Book Description
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage 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. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
***
My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann is an enthralling true story of the murder, greed, and fear that permeated the Osage Indian tribe for years in 1920’s Oklahoma. This is an extensively researched look at the oil rich Osage and the prejudice which allowed white guardians to exploit the system to steal, embezzle, and murder their charges for their shares of oil rights and the newly formed FBI men who took on this murder investigation.
Molly Burkhart watched as one by one her Osage family and friends were killed. Some by gunshot, some by poisoning, and others never designated with a method of death since the tribe became the richest people in the U.S. due to the oil under their land. In the 1920’s, the Osage were considered unable to handle their wealth and the Federal government decided that they should be appointed white guardians. When anyone questioned the deaths, they would mysteriously end up dead.
The murder rate exceeded the national average when the government decided to send in men from the newly formed FBI under J. Edgar Hoover. At first, they did no better than the corrupt local law enforcement until Hoover sent in Tom White. He put together a team of his choosing who all entered the region undercover and soon began to piece together a conspiracy tied to the most influential rancher in the area.
This book is intricately plotted not only making the characters come to life for the reader, but to show the Osage were set up to be exploited (hopefully) unintentionally by the Federal government’s decision that put the Osage under guardianship. The local white population took advantage of this system to follow the money and kill off family lines until the white guardians inherited the Osage money and oil rights. While this book focuses on the one conspiracy of criminals publicized in that time that were brought to trial after the FBI’s investigation, the author discusses many other murders that were never investigated. I was outraged by the prejudice, heartsick by the killing, and that is what I hope to feel and more when reading a book about a historical atrocity. The descendants of the Osage are still looking for justice and closure which will never come.
I highly recommend this compelling historical true crime mystery.
***
About the Author
DAVID GRANN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The Wager,” “The Lost City of Z,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of “The White Darkness” and the collection “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession.” His book “Killers of the Flower Moon” was recently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro. Several of his other stories, including “The Lost City of Z” and “Old Man and the Gun,” have also been adapted into major motion pictures. His investigative reporting and storytelling have garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.davidgrann.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DavidGrannAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DavidGrann
