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

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From New Yorker staff writer David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost City of Z, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.

In the 1920s the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the "Phantom Terror", roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than 24, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization's first major homicide investigations, and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling but also emotionally devastating.

Editor's Note

Will keep you guessing…

David Grann (“The Lost City of Z”) is a rockstar researcher and journalist. In this book, he brings to life one of our nation’s most chilling murder conspiracies. Illuminating a dark period of racism, greed, corrupt lawmen, and ruthless outlaws, Grann animates his meticulous, detective-like research into a page-turning mystery.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 18, 2017
ISBN9780307747457
Unavailable
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Author

David Grann

David Grann is the author of the Number One international bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE LOST CITY OF Z and THE WAGER. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was shortlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honours including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, New York.

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A part of history I never knew about. It disturbs me how often I find information that is left out of our history books about horrible periods in our nation's past. We can't learn from things if we, as a nation, are not made aware that something has ever occurred.

    The book goes into background that is more extensive than necessary on a few of the characters. I don't always see the relevance and how it ties back to the overall story but the main part of what happened is tragic. All you come away with is the question, how could the government have let this happen?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann It begins with the murders of two members of the then much affluent Osage Tribe in very early 1920’s: Charles Whitehorn and Anna Brown. Then an avalanche of murders follow, all suspicious, all focused on rich Osage, with a couple investigative affiliates thrown in to keep the pickings easy. Money is a heavy player, both as impetus to kill and the reluctance of authorities to do anything to stop the slaughter. Prejudice also rears an ugly, but vital head. After all, it’s just a “worthless Indian.” Enter J Edgar Hoover in the preliminary steps of the FBI with onetime Texas Ranger, Tom White, being sent in to oversee a new investigation with fresh eyes and his own pickings of men. What unfurls is hardly surprising, especially as it happens every single day today. This is a fascinating read that brings the rudimentary tools of the age to investigate into appreciation. It also shows how much easier it was to hide evidence or slowly kill with poison. It is totally appalling how our Native Americans were treated (still is) by our government and their own neighbors. Moreso by their assumed friends.Solving but a few of the murders creates much needed change for the Osage tribe and in such success, the need for the FBI is established. Hoover becomes a hero.Going beyond the era of terror, we find that the story had even more complexities and deaths. Families are still left with unanswered murders generations later. As their fortunes dwindled with the oil surplus and pilfering “guardians” or financial institutions, the Osage remain proud, steadfast and traditional. Oklahoma is privileged to have such resilient keepers of tradition within its boundaries. It’s a well written investigation into the lateral and sacrificial lives involved in one of America’s genocides, mostly now forgotten, as if they are still just “worthless Indians.”
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann was a difficult book to read because of all the injustice to the Osage people and victims especially. What a horrible stain on our history. I wish it was a compulsory book for high school kids to read and discuss today. Would it make a difference? I don't know but there is so much white-washing in the history books as it is. This was a book for our reading group and I am so glad it was picked or I probably would never have picked it up. Great book!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The 1920s were known as the Jazz age. Millionaires were abundant. The richest people per capita in the world lived in Oklahoma. They were members of the Osage Indian tribe.President Thomas Jefferson had promised treat the Osage fairly, but within four years, he compelled them to relinquish their territory between the Arkansas River and the Missouri River. The Osage chief stated his people "had no choice, they must either sign the treaty of declared enemies of the United States.” During the next twenty years, the Osage were forced to move from their ancestral land, (more than 100 million acres), to a 50 x 125 mile (800,000 acres) area in southeastern Kansas. In the 1870s, they were driven to a rocky, worthless area of northeast Oklahoma.That move would dramatically change their lives when oil was discovered under their land. Oklahoma opened up territory for allotment starting at noon September 16, 1893. There were 42,000 parcels of land available. They would go to the people who got there first. That’s how Oklahoma became to be called “The Sooner State.”By the early 20th century, the Osage knew that they could no longer avoid what government official called the great storm gathering. The US government plan to break up Indian territory and make it a part of what would be a new state called Oklahoma. (In the Choctaw language, Oklahoma means red people.) The good news was that the Osage became exceedingly wealthy. (In 1923 alone, the tribe took in more than $30 million, the equivalent today of more than $400 million.) The bad news was they quickly became a target for white people trying to get access to their money. A reporter from Harper's Monthly magazine wrote, “Where will it end? Every time a new well is drilled the Indians...are that much richer." He added "the Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it."Because the Osage and purchased their