instead robbed banks and killed a police officer. And because of racial prejudice, it was a enormous challenge, and many people believe that the locals would never convict fellow white men for killing an Osage Indian. "[7], In 1925, Osage tribal elders, with the help of local law officer James Monroe Pyle, sought assistance from the BOI when local and state officials could not solve the rising number of murders. The Tulsa Race Massacre and Osage Reign of Terror: Missing Links 0 . He then called the local sheriff and said, I've got enough evidence against one of the killers. And within two months, she was dead. In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money. And he had also stored away the evidence he had been gathering because he was afraid for his life. June 21, 2022 how many osage murders might there possibly have been? It had not yet gotten much national coverage. . DAVIES: And so how helpful, how beneficial was this to the Osage? Colorado newspapers reported the murders as the "Reign of Terror" on the Osage reservation. The power structure was able to buy off lawmen. Mollie suspected poison was to blame for the unexplained ailment that killed her mother, and in retrospect, even the wasting illness that had killed a third sister, Minnie, in 1918 seemed suspicious. And it becomes apparent that they are now moving into a realm in which it is very hard for them to know who they can trust and that the very power structure within the community is more than likely complicit within these crimes. History Bookshelf David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon : CSPAN3 There were so many willing executioners. How many Osage murders might there possibly have been? Here was a population being systematically murdered one by one. GRANN: What they begin to discover is that there is a enormous criminal enterprise to swindle Osage money and that the system of guardians, for example, these white men - they were always men, usually men, often prominent members of society, they were lawmen, prosecutors, businessmen, bankers - were systematically stealing and skimming from the Osage money. Lawmakers appointed local white guardians to approve every expenditure by the full-blooded Osage down to the toothpaste they purchased at the corner store, Grann writes. Nick Vivarelli, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mar- . Best-selling author David Grann talks about his new book that details one of the most chilling murder conspiracies in American history and the FBIs first major homicide case. DAVIES: Mollie Burkhart and relatives of the other victims would turn to private investigators. He had been thrown off the speeding train, and his neck was broken. In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann picks up the case and reveals the even wider conspiracy in the Osage murders, which may have numbered in the hundreds. The bodies would lay unclaimed and unmourned on the prairies, sometimes for weeks.. nycha employment verification. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Hale was Bigheart's neighbor and friend, and had recently been designated by the court as Bigheart's guardian. Give us a sense of what else was going on. DAVIES: And what became of the wealth of the Osage? DAVIES: So this becomes a federal investigation. The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI By David Grann Doubleday, New York, NY, 2017 352 Pages, $28.95 Reviewed by Hannah Laufe In The Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann recounts the terrible and al-most inconceivable story of the injustice and violence inflicted upon the Osage Nation. GRANN: This had now become a national story. When a white oilman, Barney McBride, was recruited by Osage to ask federal officials to investigate these deaths, he was also killed: stabbed and beaten, then stripped naked "except for his socks. A week later, Anna Brown's body is found in a ravine. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,, When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Irelands Freedom, Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. In 1897, oil was discovered on the Osage Indian Reservation, or present-day Osage County, Oklahoma. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?splash cafe clam chowder recipe. GRANN: So her family becomes a prime target of a conspiracy. NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST NATIONAL BESTSELLER A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, f rom the author of The Lost City of Z. What are we talking about? Vaughan's body was so badly disfigured that the coroner could not be certain whether the man had fallen off the train or else been beaten first and then pushed off. why does my poop smell different after covid / who sings as rosita in sing / how many osage murders might there possibly have been? "The Osage Murders: Oil Wealth, Betrayal and the FBIs First Big Case." The Osage were shot and poisoned in staggering numbers. The U.S. murder rate in 2020 was 42% lower than the suicide rate (13.5 deaths per 100,000 people) and 71% below the mortality rate for drug overdose (27.1 deaths per 100,000 people, as of the third quarter of 2020), the CDC data shows. GRANN: So her family becomes a prime target of a conspiracy. Pyle presented his evidence of murder and conspiracy and requested an investigation. Tell us a bit about her. Who would investigate this kind of murder at the time? And I think that's certainly true when you visit Osage Nation, you meet with the Osage and you see what a remarkable place it is and the strength of its government institutions. Because of the large number of leads and the perception that the police were corrupt, White decided he would be the public face of the investigation while most of the agents would work undercover. PDF Book Review - Federal Bar Association There really was a culture of killing and a culture of complicity. GRANN: Well, in some ways, he was looking for someone like himself who - he had never been an investigator himself, had never been a criminal detective. GRANN: Well, early on when - in the early 20th century, there was just a little bit of oil. Seu lugar para proteger o seu capital. And so they asked him to go to Washington, D.C., to try to plead for help. His earlier book, "The Lost City Of Z," was adapted into a new feature film. He was a young man. And because of that, justice was often privatized, that if you had money and resources, you had to turn to private investigators. He realizes given the danger, given the fear in the area, given the corruption the team will have to go in undercover. Vaughan's body was later found with his skull crushed beside the railroad tracks near Pershing, about five miles south of Pawhuska. DAVID GRANN: Mollie is a fascinating person. He went to Oklahoma City to meet with this Osage Indian who was dying of suspected poisoning. Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes The house has been reduced to ash, and as dawn arrives, the justice of the peace, Mathis, and the Shoun brothers search alongside neighbors of the Smiths for bodies. DAVIES: So word of this spread. And a big question arose was regardless of the evidence, would a jury convict a white man for murdering an American-Indian? how many osage murders might there possibly have been? [5] McAuliffe found that when Bolton was a minor, the court had appointed her white stepfather, attorney Arthur "A.T." Woodward, as her guardian. He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. The Kyle family murders were featured as a dramatic part of the 1959 film, John Hunt portrayed this period in his novel, This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 22:20. Later investigations revealed that the bomb contained 5 US gallons (19L) of nitroglycerin.[12]. This was a deeply racist system, and it literally was based on the quantum of Osage blood. How Native American Discrimination Led to Murder - Shortform I mean, like many Native American tribes, they were uprooted and pushed around from one reservation to another. I'm Terry Gross. [13][b] Along with his admission, Morrison implicated Hale's nephew and Brown's ex-boyfriend, Bryan Burkhart,[14] in her murder. She's been shot in the back of the head. Many of them were starving. And evidence later surfaced that she had been poisoned. They involve lawmen who then would not investigate them. In some cases lawmen were directly complicit or turned a blind eye, Grann says. Bloodhounds ran through the prairie. Lewis: Story behind Osage murders a terrifying tale how many osage murders might there possibly have been? So we have a situation where Mollie Burkhart, this woman who is a wealthy member of the Osage Nation married to a white man, Ernest Burkhart, discovers her sister, Anna Brown, has been shot to death and found in a ravine some distance away - a horrible crime. There were at least 24 Osage who had been murdered. Rita's husband, Bill Smith, sustained massive injuries from the blast and died four days later. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Hale fraudulently arranged to make himself the beneficiary of Roan's $25,000 life insurance policy. The documents Bighorn had given him were missing. This is FRESH AIR. he was from So this was just one of the many means of targeting the Osage in these very systematic and brutal ways. To gain part of the wealth, Hale persuaded Ernest to marry Mollie Kyle, a full-blooded Osage. DAVIES: David Grann, thank you so much for speaking with us. The U.S. government continued to manage the leases and royalties from oil-producing lands, and the tribe became concerned about these assets. DAVIES: Right. (Credit: David Grann). And there was a genuine sense of terror. [12] Two months later, Lizzie Q. Kyle was killed as well. Between 1920 and 1925 there were more than 60 mysterious or unsolved murders in Osage County, all dealing with Osage headright holders. And she had spent years doing her own investigation, gathering evidence trying to pinpoint the killers. His father had been a frontier lawman, a local sheriff. The oil boom was in full swing, and the Osage people were prosperous due to ownership of mineral rights. [19] Ernest Burkhart's attempt to kill his wife failed. This was in the 1920s after oil was discovered on the reservation of the Osage Indian Nation and members of the tribe became wealthy. His new book is "Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI." how many osage murders might there possibly have been? DAVIES: We're speaking with David Grann. Some murders seemed associated with several members of one family. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. "It could come down to . These three books deal with the absolutely despicable history of the Osage Indians being cheated out of their oil rights in the 1920s in Oklahoma. He got documents from him. Indictment for John Ramsey and William K. Hale, 1/9/1926. Our guest David Grann's new book tells the story of one of the biggest serial murder cases in American history and one of the most forgotten. Yeah, so there were many shootings. [11] Two of his accomplices had died before the BOI investigation was completed. [d][e] There, doctors suspected that he had ingested poisoned whiskey. The tribe held the mineral rights communally and paid its members by a percentage related to their holdings. Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against - NPR Investigators soon discovered that Mollie was already being poisoned.[13]. And each one of them received a headright. It literally looked as if the sun had burst into the night. So you had a local lawman. This equal share was called a headright. [17][h], In the case of the Smith murders, Ernest was soon convinced that even his wife's money and his uncle's political influence could not save him. Over two decades, they would have to cede more than 100 million acres of their land. His doubts arose from a variety of conflicting evidence. Then they. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. He didn't like agents who were too tall because he didn't want them to overshadow him. And reporters would go out and describe how they lived in these terra-cotta mansions, how they had chauffeured cars, how they had servants, some of whom were white. Somebody had planted a bomb under the house, killing everyone in it, including Mollie's sister Rita, including her - Rita's husband and a white servant who lived in the house. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Fearing for his life, Pyle and his wife fled to Arizona, where he again served as an officer of the law. Hale and his associates were convicted in state and federal trials from 1926 to 1929, which had changes of venue, hung juries, appeals, and overturned verdicts. Vaughan is correct. GRANN: He was found to be a part of the conspiracy. It was said at the time whereas as one American might own a car, each Osage owned 11 cars. "[6] People across the U.S. read about the Osage, called "the richest nation, clan or social group of any race on earth, including the whites, man for man. Randy Krehbiel paints him as a "shady character involved in blackmail and possibly embezzlement, armed robbery, and even murder." After securing Tulsa's top law enforcement spot in April 1920, Gustafson still moonlit as a private detective, working "cases that might have been more properly handled by the police."
