It's extremely resilient. Anna was known to be a heavy drinker. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? But there was still a great indifference because the victims were Osage, were Native Americans. GRANN: Yeah. But ultimately their devious activity would catch up with them. make certain you understand what it means. Wiki, Osage Indian Murders. And one of the most powerful things in all of the research was meeting with the descendants. DAVIES: In this period in which whites in Osage had a lot of social contact, a lot of intermarriage, many whites that were trusted by members of the Osage Nation - this FBI agent Tom White and his team begin to discover some pretty sinister stuff going on. Document in the "HaleRamsey Murder Case", from the Oklahoman Collection at the Oklahoma Historical Society Photo Archives. [17] Over a month later, on March 10, 1923, a bomb destroyed the Fairfax residence of Anna's sister Rita Smith, killing Rita and her servant, Nettie Brookshire. He went to Oklahoma City to meet with this Osage Indian who was dying of suspected poisoning. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. This is FRESH AIR. He was abducted. 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. David Grann's book. He came back and suddenly collapsed, frothing, his whole body shaking. He also alerted one of the FBI agents. By . But then, he never arrived. Once there, they discovered the immense wealth of members of the Osage Nation from royalties being paid from leases on oil-producing lands. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. DAVIES: We're speaking with David Grann. Colorado newspapers reported the murders as the "Reign of Terror" on the Osage reservation. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, by David Grann, Doubleday, 352 pages, $28.95. This is FRESH AIR. "[1] Some Osage used their royalties to send their children to private schools; others bought fancy cars, clothes and jewelry, and traveled in Europe; and newspapers across the country covered their activities. The U.S. Department of the Interior managed leases for oil exploration and production on land owned by the Osage Nation through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and later managed royalties, paying individual allottees. Walton assigned Herman Fox Davis to the investigation. 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 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. By 1925, 60 wealthy Osage had been killed, and their land had been inherited or deeded to their guardians: local white lawyers and businessmen. She was born in the 1880s, growing up in a lodge, practicing Osage tradition, speaking Osage. But what is part of America is that you have these descendants living side by side in the same communities. There were other murders happening throughout the community, other Osage being targeted. DAVIES: Was this reported in the local press? And he spoke to them. What was he looking for? And when his wife, the next day, went to the safe where he had stored his materials everything had been cleaned out. Just to give an example, the governor of Oklahoma eventually sent in his top state investigator, a guy named - his middle name was Fox, which always seemed appropriate. 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. They didn't treat these crimes with seriousness. he was born in a cabin in texas. It literally looked as if the sun had burst into the night. In 2011, the U.S. government settled with the Osage for $380 million. Rita and Bill Smiths house after blast. DAVIES: And, you know, when you speak to these surviving members of the Osage Nation and you see the pain that they still feel generations later from this - the series of crimes, and when you think about how many white people were complicit in it, it makes me think there's another book to be done about descendants of white people and what stories their grandparents might have told them because surely some told stories and surely some felt some guilt about it. No products in the cart. 7. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?cat costa bt24. Henry Roan was another Osage who was found in his car shot in the back of his head. Hale, along with his accomplices, Ernest Burkhart, John Ramsey, and several others, were allegedly tied to more than 20 killings. July 3, 2022 . Both Grammer and Kirby were killed before they could testify. Nick Vivarelli, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mar- . And a big question arose was regardless of the evidence, would a jury convict a white man for murdering an American-Indian? Talk about what services you provide. Did intermarriage among the Osage tribe and whites increase as this happened? Under the system, even minors who had less than half-Osage blood had to have guardians appointed, regardless of whether the minors had living parents. Methodical, incorruptible and fearless, White put together a team that, having eliminated all alternative explanations, concluded the Osage killings were directed by Ernest Burkhart's uncle, William Hale, a wealthy rancher known as "the King of the Osage Hills", who had tried to cash in a $25,000 life insurance policy on Henry Roan. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. And by 1923, just to give you. You slowly can't breathe, but you're conscious throughout until finally you mercifully suffocate. It has its own government. As best-selling author David Grann details in his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the Osage reservation was soaked in blood because it was awash in oil. In 1871 there were about 3,679 full-blooded Osage and 280 mixed-bloods and intermarried citizens. "The Osage Murders: Oil Wealth, Betrayal and the FBIs First Big Case." DAVIES: And so how helpful, how beneficial was this to the Osage? What you begin to realize, the deeper you dig, is that this was not a crime about who did it as much as who didn't do it - that there was a culture of killing taking place during this period and that there were scores if not hundreds of murders. DAVIES: Now, you used the word victims - plural. So Mary Jo Webb was somebody who I met. Hale and Ramsey were later convicted of Roans murder, and Burkhart accepted a plea deal for the murder of Smith. Indictment for John Ramsey and William K. Hale, 1/9/1926. In 1923 alone, the Osage received what today would be worth more than $400 million. Mollie Burkhart heard it. He was a master bureaucrat. ["The Data Are Pointing to One Major Driver of America's Murder Spike . You'd have a sheriff. DAVIES: And it's worth noting that I guess particularly Osage women - their control of these assets were restricted in some ways. And they were able to hold on to this last bit of their territory which they could not even see. Some sixty or more wealthy, full-blood Osage Native Americans were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. In 1870, the Osage-expelled from their lodges, their graves plundered-agreed to sell their Kansas lands to settlers for $1.25 an acre. Photo: Tyson Luneau In the 1920s, the Osage had become the wealthiest people per capita in the world following the discovery of oil on their lands. "The Reign of Terror." 