land, it was hard for the government to impose a policy allotment. The tribe, led by one of its greatest chiefs, James Big Heart – who spoke seven languages, among them Sioux, French, English, and Latin--was able to forestall the process but it mounted. Theater Roosevelt had already warned about would befall an Indian who refuses allotment: "Let him, like these whites, who will not work, perish from the face of the earth which he cumbers."To some Osage, oil was a cursed blessing. "Someday this oil will go in there will be no more fat checks every few months from the great white father," the chief of the Osage said 1928. "They'll be no fine motor cars and new clothes. Then I know my people will be happier.”As part of the process, merchants charged them inflated prices (A funeral could cost more than $6,000 ($80,000 today.) The government declared many of the Osage, including those who had served in the US Armed Forces, incompetent to handle their own financial affairs and appointed local white guardians for them. In 1921, Congress implemented draconian legislation controlling how the Osage could spend their money. The guardians had to approve all expenditures, including toothpaste. Guardians would not only continue to oversee their wards’ finances; under the new law, these Osage Indians with guardians were also restricted, which meant that each of them could withdraw no more than a few thousand dollars annually from his or her trust fund. It didn't matter if these Osage needed their money to pay for education or sick child's hospital bills.Even though their money and high standard of living should have provided a lower death rate, between 1907 and 1923, the annual Osage death rate was about 19 per 1000 people. It was about 12 per 1000 for white people.Many corrupt government officials and individuals did all they could to gain control of all the money. Among them were the doctors, lawyers, law enforcement, and elected leaders who were supposed to be protecting the members of the tribe. In addition, unscrupulous white men married Osage women and then proceeded to kill their wives and relatives so they could inherit the money. The mother and three sisters of Mollie Burkhart, one Osage woman, were all killed–two by gunshot, one by an explosion, and one by poison.Molly pressed authorities to investigate her sister Anna's murder, but most officials seem to have little concern for what they deemed a "dead Injun."Since the Revolutionary War, Americans had always feared police departments because the police would oppress them. That attitude changed in the mid-19th century following the growth of industry in cities and urban riots. The fear of lawlessness created support for police departments. By the time the Osage members began to be murdered, the informal system of citizen police he had been displaced, but vestiges of it remained, especially in places that still seem to exist on the periphery of geography and history.Teddy Roosevelt created the FBI in 1908 hoping to fill the void in federal law enforcement. It had only a few hundred agents and only a smattering of field offices. Its jurisdiction over crimes was limited and agents handled hodgepodge of cases. Twenty-nine-year-old J. Edgar Hoover, who had no experience in law enforcement, became the Acting Director. He raised the employment qualifications for new agents, requiring them to have some legal training or knowledge of accounting. Many of the agents who had been involved and knew their jobs were dropped.Hoover did, however, push to resolve the murders. It became part of the movement that turned the force into the powerful movement it was to become.In 2012, David Grann visited the Osage nation to learn more about what had happened. He was able to discover that there were more deaths and murders than had been officially reported. Many were not even investigated. He was able to get information that named many of the people responsible. That information is related in the final portion of the book.KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is not an easy book to read because of the subject matter. But it is an important one. The US government is still trying to take over the land owned by Native Americans and turn it over to companies who want to destroy it to get rich. The Native Americans are fighting back. The book is very well written and very important. This year, Paramount bought the rights to make it into a movie with the talents of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to this one on audio after it quickly went viral (especially on bookstagram!). I listened to it on recommendation from a friend and it was binge worthy for sure. Fascinating (and really sad) story!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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 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!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In this astonishing and heartbreaking work, Grann traces the true story of a series of murders committed in Oklahoma early in the 20th century. Largely ignored at the time by the local white power structure, the crimes only began to be seriously investigated when J. Edgar Hoover sought to utilize them in developing the agency ultimately known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

    By the end of the 19th century, the Osage Indian tribe had been largely confined to a reservation in northeast Oklahoma. It seemed almost a grand joke of fate when vast reservoirs of oil were discovered under this previously "worthless" property, and members of the Osage Nation became, per capita, the richest people on earth. Newly-acquired wealth, however, seems to bring out the worst kinds of predators, and the official government stance that the Osage were, by definition, incapable of managing their own affairs, exacerbated the situation. As members of the white power structure were assigned as guardians to the Osage, many estates were systematically drained through fraudulent means. That wasn't enough, however, for the boundless greed of the swindlers, who coveted ownership of the "headright" itself. But headrights, unlike land, couldn't be sold. They could only be passed through inheritance.

    This made many Osage, who had married whites, prime targets for murder. Once the rights passed to a spouse, or to minor mixed-blood children, there was a clear path to headrights passing into non-Indian hands.

