Killers of the Flower Moon

By the 1920s the Osage were the wealthiest people per capita in the world, sitting on the oil-rich sands of Oklahoma. And yet they were not deemed competent enough to spend their own money so the federal government magnanimously appointed legal and financial guardians for them. Almost all white. Naturally this went about as well as one might expect.

Between 1921-25 dozens of members of the Osage tribe were murdered, shot execution style, poisoned and blown-up. It was an era when law enforcement barely existed and forensic science would be years away. The then sheriff of Osage County weighed in at 300 pounds and was known to be friendly with bootleggers and gamblers. Questionable sheriffs and shoddy investigative practices were hardly a viable recourse to justice.

Meanwhile in 1924 J. Edgar Hoover was appointed the director of the FBI. He would argue the need for a national police force. Enlisting former Texas Ranger Tom White to put together a team and uncover the root of this Reign of Terror in Osage County, Hoover hoped for an early win for his nascent FBI.

It was a Herculean task. Corruption was everywhere and it was impossible to know who was liable to double-cross you or steer you astray. The sheer amount of money on the line motivated numerous crimes and betrayals and it seemed those on the take would stop at nothing to keep their long running grift going.

So it should have been more gripping. We've got private eyes and bootleggers, safecrackers and explosives experts, cowboys and conmen peopling the pages. But it's trying to do too much with too many characters and keeps jumping all over the place. And then when it seemed like we could chalk up a win for the FBI, the story continues with author Grann inserting himself into the narrative. He would go on to uncover hundreds more potential deaths through dogged research and digging in the library but by that time it felt like we'd long overstayed our time at the party.