Editing Osage Indian murders

{{Short description|1910s–1930s murders in Oklahoma, US}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Osage Indian murders
| location         = [[Osage County, Oklahoma]], US
| image            = Osage murders 9.jpg
| caption          = This document in the "Hale–Ramsey Murder Case" is from the Oklahoman Collection at the [[Oklahoma Historical Society]] photo archives.
| coordinates      = 
| target           = Osage people
| date             = 1918–1931
| type             = Shootings, poisonings
| fatalities       = 60+ (possibly hundreds)
| motive           = Inheritance of oil rights
| convicted        = [[William King Hale|William Hale]]<br/>[[Ernest Burkhart]]<br/>John Ramsey<br/>Kelsie Morrison
| perps            = William Hale and others
| weapons          = knives, guns, poison 
}}
The '''Osage Indian murders''' was a serial killing event that took place in [[Osage County, Oklahoma]], United States, during the 1910s–1930s. Newspapers described the increasing number of unsolved murders and deaths among young adults of the [[Osage Nation]] as the "Reign of Terror".{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=41}}{{sfn|Brignell|2022|p=6}} Most took place between 1921 to 1926. At least 60 wealthy, full-blood Osage persons were reported killed from 1918 to 1931.<ref name="Jefferson" /> Newer investigations indicate that other suspicious deaths during this time could have been misreported or covered-up murders, including those of individuals who were heirs to future fortunes. Further research has shown that the death toll may have been in the hundreds.{{sfn|Grann|2017|pp=307–308|ref=Grann2017a}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=September 1, 2018 |title=The FBI's First Big Case: The Osage Murders |url=https://www.history.com/news/the-fbis-first-big-case-the-osage-murders |access-date=July 16, 2023 |website=HISTORY |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240210111532/https://www.history.com/news/the-fbis-first-big-case-the-osage-murders |archive-date=February 10, 2024}}</ref>

The tribe had retained mineral rights to its reservation.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|pp=24–25}} Each tribal member had what were known as [[Osage headright|headrights]] to the mineral rights on communal land.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Osage Oil |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=OS006 |access-date=March 25, 2024 |website=Oklahoma Historical Society |language=en-us |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=June 3, 2016 |title=Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/who-we-are/minerals-council/frequently-asked-questions |access-date=March 25, 2024 |website=Osage Nation |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> When valuable [[Petroleum|oil]] was found on their land and leases were sold for oil production, each member with headrights was paid a share of the lucrative annual [[Royalty payment|royalties]] for leases by oil companies. In 1906 and subsequent years, [[United States Congress|US Congress]] passed a series of laws, ostensibly intended to help the Osage retain wealth, that created a system of guardianship for "minors and incompetents", as determined by and under the jurisdiction of Oklahoma's local county probate courts.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rarick |first1=Joseph F. |title=Lands Allotted Among the Osage Indians, Part IV |url=https://thorpe.law.ou.edu/treatises/partiv.html |access-date=January 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122003805/https://thorpe.law.ou.edu/treatises/partiv.html |archive-date=January 22, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1921 |url=https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/T-21953.pdf |publisher=Department of the Interior |access-date=January 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025025548/https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/T-21953.pdf |archive-date=October 25, 2022 |pages=25–26 |date=1921 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Oklahoma courts routinely found Native Americans to be incompetent without considering mental capacity. For example, a guardian was appointed for one Indian woman on the basis that her savings suggested a lack of spending which was evidence that she did not understand the value of money. Many guardians used their appointment to gain control over the ward's wealth for their own personal benefit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Administration of Indian Affairs In The State of Oklahoma: Hearing Before the Comm...on H.J. Res.181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdI78xdT7ncC |access-date=January 9, 2024 |language=en |date=February 21, 1924}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Seielstad |first1=Andrea |title=The disturbing history of how conservatorships were used to exploit, swindle Native Americans |url=https://theconversation.com/the-disturbing-history-of-how-conservatorships-were-used-to-exploit-swindle-native-americans-165140 |website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |access-date=January 9, 2024 |date=August 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305103358/https://theconversation.com/the-disturbing-history-of-how-conservatorships-were-used-to-exploit-swindle-native-americans-165140 |archive-date=March 5, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kesler |first1=Sam Yellowhorse |last2=Aronczyk |first2=Amanda |last3=Romer |first3=Keith |last4=Rubin |first4=Willa |title=Blood, oil, and the Osage Nation: The battle over headrights |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165619070/osage-headrights-killers-of-the-flower-moon-fletcher-lawsuit |work=[[NPR]] |access-date=January 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219175945/https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165619070/osage-headrights-killers-of-the-flower-moon-fletcher-lawsuit |archive-date=February 19, 2024}}</ref> During this period, numerous white men married Osage women to become guardians of their estate.

