Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Written by David Grann

Narrated by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee and Danny Campbell

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history, from the author of The Wager and The Lost City of Z, “one of the preeminent adventure and true-crime writers working today."—New York Magazine • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NOW A MARTIN SCORSESE PICTURE

“A shocking whodunit…What more could fans of true-crime thrillers ask?”—USA Today

“A masterful work of literary journalism crafted with the urgency of a mystery.”—The Boston Globe

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century • A Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage 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. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Look for David Grann’s latest bestselling book, The Wager!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9780307747457

David Grann

David Grann is the author of the Number One international bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, THE LOST CITY OF Z and THE WAGER. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was shortlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction and won an Edgar Allan Poe Award. He is also the author of THE WHITE DARKNESS and the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES. Grann’s storytelling has garnered several honours including a George Polk Award. He lives with his wife and children in Westchester County, New York.

Reviews for Killers of the Flower Moon

[Andi Galpern · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Kind of boring to listen to. Not a fan of the narrator’s voice.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a horrific account of the deaths, investigations, trials, and oversights of murders of the oil-rich Osage headright holders in the early 1920s. And of how J. Edgar Hoover used a curtailed investigation to establish himself securely in the federal hierarchy.
The murderous conspiracy, or multiple conspiracies, were carried out by men masquerading as friends and helpers of the Osage—just the sort of men who have again come to power in the USA. Let us all carefully and as securely as possible record what they will not want to survive their ascendancy, whether it is 2 years, 4 years, or the rest of our lifetimes.

[jarratt_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Killers of the Flower Moon" was picked out by our Book Palaver member; it's not a book I would normally read.

It details the scores (if not hundreds) of murders that took place in the early 20th Century of Osage Indians. Because the Osage had been forced to live on this land (before it was known it had copious amounts of oil below it), they were awarded huge sums of money annually from the federal government once the oil was discovered. But because there was a belief that the Indians didn't have the capacity to manage that kind of money, white leaders and/or relatives were given the right to control that money. Upon death, the guardians then owned that money so the motive was clearly there.

I felt like the writing was just OK. I much better book along these lines is "The Devil in the White City."

[baochuan-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[tinkerbellkk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[kakadoo202 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another sad chapter of this country of greed and racism

[arlenadean · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Title: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Author: David Grann
Narrators: Will Patton (Narrator), Ann Marie Lee (Narrator), Danny Campbell (Narrator)
Publisher: Random House Publisher
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

My Perception:

'Killers of the Flower Moon' was quite a sad read of what happened to the Osage people a hundred years ago. I was left saying, wow... this occurred in the U.S. Can one believe this? Are we finally seeing how there is so much evil and corruption in our American government that happened so long ago still going on in some form, even today? Oh yes, I can. I am an Afro-American, and I know it has happened here in the U.S. not only to my race but to other races, too. Thank you to this author for bringing this story about the Osage people to light.

This author did an excellent job explaining what happened in 'The Reign of Terror and the Osage Murders of Killers of the Flower Moon.' David Grann's research, recordings, documents, and photographs were very well presented, giving the reader quite a good read.

What gets me is how these people [white] got away with this for so long. Oh, no, really, we know why that happened! It was so good to finally see things come to a head, only to find out later that there was still important information that had not been presented. Now, what was left out? This is where you must pick up this read to see what that was and how it was brought out. But was anything done about it? Oh, I know, it was too late; they all were dead by then! Thank God for the wonderful character, Tom White, an FBI agent who cared; I will leave it at that.

This story was an alarming piece of history that some wouldn't want to come to light, but it did! The reader will see how the Osage people were horribly treated by [white] people, which left me .. well, I will stop here. All that is left to say is this has happened not only to the Osage but to many other races. All that is left to say is that this is the America we live in, like it or not.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I haven’t yet seen the movie version of this story, but picked up the book when I saw it on Amazon. I was unfamiliar with the history when I ordered it.

The gist of the story is that the Osage Indian tribe was gradually settled onto land in northern Oklahoma in the late 19th century. Through a combination of circumstances, the Osage took title to the land, which allowed them to retain mineral interests after much of the land was appropriated and redistributed to white settlers.

Lo and behold, the land held vast reserves of oil, resulting in members of the Osage tribe collecting many millions of dollars in royalties in the teens and twenties. Soon, members of the tribe began to be murdered and poisoned, with their royalty interests being accumulated by nefarious local characters.

State and local politicians and law enforcement were largely in the pocket of the killers, as it was difficult to prosecute the white killers of the Osage tribe.

The first 1/3 of the book highlights the killings. The second 1/3 focuses on the federal investigation, performed by the nascent FBI, under the direction of its new Director, J. Edgar Hoover. The final third involves a more current journalistic investigation of the killings and their aftermath.

