how many osage murders might there possibly have been?eugene parker obituary
In 1870, the Osage-expelled from their lodges, their graves plundered-agreed to sell their Kansas lands to settlers for $1.25 an acre. This story begins with a woman who is really at the heart of this tale, Mollie Burkhart. Farris, David. As best-selling author David Grann details in his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the Osage reservation was soaked in blood because it was awash in oil. He then called the local sheriff and said, I've got enough evidence against one of the killers. And you could not sell or buy a headright. One attorney with information on the case was thrown off a speeding train, while the body of Barney McBride, a wealthy white oilman who agreed to go to Washington, D.C., to ask federal authorities to investigate the murders, was found stripped, beaten and stabbed more than 20 times in a Maryland culvert in what the Washington Post called the most brutal in crime annals in the District., Osage Indians in Washington D.C., with President Coolidge. January 12, 2014. It was said at the time whereas as one American might own a car, each Osage owned 11 cars. But with the arrest of William K. Hale it all stopped. A headright was hereditary, passing to the immediate legal heir of the deceased allottee. Mollie recovered from the poison she had already consumed and (after the trials) divorced Ernest. In order to maintain tribal control, shares of the oil money could not be sold by the Osage to white settlers, but they could be inherited. But ultimately their devious activity would catch up with them. Hale, along with his accomplices, Ernest Burkhart, John Ramsey, and several others, were allegedly tied to more than 20 killings. And the white man won't be able to farm there, and they'll finally leave us alone. He's then arrested. Who appears to have killed Vaughn? how many osage murders might there possibly have been? It literally looked as if the sun had burst into the night. The forced migrations had depleted their numbers. They bought it. GRANN: No, I mean, they lived in the community, and they presented a certain face and concealed often what they were about. Randy Krehbiel paints him as a "shady character involved in blackmail and possibly embezzlement, armed robbery, and even murder." After securing Tulsa's top law enforcement spot in April 1920, Gustafson still moonlit as a private detective, working "cases that might have been more properly handled by the police." What was the kingpin's sentence? Somebody had slipped him what was believed to be strychnine, which is just a horrible poison. (Credit: David Grann), The Osage became the richest people per capita in the world. Needless to say were generally white. NewsOK. And it probably made this more possible. These were crimes committed by people who the victims trusted, many cases thought they loved, and it involved a level of betrayal, an almost Shakespearean level of dishonesty of hiding your face, hiding the conspiracy. As a youth he had been told she died of kidney disease, then as a suicide. He has to wear a suit and a fedora where he had once ridden on a horse back with a 10-gallon hat. And he said I'm very ashamed - this was a descendant of Ernest Burkhart - and said I'm very ashamed of what my ancestors did. The second chronicle is told from the perspective of one of the investigators. I'm Terry Gross. This Scottish-born boy came to America at the age of 16 after his father died. GRANN: The public, the whites, not just in Oklahoma, but across the United States, were transfixed by the Osage wealth which belied images of Native Americans that could be traced back to the first brutal contact with whites. And then something happens to her sister, Anna. You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. GRANN: There was certainly locally some coverage. They involve lawmen who then would not investigate them. Of course, this was an easier way for settlers - white settlers - to get their land. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Walton assigned Herman Fox Davis to the investigation. By David Grann. This equal share was called a headright. We'll continue our conversation after a short break. "The Great Depression had wiped out many Osage fortunes that had already been diminished by guardians and thieves. And Barney McBride went. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And then it turned out that lo and behold, this land was sitting upon some of the largest deposits of oil then in the United States. 338 pp. The Kyle family murders were featured as a dramatic part of the 1959 film, John Hunt portrayed this period in his novel, This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 22:20. ", "Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese to Reteam on 'Killers of the Flower Moon', "Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against Wealthy Native Americans: Interview with David Grann", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Osage_Indian_murders&oldid=1131818170, Anti-indigenous racism in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, "The Osage Indian Murders", a dramatization of the case first broadcast on August 3, 1935, was the third episode of the. DAVIES: Mollie is married to a guy named Ernest Burkhart. So one of the things that happened back then because - you know, we think of ourself as a country of laws, but these institutions back in the '20s in the United States were very fragile. Although Walton later pardoned Davis, the investigation of Bigheart and Vaughan was never completed. The Osage, who'd been pushed west for more than a hundred years, lived north in what eventually became Kansas. They could deal with escaped federal prisoners, smutty books crossing state lines. . He went to Oklahoma City to meet with this Osage Indian who was dying of suspected poisoning. The Osage oil murders were a series of murders based on Native American discrimination that took place in the 1920's, in order to steal the wealth of the Osage tribe. The Reign of Terror was a frightful time for the Osage people. DAVIES: Wow. Mollie, a devout Catholic, had told her priest that she feared she was being poisoned at home. Vaughan complied, and the two men met that night. And they were able to hold on to this last bit of their territory which they could not even see. And each one had a headright or a share. She had two children with him, and she learned that he was one of the many willing executioners. