Editing Osage Indian murders (section)

==Charges and trials==
[[File:James A Stout, William K Hale, John Ransey, and J.A. Clouse 1926.webp|thumb|[[William King Hale|William Hale]] in 1926, second from the left, and John Ramsey, third from left, are flanked by two US Marshals.]]

Hale, his nephews, and one of the ranch hands they hired were charged with the murder of [[Mollie Kyle]]'s family. Hale was charged with the murder of Roan, who had been killed on the Osage Reservation, making it a federal crime.<ref name="NMAI"/> Two of his accomplices, Henry Grammer and Asa Kirby, had died before the BOI investigation was completed. Hale and his associates were convicted in state and federal trials from 1926 to 1929, which had changes of venue, [[Hung jury|hung juries]], [[appeal]]s, and overturned verdicts. In 1926, Ernest pleaded guilty to being part of the conspiracy.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=53}}

Several others were prosecuted for trying to impede the investigation. In 1927, a lawyer working in the interest of Hale, William Scheff, was convicted of furnishing whiskey for a witness in an attempt to get her to change her testimony. Scheff was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for federal liquor violations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scheff v. United States, 33 F.2d 263 |url=https://casetext.com/case/scheff-v-united-states |access-date=November 8, 2023 |website=casetext.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127193743/https://casetext.com/case/scheff-v-united-states |archive-date=January 27, 2024}}</ref> In 1928, Reverend P. C. Hesser, a member of the grand jury which indicted Hale and Ramsey, was convicted of perjury for lying that Ramsey's confession had not been signed. He was sentenced to two years in prison and fined {{US$|100|1928|round=-2|long=no}}.<ref>{{Cite news |date=June 8, 1928 |title=Reverend Hesser |page=8 |work=Stillwater Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/stillwater-gazette-reverend-hesser/128328920/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716235205/https://www.newspapers.com/article/stillwater-gazette-reverend-hesser/128328920/ |archive-date=July 16, 2023}}</ref> In 1929, Irving Claude Hale, a half-brother of Hale, was sentenced to 60 days in prison for [[contempt of court]]. Theodore Cavalier, a local farmer, said Irving Hale had approached him and offered him money to sit on the jury and vote for an acquittal.<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 3, 1929 |title=T.C. Hale |page=8 |work=[[Miami News-Record]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/miami-news-record-tc-hale/128351624/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717033939/https://www.newspapers.com/article/miami-news-record-tc-hale/128351624/ |archive-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref>

Various residents of Pawhuska petitioned [[Governor of Oklahoma|Oklahoma Governor]] [[Jack C. Walton]] to conduct a full investigation of the deaths of George Bigheart and his attorney, William Vaughan. Walton assigned Herman Fox Davis to the investigation. Shortly after the assignment, Davis was convicted of [[bribery]]. Although Walton later [[pardon]]ed Davis, the investigation of Bigheart and Vaughan was never completed.<ref name="Farris" /> On November 9, 1923, Davis and three other men, Frank Brumley, Eustace Knight, and Tom Rudolph, robbed and murdered Paul J. McCarthy, a prominent attorney. All four men were found guilty or pleaded guilty to this murder, and were each sentenced to life in prison with hard labor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rudolph v. State, 32 Okla. Crim. 265 {{!}} Casetext Search + Citator |url=https://casetext.com/case/rudolph-v-state-51 |access-date=June 21, 2023 |website=casetext.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622010935/https://casetext.com/case/rudolph-v-state-51 |archive-date=June 22, 2023}}</ref>

In the case of the Smith murders, Ernest suddenly changed his plea to guilty, saying he wanted to tell the truth. He was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor. He turned state's evidence, naming his uncle as responsible for the murder conspiracy. 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.<ref name="KotFMYR">{{Cite book |last=Grann |first=David |author-link=David Grann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DvJIEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22rich+today%22+%22damn+ernest%22&pg=PA225 |title=Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI |date=November 16, 2021 |publisher=[[Random House]] Children's Books |isbn=978-0-593-37734-5 |page=225 |language=en}}</ref>

Both Grammer and Kirby were killed before they could testify. Grammer, 39, died in a car crash on June 14, 1923. Kirby, 23, was killed while robbing a store on June 23, 1923. The shopkeeper had been tipped off in advance, and had been waiting for Kirby. It was later discovered that the man who had tipped off the shopkeeper about the upcoming robbery was Hale. After his parole, Hale's relatives said he once remarked, "If that damn Ernest had kept his mouth shut we'd be rich today."<ref name="KotFMYR"/>

John Ramsey confessed to participation in the murder of Roan as soon as he was arrested. He said that Hale had promised him five hundred dollars, {{inflation|US|500|1923|r=-2|fmt=eq}}, and a new car for killing Roan. Ramsey met Roan on a road outside the town of Fairfax, and they drank whiskey together. Then Ramsey shot Roan in the head. Ramsey changed his story, claiming that the actual killer was Curly Johnson. His accomplice, Byron Burkhart, Ernest's brother and another Hale nephew, had [[Turn state's evidence|turned state's evidence]].

