Reads like a novel yet a historical account of the Osage murders. An elaborate façade which made it very difficult for the authorities to find the suspects responsible, which each chapter elucidating the situation more. Each piece of the murder mystery puzzle is elucidated with each chapter, but Grann does not divulge the parties responsible for the murders until the mystery puzzle pieces fit together. Grann wrote about the situation of the Osage from many different perspectives which include the Osage communities, the culprits, and the authorities.

Native American tribes have been forced to relocate themselves multiple times, through the ultimatum of a peaceful negotiation in which the choices were to move or go to war. The Osage relocated to a land which would have trouble in agriculture, but they accepted it as it would have prevented the non-Native Americans from going there. They bought the land specifically because it was not coveted by others, for their society to be left alone. As it turns out, the land they bought was on top of massive natural resource reserves. The Osage claimed rights to the natural resources with which they obtained rents for their extractions, making the Osage very wealthy. Forced to relocate to a desolate area turned out to have coveted resources.

Law and race were intertwined in determining the outcome of the Osage. The money from leases for rights to drill were divided by the community and the right to the income was hereditary, could not be sold or bought. A full-blooded Osage was assigned a guardian. A guardian kept the money, supposedly safe, and distributing it to their wards, the Osage with the headright to the income, on a need bases. The Osage were not allowed to be responsible for their own money, considering them no more than mere children in that regard. With the trials, the jury had a hard time to come to a decision as they did not recognize the killing of an Osage worse than killing of a wild animal. The racial divisions were prevalent, but especially when dealing with legislature.

When the questionable deaths arose, the Osage themselves when to private eye detectives, due to a lack of state and national law enforcement. Many different ways of catching criminals were briefly discussed, including the new technological changes in the field. The case of the Osage murders was technically the first case that the Federal Bureau of Investigations took on, but that department went by a different name before. The difference that the FBI made was to systematized variety of methods from data collections and filing to the procedure of what techniques were acceptable to catch the criminals and interrogate them.

Mostly following the historic time-line, in which the changing views are the most salient. The way the façade breaks within the story is extremely immersive, making the reader understand the difficulty of changing views and the biases that we have towards those we trust. This book also speaks to the uncertainty of history, rather than being deterministic, it has many missing pieces. In the case of the Osage, many of the murders had gone by without any attempt to find the perpetrators. ( )

DAMN! This book was worth the hype! I loved The Lost City of Z, so I'm not surprised that I loved this as well. It's dark, disturbing, wonderfully researched and written. It's truly a marvel about a dark and bloody part of United States history. This book investigates the murder of dozens (the number is likely in the hundreds) of Osage Indians during the twenties as greedy white Americans tried to wrest oil rights from them. When some of the richest oil fields in the world were found in Osage territory, the tribe suddenly became some of the wealthiest people per capita. Try as they might the government couldn't force them to move or to take their oil away from them so greedy white neighbors hatched a plot to slowly kill them off. Local officials were crooked and it took Hoover sending over some of his investigators to help curb the deaths. It's a dark and sordid take that's worth remembering. I can't give this book enough praise. ( )

This book really touched me in more way than you can imagine. I felt the deep sorrow toward Osage tribe, and how US government created a situation for greedy people to take advantage of many minorities in the US. People should read and learn from this book. ( )

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
PRINT: © 4/18/2017; 978-0385534246; Doubleday illustrated edition; 352 pages; unabridged. (Hardcover info from Amazon.com)
DIGITAL: © 4/18/2017; 978-0316563789; Vintage; 347 pages; unabridged. (Kindle info from Amazon.com)
*AUDIO: © 4/18/2017; Random House Audio; Duration: 9:04:00; unabridged. (Audio info from Amazon.com)
(FILM: Yes 10/20/2023)

SERIES: No

Major CHARACTERS: (Not Comprehensive)
Mollie Burkhart – Protagonist- Osage Native American with Oil Head Rights.
Lizzie Q – Mollie’s mother - Osage Native American with Oil Head Rights
Anna Brown – Mollie’s sister - Osage Native American with Oil Head Rights
Bryan Burkhart – Mollie’s brother-in-law, Ernest’s brother.
Rita – Mollie’s sister
Henry Roan - Osage Native American with Oil Head Rights
Ernest Burkhart – Mollie’s Caucasian husband
John Wren – Undercover agent
William Hale – Ernest’s Uncle
Tom White – Investigator with the FBI

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
SELECTED: When the movie came ‘out, my friend, Isa, mentioned she would be seeing the movie and had read this book twice.
ABOUT: In the 20th century, land (including mineral rights) that had been considered worthless and so had been assigned to the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, was discovered to have oil. The Osage nation, therefor, were supposed to reap the benefits, but Caucasians sought every means possible to take the rights from them. These means included becoming guardians under the auspices that an Osage was not competent (especially with the women), marrying them to share their wealth, murder, contriving fake debts and deeds upon the death of an Osage, and more.
OVERALL OPINION: This book is an interesting and thorough account of the situation and deaths of countless Osage Natives, as well as of many of those involved in the Osage peoples’ deaths, and with the investigations of them.

AUTHOR: David Grann: Excerpts from Wikipedia:
“David Elliot Grann (born March 10, 1967) is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and author.
His first book, The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon, was published by Doubleday in February 2009. After its first week of publication, it debuted on The New York Times bestseller list at #4[1] and later reached #1.[2] Grann's articles have been collected in several anthologies, including What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, The Best American Crime Writing of 2004 and 2005, and The Best American Sports Writing of 2003 and 2006.[3] He has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Weekly Standard.[3]
According to a profile in Slate, Grann has a reputation as a "workhorse reporter", which has made him a popular journalist who "inspires a devotion in readers that can border on the obsessive."[4]
Early life
Grann was born on March 18, 1967, to Phyllis E. Grann and Victor Grann. His mother is the former CEO of Putnam Penguin and the first woman CEO of a major publishing firm.[5] His father is an oncologist and Director of the Bennett Cancer Center in Stamford, Connecticut. Grann has two siblings, Edward and Alison.[6]”

*So which is it, March 10 or March 18 (birth)? I will be looking into his other books either way. ( )

Well researched and written book about the mistreatment of the Osage people. It was an interesting look at the beginnings of the FBI and also the investigative research completed by the author long after the fact. Much better than the movie. ( )