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

Imagine your neighbor is John Wayne Gacy and your husband is Scott Peterson and your “guardian” is Ted Bundy (seems like a nice guy but wants to kill you). The Osage Indians of the 1920s did not have to imagine this, they lived it. There were great reserves of oil on the Osage reservation in Oklahoma and the law said you had to pay a headright to the Indians to drill there. This made the Indians rich overnight and because the system run by the white men in the area was so corrupt, Indians were declared unable to handle their own money and guardians were appointed. The situation was ripe for abuse, and the bottom feeders did not hesitate to take advantage in the cruelest ways imaginable.

I do not think this could have happened in any show more other situation. It required almost the entire white population to be complicit, and that was apparently pretty easy for most as long as the dead bodies belonged to Osage Indians. When Anna Brown is killed, then her mother, then her sister Rita and brother-in-law, Bill Smith, this leaves only her sister Mollie Burkhart alive, and she now holds all the headrights of all of these individuals. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out that her life is not worth a sack of salt. She has been seeking help outside the local and state officials since the death of Anna, and the FBI is finally called in to investigate. This family is not the only one affected, but it is the most severely affected. The number of murders is, in fact, astounding.

We meet the FBI investigators, and particularly Tom White, who assumes the investigation and finally brings it to some resolution. What is clear is that the scope of the murders extends beyond the group punished and that the punishment is sorely insufficient to the crime. If you think we have corruption in our political and legal system today (and God knows we do), it pales in the face of the corruption we see here. It makes you want to scream and stomp. This killing spree on the Osage Reservation reverberates through the century since it occurred and affects the lives of descendants into the fourth generation. That anyone would ever trust a family member, a legal representative or a doctor in this place again is inconceivable.

Read this, but be prepared to feel a bit sickened by your fellow man. show less

Author David Grann spent years doing research and uncovering new evidence in writing Killers of the Flower Moon. Since I was a fan of his from reading The Lost City of Z, I expected this latest book to be the sort of non-fiction I love: the kind that reads like the best fiction. I was not disappointed. What I did not expect was just how infuriated I would become by reading it.

Having been a huge horse racing fan when I was a teenager, I knew about the wealth of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. One of the Osage owned a winner of the Kentucky Derby. But that knowledge was just cursory. I had no idea how rich the Osage really were, and I certainly didn't have a clue that the government didn't trust them with all that money. I should not have show more been so naive. It had to madden many whites that, although they'd shoved the Osage onto a piece of land they deemed unfit for themselves, oil would be discovered and the Osage would turn out to be the wealthiest people in the world. The one way they had of trying to horn in on this wealth was by declaring that the Osage were not fit to use their own money wisely. In many cases whites were put in charge of the families' money, and they gave their wards allowances (and themselves large fees for their business knowledge).

Why on earth should I be so surprised that this greed would escalate to murder? It is the natural progression after all. To this day, the Osage have trust issues, and who can blame them? They tried to get dozens of murders investigated, but instead the killings were covered up. What Grann did in Killers of the Flower Moon was to dig deeper and deeper and expose just how huge the problem actually was. As I read, words like horrifying, unspeakable, and several others flashed through my mind.

This is an uncomfortable read for anyone with a conscience; nevertheless, it is a fascinating and important one. I highly recommend it. Although Killers of the Flower Moon won't be available until April 2017, I wanted to give you all a heads up about one of the best books I read in 2016. It's a mesmerizing true historical mystery that grabs you and won't let you go. show less

The historical events chronicled here, like the Tulsa Massacre, are ones I never learned in school - but should have. The horrifying injustice inflicted on the Osage by the US government, which facilitated the murders of hundreds of Osage so whites could take control of their wealth, is stomach turning and infuriating. Easily five stars for shining a light on this horror. This book made me angry, very very angry. Unfortunately, this book is also a tedious slog to get through which diminishes the impact, and my rating.

Like all Native Americans, the Osage were forced onto reservation land unwanted by white citizens. Except in this case, oil reserves were found under that land. The government stepped in to "help" the Osage manage their show more wealth via a system of white guardianship for Osage found to be incompetent. Naturally, very few Osage were found to be competent. Twenty-four Osage were murdered within a few years in what came to be known as a Reign of Terror. The birth of the FBI is tied into this, as solving the case gave credibility and respect to the bureau. Only, they didn't bother to actually solve, or even invwstigate, all the murders, which far exceeded 24.

