9780385534246

0385534248

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

"In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they 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. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances. In this last remnant of the Wild West--where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the "Phantom Terror," roamed--many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization's first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating." -- Publisher's description

Chronicle one: The marked woman

The vanishing

An act of God or man?

King of the Osage Hills

Underground reservation

The devil's disciples

Million dollar elm

This thing of darkness

Chronicle two: The evidence man

Department of easy virtue

The undercover cowboys

Eliminating the impossible

The third man

A wilderness of mirrors

A hangman's son

Dying words

The hidden face

For the betterment of the Bureau

The quick-draw artist, the yegg, and the soup man

The state of the game

A traitor to his blood

So help you God!

The hot house

Chronicle three: The reporter

Ghostlands

A case not closed

Standing in two worlds

The lost manuscript

Blood cries out.

United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation > Case studies.

United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation > Case studies.

Osage Indians > Crimes against > Case studies.

Murder > Oklahoma > Osage County > Case studies.

Homicide investigation > Oklahoma > Osage County > Case studies.

Osage Indians > Crimes against > Case studies.

Murder > Oklahoma > Osage County > Case studies.

Homicide investigation > Oklahoma > Osage County > Case studies.

Osage County (Okla.) > History > 20th century.