Great history lesson, unfortunately not a great book. Pretty dry stuff, written in a style unlikely to engage the reader. I’m guessing the movie is better.

[lbswiener · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Killers of the Flower Moon is a very droll book. It is the kind of book that works best as an audiobook. The native Americans suffered terrible hardships and death by self-serving, self-justifying people with no help. The thing that is most annoying about the book is that the story just ended. The author did not offer any help to the family members of the murdered people. With all of the research he did, couldn't the author have found some resources for the family members of the wrongfully killed? What was the point of just ending the book? This review is not reviewing the people, it is a review of the book and the writing. Consequently only three stars were given to this book.

[ibkennedy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great history lesson told in an easy to read and follow manner.

[shelf3employed · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Three different narrators tell this gruesome true crime story about a murderous spree that targeted oil-rich Osage Indians around the time of Prohibition. Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell combine their talents to narrate the three sections of the book.

Ann Marie Lee is the narrator of Part 1. In a calm, matter-of-fact, and almost pleasant tone, she introduces the listener to the Osage community and in particular, the family of Mollie Burkhart. Her voice is sometimes at odds with the gruesome nature of the violent murders that she recounts.

In part 2, Danny Campbell narrates the chapters detailing the murder investigations carried out by the newly revamped and renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation. This section of the book focuses on FBI Agent Tom White. Campbell employs the brisk tone one might associate with an old TV or radio crime show, however, his narration is tinged with a Midwestern accent that fits the agent and the Oklahoma setting.

Will Patton narrates Part 3, which recounts the author's own later investigation that discovered many and solved some additional crimes against the Osage. He found a much more widespread Reign of Terror than had been previously known. Patton's voice sounds older than that of Agent White, and he speaks in a rueful manner, showing his sorrow that justice was not better served, but also his determination to uncover everything he could.

Though the movie was excellently done, the book (as usual) is better. While the movie focuses primarily on the murders successfully prosecuted by the FBI, the book reveals the full extent of the many plots to rob the Osage of their rights, their money, and their lives. The depth, breadth, and depravity of the plots involving mostly white men from all levels of society is so insidious as to be barely comprehensible.

[cecrow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Osage story has received considerable attention thanks to David Grann's book and Martin Scorsese's movie. It's a story that deserves it, and that deserves to be told well. I can't speak to the movie I haven't seen but this book was an engaging read. It is half a horror story of racism perpetrated by immoral white people in power, and half a crime investigation story against powerful odds that formed an early case in the history of the FBI (but not their first case, as the subtitle implies). Grann diligently assembled content worthy of the best of the genre, but with some awkwardness. His personal story is reserved for the end rather than weaving it in as he goes along, with surprise twists that shouldn't have been held back that long. Key figures are referred to in ways such as 'the agent who posed as an insurance man' and mentioned multiple times without proper names, but he clearly shares those in the endnotes. These and other presentation and expression choices occasionally get in the way. Fortunately the facts being shared override them.

The investigation story (which could only tackle a small proportion of the total murders) threatens to override the more important story of the tribe and the wrong that it suffered. Grann brings it full circle back to the tribe again and ends on the right note, though I think it needed at least one more chapter to zoom out even further - away from the Burkharts, away from the Osage and Oklahoma, to remind us that the abuses which happened here are not an anomoly in North American history.

[heatherlinc · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I rarely read non-fiction as I find it too dry and factual, but I quite enjoyed this book, especially the first two chronicles. The first focused on the Osage murders while the second followed Texas ranger, Tom White, and his team as they tried to find the killers. However, the third chronicle lost me totally and I skimmed most of it.

I was appalled at the treatment of the Osage tribe at the hands of white Americans. The extent they went to to feed their greed and racism was truly horrific. The fact that doctors and lawmen were involved just made it so much worse. What humans will do to other humans for the sake of wealth always leaves me feeling nauseous.

The subject of "Killers of the Flower Moon" was an important one and the material was there to make this a gripping read but the author didn't deliver. Sadly, I think this will be one occasion where the movie will be better than the book.

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Who knew the FBI started in the 1920’s. Who knew Hoover was in charge for 50 years. The book was not particularly well written it was not as interesting as other non-fiction.

[maggieflo_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was underwhelmed by this story about the Osage indigenous people in Oklahoma who became wealthy because of their head rights related oil revenue on their land. Individuals were experiencing increased incidents of unexpected/accidental deaths some by poisoning, others were shot. Oil was discovered in the 1920s on the land given to the Osage nation as part of their treaty settlements with the US government. Their wealth became a magnet for fraudsters, mean white settlers, bankers and land developers. The nascent FBI stepped into investigate when the body count kept rising. J. Edgar Hoover saw this as an opportunity to showcase the Bureau as a professional crime investigation agency and to use new technology such as fingerprinting.
Tom White, the lead investigator had been a Texas Ranger. He assembled a very competent crew of investigators and methodically why were able to uncover the truth.