Some of the murders were committed to enable whites to take over the headrights of Osage members when inheriting property after deaths. The Osage found minimal assistance from local law enforcement to investigate the deaths, as it was dominated by powerful whites working in their own interests. Later investigation, including that of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI, the precursor to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]), revealed extensive corruption among local officials involved in the Osage guardian program, including lawyers and judges. Most of the murders were never prosecuted. Nevertheless, several perpetrators were convicted of murder, including [[William Hale (cattleman)|William Hale]], a powerful rancher who ordered the murders of his nephew's wife and other members of her family to gain control of their headrights and oil wealth. Two other perpetrators implicated with Hale, [[Henry Grammer]] and Asa Kirby, died under suspicious circumstances during the BOI investigation. Several others involved were convicted of lesser charges, such as perjury, witness tampering, and contempt of court, for attempting to impede the investigation.

In 1925, the US Congress changed the law to prohibit non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage with half or more Native American ancestry, in an effort to protect the Osage. The US government continued to manage the leases and royalties from oil-producing lands. Over decades, the tribe became increasingly concerned about these assets. In 2000, the Osage Nation filed a suit against the [[United States Department of the Interior|US Department of the Interior]], alleging that it had not adequately managed the assets and paid people the royalties they were due. The suit was settled in 2011 for $380 million and commitments to improve program management.<ref name="doj">{{cite web |url=https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/historic-settlement-osage-tribe-oklahoma |title=A Historic Settlement with the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma |publisher=Department of Justice |date=October 21, 2011 |access-date=March 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114073443/https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/historic-settlement-osage-tribe-oklahoma |archive-date=January 14, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Howell" />

==Background==
The Osage tribe was forcibly relocated by the US government from their home in Kansas to a reservation in Oklahoma in the 1870s.{{sfn|Grann|2017|loc=The Vanishing|ref=Grann2017a}} In 1897, oil was discovered on the [[Osage Nation|Osage Indian Reservation]], present-day [[Osage County, Oklahoma|Osage County]], [[Oklahoma]]. The [[United States Department of the Interior|US Department of the Interior]] managed leases for [[Hydrocarbon exploration|oil exploration]] and [[Extraction of petroleum|production]] on land owned by the Osage Nation through the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] and later managed [[royalty payment|royalties]], paying individual allottees.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|pp=47–48}} As part of the process of preparing Oklahoma for statehood, the federal government allotted {{convert|657 |acres}} to each Osage on the tribal rolls in 1907. Thereafter, they and their legal heirs, whether Osage or not, had [[Osage headright|headrights]] to royalties in oil production, based on their allotments of lands.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=?}} The headrights could be inherited by legal heirs, including non-Osage. The tribe held the [[mineral rights]] communally and paid its members money from leases by a percentage related to their holdings.

By 1920, the market for oil had grown dramatically and brought much wealth to the Osage. In 1923 alone, the tribe took in more than {{US$|30 million|long=no}} (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|30000000|1951|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|USD}}).<ref name="grann">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-marked-woman |first=David |last=Grann |author-link=David Grann |title=The Marked Woman |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=March 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129002249/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/david-grann-the-osage-murders-and-the-birth-of-the-fbi |archive-date=November 29, 2023 |access-date=August 18, 2024}}</ref> People across the U.S. read about the Osage, called "the richest nation, clan, or social group of any race on earth, including the whites, man for man".<ref name="Jefferson" /> Some Osage used their royalties to send their children to private schools. Others bought luxury cars, clothes, jewelry, and travels to Europe, and newspapers across the country covered their activities.<ref name="Jefferson" /> Along with tens of thousands of oil workers, the [[oil boom]] attracted many white opportunists to Osage County. As the writer [[Robert Allen Warrior]] characterizes them, some were entrepreneurial, and others were criminal, seeking to separate the Osage from their wealth by murder if necessary.<ref name="Warrior" />

Believing the Osage would not be able to manage their new wealth, the [[United States Congress|US Congress]] passed a law in 1921 which required that courts appoint [[Legal guardian|guardians]] for each Osage of half-blood or more in ancestry, who would manage their royalties and financial affairs until they demonstrated "competency".<ref>{{cite web |last=Solly |first=Meilan |date=October 18, 2023 |title=The Real History Behind 'Killers of the Flower Moon' |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-killers-of-the-flower-moon-180983086/ |access-date=November 7, 2023 |website=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231209053227/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-killers-of-the-flower-moon-180983086/ |archive-date=December 9, 2023}}</ref>{{sfn|Brignell|2022|p=88}} Under the system, even minors who had less than half-Osage blood were required guardians, regardless of living parents. The courts appointed the guardians from local white lawyers or businessmen. The incentives for criminality were overwhelming. Such guardians often maneuvered legally to steal Osage land, their headrights, or royalties. Others were suspected of murdering their charges to gain the headrights.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|p=?}}<ref name="Warrior" />

