how many osage murders might there possibly have been?

It was somebody who Mollie thought loved her. It's about 3 in the morning. 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. One night, there was a loud explosion in the community. And an Osage chief had stood up, and he said we should go to this territory. He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. We'll talk about how J. Edgar Hoover's FBI handled the murders after we take a short break. Somebody put a bag over his head. And what a headright was essentially a share in the mineral trust. And what it showed, though, and what is so important, is the reach and the power of the people who are carrying out these murders. Some sixty or more wealthy, full-blood Osage Native Americans were reported killed from 1918 to 1931. The power structure was able to buy off lawmen. The bodies would lay unclaimed and unmourned on the prairies, sometimes for weeks.. And one day in 1921, her sister, Anna Brown, disappears, and Mollie looks everywhere for her, searching along the prairie. 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. Journalist David Grann tells the story. Ernest said that he had used a person named Henry Grammer as a go-between to hire a professional criminal named Asa "Ace" Kirby to perform the killings. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? This story begins with a woman who is really at the heart of this tale, Mollie Burkhart. She had two children with him, and she learned that he was one of the many willing executioners. he was from Hale's goal was to gain the headrights and wealth of several tribe members, including his nephew's Osage wife, the last survivor of her family. Yeah, so there were many shootings. They involve lawmen who then would not investigate them. 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. "It could come down to . The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? The attorney's name is given as W.W. Vaughan in some sources (e.g. And by 1923, just to give you. [1] In 1995, the writer Robert Allen Warrior wrote about walking through an Osage cemetery and seeing "the inordinate number of young people who died during that time. . All along, it wasthe UnitedStates thatheld the threads of the lives . NewsOK. [1] McAuliffe learned that his grandmother's murder had been covered up by a false death certificate. The governor quickly pardons him, and then he goes and commits an unrelated murder. You feel it must be a serial killer. Mollie Burkhart Cobb died of unrelated causes on June 16, 1937. Accuracy and availability may vary. Talk about what services you provide. Killers of the Flower Moon Quotes - LitCharts 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." We'll continue our conversation after a break. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. [12] Two months later, Lizzie Q. Kyle was killed as well. Register now and get started. These images belie long-standing stereotypes of Native Americans that trace back to the first contact with whites, Grann tells HISTORY. This equal share was called a headright. He got documents from him. There were so many people who were either directly profiting from these crimes or were silently complicit in them. He can be found online at www.christopherklein.com or on Twitter @historyauthor. Indictment for John Ramsey and William K. Hale, 1/9/1926. "Serial killer" was not yet a term in the crime lexicon, but as a reader, you arrive at that conclusion quickly. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? (Credit: David Grann), The Osage became the richest people per capita in the world. I'm Terry Gross. By . Many Osage moved to California. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? DAVIES: So word of this spread. . 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". In March 1923 an alarmed Osage Tribal Council sought U.S. government intervention in the . Osage murders. 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. He came back and suddenly collapsed, frothing, his whole body shaking. What kinds of men does he pick? And the Osage would receive a check every four months. In the 1800s, President Thomas Jefferson referred to them as that great nation and promised to treat them as their friends. He was a young man. And nobody at first knows who was responsible for the murder. Did intermarriage among the Osage tribe and whites increase as this happened? He was a master bureaucrat. . DAVIES: And one of the questions that occurred to me as I read this was it was so remarkable that so many of these men would target Osage women, that so many of these Osage women were open to these relationships and trusted these men. Bloodhounds ran through the prairie. John Ramsey confessed to participation in the murder of Roan as soon as he was arrested. They bought it. How Native American Discrimination Led to Murder - Shortform Morrison received a life sentence in 1926, for his participation in the Brown murder. 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 she had to sit through the trials and listen to the evidence presented and learn the secrets of her husband, that the secrets of this murder were right inside her house. He was part of a tribe of lawmen. It has its own government. Osage mineral lease royalties were paid to the tribe, who then distributed it equally to each allottee. The priest told her not to touch liquor under any circumstances. He had been thrown off the speeding train, and his neck was broken. 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. Courts do not generally entertain claims of innocence once the defendant is dead. There was a great deal of both envy and prejudice and eventually outrage. Interview by Keith Donohue. Doors were locked. 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. The second chronicle is told from the perspective of one of the investigators. "The Osages, who were forced to sell . Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against - NPR The Osage "Reign of Terror" Murder Trials - Famous Trials how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Farris). DAVIES: What happened in the first trial? how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Her children inherited all of her estate. 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. And he was considered honorable and not corrupt. Mollie and Ernest Burkhart inherited all of the headrights from her family. And this team then is sent in undercover, and, of course, they do not represent the team the kind of agents that Hoover was touting as college boys. Before he went, he told his wife that he had put money in a safe for her in case anything happened to him. 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. 338 pp. 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]. DAVIES: Mollie Burkhart and relatives of the other victims would turn to private investigators. By that time, there were only a few thousand left. In 2017, New Yorker staff writer David Grann publishedKillers of the Flower Moonabout the Osage Murders. GRANN: Yes, not just Osage women, all Osage - or all full-blooded Osage. He said that Hale had promised him five hundred dollars and a new car for killing Roan. It was collectively controlled by the Osage. Margie Burkhart, who is the granddaughter, is a wonderful woman and told me about the crimes, told me about what it was like growing up without any cousins and aunts and uncles because so many members had been murdered, told me about what it was like for her father who had grown up in this house as a little kid where his mother was a victim and his father was the killer. It features songs about getting older, a love letter to their 20s. And they were able to hold on to this last bit of their territory which they could not even see. 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. Mollie Burkhart (right) with sisters Anna (center) and Minnie (left). The FBI's First Big Case: The Osage Murders - HISTORY How did whites in Oklahoma react to seeing Native Americans with all that money? Why Are So Many Americans Killing One Another? She's been shot in the back of the head. I'll be on the train. The great wealth lured not only desperadoes, bootleggers and criminalsbut fantastic jealousy as well. And Ken Tucker will review a new album by the Philadelphia-based band, The Menzingers, which features songs about getting older. And it was utterly devastating to her as anyone would imagine. And by the 1920s, the Osage collectively had accumulated millions and millions of dollars. DAVIES: So this was now a national story. Anna would be merely one of the first victims in a five-year-long Reign . Grann spoke to FRESH AIR's Dave Davies about his new book, "Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI.". Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. It was clearly a warning. [21] Other witnesses and participants were murdered as investigation of the conspiracy expanded. This is FRESH AIR. [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. Later investigations revealed that the bomb contained 5 US gallons (19L) of nitroglycerin.[12]. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI For more than a decade, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were quietly . Between 1921 and 1926, at least 24 members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma were brutally murdered. In icare graduate program. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? [1] The Bureau of Investigation (BOI), the preceding agency to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), found a low-level market in contract killers to kill the Osage for their wealth. About the film. To gain part of the wealth, Hale persuaded Ernest to marry Mollie Kyle, a full-blooded Osage. This is FRESH AIR. Nick Vivarelli, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mar- . And it is the first hint that Mollie's family has become a target of this conspiracy and that her tribe has also become a target of this conspiracy. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?splash cafe clam chowder recipe. February's Book Club Pick: 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' by David Grann But the typical sheriff back then had no training in scientific detection, and there was also a great deal of corruption back then. 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. 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. After a break, Ken Tucker will review the new album by the Philadelphia band The Menzingers. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?cat costa bt24. And he recruits one frontier lawman who will pose as a cattleman. Somebody had planted a bomb under the house, killing everyone in it, including Mollie's sister Rita, including her - Rita's husband and a white servant who lived in the house. You slowly can't breathe, but you're conscious throughout until finally you mercifully suffocate. DAVIES: David Grann, thank you so much for speaking with us. And the murderers, it turned out, were local whites who had befriended and in many cases married their victims. 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. 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. 5(ish) Questions: David Grann and "Killers of the Flower Moon" Hale was sentenced to life in prison on January 27, 1929, and served only 18 years of his sentence before being paroled in 1947. Initially it was for maybe $100, and then it grew to 1,000. They are rich people with a reservoir of oil and other minerals in their homeland. 9 it seems the commonly reported dates for the osage - Course Hero Fearing for his life, Pyle and his wife fled to Arizona, where he again served as an officer of the law. DAVIES: Mollie is married to a guy named Ernest Burkhart. In the late 1600s there were possibly seventeen thousand Osage. It was a real time of terror. I mean, it was literally asked, and there was a belief that white men would not be convicted for these crimes and that white jurors would not find them guilty. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future.