Killers of the flower moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI / David Grann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grann, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation--Case studies.

United States.

Osage Indians--Crimes against--Case studies.

Osage Indians.

Murder--Oklahoma--Osage County--Case studies.

Murder.

Homicide investigation--Oklahoma--Osage County--Case studies.

Homicide investigation.

Osage County (Okla.)--History--20th century.

Osage County (Okla.).

History--Native American.

History--United States--20th Century.

United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Conspiracy.

Murder for hire.

Oklahoma--Osage County.

True crime.

Local Subjects:

History--Native American.

History--United States--20th Century.

Genre:

True crime stories.

Case studies.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 338 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Doubleday, [2017]

Summary:

Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

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, they 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. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances. In this last remnant of the Wild West--where oilmen like J.P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the "Phantom Terror," roamed--many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization's first major homicide investigations and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Contents:

Pt. 1: The marked woman

The vanishing

An act of God or man?

King of the Osage Hills

Underground reservation

The devil's disciples

Million dollar elm

This thing of darkness

Pt. 2: The evidence man

Department of easy virtue

The undercover cowboys

Eliminating the impossible

The third man

A wilderness of mirrors

A hangman's son

Dying words

The hidden face

For the betterment of the Bureau

The quick-draw artist, the yegg, and the soup man

The state of the game

A traitor to his blood

So help you God!

The hot house

Pt. 3: The reporter

Ghostlands

A case not closed

Standing in two worlds

The lost manuscript

Blood cries out.

Notes:

Maps on endpapers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-336).

Local Notes:

The Balch Ethnic Studies Collection.

HSP cited source/credit line: The Indian Rights Association Records.

The Indian Rights Association Complementary Collection.

Other Format:

Online version: Grann, David. Killers of the Flower Moon.

ISBN:

9780385534246

0385534248

9780385542487

0385542488

9780307742483

0307742482

OCLC:

953738449