NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Lost City of Z.In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built … their land, the Osage 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. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
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This book details a chapter in American History that has never been taught in our schools. Before reading this book, I never knew that many Osage Indians of Oklahoma had been targeted and murdered by white people who were after the money they had acquired from the discovery of oil reserves on their land. David Grann does a great job of investigative reporting and chronicling this American tragedy. This book should be required reading for all Americans.
This book gives a very insightful look into the beginnings of the FBI. The beginnings that bloomed from the deepest depravity of men’s greed and willingness to do anything to gain the oil wealth of the Osage Nation in the 1920’s. The tragic horror that one family faced for many years. A frightful mystery hangs over the story as to why people are dying. Local authorities seem helpless to find out. In steps the nascent FBI, their cunning and methodical focus finally brings the killers home.
It begins with the murder of Anna, a Native American Indian woman, but then more deaths occur both suspicious & unexpected. As events spiral out of control, new FBI director Hoover dispatches his agents to uncover the truth. In a remarkable true story of the Osage nation & their sudden inheritance of wealth from oil-rich land, the author has created a most commendable work. Researched impeccably, there are an abundance of photos & witness accounts making this a truly amazing read.
This book tells a true story that will haunt you as it provides a look into American history. Killers of the Flower Moon is an eye-opening account of the abuse of the Osage Indian people and how an investigation into murders of the Osage helped to create the FBI. Highly recommended.
Untangling the History Behind the “Reign of Terror” for the Osage Indians
In what author David Grann called a “curious provision” to the agreement between the Osage Indian Tribe and the US government, the Tribe claimed all rights to “…the oil, gas, coal, or other minerals covered by the lands.” It was curious because the lands forming their reservation in northeastern Oklahoma were considered virtually worthless. That is until oil was discovered there in 1897. And in a matter of a few years, that black gold made the Osage some of the richest people on earth, changing their lives forever … but not for the better.
As the Indians’ wealth grew, they became targets for greedy whites. Soon, Indian deaths from causes ranging from suspected poisoning to execution-style shootings to bombs that leveled entire homes headlined in a period between 1921 and 1925 known as the “Reign of Terror.” And even when a suspect was brought up for trial, justice was anything but certain. As one member of the Tribe said, the jury will have to decide “…whether a white man killing an Osage is murder—or merely cruelty to animals.”
The book, Killers of the Flower Moon, is a well-researched, historical account of those days. Grann documents the political corruption, the misinformation, the dealings and double-crosses, and the lack of investigative skill that allowed these atrocities to occur and that have kept them buried for so long. It’s riveting, as he untangles history to reveal murderers in some of the most unlikely places. And once read, it’s disturbing message will stay with you for a long time.
The honor of “Best Book of 2017” was bestowed on Killers of the Flower Moon by organizations from Amazon to the Wall Street Journal (including Time Magazine, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, and the Smithsonian among others). I’ll add my own ‘highly recommended’ to that list.
This book should make any thinking person reconsider what it means when we say our government is “of the people, by the people and for the people”. Certainly history I never heard about in all my years.
Nonfiction account of tragic part of American History when Osage Indians were murdered by those who either married them or were their guardians to gain access to the oil wealth of the Indians. Good people who tried to stop the carnage were murdered. The early FBI had to stop the destruction. The author almost 90years later was able to find evidence of many more murders by carefully studying old records in archives. Fascinating but tragic story.
I did not know anything about the murders of many Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s. The corruption and greed was astonishing. The author did so much research and presented it in a very readable manner. I learned so much from reading this book.
This is non-fiction. It is the same story essentially told three times — from the perspective of the Osage, from the point of view of the FBI agent eventually sent in to investigate, and from the point of view of the author re additional information he learned while researching. It opens your eyes re how patronizing and appallingly corrupt the white government was that relegated the Osage to terrible land and then schemed to take control of that land and the wealth the Osage acquired when oil was found.
“History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the power of hindsight like an arrogant detective who seems to know the end of the mystery from the outset.”
― David Grann
In the 1870s the Osage people were driven from their ancestral land in what is now Kansas to a presumably useless land. When oil was discovered on their new homeland, prospectors had to pay the Osage Tribe in order to drill. By the early 1920s the Osage had become some of the richest people on earth. However, full-blooded Osage were considered incapable of handling such wealth and so a white guardian was assigned to “protect” his or her interest.