    And that's just what happened -- beginning perhaps as early as the 19-teens and extended into the 1930s, as many as 600 Osage were murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. Local law enforcement simply looked the other way or enlisted county coroners and Indian Agents to help cover up the murders.

    Grann concentrates on one particular family, that of Mollie Burkhart, whose first husband, mother, and three sisters all died -- by gunshot, by poison, by suspicious and vague "wasting illness". When the acknowledged death count around Mollie's family and friends reached 24, the killings finally drew the attention of the nascent FBI. The subsequent investigation and series of trials forms a large part of the second half of the book.

    The story does not end with the incarceration of the men who preyed on Mollie Burkhart. Grann goes on to investigate old records and family histories handed down to modern-day Osage men and women, to find a truly stunning pattern of crime and abuse.

    Fascinating, chilling read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was such a sad book to read and a sad statement about our history here in the US. I have to say, I had no clue about this and now I do and I am sad for the knowing. This is a work of non fiction. It is set in the early part of the 1920s and it would have made a great fictionalized nonfiction. Such a mystery and such arrogance and greed. It also is the story of the birth of the FBI and covers a lot of government and political corruption and how government took advantage and allowed the Osage to be exploited.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann is an exploration of a time between 1921 and 1925 when two dozen members of the Osage tribe in oil-rich Oklahoma were murdered. Some were shot, others were poisoned and one couple died when a bomb demolished their home in the middle of the night. Local authorities either didn’t care to investigate or were encouraged not to. With the death toll rising, the newly appointed director of the bureau of Investigations, J. Edgar Hoover assigned an agent, tough Texan Tom White, to lead a Task Force into investigating these deaths. Mr. White in turn put together a team that included a number of undercover agents and set to work sorting through the evidence and following up on any leads.First of all it is important to know that the Osage tribe were living on oil rich land revenues. $30 million dollars were earned in 1923 alone. With this kind of money, both outlaws and businessmen flocked to Osage country to get a piece of the pie. As so often happens the Indians were being fleeced and no one really seemed to care. Then the killings began. With the obvious motive of money, Tom White followed the cold trail of rumors, lies and false clues. They eventually identified, convicted and sent to prison two men and the case was closed and considered a great success for the FBI. But author David Grann determined that there were many more murders and murderers that were never prosecuted.Killers of the Flower Moon tells a truly interesting story about serial murder, racial injustice, and overwhelming greed as well as giving the reader an insight into the early days of the FBI.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really compelling historical narrative of a shameful episode in U.S. history
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The story Grann uncovers is utterly horrifying—especially the last chapters, where some murders are resolved and many more left unresolved. Strangely, though, the book had both much more detail than I wanted to know, and much less. It suffers from the magazine-article-blown-up-into-a-book disease. In order to stretch out the story, Grann throws in lots of details. But also in order to stretch out the story, he keeps the big picture to himself, so that the narrative of his reporting can be written in, too, filling more pages. I found this frustrating.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    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 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.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is needless to praise this book as it has already received an Edgar award for best factual crime for 2018. Grann has produced a heavily researched account of a major case handled by the then new FBI. Mysterious deaths and outright murders had plagued the Osage Tribe, located in upper Oklahoma. The tribe had been relocated from a reservation in Kansas to acreage they purchased from the Cherokee. Despite attempts to seize the land the tribe had managed to hold on to much of it, and to the mineral rights. When oil was discovered each enrolled tribal member had what was known as 'headrights' to a portion of the oil lease money. Tribal members went from living in traditional lodges or shacks to building mansions and driving expensive automobiles. However murders of tribal members were not adequately investigated by either the local police or private detectives. Eventually the case was given to the FBI and despite many setbacks, including witnesses murdered, collaborators who retracted their testimony and bribed juries, three men were convicted of several murders. The case was considered closed and the FBI congratulated on the success of its methods. Grann, however, researched other deaths within the tribe and believes that there were other killers and other murders. Suspiciously high numbers of Osage died, far exceeding the death rate for the rest of the nation. It is too late to solve these crimes and Grann does not detail his suspicions against people no longer alive to defend themselves. However this is a sobering reminder that exploitation and outright killing of Native Americans did not end with the official end of Indian Wars. In fact, a similar situation seems to currently exist in the Canada and northern states of the US, with disappearances and murders of Native American women and girls left unsolved. The book has an extensive set of notes, a bibliography and illustrations. However it lacks an index, which is unfortunate. I also feel that it would be improved by a complete list of the victims, with their relations to one another and to the suspected killers and a chronology of the events.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The oil-rich Osage seemed to be dying in rather high numbers back in the 1920's. The author explores the history surrounding these deaths, and how the federal government became involved.