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This was a GRANN: Yeah, the white man. Osage Reign of Terror: Dark Hearts - Tulsa World He was abducted. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? None of these people had college educations or whatnot. 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. Whats interesting is you get to see Hoover and the bureau in its formative period. In 2011, the U.S. government settled with the Osage for $380 million. Mollie recovered from the poison she had already consumed and (after the trials) divorced Ernest. What was the impact on the daily lives of members of the Osage? And she issued rewards, and she hired a team of private investigators. There really was a culture of killing and a culture of complicity. 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. GRANN: You know, it's - what's interesting and is, in many ways, the story of America, there are descendants of both the murderers and descendants of the victims who still live in the same community. Who would investigate this kind of murder at the time? NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Stuff in the Basement: Zitkla- - Blogger Document in the "HaleRamsey Murder Case", from the Oklahoman Collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society Photo Archives. GRANN: Yeah. Her father literally referred to Ernest Burkhart as Old Dynamite - that's what he called his father - because he was participating in the blowing up of one of the houses. Osage murders. She's in her 80s now. The Department of Interior continued to manage the trust lands and pay fees to Osage with headrights. He went to Oklahoma City to meet with this Osage Indian who was dying of suspected poisoning. He talks about his research into a spree of murders of oil-rich Osage Indians in 1920s Oklahoma. . The violence befalling the Osage tribe is escalating in a show of force and dominance. He showed up in Washington, D.C., and he brought with him a Bible and a pistol. In 2015, why couldn't the Osage prevent wind turbines being erected on allotted land that had been sold? The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior sent four agents to act as undercover investigators. And she's really somebody who is straddling not only two centuries, but in many ways two civilizations. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? He's an interesting guy. did cora jakes coleman have a baby; is disjunctive syllogism deductive or inductive; 1968 pontiac executive station wagon; nebraska board of education lands and funds (Credit: David Grann). He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. That's why they went on for so many years. It wasn't just Mollie's family that was being methodically killed on Oklahoma's Osage Nation Reservation in the early 1920s. Hale and Ramsey were later convicted of Roans murder, and Burkhart accepted a plea deal for the murder of Smith. 5(ish) Questions: David Grann and "Killers of the Flower Moon" The attorney's name is given as W.W. Vaughan in some sources (e.g. So there were only about 2,000 Osage who were registered on the tribal roll. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hosted a delegation of Osage chiefs who had . The Reign of Terror was a frightful time for the Osage people. In this new half-hour documentary from OETA, the team from Back In Time presents the story of the Osage in their own words. And he said, if you speak to the Osage, will you please tell them that for me? Nevertheless, impatient settlers massacred several of the Osage, mutilating their bodies and scalping them. And the white man won't be able to farm there, and they'll finally leave us alone. Let's get back to the interview FRESH AIR contributor Dave Davies recorded with David Grann, author of a new book about one of the biggest serial murder cases in American history. 338 pp. You slowly can't breathe, but you're conscious throughout until finally you mercifully suffocate. The Osage were shot and poisoned in staggering numbers. GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Grann's focus on the Osage murder investigation as the "Birth of the FBI" is a sad joke. 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. 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. in many ways he is like mollie. 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. And what allotted meant - this happened to many American tribes in that period - where the federal government was forcing them to break up the reservations, break up their communal way of life, turn them into, quote, unquote, "private property owners." ["The Data Are Pointing to One Major Driver of America's Murder Spike . DAVIES: Yeah. He came to believe that Woodward was responsible for her death. And one day in 1921, her sister, Anna Brown, disappears, and Mollie looks everywhere for her, searching along the prairie. Even the Osages blessings turned out to be cursed, however. So this was just one of the many means of targeting the Osage in these very systematic and brutal ways. He was sometimes called "Will". GROSS: We're listening to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with David Grann about his new book "The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI" (ph). Executed But Possibly Innocent | Death Penalty Information Center Blood for Oil - Reason.com Juni 2022. And you could not sell or buy a headright. He said that Hale had promised him five hundred dollars and a new car for killing Roan. Following the shooting of a cousin less than two years later, Mollies sister Rita and her husband were killed when an explosion reduced their house to kindling. It was a ruthless band of killers who terrorized the Osage from the 1890s through the 1920s, led by a man who enjoyed being called the "king of the Osage Hills". In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. Hes very insecure in his career at the time, Grann says. Doubleday. There are no statistics about how many American-Indian agents were in the bureau at the time, but I suspect he was the only one. . They resettled there. Osage Murders | PBS Short Film Festival And evidence later surfaced that she had been poisoned. He has to wear a suit and a fedora where he had once ridden on a horse back with a 10-gallon hat. Between 1921 and 1926, at least 24 members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma were brutally murdered. This was in the 1920s after oil was discovered on the reservation of the Osage Indian Nation and members of the tribe became wealthy. And so while some of the Osage still receive royalties from