The trials received national newspaper and magazine coverage. Sentenced to [[life imprisonment]], Hale, Ramsey, and Ernest Burkhart later received [[parole]] despite protests from the Osage. Hale and Ramsey were both paroled in 1947. Hale died in 1962, and Byron died in 1985.

Ernest was paroled in 1937. In 1940, he and a woman named Clara Mae Goad robbed the Osage home of Lillie Morrell Burkhart, his former sister-in-law, stealing $7,000 in valuables, {{Inflation|US|7000|1939|r=-4|fmt=eq}}.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 15, 1940 |title=Burglary |page=5 |work=The Newkirk Herald Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-newkirk-herald-journal-burglary/128342432/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717014219/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-newkirk-herald-journal-burglary/128342432/ |archive-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref> In 1941, Ernest and Clara were both found guilty of federal burglary charges. Clara was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Ernest was sentenced to 7 years in prison and had his parole revoked. US District Judge [[Franklin Elmore Kennamer]] granted Ernest's request not to be sent to the [[USP Leavenworth]], where Hale and Ramsey were serving their life sentences.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 26, 1941 |title=Ernest Burkhart |page=8 |work=Valley Morning Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-morning-star-ernest-burkhart/76122186/ |access-date=November 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103153343/https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-morning-star-ernest-burkhart/76122186/ |archive-date=November 3, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 30, 1941 |title=Ernest Burkhart |page=9 |work=Tulsa World |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-world-ernest-burkhart/128341884/ |access-date=November 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103153343/https://www.newspapers.com/article/tulsa-world-ernest-burkhart/128341884/ |archive-date=November 3, 2023}}</ref> 

After completing his federal sentence at the [[United States Penitentiary, Atlanta|United States Penitentiary in Atlanta]], Burkhart was returned to the [[Oklahoma State Penitentiary]] to resume his life sentence. Ernest was paroled again in October 1959. During his parole hearing, he downplayed his own involvement in the murders, referring to himself as an "unwitting tool" of his uncle: "All I did was deliver a message. Other than that I'm as innocent as you. I delivered a message from my uncle to John Ramsey and that's all I did."<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 26, 1959 |title=Parole Ernest |page=1 |work=The Chickasha Daily Express |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chickasha-daily-express-parole-ernes/128342792/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027065627/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-chickasha-daily-express-parole-ernes/128342792/ |archive-date=October 27, 2023}}</ref>

In 1966, Ernest applied for a pardon. Citing his cooperation with the investigation (White had credited his confession as vital for the convictions of Hale and Ramsey), the Oklahoma Parole Board voted 3–2 in favor of a pardon, which was granted by Governor [[Henry Bellmon]].<ref name="OHS" /> Ernest Burkhart died in 1986.{{sfn|Grann|2017|p=270|ref=Grann2017a}}

In the early 1990s, journalist Dennis McAuliffe of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' investigated the suspicious death of his grandmother, Sybil Beekman Bolton, an Osage with [[Osage headright|headrights]] who died in 1925 at age 21. As a youth he had been told she died of [[kidney disease]], then as a [[suicide]]. His doubts arose from a variety of conflicting evidence. In his investigation, McAuliffe found that the BOI believed that the murders of several Osage women "had been committed or ordered by their husbands."{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=?}}

Most murders of the Osage during the early 1920s went unsolved.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=?}} McAuliffe found that when Bolton was a minor, the court had appointed her white stepfather, attorney Arthur "A.T." Woodward, as her guardian. Woodward, who died in 1950, also served as the federally appointed Tribal Counsel,{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=147}} and he had guardianship of four other Osage charges, each of whom had died by 1923.<ref name="Jefferson" />

McAuliffe learned that his grandmother's murder had been covered up by a false death certificate. He came to believe that Woodward was responsible for her death.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=?}} His book about his investigation, ''Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation'' (1994), presents an account of the corruption and murders during this period.<ref name="Jefferson" />

Osage County officials sought revenge against Pyle for his role in bringing the murders to light. Fearing for his life, Pyle and his wife fled to Arizona, where he again served as an officer of the law. He died there in 1942.