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Review: Killers of the Flower Moon -- David Grann
It is needless to praise this book as it has already received an Edgar award for best factual crime for 2018 from the Mystery Writers of America. Grann has produced a heavily researched account of a major case handled by the then new FBI. Mysterious deaths and outright murders had plagued the Osage Tribe, located in upper Oklahoma. The tribe had been relocated from a reservation in Kansas to acreage they purchased from the Cherokee. Despite attempts to seize the land the tribe had managed to hold on to much of it, and to the mineral rights. When oil was discovered each enrolled tribal member was assigned what was known as 'headrights' to a portion of the oil lease money. Tribal members went from living in traditional lodges or shacks to building mansions and driving expensive automobiles. However murders of tribal members were not adequately investigated by either the local police or private detectives. Eventually the case was given to the FBI and despite many setbacks, including witnesses murdered, collaborators who retracted their testimony and bribed juries, three men were convicted of several murders.
The case was considered closed and the FBI congratulated on the success of its methods. Grann, however, researched other deaths within the tribe and believes that there were other killers and other murders. Suspiciously high numbers of Osage died, far exceeding the death rate for the rest of the nation. It is too late to solve these crimes and Grann does not detail his suspicions against people no longer alive to defend themselves. However this is a sobering reminder that exploitation and outright killing of Native Americans did not end with the official end of Indian Wars. In fact, a similar situation seems to currently exist in Canada and the northern states of the US, with disappearances and murders of Native American women and girls left unsolved. The book has an extensive set of notes, a bibliography and illustrations. However it lacks an index, which is unfortunate. I also feel that it would be improved by a complete list of the victims, with their relations to one another and to the suspected killers and a chronology of the events.
Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
Doubleday, New York, 2017
The case was considered closed and the FBI congratulated on the success of its methods. Grann, however, researched other deaths within the tribe and believes that there were other killers and other murders. Suspiciously high numbers of Osage died, far exceeding the death rate for the rest of the nation. It is too late to solve these crimes and Grann does not detail his suspicions against people no longer alive to defend themselves. However this is a sobering reminder that exploitation and outright killing of Native Americans did not end with the official end of Indian Wars. In fact, a similar situation seems to currently exist in Canada and the northern states of the US, with disappearances and murders of Native American women and girls left unsolved. The book has an extensive set of notes, a bibliography and illustrations. However it lacks an index, which is unfortunate. I also feel that it would be improved by a complete list of the victims, with their relations to one another and to the suspected killers and a chronology of the events.
Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
Doubleday, New York, 2017