oil money, it's nothing like the fortune that they had once had during the 1920s and the beginning of the 20th century. Attorneys who have been following the six-week-long Alex Murdaugh double-murder trial say the outcome remains uncertain, but that a guilty verdict or hung jury is likely. But hundreds of millions of dollars was swindled. GRANN: So yeah - so Barney McBride was an oilman in the area, a white man. Her heirs became fabulously wealthy. And he said I'm very ashamed - this was a descendant of Ernest Burkhart - and said I'm very ashamed of what my ancestors did. Killers of the Flower Moon Reading Quiz STUDENT PREP | Chegg.com "With the help of independent producers, Dan Bigbee and Lily Shangreaux, we were . DAVIES: So this becomes a federal investigation. The power structure was able to buy off lawmen. No products in the cart. [12] Kelsie Morrison, a petty criminal, later admitted to murdering Brown and testified that William Hale, a prominent local cattleman, had asked him to do so. In the early 1900s death was all too common in the . "Serial killer" was not yet a term in the crime lexicon, but as a reader, you arrive at that conclusion quickly. It makes your whole body convulse as if with electricity. GRANN: Well, early on when - in the early 20th century, there was just a little bit of oil. GRANN: This had now become a national story. An oil well in Osage County, Oklahoma, home to the Osage Nation. 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." DAVIES: Right - a terrible, dramatic crime and a mystery around it. Often they had criminal backgrounds. What appears to have been a common means through which many Osage were poisoned? Rita and Bill Smiths house after blast. And where her sister's house had been, there had been an explosion. Alex Murdaugh trial: Observers predict guilty verdict or hung jury David Grann's book. Murders in the U.S. by state 2021 | Statista For more than a decade, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were quietly . This is FRESH AIR. That's exactly right. DAVIES: So the guy running who had just taken over the bureau at the time was none other than J. Edgar Hoover. DAVIES: David Grann, thank you so much for speaking with us. Her sister Anna had been discovered in a ravine in May 1921 with a bullet wound to the back of her head. [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. All Rights Reserved. All along, it wasthe UnitedStates thatheld the threads of the lives . Between 1920 and 1925 there were more than 60 mysterious or unsolved murders in Osage County, all dealing with Osage headright holders. It's about 3 in the morning. DAVIES: OK. That said, there was a lot of wealth controlled by the Osage. Then Ramsey shot Roan in the head. "[5] Most murders of the Osage during the early 1920s went unsolved. He went out of his house. Somebody put a bag over his head. How did whites in Oklahoma react to seeing Native Americans with all that money? GRANN: So, yes, the Osage were typical of many American-Indian nations. You want to pick one, tell us about it? Howell, Melissa. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? how many osage murders might there possibly have been? They literally imposed a system where guardians - white guardians - were placed in charge of overseeing how the Osage spent their money. And then within about 30 years because of oil deposits under her land becomes one of the wealthier people in the United States and is living in a mansion and married to a white husband, has a couple children. GRANN: There are about 4,000 who still live in the area. DAVIES: So Hoover personally selects this former Texas Ranger Tom White to lead the investigation into the Osage murders, and White assembles an interesting team to help him. Boy Scouts - local Boy Scouts took up the search. A week later . HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. he was born in a cabin in texas. Dozens and dozens of people were being murdered in a crime wave . [12], In the early 1990s, journalist Dennis McAuliffe of The Washington Post investigated the suspicious death of his grandmother, Sybil Beekman Bolton, an Osage with headrights who died in 1925 at age 21. . how many osage murders might there possibly have been?splash cafe clam chowder recipe. Theyre scalping our souls out here, complained one exasperated Osage. And he recruits one frontier lawman who will pose as a cattleman. We'll continue our conversation after a break. 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. GRANN: Well, by now, this was known as the Osage reign of terror. He - because he was last seen with Anna Brown, he is initially questioned. GRANN: You know, Tom White is in many ways like Mollie Burkhart in that he is a transitional figure in this country. By the early 1900s, the Osage - these 2,000 or so on the tribal roll - began to receive quarterly checks for the money that was used to pay for leases and royalties. And then by the 1920s when he has this case when he becomes an agent, he is trying to learn all these new modern methods of detection such as fingerprinting, such as ballistic analysis, learning how to file reports which he can't stand. Ernest Burkhart: The Background. It wasn't simply a reservation given to them, right? Hale was formally charged with the murder of Roan, who had been killed on the Osage Reservation land, making it a federal crime. "The Great Depression had wiped out many Osage fortunes that had already been diminished by guardians and thieves. There was a great deal of lawlessness. DAVIES: Right. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, Osage Nation#Natural resources and headrights, MARGO JEFFERSON, "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Digging Up a Tale of Terror Among the Osages", "A Historic Settlement with the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma". Menu does allegiant fly to dallas texas. He then called the local sheriff and said, I've got enough evidence against one of the killers. [11] Two of his accomplices had died before the BOI investigation was completed. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 10,430 people identified themselves as . 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. His father had been a frontier lawman, a local sheriff. (Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images). By the early 20th century, because of this kind of clash of cultural forces, so many whites were coming into the area because of the well, so many oil workers and oil men. They were driven off their lands. We're now over 20 victims at this point. The other agents recruited were: a former New Mexico sheriff; a former Texas Ranger; John Burger, who had worked on the previous investigation; Frank Smith; and John Wren, an American Indian of the Ute Nation who had previously been a spy for the Mexican revolutionaries.