Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann

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, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

This was really a shocking story about what happened to the Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s. The Osage at that time were the richest people per capita in the world. They received their wealth from the oil that was discovered under their land. Many of them had multiple vehicles, chauffeurs, servants, built mansions, and sent their children away to school. But then the Osage began to be systematically murdered for their wealth. This book focuses on the family of Mollie Burkhart whose sisters and mother were all killed in a conspiracy to obtain their oil rights. The killings eventually brought in the Bureau of Investigation which would later become the FBI. The chief investigator, Tom White, was sent there by J. Edgar Hoover and was able to identify a conspiracy among the well-respected citizenry of the county and the case was eventually closed. The official number of Osage that were killed was 24 but Grann was able to determine that hundreds were probably killed and that the conspiracy of killing was much more widespread.

What happened to the Osage is pretty much forgotten today although it was included in the movie The FBI Story from 1959 which starred Jimmy Stewart. This book was both shocking and engrossing. It was a real page-turner that read like a murder mystery. It masterfully told a forgotten part of the many atrocities that were suffered by the Native Americans at the hand of greedy and despicable people looking for easy money. I would highly recommend this one.

Heading to hyphen8 in Hawaii...a wishlist tag. Enjoy!

Hardcover with dust jacket; received as a wishlist tag - thank you!

Sounds fascinating and horrifying, and I see that it has lots of photos, which I love to have with nonfiction.

More info (some spoilers) from the Oklahoma Historical Society, History, NPR, PBS, and Atlas Obsura.

Wow. Quite a disturbing story.

I was aware of many of the terrible things that have been done to the Native Americans over the years, but I had no idea about what had happened to the Osage in the first part of the 20th century until I read this book. When oil was discovered under the tribe's lands, the mineral rights made them very rich. Subsequently many adults were declared "incompetent" so that appointed white guardians could control their money - which would have been demeaning and frustrating and infuriating enough. Then Osage started dying - too many of them. As Joseph Heller once said: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." In this case, quite a few people seem to have come up with schemes to kill off members of the tribe for their mineral rights - scary stuff.

David Grann has done a great job bringing to light this shameful chapter of American history which is not well-known outside the Osage community. The idea that so many people were killed for their wealth and mineral rights is just appalling (although sadly very believable).

I'll count this as my Oklahoma read (13/51) for the 2019 version of NancyNova's US States reading challenge.

To be released during the 2019 Great Aloha Run Expo over the Presidents Day Weekend. (Larger photo here.)

Released for my Year of the Boar challenge.

Update: over the course of Saturday (February 16, from 9-7), I put 42 books out on the table. At the end of the evening, only one was left. This was not that book.

The woman who walked away with this one had read it and wanted to share it with a friend; she said there will be a movie version.

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UPDATE: found and journaled - thank you very much. Happy reading! :)

Eye opening.
Looking forward to visiting Osage County in 2019 and visiting the area and museums.

This book was passed on to me.

Good read!