Sadly, this book is poorly written and dry as tinder for such an inflammatory subject. The author spends entire chapters detailing the childhood and background of agents, such as the lead Tom White, or other principals of the case, like Hale. Every chapter gets bogged down in unimportant minutia, while little is given to the Osage themselves and the "solving" case and trial is ramshod through in just a few chapters.

The most important aspects of the story are left to the last quarter of the book, and written almost like an epilogue. The criminal conspiracy of Hale to steal the oil headrights of Lizzie's family was just the tip of the iceberg. The FBI simply stopped investigating after Hale, but the murder of Osage was systemic. Hundreds had been murdered, so their fortunes came under control of white guardians. Between 1907 and 1923, six-hundred and five Osage from the original roll of headrights died. This didn't count those who were descendants with headrights, and not actually listed. This material should have been first, or better yet, interwoven throughout the narrative. Instead, the atrocities done to the Osage take a backseat to the "birth of the FBI", and the white male agents who gloried in solving a case while the greater injustice continued unabated. show less

This is a horrific account of the deaths, investigations, trials, and oversights of murders of the oil-rich Osage headright holders in the early 1920s. And of how J. Edgar Hoover used a curtailed investigation to establish himself securely in the federal hierarchy.
The murderous conspiracy, or multiple conspiracies, were carried out by men masquerading as friends and helpers of the Osage—just the sort of men who have again come to power in the USA. Let us all carefully and as securely as possible record what they will not want to survive their ascendancy, whether it is 2 years, 4 years, or the rest of our lifetimes.

An excellent book about the Osage Native American Tribe and the reign of terror they endured in the early 1900s. Woven into this narrative is some of the origin story of the FBI.

This is dark, dark stuff. What's worse, it's all true. It's one of those, "is there no depth to which humans will sink in their treatment of each other" books. You'd be hard pressed to fabricate a more horrifying horror story, yet here it is.

There are some glimmers of light--Tom White in particular--but this is definitely not a feelgood book. Read this in between fluff books, or risk flirting with depression.

The many murders of the Osage people is a part of history I'd never heard before. The Osage had been relegated to a useless piece of land in Oklahoma, land nobody else wanted. Well, up until huge reservoirs of oil were found there in the 1920s and then everyone wanted the land, or at least the oil beneath it, and the murders began.

As with other chapters of our treatment of Native American nations, we did our best to cheat and steal and even kill. We treated the Osage like children, incapable of taking care of themselves and given guardians who did not have their best interests at heart.

It seems a common practice was for a “white” man to marry an Osage, and kill her or have her killed either quickly or slowly so the money would come show more to the white person. And the white leaders of the community were behind it and benefiting greatly from it.

The book is well researched, and the author has uncovered new information, or tied together some old bits and pieces that make for a sinister whole. However, many of the murders were never solved, and it seems, many never investigated at all, not even sham investigations.

For me, this was an eye-opening book, and in a way I wish I hadn't read it because once again, it's a tale of those in power abusing those not in power because of greed and because they could or thought they could get away with it. But we cannot change history by closing our eyes to it, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in the country's history. show less

Deeply researched, well written account of a decade of murders of wealthy Osage Native Americans. A series of horrific crimes, conspiracies and cover-ups that is not well know - but should be! The author dove deep into official and unofficial documents to research his work. His findings went beyond accepted facts about the case (such as the number of killings and the length of time they occurred over). The book does not read like a recounting of facts, it reads more like a thriller - just as officials think they have the killer(s) there are twists and turns, leaving local and federal - the newly formed Hoover FBI- starting over from scratch. We meet the victims, the lawmen (my favorite was Tom White - a character who deserves his own show more movie!) and the perpetrators, then we also meet the descendants of the victims.
The crimes were sinister and the cover-ups evil brilliance. The Osage, who had been forced to barren Oklahoma lands were the recipients of mining/mineral rights and then oil was discovered. They become the richest per capita people in the world at the time, and yet the Federal Government deemed it necessary to appoint guardians to each of them and deny them the right to manage their own funds. Their neighbors were extremely jealous of their wealth, their guardians largely scammed them, and these factors led to the evil plot to gain their wealth. To add insult to injury further "scamming" may be taking place now in the present time. Shameful.
Note -About 2/3 thru the book it feels like the story is pretty much wrapped up, but keep reading because there is much more! show less