An oil-rich tribe, their jealous white neighbors, and a tale of murder most foul: Rare images from the FBI's first EVER homicide investigation surface 96 years later
- In 1920s, the Bureau of Investigations probed murders of Osage tribe
- Dozens of members of the tribe were killed in just a few years after striking oil
- Agents uncovered plot by a white family to marry into tribal families before killing them off to inherit their mineral rights
- Rare images from the investigation have been uncovered by author David Grann
When the Osage tribe struck oil on their reservation in the late 1800s, life seemed good. They bought cars, built mansions, sent their children to private schools.
But less than 30 years later, dozens of them had been killed. Shot, poisoned, blown up in their own homes - and nobody knew who was behind it.
That was until a new federal agency, the Bureau of Investigations and its director J Edgar Hoover, were brought in to crack the case.
Their investigation, and the conspiracy it uncovered, has been documented in rare photographs brought to light in a new book.
When their tribe struck oil in the 1920s, Mollie Burkhart and her family (left) became some of the wealthiest people in America. But they were soon the target of a ruthless campaign of murder by William Hale (with his sister and wife, right)
The Osage bought a reservation in remote northeastern Oklahoma in the mid-1800s in the hopes they would be left alone by settlers who pushed them off their old lands
But by the end of the century the discovery of oil brought the tribe immense wealth, and renewed interest from the federal government
The true-life murder story is chronicled in Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann, and published by Simon and Schuster.
'It was a story I had never heard about, never read about in any history book,' he told Wired.
'An historian had mentioned it to me, and I decided to go out to the Osage nation, which still exists in northeast Oklahoma.
'I got there and I went to the museum. At the time I didn't know the museum director, Kathryn Red Corn.
Mollie eventually married a white man, Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of William Hale. They had two children together
'There's a large panoramic photograph on the wall, taken in 1923, but it's missing a panel. I'd said to Kathryn, "What happened to that panel?" And she'd said, "It was too painful to look at".
'She pointed to the missing panel and she said, "The devil was standing right there".
'They had a copy of the missing panel, and she brought it up and she showed it to me. And there, in the corner, she identified one of the killers of the Osage.
'And that's when I decided: OK, I want to know who that devil was.'
The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target and her relatives were shot and poisoned.
More and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances and many people who dared investigate the killings were murdered.
The Bureau of Investigation, later renamed the FBI, took up the case as the death toll climbed but had to turn to a former Texas Ranger for help after bungling the initial stages.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked Tom White to unravel the mystery. Mr White put in place an undercover team, who alongside the Osage, exposed a chilling conspiracy.
In 1921, Mollie's sister disappeared and was found shot dead in this ravine. Two months later her mother, Lizzie, was dead from poisoning. Her other sister, Rita, then died in an explosion
Eventually the Bureau of Investigations was brought in to investigate. They enlisted the help of a Texas Ranger named Tom White who led an undercover team that uncovered a conspiracy
The investigation found huge corruption by white 'guardians' brought in to help the Osage spent their oil money, including members of the Al Spencer Gang (pictured in a mock hold-up)
In its undercover investigation, the FBI found that several murders in one family were found to have been committed by a gang led by William 'King of Osage Hills' Hale.
His goal was to gain the oil royalty headrights and wealth of several tribe members, including his nephew's Osage wife, the last survivor of her family.
Three men were convicted and sentenced in this case, but dozens of other murders went unsolved, and many believe their killers were let off the hook.
The investigation also uncovered extensive corruption among local officials involved in the Osage guardian program - largely white lawyers brought in by the federal government to help the Native Americans 'manage' their new wealth.
As a result of the Reign of Terror, as it was known, and the subsequent investigation Congress changed the law to prohibit non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage with half or more Native American ancestry.
It transpired that Mollie's family were being killed off by her own husband, under the direction of Hale, who was trying to inherit the rights to her oil-rich lands (pictured, Mollie left, and with her sisters, right)
The chilling case was uncovered by author David Grann who published the details in a new book (pictured, the Osage reservation today)
No comments:
Post a Comment