[candyh_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I did not care for this book and do not recommend it for a good read.

[jillhannah-910468 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Detailed research of another piece of important (and horrific) history that was buried by the white man.

[sbenne3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very compelling and well-researched book. An account that I hadn't read about before, but important to the history of the US. Told several key stories of this time -- all very well, and all with a very high level of respect to the facts.

[kerrazyscott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent read! 5 stars. Full of intrigue and suspense. Very depressing though to see how the Osage tribe were taken advantage of as 2nd class citizens. Gripping story!

[dinahmine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story within Killers of the Flower Moon is awful, of course, so my rating is based on the writing and not on the story itself. The way this story was presented to the reader and the organization of what was obviously very thorough research was so impressive. I really appreciate how the three sections of the book added layers to the mystery without boring the reader with repeated information. This is an excellent non-fiction book and I look forward to reading more by Grann.

[stahl2ricco · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A book about the Osage Reign of Terror, or “The ‘Black Curse’ of the Osages, a period in United States history when “The world’s richest people per capita were being the world’s most murdered.” Also described as “the bloodiest chapter in American crime history.” “The richest tribe of Indians on the globe has become the illegitimate prey of white men.”

While “…the conspirators were not only erasing evidence - they were manufacturing it.” Leaving a “…litany of dead witnesses.” At least 24 murders in all over 4 years. However, “…the real number was undoubtedly higher.” All because of the head rights to the oil discoveries on the Osage land.

It is a horrifying read, and an important one. The greed of the white man in this country really had/has no bounds. The poor Osage people. I information in this book is so important, but it does read a bit dryly, especially the background histories of many of the people herein. I'd give it 5 stars for importance, but my 3 star ranking is for the presentation of that information. What a sad, sad piece of United States history...

[paulagalvan-323293 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

David Grann has done a fantastic job in presenting the actual accounts of the Osage Indian murders that took place in the early 1900s in Oklahoma. It's a sorrowful yet engrossing story pieced together by FBI investigative reports, court documents, and newspaper accounts, accompanied by dozens of interviews with the victim's descendants. The corruption and conspiracies in Osage County to steal oil underground head rights from wealthy Indians must be the most corrupt—and the best kept secret—of the many atrocities dished out to the American Indians by deceiving "White Men." The underlying story is the beginning of the FBI as an investigative federal agency with J. Edgar Hoover at its head. For history and true-crime lovers, this is a must-read.

[srms.reads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann is a gripping true crime narrative of the horrendous crimes committed against the Osage American Indian people that took place in the 1920s and 30s.

The Native American Osage are forced to leave their land in Kansas and relocate to Oklahoma where they unexpectedly strike a fortune . With 'headrights' to an oil rich prosperous land that attracts white prospectors and businessmen who lease the properties owned by the Osage families in return for substantial sums of money , they fall prey to the greed ,deep corruption and conspiracy , compromised lawmakers and laws enabling financial manipulation and exploitation. What follows is a series of murders of wealthy Osage men and women and that go unsolved till the newly restructured Bureau of Investigation (present day FBI) joins the takes over the investigation, headed by Agent Tom White.

Extremely well researched, factual and gripping, this book gives us a detailed look into the racism, injustice and downright cruelty meted out to the Native American Osage - crimes that affected not only those targeted but their families for generations to come. The photographs and references make the story come to life.

As the author cites - The historian Burns once wrote, “To believe that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage has been saved and is dearer to our hearts because it survived. What is gone is treasured because it was what we once were. We gather our past and present into the depths of our being and face tomorrow. We are still Osage. We live and we reach old age for our forefathers.”

Informative, heartbreaking and thought provoking, this is not an easy read but given the premise I’m guessing it’s not meant to be. I definitely recommend this excellent book.

[dorritt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I value books that open my eyes to previously unsuspected episodes of history, and I especially value books that do so in a comprehensive and engaging way. Grann does an exceptional job of escorting his readers through the labyrinth of actors, events, and eras that comprise this shocking true-crime drama set in 1920s Oklahoma.

What a snapshot this provides into a fascinating - though largely appalling - period in U.S. history! The idea of the "lawless wild west" has become a sort of a trope over time, gradually drained of specific context or meaning. Grann's narrative, however, brings the trope vividly to life, as he gradually unfolds a tale stuffed with thieves, profiteers, gangsters, robber barons, charlatans, con men, moonshiners, forgers, poisoners, cheats, faithless friends, corrupt officials, and murderers ... all of them preying on a single band of Osage Indians lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been inadvertently resettled by the U.S. government on a reservation that turned out to be perched atop oceans of black gold.