At that time, eight lawyers were working in [[Pawhuska, Oklahoma|Pawhuska]], the Osage County [[County seat|seat]], which had 8,000 residents. The number of lawyers was said to be the same in [[Oklahoma City]], which had 140,000 residents.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|pp=146–147}} In 1924, the Department of the Interior charged two dozen guardians of Osage with corruption in the administration of their duties related to their charges. All avoided punishment by [[legal settlement]] out of court. These guardians were believed to have swindled their charges out of millions of dollars. In 1929, {{US$|27 million|long=no}} was reported as still being held by the Guardian System, the organization set up to protect the financial interests of 883 Osage families in Osage County.<ref>{{cite book |first=Garrick |last=Bailey |title=Art of the Osage |location=Seattle |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |date=2004 |page=142}}</ref>

==Murders in Osage County==
[[File:Osage-Indian-Murder-Victims.jpg|thumb|[[Henry Roan]], Rita Smith, and William Vaughan]]
In the early 1920s, eighteen [[Osage Nation|Osage]] and three non-Osage people in Osage County were reported murdered within a short period of time. [[Colorado]] newspapers reported the murders as the "Reign of Terror" on the Osage reservation.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=41}}{{sfn|Brignell|2022|p=6}} Some murders seemed associated with several members of one family.

On May 27, 1921, local hunters discovered the decomposing body of 36-year-old Anna Brown in a remote ravine of Osage County. Unable to find the killer, local authorities ruled her death as accidental because of alcohol poisoning and put the case aside.<ref name="NMAI">{{cite web |url=http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/03/the-osage-murders-oil-wealth-betrayal-and-the-fbis-first-big-case.html |title=The Osage Murders: Oil Wealth, Betrayal and the FBI's First Big Case |website=[[National Museum of the American Indian]] |date=March 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816054423/http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2011/03/the-osage-murders-oil-wealth-betrayal-and-the-fbis-first-big-case.html |archive-date=August 16, 2013 |access-date=April 23, 2016}}</ref> An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was not alcohol, but a bullet fired into the back of her head.<ref name="Howell">{{cite news |url=http://newsok.com/article/3921909 |last=Howell |first=Melissa |title=The Reign of Terror |work=NewsOK |date=January 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115183457/http://newsok.com/article/3921909 |archive-date=January 15, 2014}}</ref> Brown was divorced, so [[probate]] awarded her estate to her mother, Lizzie Q. Kyle.<ref name="Howell"/> Kelsie Morrison, a petty criminal, later admitted to murdering Brown and testified that [[William Hale (cattleman)|William Hale]], a prominent local rancher, had asked him to do so. 

Along with his admission, Morrison implicated Hale's nephew and Brown's ex-boyfriend, Byron Burkhart,{{sfn|Grann|2017|p=12|ref=Grann2017a}} in her murder.{{sfn|Grann|2017|p=207|ref=Grann2017a}} Morrison testified that, after meeting Brown earlier at her sister [[Mollie Kyle]]'s home, he and Burkhart took a heavily intoxicated Brown to Three Mile Creek, where Morrison shot and killed her. Morrison was also responsible for the murders of William Stepson, who died of a suspected poisoning in 1922, and Tillie Powell Morrison, who died of a suspected poisoning in 1923. One of Morrison's associates later said he had confessed to both murders to him.{{sfn|Grann|2017|p=12|ref=Grann2017a}}

Morrison received a life sentence in 1926 for his participation in the Brown murder. However, in January 1931, his conviction was overturned because he had been promised immunity in exchange for his testimony for the prosecution against others involved in the murders. He was released from prison on July 16, 1931, after completing a separate sentence for assault with intent to kill.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Page 001 |url=https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/okresources/id/173480/ |access-date=January 3, 2024 |website=digitalprairie.ok.gov |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127223704/https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/okresources/id/173480/ |archive-date=January 27, 2024}}</ref> Morrison, 38, was killed in a shootout with police on May 25, 1937.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 26, 1937 |title=Morrison gun battle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/corpus-christi-times-morrison-gun-battle/134740012/ |access-date=January 20, 2024 |work=Corpus Christi Times |page=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312104133/https://www.newspapers.com/article/corpus-christi-times-morrison-gun-battle/134740012/ |archive-date=March 12, 2024}}</ref><ref name="OHS"/>

The body of another Osage, Brown's cousin Charles Whitehorn, also known as Charles Williamson, was discovered near Pawhuska on the same day as hers. Whitehorn had been shot to death.<ref name="Howell"/> Two months later, Lizzie Q. Kyle was killed. Local authorities had initially ruled that Lizzie's death was due to old age.<ref name="Curtis">{{cite news |url=http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/reign-of-terror-kills-osage-family/article_22446fd0-f702-5130-a0c6-be9cfe423b31.html |last=Curtis |first=Gene |title=Reign of Terror Kills Osage Family |work=Tulsa World |date=November 26, 2006 |access-date=April 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425004828/https://tulsaworld.com/archives/reign-of-terror-kills-osage-family/article_22446fd0-f702-5130-a0c6-be9cfe423b31.html |archive-date=April 25, 2023}}</ref> By that time, Lizzie had [[Osage headright|headrights]] for herself and had inherited the headrights from her late Osage husband and two daughters. Her heirs became fabulously wealthy.