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. And so they asked him to go to Washington, D.C., to try to plead for help. . It would later become Oklahoma. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The rocky, barren reservation promised to yield littlewith the exception of their desire to be left aloneuntil the discovery of one of the largest oil deposits in the United States below the surface. Howell, Melissa. And it's a very vibrant nation. The trials received national newspaper and magazine coverage. Burkhart and Ramsey also received life sentences, and both were also paroled in 1947. What are we talking about? Kyle. It wasn't just Mollie's family that was being methodically killed on Oklahoma's Osage Nation Reservation in the early 1920s. The tribe held the mineral rights communally and paid its members by a percentage related to their holdings. What happened to the well-being of the nation? 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. These images belie long-standing stereotypes of Native Americans that trace back to the first contact with whites, Grann tells HISTORY. White pursued the case when many people believed the people they were pursuing were untouchable because they were white and the victims were Native Americans, Grann says. NewsOK. In 1923 alone "the tribe took in more than thirty million dollars, the equivalent today of more than four hundred million dollars. We'll continue our conversation after a break. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior sent four agents to act as undercover investigators. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? He watched his father when he was just a little kid hang a man, a convict. [13], Various residents of Pawhuska petitioned Oklahoma Governor Jack C. Walton to conduct a full investigation of the deaths of Charles Bigheart and his attorney, William Vaughan. Menu does allegiant fly to dallas texas. But there was also a great deal of corruption. 3 Luglio 2022; common last names in kazakhstan; medical careers that don't require math in sa 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. And the Osage would receive a check every four months. The price of a barrel of oil, which reached more than $3 during the boom years, plummeted to 65 cents in 1931, and an annual headright payment fell to less than $800. Who appears to have killed Vaughn? He had been thrown off the speeding train, and his neck was broken. January 12, 2014. In 1929, $27 million was reported as still being held by the "Guardian System", the organization set up to protect the financial interests of 883 Osage families in Osage County.[9]. Investigators soon discovered that Mollie was already being poisoned.[13]. Somebody put a bag over his head. Local whites befriended them, in some cases, married them and targeted them for their money. She's been shot in the back of the head. And one day in 1921, her sister, Anna Brown, disappears, and Mollie looks everywhere for her, searching along the prairie. 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. They once controlled much of the Midwest of the country. Osage is a tribe in North America who suffered deeply on the hands of greedy people. Mollie Burkhart obviously pleaded for justice, crusaded for justice, but the white authorities really did nothing early on - or very little. The Osage, who'd been pushed west for more than a hundred years, lived north in what eventually became Kansas. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. And this was a time of great instability within the Osage Nation because of so much wealth, and it was a period where many of the traditions were disappearing. DAVIES: David Grann, thank you so much for speaking with us. They weren't protected by law or any kind of treaty. 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. He had 10 children, as you said. And questions arise about him. Bloodhounds ran through the prairie. However, people from different countries heard about their fortune, they started to live a miserable life. He turned state's evidence, naming his uncle as responsible for the murder conspiracy. In the early 20th century, the members of the Osage Nation became the richest people per capita in the world, after oil was discovered under their reservation, in Northeast Oklahoma. (Credit: David Grann), Prejudice provoked a scapegoating of the Osage for their wealth, and the U.S. Congress literally holds hearings about what the country could do in response, Grann says. He came to believe that Woodward was responsible for her death. One attorney with information on the case was thrown off a speeding train, while the body of Barney McBride, a wealthy white oilman who agreed to go to Washington, D.C., to ask federal authorities to investigate the murders, was found stripped, beaten and stabbed more than 20 times in a Maryland culvert in what the Washington Post called the most brutal in crime annals in the District., Osage Indians in Washington D.C., with President Coolidge. Of course, this was an easier way for settlers - white settlers - to get their land. [7], Believing the Osage would not be able to manage their new wealth, or lobbied by whites who wanted a piece of the action, the United States Congress passed a law in 1921 which required that courts appoint guardians for each Osage of half-blood or more in ancestry, who would manage their royalties and financial affairs until they demonstrated "competency". And it terrified people. People began to look for him. The Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it, reported Harpers Monthly. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? 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]. First moved to a reservation in Kansas, the Osage in 1870 sold their Kansas lands for $1.25 an acre to settlers and were driven to land in northeastern Oklahoma that, until 1866, had belonged to the Cherokee. Thirteen other deaths of full-blooded Osage men and women, who had guardians appointed by the courts, occurred between 1921 and 1923. And where her sister's house had been, there had been an explosion. Tell us a bit about her. In 1870, the Osage people had purchased nearly 1.5 million acres And it's what makes this so barbaric. Most of the murders were never prosecuted, but some men were convicted and sentenced including William Hale, who ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and other members of her family, to gain control of their oil rights. 