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In the same vain as "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," and it will make you just as angy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating and well researched account of a shameful time in American history. David Grann takes on a monumental task of pursuing long dead leads on cases that local government was bribed to turn a blind eye towards. This work brings some justice to the Osage people and reminds us of how easily authority is corrupted by money.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Absolutely riveting account of the systematic murder of scores of Osage tribal members in Oklahoma. Why? Money, of course. Someone inadvertently screwed up by settling the Osage nation on land later found to be rich with oil. The ensuing wealth led to racism, envy, beteayals, lies, cover-ups, murder, poisonings, assignment of white guardians to "help" manage wealthy Osage's funds, and so much more. It is a shameful piece of American history, which has not received enough attention! Add in J.Edgar Hoover and a few good agents of the "new" FBI, and this book is quietly significant on many levels. Read it!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    For four years, in the 1920's, the richest people per capita in the world were the members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. They lived in mansions on their oil-rich land. Then they are being killed. Mollie Burkhart watched her family die, one by one. They were shot, poisoned, blown up. Other Osage natives were being killed and white people were inheriting their headrights. Each tribe member had a guardian, who had the right to handle any money that the tribe member could spend. While the trials that took place say that this rampage lasted 4 years, there were numerous deaths that were never attributed for. There are probably about 300 deaths that were manipulated to inherit these fortunes. This was a very disturbing part of our history.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Second book I've read by David Grann. May I remember I think he is a horrible writer and never buy another book of his. Boring writing style.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rather dry and straightforward account of one of the most disturbing incidents from Twentieth Century American history. A group of white men manage to become legal guardians of one, or several, Osage Indians in the 1920s with the intent of killing them off in order to steal their mineral right from them. They didi it - and they largely got away with it.According to author David Grann, the official victim head count is set at 24 murdered men, women, and children - but it is actually much higher, and no one has ever tried to come up with an accurate count. The Osage murders also gave birth to the modern FBI when it became obvious that local and state law enforcement either could not - or purposely would not - be solving the murders anytime soon.Killers of the Flower Moon is a reminder of a past that has largely been swept under the carpet now, a horrible series of crimes that almost no one even remembers today. Grann has written a much needed book, but he fails to put flesh on the real human beings who suffered such atrocities, or even on those horrible people who were behind the crimes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very well researched account of a period in American history that has been overlooked by mainstream society. The author spent years researching the Osage murders, and while visiting the National Archives of the West uncovered evidence that the murders were much more numerous than the FBI officially reported. All for money!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story of the Osage Nation is one that you will not have heard about in history class. Forced to move to a desolate land that was worthless, their circumstances changed dramatically when oil was discovered. But still the tribal people were controlled by the white men who wielded power, and when that was not enough, those men turned to murder. This well researched and meticulous book will fascinate you. Members of Molly Burkhart’s family were carefully set up and murdered one by one for the rights to the oil on their land. How the FBI developed and became involved, how they finally determined who was guilty of murder, and then brought them to justice makes for fascinating reading. But the book doesn’t end with the trial and prison sentence. There were still more facts to uncover about the treatment of the Osage. History class was never this compelling.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Important history of how Native Americans were badly abused and taken advantage of by Caucasian Americans
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Often history is hidden or forgotten, particularly when it occurs at a distance from you. This is a history of a tragedy that should not be forgotten by us, and won't be forgotten by the Osage.Over a period of a few years in the early 1920s a surprising number of Osage died under suspicious circumstances. This book focuses on one family that was decimated by these deaths, by poison, by gunshot, by an explosion. Why were they targeted?? The author uses unpublished documents from the FBI, the Osage Museum etc. to uncover the cause, beginning with the unimaginable riches received by the Osage from oil reserves under their land. Follow the money.I particularly liked the followup at the end of the book that took place while writing this book, long after the Reign of Terror. This chapter made it clear that the incidents of nearly a hundred years ago are still very real to the Osage and all the families, which are all of them living in that county, that suffer still.You can't read this book without feeling shame, anger, incredulity, and extreme sadness. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was somewhat of a slow read for me but very interesting Documentary type true story about the Federal Government investigation of the murders of Osage Indians in Oklahoma. The conspiracy to get control of their wealth & oil rights and the extent that some locals went to to gain the trust and control with the intent to on eliminate them. Its a real eye-opener how these Native Americans were treated not only by the locals but by the government.