In 1922, the Osage approached white oilman Barney A. McBride for help. McBride traveled to Washington, D.C. to enlist the aid of the federal government in investigating the murders. On the night of his arrival at a boarding house in the capital, he received a telegram that told him to be careful.{{cn|date=May 2025}} After playing billiards and exiting from a club that same evening, an assailant tied a burlap sack around McBride's head and stabbed him over twenty times. The following morning, McBride's naked body was found in a Maryland culvert. McBride's murder later made the headline of [[The Washington Times (1894–1939)|''The Washington Times'']] newspaper on August 12, 1922.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

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.<ref name="NMAI"/> Roan had a financial connection with Hale, having borrowed $1,200 from the cattleman. Hale fraudulently arranged to make himself the beneficiary of Roan's {{US$|25,000|1923|round=-3|long=no}} [[life insurance]] policy.<ref name="Farris">{{cite magazine |url=http://edmondlifeandleisure.com/a-look-at-the-osage-indian-murders-p11200-76.htm |last=Farris |first=David |title=A look at the Osage Indian murders |magazine=Edmond Life and Leisure |date=April 29, 2015 |access-date=April 23, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231023072923/https://edmondlifeandleisure.com/a-look-at-the-osage-indian-murders-p11200-76.htm |archive-date=October 23, 2023}}</ref> On March 10, 1923, a bomb destroyed the [[Fairfax, Oklahoma|Fairfax]] residence of Anna's sister Rita Smith, killing Rita and her servant, Nettie Brookshire. Rita's husband, Bill Smith, sustained massive injuries from the blast and died four days later. Shortly before his death, Bill gave a statement implicating his suspected murderers and appointed his wife's estate. Later investigations revealed that the bomb contained {{convert|5|usgal|L}} of [[nitroglycerin]].<ref name="Howell"/>

On June 28, 1923, Hale and Burkhart put George Bigheart on a train to Oklahoma City to be taken to a hospital. George Bigheart was the son of [[James Bigheart]], the last hereditary Osage chief.<ref name="FOF">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=ENAIT382&DataType=Indian&WinType=Free |last1=Ewen |first1=Alexander |first2=Jeffrey |last2=Wollock |title=Osage Reign of Terror |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century |location=New York |publisher=[[Facts On File]], Inc. |date=2014 |access-date=April 27, 2016 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> Hale was Bigheart's neighbor and friend, and had recently been designated by the court as Bigheart's guardian. There, doctors suspected that he had ingested poisoned [[Whisky|whiskey]]. Bigheart called white attorney William Watkins "W.W." Vaughan,{{efn|The attorney's name is given as the correct W.W. Vaughan in some sources (such as Fixico) and as the incorrect Vaught in others (such as Farris). He was sometimes called "Will". He was born on May 18, 1869, in Knox County, Kentucky; died on June 29, 1923, in Oklahoma; and was buried in Pawhuska Cemetery in Pawhuska, Osage County, Oklahoma. ''Killers of the Flower Moon'' (2017) dedicates one chapter to W.W. Vaughan. It is clear that the correct name is Vaughan, as Grann wrote about interviews with two of Vaughan's grandchildren, Martha and Melville of Pawhuska.}} asking him to come to the hospital as soon as possible for an urgent meeting. Vaughan complied, and the two men met that night. Bigheart had said he had suspicions about who was behind the murders and had access to incriminating documents that would prove his claims.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=52}}

Vaughan boarded a train that night to return to Pawhuska.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=52}} In the morning, he was missing when the [[Pullman porter]] went to wake him. His berth on the train had not been used. Vaughan's naked body was later found with his skull crushed, beside the railroad tracks near [[Pershing, Oklahoma|Pershing]], about {{convert|5|mi|km|0}} south of Pawhuska.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=52}}<ref name="Curtis"/> The documents Bighorn had given him were missing. Vaughan's body was so badly disfigured that the coroner could not be certain whether the man had fallen off the train or else been beaten first and then pushed off. The coroner ruled the cause of death was "suspicious", but did not rule that it was murder.{{sfn|McAuliffe|1994|pp=265–266}} Bigheart died at the hospital that same morning.

Thirteen other deaths of full-blooded Osage men and women, who had guardians appointed by the courts, were reported between 1921 and 1923. By 1925, at least sixty wealthy Osage had died and their land (and headrights) had been inherited or deeded to their guardians, who were local white lawyers and businessmen.<ref name="Jefferson">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/books/books-of-the-times-digging-up-a-tale-of-terror-among-the-osages.html |first=Margo |last=Jefferson |title=BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Digging Up a Tale of Terror Among the Osages |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 31, 1994 |access-date=December 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231212020739/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/books/books-of-the-times-digging-up-a-tale-of-terror-among-the-osages.html |archive-date=December 12, 2023}}</ref> The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation#Background|Bureau of Investigation]] (BOI), which preceded the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sent investigators to the reservation and found a low-level market in [[contract killer]]s to kill the Osage for their wealth.<ref name="Jefferson"/> In 1995, writer [[Robert Allen Warrior]] wrote about walking through an Osage cemetery and seeing "the inordinate number of young people who died during that time."<ref name="Warrior"/>