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. In his new book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann tells the riveting story of the murders of the world's richest people per capita in the 1920s. (Credit: David Grann). how many osage murders might there possibly have been? I could never fully fathom what that must have been like for her. Just explore that with us for a moment. GRANN: There was a great deal of lawlessness then in the United States, and particularly in this region, which was really the last remnant of the Wild West or the frontier. Hale was sentenced to life in prison on January 27, 1929, and served only 18 years of his sentence before being paroled in 1947. Pyle presented his evidence of murder and conspiracy and requested an investigation. It wasn't simply a reservation given to them, right? The reservation encompasses all of Osage County, about a million and a half acres. Here was a population being systematically murdered one by one. She's one of the Osage elders, and I got to her house. Between 1920 and 1925 there were more than 60 mysterious or unsolved murders in Osage County, all dealing with Osage headright holders. What kinds of men does he pick? 7. He was looking for agents who were college-educated. GRANN: Yes, not just Osage women, all Osage - or all full-blooded Osage. And what a headright was essentially a share in the mineral trust. And by the 1920s, the Osage collectively had accumulated millions and millions of dollars. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hosted a delegation of Osage chiefs who had . [1] Along with tens of thousands of oil workers, the oil boom attracted many white opportunists to Osage County; as the writer Robert Allen Warrior characterizes them, some were entrepreneurial, while others were criminal, seeking to separate the Osage from their wealth by murder if necessary. GRANN: So, yes, the Osage were typical of many American-Indian nations. GRANN: So yeah - so Barney McBride was an oilman in the area, a white man. The case shifted from a question of who did it to can you actually convict them? how many osage murders might there possibly have been? DAVIES: And you describe there was another kind of lawman who he would employ at times loosely described as cowboys. That's exactly right. None of these people had college educations or whatnot. GRANN: No, I mean, they lived in the community, and they presented a certain face and concealed often what they were about. As one person told me, yes, we were victims of this murder, but we don't live as victims. And they also had very limited jurisdictions over crimes, the FBI back then. The tribe appealed for help directly to the relatively new Bureau of Investigation (which would be renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935). And then the Great Depression came and a good deal of the money was lost. In the early 1920s, the western U.S. was shaken by the reported murders of eighteen Osage and three non-natives in Osage County within a short period of time. 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. And the white man won't be able to farm there, and they'll finally leave us alone. We should go there because the earth is rocky and infertile. And what that meant is they would receive a check for any royalties or any leases that derived from the oil money. 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. And it probably made this more possible. The bureau didnt reveal a deeper, darker conspiracy, and as a result many were able to escape justice., Workers strike oil in Osage territory. Farris). Osage mineral lease royalties were paid to the tribe, who then distributed it equally to each allottee. It was a very fledgling period with federal law enforcement. But what they often lacked at least back then was real experience investigating real criminals. On May 27, 1921, the partially decomposed body of a 25-year-old Osage woman named Anna Brown was discovered in a ravine in Osage County, Oklahoma, dead from a bullet to the back of the head. 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. 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. Tell us that story. He died there in 1942. At the time Hale, originally from Texas, was considered to one of the most prominent citizens of the area. We're now over 20 victims at this point. Between 1920 and 1925, an estimated sixty Osage were murdered in shootings, poisonings, stabbings, in fires, even in a bombing; a number of white investigators were also slain. 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. In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money. They resettled there. He had been a longtime private eye, had a criminal history. And there are about 20,000 members who now belong to the nation. How did whites in Oklahoma react to seeing Native Americans with all that money? DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Well, David Grann, welcome to FRESH AIR. He grew up at a time and became a lawman at a time when justice was often meted out by the barrel of a gun. The oil boom was in full swing, and the Osage people were prosperous due to ownership of mineral rights. Even worse, it led to an entire criminal enterprise that had been sanctioned by the U.S. government.. he reflects and embodies the transformation of the country. They literally imposed a system where guardians - white guardians - were placed in charge of overseeing how the Osage spent their money. This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services. And they had very shrewd negotiators, including this man Palmer who was described by one U.S. senator as the most eloquent Indian alive at that period. But with the arrest of William K. Hale it all stopped. 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. So in this case, there was a bunch of kind of wild or frontier lawmen who were very experienced including a man named Tom White. Investigation by law enforcement, including the Bureau of Investigation (BOI; the preceding agency to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI) also revealed extensive corruption among local officials involved in the Osage guardian program. "The Osages, who were forced to sell . These were crimes committed by people who the victims trusted, many cases thought they loved, and it involved a level of betrayal, an almost Shakespearean level of dishonesty of hiding your face, hiding the conspiracy. He was sometimes called "Will". Mollie, a devout Catholic, had told her priest that she feared she was being poisoned at home. GRANN: Exactly. They had to pay for justice.. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? 5. By 1906 there were only 2,229 Osage, about half mixed-bloods and half full-bloods. It has gone on to become an award-winning book, and is reportedly being adapted in a movie directed by Martin Scorsese. 9. The bureau badly bungled the case initially. It was collectively controlled by the Osage. He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. Initially it was for maybe $100, and then it grew to 1,000.