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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What an eye opener to the way the Osage people were treated. I was appalled at the things that were done to those men and women and how people can treat other people so inhumanely. Our government was as corrupt then as it is now.
How disgraceful!.
Thank you Mr. Ginn for writing this book and enlightening us to a realistic picture of what was done to the Osage people. Truly a shameful part of our history.
The (nonfiction) storytelling was fascinating and suspenseful, but the level of corruption and cover-up was heartbreakingly outrageous.
A marvelous story of a sad event in our history.
Hard to get involved in. From the middle of the book to the end it was quite a good story.
This is the true story of the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma. It covers the late 1800’s through the the first few decades of the 1900’s. At this time oil was discovered in large quantities on the Osage land. But the government put major restrictions on the Osage requiring them to have administrators or guardians to manage their own affairs. Mollie Burkhart was a woman whose entire family held a lot of the land with the oil. But one by one her family was murdered. This was when the Bureau of Investigation was newly formed as the FBI with Edgar Hoover. He hired a former Texas Ranger, Tom White to investigate. he uncovered a shocking amount of fraud and total disregard for the law and a very large of amount of questionable deaths. This is an appalling part of the ongoing mistreatment of the American Indians but it is necessary to preserve the story to learn how to treat all of humanity as they should be treated.
It is a shame this story hasn’t gotten much attention through the years of more tragedy that our government and citizens have rained on Native Americans. This is a good read and a compassionate account of things that happened.
I didn’t know about the Osage tribe before. Hated the paternalistic treatment of the tribal members by our government.
Outstanding read. I recommend completely.!!
Sad chapter in our history. Besides the Osage Indians it gets in to the formation of the FBI.
This is history every American needs to know, no more hiding from what really happened to indigenous people in this country!
An important book to read about a tragedy that I did not know had happened and probably not many other people were aware of either. A true, historic story that read like a novel. Very interesting from many perspectives.
I generally don’t like non-fiction, but this book was more entertaining than some and moved along at the pace of a good novel.
As a member of the Osage tribe, I was extremely impressed with the research the author did and all the detail that went into the book – even some names I recognized.
From the pages of history of the Osage and their land claims in Oklahoma which turned into an oil rich land. This book read as if this all happened yesterday. It makes me realize how powerful our desire and hate can be.
Our country has some things that are not honorable and this story is the history of mean men.
We need to recognize our original owners of our land and look in the mirror to make sure we do not continue to make the mistakes of the past.
Mr. Grann, thank you for this knowledge.
I worked for a time in Ponca City and new nothing of this
I went to high school in this part of Oklahoma. I am appalled at the things we did not learn in high school! I got to meet David when he came to Oklahoma for a book fair. This book should be required reading for high schoolers and I can’t wait to see the movie!
Amazing book about Western Plains Native Americans. Couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended!
If there is a book about the lives of Indians with a happy ending I haven’t read it. This is about as sad a story as there is. The Osage Indians were pushed off their land in Kansas and onto some scrub land in Oklahoma. They probably should have just died of starvation except that the land they had been pushed onto sat on top of one of the biggest oil deposits in the country. Because they had a good lawyer they could sell their land, but the mineral rights could not be sold, and tribe members became exceedingly rich. Unfortunately, the money brought no end of White people trying to figure out how to get that money away from them. One way was to kill them, and the book is about all the plots and why it was so hard to figure them out.
An unforgettable tale of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma. Told factually, the reader is drawn into the ironic discovery of oil on the barren land assigned to the Osage tribe. Suddenly wealthy beyond their dreams, the Osage people were preyed upon by the white society who forced them to live on this land as well as their own jealous tribal members. As the.murder toll rises, the search for the.perpetrators is compromised by the lack of trust within the law community. Thus was a page turner for me.
I was unaware of this sad page in American history. I had no idea the Osage tribe even existed. How interesting and tragic. I’ve been a policeman for 38 years and it still amazes me how greed can cause humans to such unspeakable acts. Really interesting! I was recommended this book and I have recommended to several others. Outstanding!!