In 1925, Osage tribal elders, with the help of local law officer James Monroe Pyle, sought assistance from the BOI when local and state officials could not solve the rising number of murders. Pyle presented his evidence of murder and [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] and requested an investigation. The BOI sent [[Thomas Bruce White Sr.|Tom White]] to lead an investigation. Because of the numerous leads and perception that the local police were corrupt, White decided he would be the public face of the investigation, and most of the agents would work [[Undercover operation|undercover]]. The other agents recruited were: a former [[New Mexico]] sheriff; a former [[Texas Ranger Division|Texas Ranger]]; John Burger, who had worked on the previous investigation; Frank Smith; and John Wren, a member of the [[Ute people|Ute Nation]] who had previously been a spy for the [[Mexican Revolution|Mexican revolutionaries]].{{sfn|Grann|2017|pp=115–116|ref=Grann2017a}}

==Investigation==
[[File:Osage-Indian-Murders-Cartoon.jpg|thumb|A political cartoon depicts [[Mollie Burkhart]] and [[William King Hale]] from the ''Enid Morning News'', Sunday edition on February 7, 1926.]]

The Osage Tribal Council suspected that Hale was responsible for many of the deaths. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior sent four agents to act as undercover investigators. Working for two years, the agents discovered a [[crime ring]] led by Hale, known in Osage County as the "King of Osage".{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=41}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Osage Indian Murders |url=https://webharvest.gov/peth04/20041015105909/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/osageind.htm |website=[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528231648/https://webharvest.gov/peth04/20041015105909/http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/osageind.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2022}}</ref> Hale and his nephews, Ernest and Byron Burkhart, had migrated from [[Texas]] to Osage County to find jobs in the oil fields. Once there, they discovered the immense wealth of members of the Osage Nation from royalties being paid from leases on oil-producing lands.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=41}} Hale's goal was to gain the [[Osage headright|headrights]] and wealth of several tribe members, including his nephew's Osage wife, [[Mollie Burkhart]], the last survivor of her family. The Osage murders began with Osage killings. 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.{{sn|May 2025}}

To gain part of the wealth, Hale persuaded Ernest to marry Mollie Kyle, a full-blooded Osage.<ref name="Burns">{{cite book |first=Louis F. |last=Burns |title=A History of the Osage People |location=Tuscaloosa |publisher=[[University of Alabama Press]] |date=1989 |pages=439–442}}</ref>{{sfn|Fixico|2012|p=52}} Hale arranged for the murders of Mollie's sisters, her brother-in-law, her mother, and her cousin, [[Henry Roan]], to cash in on the insurance policies and headrights of each family member.<ref name="Burns"/>{{sfn|Fixico|2012|pp=52–53}}

As the BOI investigation of the conspiracy expanded, other witnesses and participants were murdered.{{sfn|Fixico|2012|pp=52–53}} Mollie and [[Ernest Burkhart]] inherited all of the headrights from her family. Investigators soon discovered that Mollie was already being poisoned.<ref name="OHS">{{cite web |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS005.html |title=Osage Murders |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729090945/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS005.html |archive-date=July 29, 2013 |website=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=December 2, 2011}}</ref>

Ernest Burkhart's attempt to kill his wife failed. Mollie, a devout Catholic, had told her priest that she feared she was being poisoned at home. The priest told her not to touch liquor under any circumstances. He also alerted one of the BOI agents. Mollie recovered from the poison she had already consumed and divorced Ernest after the trials. She later married again. Mollie Burkhart Cobb died of unrelated causes on June 16, 1937. Her children inherited all of her estate.<ref name="Howell"/>

==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.

==Change in law==
To try to prevent further criminality and to protect the Osage, in 1925 Congress passed a law prohibiting non-Osage from inheriting headrights from Osage who had half or more Native American ancestry.<ref name="OHS"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS005.html |first=Jon D. |last=May |title=Osage Murders |website=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729090945/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS005.html | archive-date=July 29, 2013 |publisher=[[Oklahoma Historical Society]] |access-date=December 2, 2011}}</ref>

==Trust management lawsuit==
The Department of Interior continued to manage the trust lands and pay fees to Osage with [[Osage headright|headrights]]. In 2000, the tribe filed a lawsuit against the department, alleging that federal government management of the trust assets had resulted in historical losses to its trust funds and interest income.<ref name="doj"/><ref name="Howell"/> This was after [[Cobell v. Salazar|a major class-action suit]] had been filed against the departments of Interior and Treasury in 1996 by [[Elouise P. Cobell|Elouise Cobell]] ([[Piegan Blackfeet|Blackfeet]]) on behalf of other Native Americans, for similar reasons.