It was the perfect setup for an unscrupulous white to take advantage of his Osage neighbors. As one white man observed, “The Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it.”
Something was done. The Osage were married or befriended and then murdered. It’s still not certain how many were slaughtered. Between 1907 and 1923, the Osage death rate was more than one and a half times higher than the death rate for whites, when, with their higher standard of living, should by all rights have been lower. Eventually, the nascent FBI was sent to investigate since local law enforcement was either involved in the killings or simply ignored them.
Grann constructs his story through the prism of a single family, but even so there are scores of characters. A consummate researcher, he provides valuable context on everything from the state of forensic pathology in the early 1920s to the boarding schools that young Native Americans were forced to attend. All of this paints a shocking and horrifying picture of a community of willful executioners, who were either active in the murderous conspiracy or turned a blind eye.
If there is a hero in this story, it is Tom White, the frontier lawmen who uncovered a murder conspiracy, with one man at its center. A mote of justice was achieved when this man was convicted, but Hoover had no interest in shining too bright of a light on the other murders against the Osage. To him, the investigation was simply a means to promote his new “Bureau.” Once that was achieved, Osage were of no more use to him.
Killers of the Flower Moon is nonfiction that reads like fiction, with a cast of memorable characters one might find in the pages of a thriller. But because this story is true, its impact is more profound and heartrending than any fiction could ever be—a true American tragedy.
David Grann brings to life the forgotten history of the reign of terror in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma detailing the murders of Osage tribal members to gain access to their headrights worth millions. The conspiracy unearthed in this compelling nonfiction book was breathtaking. The story touched me personally. As a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, I had the privilege of representing the Secretary of Interior’s decision to approve the testamentary grant of a headright to a ninety-year-old Osage woman in federal district court and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. And at one time the then Chief of the Osage was a neighbor in Tulsa. This book brought home the multitude of injustices visited upon the Osage over the many years. Highly recommended.
Peter Bernhardt, Author: The Stasi File, 2011 ABNA Quarter Finalist; Kiss of the Shaman’s Daughter [sequel]; Red Romeo;
http://tinyurl.com/a7rnpql – http://sedonaauthor.com – https://tinyurl.com/ycyvps3b
David Grann’s style is clear, his research is highly in-depth, and he told a story I had never known. I immediately bought his book “The Lost City of Z”.
I am ashamed to admit I knew next to nothing about the historical facts which gave rise to this book. What an eye-opener! The book seems to be in three parts. Part 1 is a narrative of the occurrences. Part 2 is an extended PS that reveals much about Hoover and the FBI. Part 3 contains the authors conclusions based upon solid research. Non-fiction that was hard to put down!
Awesome book. I can’t wait for the movie. It’s truly unreal how evil people are and the things they do for money. This was an amazing book about the Osage Nation living in Oklahoma. When it was discovered there was oil where they were living the Osage started dying mysteriously. Of course it was evil white men who wanted all that oil rich land. J E Hoover put together a team of Texas Rangers to determine what was happening. Book should not be missed. Just another example of the deceitful conspiracies’ white men devise for the almighty dollar. This book just made me a bit depressed to think that people can do this to others. Such evilness. I guess it’s been going on forever.
What a tragic situation existed for these Native Americans that were swindled out of their land!
I thought that this book was poorly written, too many characters without clear explanation of who they were and where they fit into the story.
A book that tells the inhumanity of greedy people, politicians and unscrupulous lawyers and landowners. A telling story that has been repeated throughout the history of mankind.
An interesting look at a little known chapter in American history and the injustices
that have been carried out against native Americans.
This was a fascinating account of the Osage murders, a part of American history I had never been taught. So tragic.
I’m a fan of historical novels. I believe that the historical novel is the proper way to teach history: with the stories of the people who lived (or, in this case, died) in that history. Killers of the Flower Moon was one the best I’ve ever read. The presentation was superb, detailed, and meticulous. This is the story of a well-intentioned government program to protect the Osage People that created a regional cottage industry dedicated to killing the Osage People. History buffs, conspiracy buffs, and true crime buffs will all like the story. The breadth of this tragedy astounded me. But, the last fifty pages brought home the realization that the author was able to ferret out only a small part of the story before it started fading into time. Thank you, Mr. Grann, for preserving this part of our American story. Astonishing. Jeff Bailey, author of The Defect.