This disturbing non-fiction account by David Gann of the systematic murders of members of the Osage tribe in Oklahoma is a book I have been wanting to read for a long time, and my book group selected it for our April 2021 read. Interesting coincidence is that I am currently editing a book about the Covid pandemic that also touches on many of the issues raised in this book, such as the cancel culture of Native Americans traditions embodied in the Dawes Act. The Osage, like many other tribes were forcibly removed from their homeland and put on a piece of land in Oklahoma that the U.S. government figured wasn't of interest to settlers. What a surprise when that piece of land turned out to sit atop a significant source of oil. So many things were done to the Osage to rob them of the benefits that should have accrued from that discovery...declaring them incompetent to handle the money that came from their mineral rights, assigning them guardians who controlled how they spent the money (and usually embezzling much of it in the process). A series of murders of Osage individuals in the early 1900's were investigated but were never resolved; "more than two dozen people — not just Osage Indians but also white investigators sent to look into the crimes — killed between 1920 and 1924. It became known as the Osage Reign of Terror" (New York Times). Finally, Hoover sent in an agent to figure out why so many people were dying and no one was being held accountable.
"Grann ...centers this true-crime mystery on Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman who lost several family members as the death tally grew, and Tom White, the former Texas Ranger whom J. Edgar Hoover sent to solve the slippery, attention-grabbing case once and for all. A secondary tale of Hoover's single-minded rise to power as the director of what would become the FBI, his reshaping of the bureau's practices, and his goal to gain prestige for federal investigators provides invaluable historical context. Grann employs you-are-there narrative effects to set readers right in the action, and he relays the humanity, evil, and heroism of the people involved. His riveting reckoning of a devastating episode in American history deservedly captivates." (A. Bostrom, 2017, Booklist).
Library Journal calls it "A spellbinding book about the largest serial murder investigation you've never heard of." The New York Times concludes their detailed review by saying, "...Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true. As a reporter he is dogged and exacting, with a singular ability to uncover and incorporate obscure journals, depositions and ledgers without ever letting the plot sag. As a writer he is generous of spirit, willing to give even the most scurrilous of characters the benefit of the doubt.
Thus, when Tom White and his men solve the crime, and the mastermind behind the murders is revealed, you will not see it coming. You will feel that familiar thrill at having been successfully misdirected, but then there are about 70 pages left in the book. And in these last pages, Grann takes what was already a fascinating and disciplined recording of a forgotten chapter in American history, and with the help of contemporary Osage tribe members, he illuminates a sickening conspiracy that goes far deeper than those four years of horror. It will sear your soul. Among the towering thefts and crimes visited upon the native peoples of the continent, what was done to the Osage must rank among the most depraved and ignoble. 'This land is saturated with blood,' says Mary Jo Webb, an Osage Indian alive today and still trying to understand the crimes of the past. 'History,' Grann writes in this shattering book, 'is a merciless judge.'"
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