In 2011, the US government settled with the Osage for $380 million, $513 million in 2023<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.inflationtool.com/us-dollar/2011-to-present-value |title=Value of 2011 US Dollars today - Inflation Calculator |website=www.inflationtool.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002085721/https://www.inflationtool.com/us-dollar/2011-to-present-value |archive-date=October 2, 2023}}</ref> dollars. The settlement also strengthened management of the tribe's trust assets and improved communications between the Department of Interior and the tribe.<ref name="doj"/> The law firm representing the Osage said it was the largest trust settlement with one tribe in US history.<ref name="Howell"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Duty |first=Shannon Shaw |date=January 14, 2022 |title=Minerals Council seeks return of Osage Headrights through federal legislation |url=https://osagenews.org/minerals-council-seeks-return-of-osage-headrights-through-federal-legislation/ |access-date=March 25, 2024 |website=Osage News |language=en-US |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>

==Claims of genocide==
The events have been characterized as a genocide due to the intentions of its perpetrators to destroy the Osage nation.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Morska |first=Izabela |date=December 8, 2022 |title=Animality as an excuse for murder: David Grann and Killers of the Flower Moon |url=https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/beyond/article/view/8980 |journal=Beyond Philology |language=en |issue=19/4 |pages=97–127 |doi=10.26881/bp.2022.4.04 |issn=2451-1498 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjbd1 |title=American Mythologies: New Essays on Contemporary Literature |date=2005 |publisher=[[Liverpool University Press]] |isbn=978-0-85323-736-5 |edition=DGO - Digital original |doi=10.2307/j.ctt5vjbd1 |jstor=j.ctt5vjbd1 |quote="To authorize the Osage terror as genocide and to connect a corner of Oklahoma to a global tribal history, she recreates the Holocaust as a site of hybridity."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Asenap |first=Jason |date=November 6, 2023 |title=Killers of the Flower Moon and who gets to tell an Osage story |url=https://www.vox.com/2023/11/6/23945433/killers-flower-moon-osage-indigenous-scorsese-tell-story |access-date=November 8, 2023 |website=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240306213233/https://www.vox.com/2023/11/6/23945433/killers-flower-moon-osage-indigenous-scorsese-tell-story |archive-date=March 6, 2024}}</ref> While some label the murders themselves as an instance of genocide, others include the murders in a longer process of genocide against the Osage nation.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Coyne |first=Delaney |date=October 26, 2023 |title=How the Osage Nation became Catholic: The hard truths in 'Killers of the Flower Moon' |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/10/26/killers-flower-moon-osage-catholics-246377 |access-date=November 8, 2023 |magazine=America Magazine |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240310152909/https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/10/26/killers-flower-moon-osage-catholics-246377 |archive-date=March 10, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bryant |first=Michael |date=May 7, 2020 |title=Canaries in the Mineshaft of American Democracy: North American Settler Genocide in the Thought of Raphaël Lemkin |url=https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol14/iss1/5 |journal=Genocide Studies and Prevention |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=21–39 |doi=10.5038/1911-9933.14.1.1632 |issn=1911-0359|doi-access=free }}</ref> Estimates vary widely as to the percentage of the Osage nation killed in the murders, with the lowest estimate being 10% of 591 full-blood Osage being killed.<ref>{{cite journal |last=United States Census |date=1930 |title=Indian Population of the United States |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/population-indians/1930sr-indians-ch02.pdf |journal=1930 Federal Population Census |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240305191547/https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1930/population-indians/1930sr-indians-ch02.pdf |archive-date=March 5, 2024 |quote=At that time the mixed bloods had reached about 33 percent or the total. Since then, the population has steadily increased, but the number or full bloods has continued to decline. In 1910, 591, or 43.0%, claimed to be of full blood, but by 1930 the number of full bloods had declined to 545, or 23.3 percent.}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
* [[James Young Deer]] produced a silent film in 1926 called ''Tragedies of the Osage Hills'' that mentions the murders, considered a [[lost film]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lovato |first=Natasha |date=January 13, 2023 |title=UCLA lecturer digs deeper on Hollywood's long-lost Reign of Terror films |url=https://osagenews.org/ucla-lecturer-digs-deeper-on-hollywoods-long-lost-reign-of-terror-films/ |access-date=March 23, 2024 |website=Osage News |language=en-US |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref>
* [[John Joseph Mathews]] (Osage), set his novel ''[[Sundown (novel)|Sundown]]'' (1934) in the period of the murders.<ref name="Warrior">{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/1409043 |jstor=1409043 |last1=Warrior |first1=Robert Allen |title=Reviewed work: 'The Deaths of Sybil Bolton'; an American History, Dennis McAuliffe, Jr |journal= Wíčazo Ša Review |date=October 27, 1995 |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=52–55 |doi=10.2307/1409043|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* "The Osage Indian Murders", a dramatization of the case first broadcast on August 3, 1935, was the third episode of the [[Golden Age of Radio|radio]] series ''G-Men'', created and produced by [[Phillips Lord]] with cooperation of the FBI.<ref name="TW book list" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Camardella |first=Bob |title=Boxcars711 Old Time Radio – Gangbusters "The Osage Indian Murders G-Men" (8-03-35) Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod – 30:42 |url=https://radiopublic.com/boxcars711-old-time-radio-WREVbw/s1!8597c |access-date=March 23, 2024 |website=radiopublic.com |language=en |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> 
* [[Western fiction|Western]] novelist [[Fred Grove]], part Osage on his mother's side, was 10 years old when he was an "ear" witness to the bombing murders of Bill and Rita Smith and Nettie Brookshire. This incident haunted him. Several of his novels were based on aspects of the case: his first novel, ''Flame of the Osage'' (1958), two written in roughly the middle of his career: ''Warrior Road'' (1974) and ''Drums Without Warriors'' (1976), and one of his last, ''The Years of Fear'' (2002).<ref name="TW book list" /> 
* The Kyle family murders were featured as a dramatic part of the 1959 film ''[[The FBI Story]]'', starring [[James Stewart]] as fictional FBI agent Chip Hardesty, a [[composite character]] who leads the investigation.<ref name="Farris"/>
* [[John Clinton Hunt]], step-son of [[John Joseph Mathews]] (Osage), portrayed this period in his novel ''The Grey Horse Legacy'' (1968).<ref name="Logsdon">Logston, Guy. [http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=MA037 Guy Logsdon, "Mathews, John Joseph"], ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture'', 2009. Accessed March 1, 2015.</ref>
* [[Linda Hogan (writer)|Linda Hogan]]'s ''[[Mean Spirit]]'' (1990) explores a fictional version of the murders.<ref name="TW book list">{{cite news |last1=Watts |first1=James D. Jr |title=Books, movies and plays about the Osage 'Reign of Terror' |url=https://tulsaworld.com/life-entertainment/local/movies-tv/books-movies-and-plays-about-the-osage-reign-of-terror/article_f038cf0c-32e2-11ee-844d-4f6a966a4646.html |access-date=November 28, 2023 |work=[[Tulsa World]] |date=October 14, 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
* Dennis McAuliffe Jr.'s book ''The Deaths of Sybil Bolton'' (1994) was the first book to utilize the [[FBI]] files on the case for background research. It is an investigation into the death of the author's Osage grandmother who died during the murders. It was republished in 1999 with the title ''Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation''. The third edition, ''The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: Oil, Greed, and Murder on the Osage Reservation'' contains a foreword by [[David Grann]].<ref name="TW book list" /> 
* Charles Red Corn's novel ''A Pipe for February'' (2005) is set during the 1920s in the Osage Nation during the murders.<ref name="TW book list" /> 
* [[Tom Holm]]'s novel ''The Osage Rose'' (2008) is a fictionalized account of murders on Osage Territory intended to strip Osage members of their headrights and land.<ref name="TW book list" /> 
* American journalist [[David Grann]] investigated the case for his 2017 non-fiction book ''[[Killers of the Flower Moon (book)|Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]''. The book was adapted by [[Martin Scorsese]] and Eric Roth for the 2023 film ''[[Killers of the Flower Moon (film)|Killers of the Flower Moon]]''<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kroll |first=Justin |date=October 10, 2018 |title=Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese to Reteam on 'Killers of the Flower Moon' |url=https://variety.com/2018/film/news/leonardo-dicaprio-martin-scorsese-killers-of-the-flower-moon-1202992316/ |access-date=December 12, 2020 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231203003014/https://variety.com/2018/film/news/leonardo-dicaprio-martin-scorsese-killers-of-the-flower-moon-1202992316/ |archive-date=December 3, 2023}}</ref>
* American playwright David Blakely adapted Dennis McAuliffe's ''The Deaths of Sybil Bolton'' (1994) into the 2018 one-act ''Four Ways to Die'' and later the full-length play ''The Deaths of Sybil Bolton'' (2019).<ref name="TW book list" /> 
* [[Oklahoma Educational Television Authority|OETA]]'s documentary series ''Back in Time'' debuted an episode on the murders in 2021 titled "Osage Murders — The Reign of Terror."<ref name="TW book list" />