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? The other agents recruited were: a former New Mexico sheriff; a former Texas Ranger; John Burger, who had worked on the previous investigation; Frank Smith; and John Wren, an American Indian of the Ute Nation who had previously been a spy for the Mexican revolutionaries.[20]. how many osage murders might there possibly have been?splash cafe clam chowder recipe. The bureau didnt reveal a deeper, darker conspiracy, and as a result many were able to escape justice., Workers strike oil in Osage territory. I could never fully fathom what that must have been like for her. These guardians were believed to have swindled their charges out of millions of dollars. [5][7], At that time, eight lawyers were working in Pawhuska, the Osage County seat, which had 8,000 residents; the number of lawyers was said to be as great as Oklahoma City, which had 140,000 residents. Wiki, Osage Indian Murders. And what a headright was essentially a share in the mineral trust. DAVIES: Was this reported in the local press? But then, he never arrived. Mollie Burkhart heard it. People began to look for him. Tell us a bit about her. It was then Indian Territory. DAVIES: So word of this spread. And so while some of the Osage still receive royalties from oil money, it's nothing like the fortune that they had once had during the 1920s and the beginning of the 20th century. What you begin to realize, the deeper you dig, is that this was not a crime about who did it as much as who didn't do it - that there was a culture of killing taking place during this period and that there were scores if not hundreds of murders. There are some real characters among them. [15] Morrison testified that, after meeting Brown earlier at her sister Mollie's home, he and Burkhart took a heavily intoxicated Brown to Three Mile Creek, where Morrison shot and killed her.[14]. All rights reserved. And so they asked him to go to Washington, D.C., to try to plead for help. Did intermarriage among the Osage tribe and whites increase as this happened? The coroner ruled the cause of death was "suspicious," but did not rule that it was murder. But the Osage because they owned their land, they had more leverage with the U.S. government. Because of the large number of leads and the perception that the police were corrupt, White decided he would be the public face of the investigation while most of the agents would work undercover. Most of the murders were never prosecuted, but some men were convicted and sentenced including William Hale, who ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and other members of her family, to gain control of their oil rights. "[1] Some Osage used their royalties to send their children to private schools; others bought fancy cars, clothes and jewelry, and traveled in Europe; and newspapers across the country covered their activities. Fixico) and as Vaught in others (e.g. GRANN: So, yes, the Osage were typical of many American-Indian nations. What appears to have been a common means through which many Osage were poisoned? DAVIES: We're speaking with David Grann. They weren't protected by law or any kind of treaty. Partly that was because the victims were Native Americans. GRANN: Yeah. This went on in so many families I met with, and they would give me the documents, they would give me the trails of evidence to pursue. It had not yet gotten much national coverage. He wanted to remake the FBI. Defense attorneys move on to other cases in which clients' lives can still be saved. he was born in a cabin in texas. Her heirs became fabulously wealthy. And by the 1920s, the Osage collectively had accumulated millions and millions of dollars. Yeah, so there were many shootings. She was born in the 1880s, growing up in a lodge, practicing Osage tradition, speaking Osage. Our guest David Grann's new book tells the story of one of the biggest serial murder cases in American history and one of the most forgotten. There was a great deal of lawlessness. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Osage County officials sought revenge against Pyle for his role in bringing the murders to light. In the early 1920s, the western U.S. was shaken by the reported murders of eighteen Osage and three non-natives in Osage County within a short period of time. And each one of them received a headright. Grann's focus on the Osage murder investigation as the "Birth of the FBI" is a sad joke. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. It was a real time of terror. After a break, Ken Tucker will review the new album by the Philadelphia band The Menzingers. 9. (Credit: David Grann), Prejudice provoked a scapegoating of the Osage for their wealth, and the U.S. Congress literally holds hearings about what the country could do in response, Grann says. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Anna would be merely one of the first victims in a five-year-long Reign . "It could come down to . What happened to the well-being of the nation? [11][a] Brown was divorced, so probate awarded her estate to her mother, Lizzie Q. It's called "Killers Of The Flower Moon." That's why they went on for so many years. The former Texas Ranger put together an undercover team that included a Native American agent. They resettled there. DAVIES: And one of the questions that occurred to me as I read this was it was so remarkable that so many of these men would target Osage women, that so many of these Osage women were open to these relationships and trusted these men. In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann picks up the case and reveals the even wider conspiracy in the Osage murders, which may have numbered in the hundreds. GRANN: So her family becomes a prime target of a conspiracy. Hale lived to be 87 and is buried in Wichita, Kansas. We'll continue our conversation after a break. Both Grammer and Kirby were killed before they could testify. He had been stabbed, I think, at least 20 times. By 1906 there were only 2,229 Osage, about half mixed-bloods and half full-bloods. In 2015, why couldn't the Osage prevent wind turbines being erected on allotted land that had been sold? angel shampoo and conditioner / coinbase pro rate limits have been exceeded / how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Shortly after the assignment, Davis was convicted of bribery. And they enlist the help of a guy named Barney McBride. Tell us about that. Tell us about that. David Grann is a staff writer for The New Yorker, who's won a George Polk Award. And reporters would go out and describe how they lived in these terra-cotta mansions, how they had chauffeured cars, how they had servants, some of whom were white. Kyle. GRANN: Yeah. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Talk about what services you provide. And it terrified people. So the government in - really looking back, just an outrageous system - decided somehow that the Osage were not capable of handling their money. Morrison received a life sentence in 1926, for his participation in the Brown murder. 7. He - because he was last seen with Anna Brown, he is initially questioned. You see all the seeds of his characterparanoia, ambition and manipulation. And they begin to also realize that there is a complicity of silence. Her sister Anna had been discovered in a ravine in May 1921 with a bullet wound to the back of her head. Osage would later refer to this as a diaspora. These are just the murders we're talking about now in Mollie Burkhart's family. he reflects and embodies the transformation of the country. And one of the most powerful things in all of the research was meeting with the descendants. Hale was formally charged with the murder of Roan, who had been killed on the Osage Reservation land, making it a federal crime. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles . Some of the murders were committed for the purposes of taking over land and wealth of Osage members, whose land was producing valuable oil and who each had headrights that earned lucrative annual royalties. He had a particular profile of the kind of man he wanted to be an agent for the Bureau of Investigation. Here was a population being systematically murdered one by one. Mollie Burkhart married Ernest Burkhart, a white man who was very typical of the kind of people who was kind of drawn to this area because there were these kind of wild boom towns at the time. [19] Ernest Burkhart's attempt to kill his wife failed. Mollie Burkhart (right) with sisters Anna (center) and Minnie (left). There were at least 24 Osage who had been murdered. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? Thought that involved a certain level of forgiveness and understanding. While being investigated for the murder of Henry Roan, Burkhart tied Hale and Ramsey to the murder of Roan and confessed to the murder of William E. Smith. But with the arrest of William K. Hale it all stopped. Then they. Initially it was for maybe $100, and then it grew to 1,000. Hale and his associates were convicted in state and federal trials from 1926 to 1929, which had changes of venue, hung juries, appeals, and overturned verdicts. DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Well, David Grann, welcome to FRESH AIR. Dozens and dozens of people were being murdered in a crime wave . The Osage wanted to make sure that they maintained all the subsurface territory together. and the treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of protection, and . . None of these people had college educations or whatnot. Appointed the director of the FBI in 1924, Hoover set about cleaning up and streamlining the department. Christopher Klein is the author of four books, including When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Irelands Freedom and Strong Boy: The Life and Times of John L. Sullivan. Methodical, incorruptible and fearless, White put together a team that, having eliminated all alternative explanations, concluded the Osage killings were directed by Ernest Burkhart's uncle, William Hale, a wealthy rancher known as "the King of the Osage Hills", who had tried to cash in a $25,000 life insurance policy on Henry Roan. Whats interesting is you get to see Hoover and the bureau in its formative period. Ernest said that he had used a person named Henry Grammer as a go-between to hire a professional criminal named Asa "Ace" Kirby to perform the killings. And then by the 1920s when he has this case when he becomes an agent, he is trying to learn all these new modern methods of detection such as fingerprinting, such as ballistic analysis, learning how to file reports which he can't stand. The attorney's name is given as W.W. Vaughan in some sources (e.g. In the early 1900s death was all too common in the . Pyle presented his evidence of murder and conspiracy and requested an investigation. Thats what makes these crimes so sinister and disturbing, he says. It makes your whole body convulse as if with electricity. DAVIES: Right. He had been thrown off the speeding train, and his neck was broken. They are rich people with a reservoir of oil and other minerals in their homeland. Between 1921 and 1926, at least 24 members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma were brutally murdered. On February 6, 1923, Henry Roan, another cousin of Brown's (also known as Henry Roan Horse), was found in his car on the Osage Reservation, dead from a shot in the head. It began in the early 1920s, a time that should have been a prosperous one. And she's really somebody who is straddling not only two centuries, but in many ways two civilizations. Osage in automobile. And they imposed restrictions. But this is a case where there's a great deal of intrigue and mystery early on. The Osage Tribal Council suspected that Hale was responsible for many of the deaths. She's one of the Osage elders, and I got to her house. They have to suddenly file paperwork and wear suits, things that none of them were accustomed to, but they were very experienced lawmen including a man like Tom White. how many osage murders might there possibly have been? All Rights Reserved. There are no statistics about how many American-Indian agents were in the bureau at the time, but I suspect he was the only one. 6. In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hosted a delegation of Osage chiefs who had . What happened there? These private investigators were often, though, sordid characters. And in 1870, they needed to find a new homeland. One night, there was a loud explosion in the community. The short film explores the systematic murders of the Osage from 1910 to 1930 in an organized effort to rob them of their oil and money. But there was still a great indifference because the victims were Osage, were Native Americans.