how many osage murders might there possibly have been?

And if you're just joining us, we're speaking with David Grann. Instead, he slipped away, robbed a bank and murdered a police officer. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? 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. [3] The law firm representing the Osage said it was the largest trust settlement with one tribe in U.S. 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. Some murders seemed associated with several members of one family. 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. Hoover instead turned the case over to Tom White, an experienced investigator who lived in the saddle. Soon after the money started piling up, the Osage started dying, mysteriously, and in large numbers. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 10,430 people identified themselves as . 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. Vaughan's body was later found with his skull crushed beside the railroad tracks near Pershing, about five miles south of Pawhuska. She said, in many cases, they don't fully know even what their ancestors did, but we live side by side. Just explore that with us for a moment. 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. Hale, his nephews, and one of the ranch hands they hired were charged with the murder of Mollie Kyle's family. The press referred to them as, quote, unquote, "the red millionaires and the plutocratic Osage." In 2015, why couldn't the Osage prevent wind turbines being erected on allotted land that had been sold? Subsequently, an autopsy revealed that the cause of Brown's death was not alcohol, but a bullet fired into the back of her head. Theyre scalping our souls out here, complained one exasperated Osage. So the Osage purchased this land. What was the kingpin's sentence? NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The first chronicle is told largely from the perspective of an Osage woman named Mollie Burkhart, whose family had become a prime target of the murder conspiracy. And within two months, she was dead. And she had pulled out a box of documents, and she told me about the death of her grandfather who had been run over, who had been poisoned. "With the help of independent producers, Dan Bigbee and Lily Shangreaux, we were . 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. The oil boom was in full swing, and the Osage people were prosperous due to ownership of mineral rights. Members of the Osage Indian Nation became very wealthy in the 1920s after oil deposits were found on their land. in many ways he is like mollie. His accomplice, Bryan Burkhart, another nephew, had turned state's evidence. He's then arrested. That's why they went on for so many years. What happened to the well-being of the nation? And they begin to also realize that there is a complicity of silence. There is no way to tell how many of more than 1, 500 people executed in the U.S. since 1976 may have been innocent. And eventually a very obscure branch of the Justice Department which was then known as the Bureau of Investigations, which would later be renamed the FBI, take up the case. And it's a very vibrant nation. 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. Of course, this was an easier way for settlers - white settlers - to get their land. He was part of a tribe of lawmen. What happened there? 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. Rita and Bill Smiths house after blast. GRANN: No, I mean, they lived in the community, and they presented a certain face and concealed often what they were about. 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. The Osage would hang lights around their houses so that at night they would be illuminated. John Ramsey confessed to participation in the murder of Roan as soon as he was arrested. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?does checkers use peanut oil how many osage murders might there possibly have been? So there were only about 2,000 Osage who were registered on the tribal roll. The tribe held the mineral rights communally and paid its members by a percentage related to their holdings. But the Osage because they owned their land, they had more leverage with the U.S. government. This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Defense attorneys move on to other cases in which clients' lives can still be saved. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR. "Osage Reign of Terror. Unlike state and local investigators, Hoovers agents provided the Osage with some relief from their Reign of Terrorbut also a bill for more than $20,000 for their services. It does not seem the kingpin was connected to all the murders. And so it was very easy to slip someone a poison. GRANN: Yeah. 25. You'd have a sheriff. In the late 1600s there were possibly seventeen thousand Osage. National Museum of the American Indian. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. I'm coming back. By . GRANN: There was certainly locally some coverage. The Osage Tribal Council suspected that Hale was responsible for many of the deaths. More than two dozen members of the Osage tribe had been shot, stabbed, beaten and bombed in one of the bloodiest crime sprees in American history. He never arrived in Osage County - disappeared. And yet members of the United States Congress would sit in these mahogany-paneled committee rooms and literally debate as if the nation's security was at stake, scapegoating the Osage about their wealth. Hale was even the self-proclaimed King of the Osage Hills. He was a wealthy rancher with several banking and business interests throughout Osage County. It was very easy for the powerful to buy the law, to tilt the scales of justice. Copyright 2017 NPR. The Reign of Terror was a frightful time for the Osage people. The incentives for criminality were overwhelming; such guardians often maneuvered legally to steal Osage land, their headrights or royalties; others were suspected of murdering their charges to gain the headrights. And then the Great Depression came and a good deal of the money was lost. Hale was Bigheart's neighbor and friend, and had recently been designated by the court as Bigheart's guardian. 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. 