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a story! A conspiracy to kill members of the Osage Nation, particularly members of the family of Mollie Burkhart, took place in Osage County, Oklahoma, mostly during the 1920s. The tribe's mineral rights provided a motive for white men to want the Osage out of their way. The lack of action led many to believe local law enforcement were involved in the cover-up. We read of the efforts of former Texas Ranger Tom White who worked for the young J. Edgar Hoover and the newly established Bureau of Investigation. Even the early days of their investigation seemed to show they also had someone who was working as a double agent. Grann does a great job maintaining the reader's interest. The narrative bogs down only in a couple of places--and not for long. It's a piece of history worth studying. Grann includes many photographs which help readers picture the people and the action. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book on CD narrated by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee and Danny Campbell.From the book jacket: In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under suspicious circumstances. My reactionsWow. I am ashamed to say that I knew nothing of this shameful episode of American history. Grann did a marvelous job researching and reporting his findings. He brings these people to life and makes the reader care about each and every one of them. He did more than simply report what the FBI managed to uncover, and that only emphasizes how institutionalized the racist attitudes were. He begins with the disappearance of one woman, and slowly uncovers the evidence of a vast conspiracy to eliminate the Osage and steal their riches. It is nothing short of appalling. Local officials were, at best, ill equipped to investigate. They lacked the forensic training of modern-day police forces, and more importantly, they lacked the will to really DO anything about “a bunch of Indians.” As the FBI began investigating, they were faced with uncooperative local leaders, and conflicting stories. Key witnesses were killed, or otherwise “convinced” to change their stories. Evidence went missing. That they were able to bring anyone to trial was a testament to their tenacity and insistence on pursuing the perpetrators. And yet …. As the last section of the book shows, even the FBI failed to fully comprehend the extent of the problem. I found this section the most distressing. The audio book is very well done, using three narrators: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee and Danny Campbell. They are talented voice artists and they keep the pace moving.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Powerful and moving, the sad truth of how white people killed off the Osage people to steal their money and rights to their land. Worth the read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There seems to be no end of the atrocities about which they did not teach me in school. I hope schools are doing better now and this book might help. The Osage tribe was driven from its original land by the US government, forced to sell their land in Kansas and ultimately moved to Oklahoma. They selected the Osage Territory in Oklahoma because it was so barren and worthless that they didn't think that the white people would try to push them away again. They were wrong. I can't even begin to detail all of the terrible things that the government did to the Osage, but it included leaving them starving in a territory where they couldn't hunt and were unfamiliar with the necessary farming techniques. The US also tried to pay them for their Kansas property with useless supplies rather than cash. The children were forced into schools for assimilation. When oil was discovered on the Osage land each registered member of the tribe held a share of the mineral rights and became fabulously wealthy. The rights could be inherited, but not sold. From then on the Osage had more to worry about than the government. During the 1920s the Osage were subjected to venomous treatment by white swindlers. The government deemed itself entitled to monitor the spending habits of the Osage and appointed guardians to handle the money of some of them. Guess who got appointed. And then the murders began. A group or groups of conspirators were killing the Osage by shooting, poisoning or blowing up their houses in order to concentrate ownership of the mineral rights so they could be more easily exploited. Law enforcement investigators who got too close to the truth of the murders also turned up dead. Finally, the FBI managed to arrest at least some, but not all, of the men responsible for the murders and convictions were obtained. The Depression and the depletion of the oil deposits made the wealth disappear. The first two parts of this nonfiction book dealing with the murders and the investigation read like a novel. The final part was somewhat more dry, but still interesting. The book is very thoroughly researched and compellingly written. It left me feeling outrage, fury and disgust.I received a free copy of the ebook from the publisher but I listened to the audiobook borrowed from the library and used the ebook only to see the photographs of many of the people and places referred to in the book. Of the three narrators of the audiobook, my favorite was Will Patton in part two. The ebook has extensive footnotes and a bibliography.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Heartbreaking and maddening. I'm fairly sure similar abuses of power could be found internationally but this was corruption, cronyism and murder on a grand scale with apparent collusion by the US government.When the Osage nation moved to Oklahoma no-one knew that under the soil there was oil. Luckily the Osage had the mineral rights and overnight they went from poor to ultra-rich. But they were second class citizens and needed helo with this, they needed a responsible white person to act as their "guardian" to basically treat them as children or mentally incapable people. But one family suddenly started to die, murdered, but the law wasn't investigating so an FBI team went in, some undercover and what they uncovered was horrible. What Grann uncovers is worse, this wasn't isolated, this wasn't strange, this was normalised by greed.This is compelling reading and well worth it, but the rage that engulfed me by the end was quite overwhelming.