==See also==
* {{slink|Osage Nation#Natural resources and headrights}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite thesis |last=Brignell |first=Rhy |author-link=Donald Fixico |date=December 31, 2022 |title='There is something in this land that will sustain us': Osage Oil and Extraction in Indigenous Literatures |type=PhD |publisher=[[University of East Anglia]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Fixico |first=Donald L. |author-link=Donald Fixico |date=2012 |title=The Invasion of Indian Country in the Twentieth Century: American Capitalism and Tribal Natural Resources |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esa9AwAAQBAJ&dq=%22John+Ramsey%22+%22Osage+murders%22&pg=PT74 |edition=Second |publisher=[[University Press of Colorado]] |jstor=j.ctt46nvt7 |isbn=978-1-4571-1166-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Grann |first=David |author-link=David Grann |title=Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3IC7CwAAQBAJ&q=9780965917414 |date=2017 |publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group]] |isbn=9780385534253 |edition=First |location=New York |language=en |ref=Grann2017a}}
* {{cite book |last=McAuliffe |first=Dennis |date=1994 |title=The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: An American History |publisher=Times Books}}, republished as: {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodlandfamilys0000mcau |date=1994 |title=Bloodland: A Family Story of Oil, Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation |publisher=Council Oak Books |isbn=978-1-57178-083-6}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Bill Burchardt, "Osage Oil" ''The Chronicles of Oklahoma'' 41 (Fall 1963)
* {{cite book |last1=Doherty |first1=Jim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=duUNAAAACAAJ&q=Just+the+Facts+-+True+Tales+of+Cops+%26+Criminals |title=Just the Facts: True Tales of Cops & Criminals |date=2004 |publisher=Deadly Serious Press |isbn=9780966753479 |pages=192 |language=en |access-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190321091545/https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=duUNAAAACAAJ&dq=Just+the+Facts+-+True+Tales+of+Cops+%26+Criminals&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp2pLJ8pLhAhXQzmEKHeq0AboQ6AEIKzAA |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Franks |first1=Kenny Arthur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UWVpAAAACAAJ&q=The+Osage+Oil+Boom|title=The Osage Oil Boom |date=1989 |publisher=Oklahoma Heritage Association |isbn=9780865460751 |pages=180 |language=en |access-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190321092048/https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=UWVpAAAACAAJ&dq=The+Osage+Oil+Boom&hl=zh-CN&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiErLya85LhAhVNAogKHQe5BnIQ6AEILDAA |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hogan |first1=Lawrence J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hIkIAQAAMAAJ&q=9780965917414 |title=The Osage Indian Murders: The True Story of a Multiple Murder Plot to Acquire the Estates of Wealthy Osage Tribe Members |date=1998 |publisher=Amlex |isbn=9780965917414 |pages=282 |language=en |access-date= March 21, 2019}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Deanna M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJgwDwAAQBAJ&q=Co-habitation+and+Co-optation%3A+Some+Intersections+between+Native+American+and+Euroamerican+Legal+Systems+in+the+Nineteenth+Century&pg=PA140 |title=American Indian Business: Principles and Practices |last2=Harrington |first2=Charles F. |last3=Verbos |first3=Amy Klemm |last4=Stewart |first4=Daniel |last5=Gladstone |first5=Joseph Scott |last6=Clarkson |first6=Gavin |date=2017 |publisher=[[University of Washington Press]] |isbn=9780295742106 |pages=248 |language=en |access-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190321093309/https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=UJgwDwAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright&hl=zh-CN%23v=onepage&q&f=false#v=onepage&q=Co-habitation%20and%20Co-optation%3A%20Some%20Intersections%20between%20Native%20American%20and%20Euroamerican%20Legal%20Systems%20in%20the%20Nineteenth%20Century&f=false |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}
* McAuliffe, Dennis ''The Deaths of Sybil Bolton : Oil Greed and Murder on the Osage Reservation''. Chicago Review Press 2021.
* {{cite book |last1=Hess |first1=Janet Berry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=msDeCQAAQBAJ&q=The+Osage+Oil+Boom&pg=PA1 |title=Osage and Settler: Reconstructing Shared History through an Oklahoma Family Archive |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9781476621173 |location=North Carolina |pages=232 |language=en |access-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190321092723/https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=msDeCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=The+Osage+Oil+Boom&hl=zh-CN&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4%23v=onepage&q=The%20Osage%20Oil%20Boom&f=false |archive-date=March 21, 2019 |url-status=live}}
* Red Corn Charles H. ''A Pipe for February : A Novel''. [[University of Oklahoma Press]]. 2005.