I think the thing that shocked me most was the relentlessness of the assault upon the wealth of these largely innocent and naïve people. Targeted by gold-digging suitors. Forced to beg government-appointed “guardians” for access to their own wealth – guardians who regularly treated the accounts they managed as their own private bank accounts. Deliberately plied with alcohol and drugs to undermine their competency. Their rights and identities as human beings treated as inconsequential. Gouged and exploited by every vendor they interacted with, including the undertakers who buried them after they were killed off for their inheritances (or illicit insurance policies, or forged IOUs …). Ultimately, the challenge faced by the budding U.S. agency later to be christianed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) isn’t figuring out which parties are responsible for the string of murders by poison/gunshot/bombing, but whether justice has a hope of prevailing in a world where truth is arbitrary, fairness is immaterial, betrayal is inescapable, life is cheap, greed transcends morality, and almost every public official is corruptible.

A heads up to those who haven’t yet read the book: resist the temptation to stop reading about 50-70 pages before the end, thinking that the puzzle has been solved and everything else is wrapping up loose ends. Because this is when Grann’s scholarship kicks in, excavating layers of duplicity that even the FBI overlooked. An altogether fascinating but deplorable tale of the ingenious and perfidious lengths to which unscrupulous humans will sink in their desperation for wealth, and the appalling tragedies suffered by the Osage peoples at their hands.

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I hadn't heard anything about this before? What a gap in my education. The first bit about the Osage people, how they came into money from the oil on their land reservation, how they started dropping like flies, and how local "law enforcement" was incompetent, was the best part of the book. And absolutely gruesome to read, not just the murders but the general treatment of the Osage.
I did find the second part about the creation of the FBI and corruption among local law enforcement fascinating as well, but Grann's narrative handiwork is best in the first half. Excellent.

[mugsynoir · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a compelling, and extremely sad, chapter of American history, well told.

[markm2315 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting and disturbing story of a reign of terror in the Osage Indian reservation in Oklahoma during the 1920s. Tribe members had been forced to leave their ancestral lands for a barren part of Oklahoma. The area was later discovered to be oil-rich and the Indians had managed to retain mineral rights to the land, so they became wealthy. The area was then flooded with non-Indian con-men, thieves, and murderers at every level of society, including law enforcement and judges and supported by bigotted congressmen and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There was an at least decade-long series of scores of murders in attempts to obtain the Tribe members' mineral rights. The book is mainly the story of the solution of one group of murders by agents of the brand new Bureau of Investigation headed by the young J. Edgar Hoover. The author has arranged the story so that it reads more or less like a mystery novel.

[jonbrammer-788089 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meticulously researched, evocatively written, this is like a top tier New Yorker piece extended to book length. The injustices against the Osage in Oklahoma are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the long genocide of the indigenous people of the western hemisphere. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI approached the murders of wealthy Osage as a PR opportunity - let's find a scapegoat and sweep under the rug the endemic murder and corruption of the greedy white men in the community.

[mapg.genie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very disturbing, sadly enlightening, extensively researched in primary sources, this narrative relates the story of the murders of the Osage to gain access to their wealth... another sad commentary of the treatment of Native Americans.

[tanya8dogearedcopy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In this non-fiction, tru-crime book, the author looks into the the Reign of Terror which hit the Osage Nation in Oklahoma during the 1920s. The Osage were extraordinarily wealthy in owning the headrights to oil on their land and became the target of systemic targeting by Whites for those riches. As the rights to the oil could only be passed down through the family, those who sought to defraud the Osage worked the system through intermarriage, becoming wardens of individual Osage, filing false insurance claims... and murder. The book initially focuses on the murder of Osage citizen Anna Brown and the investigation by the fledgling FBI headed by the protocol-oriented J. Edgar Hoover. The final sections of the book expand the remit a bit beyond as Grann digs through his papers to posit the criminal parties involved in other related murders during the same period. Overall, a well-researched book that includes black-and-white photos, but lacking a certain energy and tension. Reading like a well-prepared classroom project, there is no sense of immersion in the time or place despite the author actually having travelled to the locations and spoken to relatives of the victims; nor were there any surprises in terms of who was ultimately involved as the villain of the piece was flagged early on. A movie adaptation (directed by Martin Scorsese; produced and starring Leonardo diCaprio and also starring Robert De Niro) is slated for showing at Cannes 2023. This might actually be an instance where the movie is better than the book as the book is basically reportage without internal dialogue.