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. Between 1920 and 1925 there were more than 60 mysterious or unsolved murders in Osage County, all dealing with Osage headright holders. "[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. He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. The setting was the Osage Indian Nation in the 1920s when oil deposits had brought enormous wealth to the members of the tribe. What appears to have been a common means through which many Osage were poisoned? But with the arrest of William K. Hale it all stopped. But there was also a great deal of corruption. The systematic embezzlementreferred to as the Indian business by some white settlers on the Osage reservationwasnt lucrative enough for some, however. So the government in - really looking back, just an outrageous system - decided somehow that the Osage were not capable of handling their money. The great wealth lured not only desperadoes, bootleggers and criminalsbut fantastic jealousy as well. This week I'm bringing you another story about a family that now has many members, but back in 1887 there was only one in Pawhuska and his name was Fred Drummond. And because of racial prejudice, it was a enormous challenge, and many people believe that the locals would never convict fellow white men for killing an Osage Indian. DAVIES: We're speaking with David Grann. . Both Grammer and Kirby were killed before they could testify. What appears to have been a common means through which many Osage were poisoned? It has gone on to become an award-winning book, and is reportedly being adapted in a movie directed by Martin Scorsese. GRANN: Yes. So Mary Jo Webb was somebody who I met. Driven from their lands in Kansas, the Osage had bought a swath of northeast Oklahoma in the early 1870s. But at least early on, there is no evidence or witnesses connecting him to the crime other than the fact that he had dropped her off at her house earlier in that evening. "Killers Quotes" Written Portion Below are 9 thematic threads. 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. [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. And Ken Tucker will review a new album by the Philadelphia-based band, The Menzingers, which features songs about getting older. Swindling the very people they were assigned to protect, guardians forced the Osage to purchase goods from them at inflated prices and received kickbacks by directing them to do business with certain stores and banks. Do you have any insight into that? [5] His book about his investigation, Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation (1994), presents an account of the corruption and murders during this period.[1]. [5][7], At that time, eight lawyers were working in Pawhuska, the Osage County seat, which had 8,000 residents; the number of lawyers was said to be as great as Oklahoma City, which had 140,000 residents. DAVIES: It was in fact Mollie Burkhart's own husband Ernest Burkhart who was found to be a part of the conspiracy. DAVIES: So the guy running who had just taken over the bureau at the time was none other than J. Edgar Hoover. One of the most prevalent means of murder and of killing the Osage was poison because of the lack of training. GRANN: Exactly. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? There was one champion steer-roper Osage who got a call one night. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? In the 1800s, President Thomas Jefferson referred to them as that great nation and promised to treat them as their friends. The U.S. government continued to manage the leases and royalties from oil-producing lands, and the tribe became concerned about these assets. DAVIES: Was this reported in the local press? The reservation encompasses all of Osage County, about a million and a half acres. Register for an account 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. . This is FRESH AIR. These images belie long-standing stereotypes of Native Americans that trace back to the first contact with whites, Grann tells HISTORY. DAVIES: Two white men were arrested and brought to trial, people with access to resources and money. Even though scientists understood toxicologies for poison, the local police forces didn't. GRANN: Yeah. 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. Kyle. Anna would be merely one of the first victims in a five-year-long Reign . Oil had been discovered in the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma, but with that boon came a terrible series of deadly crimes. in 1925, the new boss, j edgar hoover, summoned tom white to washington. Several people who had tried to catch the killers themselves had been killed. 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. The former Texas Ranger put together an undercover team that included a Native American agent. GRANN: Yes, not just Osage women, all Osage - or all full-blooded Osage. So we have a situation where Mollie Burkhart, this woman who is a wealthy member of the Osage Nation married to a white man, Ernest Burkhart, discovers her sister, Anna Brown, has been shot to death and found in a ravine some distance away - a horrible crime. Many Osage moved to California. Even worse, it led to an entire criminal enterprise that had been sanctioned by the U.S. government.. GRANN: So yeah - so Barney McBride was an oilman in the area, a white man. (Credit: David Grann). Appointed the director of the FBI in 1924, Hoover set about cleaning up and streamlining the department. He talks about his research into a spree of murders of oil-rich Osage Indians in 1920s Oklahoma. There really was a culture of killing and a culture of complicity. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And gradually, a lot of the oil was depleted. The bureau - the Bureau Investigation, the FBI had been formed in 1906 under Theodore Roosevelt. And you often didn't quite know who they were working for, who they were leaking to. 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. Who appears to have killed Vaughn? 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. A man standing 5 feet 8 inches, weighing 165 pounds . In 1870, the Osage-expelled from their lodges, their graves plundered-agreed to sell their Kansas lands to settlers for $1.25 an acre. And a fascinating little moment is that they send a lawyer, John Palmer, to Washington as they're negotiating this arrangement with the U.S., and he gets something. Often they had criminal backgrounds. It's about the size of Delaware. A week later . DAVIES: Right. 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. [12] Two months later, Lizzie Q. Kyle was killed as well. And it was utterly devastating to her as anyone would imagine.

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