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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Disappointing book.
Couldn’t finish it. Very slow reading.
With everything happening these days to Native Americans and First People it wasn’t as much of a shock to read how white people treated the Osage people in the 1920s. What was a shock was how far white people would go for their own greed and the indifference of the US government. I highly recommend this book for any history buff, but I also think this should be part of the middle school curriculum.
Nonfiction account of the murders of many Osage Indians and the birth of the FBI, written so well that you feel you’re reading the best fiction ever. I couldn’t put it down! Read it in one day!
This book is outside my norm for reading. I don’t usually read non-fiction, but in a quest to expand and challenge myself, this was the choice for a book club read. This was a tragic story that left me – jaw open – in disbelief that; a) this ever happened; b) we weren’t taught about this in history; and c) that this could happen in what we considered a “civilized” society! It is heart-breaking to know that such evil, greed and animalistic tendencies existed and are still part of the human experience. Well worth the read!!
This is an important book. It’s disturbing but worth reading.
Painfully slow and boring.
Fascinating history I never knew, A bit uneven, but worth the read because no one else is telling this story. Expect someone to make a movie out of this.
Well researched and well written.
An excellent book.
I had to physically put this book down and walk away a few times, because it angered me so much. That’s not the book’s fault, it’s a wonderful and comprehensive story about a complicated and terrible series of events that happened to people who were kept defenseless. I normally have trouble keeping track of a large cast of characters, fictional or real, but this brought them all to life. Extremely interesting.
perfect mix of true crime and history.
Fascinating!!!
Everyone should read this book in American history. The way the Osage Indians were treated, the oil business, and the birth of the FBI. Great book!
I read this book for our book club in 2018. Why were we not taught this in our history classes when in school. Very sad and haunting.
It was interesting to see how the FBI was founded. Sad the way we treated the American Indians for greed
Sad, but true. We all must remember the injustice dealt to these people.
This book rocked my world. I attended undergrad and law school in Oklahoma and never knew the story of the Osage. It is tragic how far greed will lead some to want to murder and steal for the almighty dollar but there were some white people in the time of the Osage Tribe’s mineral rights boom from oil & gas that thought they should murder them for their headrights. Meanwhile the manner in which J. Edgar Hoover built the FBI with these landmark cases is scary and amazing all at the same time. It is well written and the writer/researcher did a great job telling the story of the Osage. It is a must read.
I felt like I was talking with the author,not just reading a book. It is a fascinating story of the ways a few men can destroy a nation.
The sad thing is that we haven’t learned. Now instead of oil it is water that is being explioted.
A nonfiction book that reads like fiction; reveals the horrible treatment of our native Americans in the early 20th century.
I had never heard of the Osage Murders until I started reading this book. I picked it up as a gift for a friend who already had it based solely on the “Birth of the FBI” portion of the title. The book made it’s way back to me and I’m glad it did. A truly fascinating part of history I never knew about. An easy to read book that was really well researched. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for so many of the Osage to realize their family and friends were being murdered and that no one would help. That they weren’t even sure a jury would convict a white man based on the question of whether an Indian was even a person.