[20]. in 1925, the new boss, j edgar hoover, summoned tom white to washington. It wasnt just Mollies family that was being methodically killed on Oklahomas Osage Nation Reservation in the early 1920s. By . This sordid episode has been revived recently by Killers of the Flower Moon, which as of June 2021 is being made into a movie on location in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Hale and his nephews, Ernest and Bryan Burkhart, had migrated from Texas to Osage County to find jobs in the oil fields. He died there in 1942. The Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it, reported Harpers Monthly. nycha employment verification. One of the most prevalent means of murder and of killing the Osage was poison because of the lack of training. And gradually, a lot of the oil was depleted. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? DAVIES: Mollie is married to a guy named Ernest Burkhart. [15] Morrison testified that, after meeting Brown earlier at her sister Mollie's home, he and Burkhart took a heavily intoxicated Brown to Three Mile Creek, where Morrison shot and killed her.[14]. That loophole proved the genesis of a calculated, cold-blooded plot to gain inheritance rights from tribe members before killing them. By 1925, at least sixty wealthy Osage had died and their land had been inherited or deeded to their guardians, who were local white lawyers and businessmen. DAVIES: Many shot, others died of mysterious illnesses, right? About the film. So one of the things that happened back then because - you know, we think of ourself as a country of laws, but these institutions back in the '20s in the United States were very fragile. 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. And by the 1920s, the Osage collectively had accumulated millions and millions of dollars. An Indian Affairs agent said, "The question will suggest itself, which of these people are the savages?" Osage is a tribe in North America who suffered deeply on the hands of greedy people. The Osage wanted to make sure that they maintained all the subsurface territory together. 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. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. 7. And one of the most powerful things in all of the research was meeting with the descendants. A week later, Anna Brown's body is found in a ravine. "'Reign of Terror Kills Osage Family". Killers of the Flower Moon Quotes - LitCharts Talk about what services you provide. Investigators soon discovered that Mollie was already being poisoned.[13]. And so what they did is they gave each person a headright. Farris, David. GROSS: David Grann spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies, who is also WHYY's senior reporter. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?does checkers use peanut oil how many osage murders might there possibly have been? However, people from different countries heard about their fortune, they started to live a miserable life. Grann's book may soon become a film. So within just two months, Mollie Burkhart had lost her sister to a gunshot, her mother to poisoning. And because of that, justice was often privatized, that if you had money and resources, you had to turn to private investigators. The settlement also strengthened management of the tribe's trust assets and improved communications between the Department of Interior and the tribe. He realizes given the danger, given the fear in the area, given the corruption the team will have to go in undercover. Hale, his nephews, and one of the ranch hands they hired were charged with the murder of Mollie Kyle's family. And the challenges that Tom White and his men faced were just enormous, almost Herculean in that, one - there was enormous corruption. By . In icare graduate program. This equal share was called a headright. 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. GRANN: So not only was Anna Brown murdered, not long after Anna died, Mollie Burkhart's mother, who was kind of one of the last of the Osage elders who still practiced many of the old traditions, became mysteriously sick. What was the kingpin's sentence? They had become. Under the Osage Allotment Act of 1906, subsurface minerals within the Osage Nation Reservation were held in trust by the U.S. government, but were tribally owned. [10] Unable to find the killer, local authorities ruled her death as accidental because of alcohol poisoning and put the case aside. In 2000, the tribe filed a lawsuit against the department, alleging that federal government management of the trust assets had resulted in historical losses to its trust funds and interest income. There was an enormous amount of prejudice. Failed Protectors: The Indian Trust and Killers of the Flower Moon What happened to the well-being of the nation? The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. By David Grann. Generally speaking, what are they finding? These were men who were kind of struggling to adapt to the new bureau to adapt to new scientific forms of detection which were slowly emerging such as fingerprinting, handwriting analysis. So the government in - really looking back, just an outrageous system - decided somehow that the Osage were not capable of handling their money. GRANN: So so much of the Osage wealth was stolen. 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. John Ramsey confessed to participation in the murder of Roan as soon as he was arrested. Some sixty or more wealthy, full-blood Osage Native Americans were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. Here was a population being systematically murdered one by one. Soon after the money started piling up, the Osage started dying, mysteriously, and in large numbers. In 1925, to prevent another Reign of Terror, the United States Congress passed a law prohibiting non-Osages from inheriting headrights of tribal members possessing more than one-half Osage blood. David Grann, author of the New York Times Bestselling "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI", is my guest on this week's episode of Most Notorious. 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. He went to Oklahoma City to meet with an Osage who was dying of suspected poisoning. Non-Osages were able to inherit an Osage headright, and this was the motive for the Reign of Terror.