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=The%20Osage%20Indian%20Murders ''All FREE videos about The Osage Indian Murders found at The Internet Archive (a non-profit corporation)'']
* [http://vault.fbi.gov/Osage%20Indian%20Murders "Osage Indian Murders"], FBI, scanned images of original casenotes, more than 3,000 pages
* [http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=ENAIT382&DataType=Indian&WinType=Free Osage Reign of Terror. ''Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century'']
* {{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/524348264/largely-forgotten-osage-murders-reveal-a-conspiracy-against-wealthy-native-ameri |title=Largely Forgotten Osage Murders Reveal A Conspiracy Against Wealthy Native Americans: Interview with David Grann |date=April 17, 2017 |department=[[Fresh Air]] |work=[[NPR]] |access-date=September 4, 2017 |archive-url= |archive-date=}}

{{Oklahoma history}}

[[Category:Osage Indian murders| ]]
[[Category:1921 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1931 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1910s murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1920s murders in the United States]]
[[Category:1930s murders in the United States]]
[[Category:American frontier]]
[[Category:Crimes in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Ethnic cleansing in the United States]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains]]
[[Category:Genocide of Indigenous peoples of North America]]
[[Category:History of the petroleum industry in the United States]]
[[Category:Murder in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Murdered Native American people]]
[[Category:Native American history of Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Native American genocide]]
[[Category:Petroleum in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Racially motivated violence against Native Americans in Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Serial murders in the United States]]
[[Category:Violence against indigenous peoples]]