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

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

by David Grann (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 78,799 ratings

Editors' pick Best History

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Edgar AwardWinner, 2018
Anthony AwardWinner, 2018

#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

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!

From the Publisher

WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Amazon Editors' Pick for the Best Book of 2017: In the 1920s, the Osage found themselves in a unique position among Native Americans tribes. As other tribal lands were parceled out in an effort by the government to encourage dissolution and assimilation of both lands and culture, the Osage negotiated to maintain the mineral rights for their corner of Oklahoma, creating a kind of “underground reservation.” It proved a savvy move; soon countless oil rigs punctured the dusty landscape, making the Osage very rich. And that’s when they started dying.

You’d think the Osage Indian Reservation murders would have been a bigger story, one as familiar as the Lindbergh kidnapping or Bonnie and Clyde. It has everything, but at scale: Execution-style shootings, poisonings, and exploding houses drove the body count to over two dozen, while private eyes and undercover operatives scoured the territory for clues. Even as legendary and infamous oil barons vied for the most lucrative leases, J. Edgar Hoover’s investigation – which he would leverage to enhance both the prestige and power of his fledgling FBI - began to overtake even the town’s most respected leaders.

Exhuming the massive amount of detail is no mean feat, and it’s even harder to make it entertaining. But journalist David Grann knows what he’s doing. With the same obsessive attention to fact - in service to storytelling - as The Lost City of Z, Killers of the Flower Moon reads like narrative-nonfiction as written by James M. Cain (there are, after all, insurance policies involved): smart, taut, and pacey. Most sobering, though, is how the tale is at once unsurprising and unbelievable, full of the arrogance, audacity, and inhumanity that continues to reverberate through today’s headlines. --Jon Foro, The Amazon Book Review

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-A young readers treatment that is just as imperative and enthralling as its parent text. Celebrated journalist Grann unfolds an account of terrible fascination and poignancy, illuminating a darkened corner of American history while throwing the shadowed sins of the past into stark relief. In the prosperous days of the 1920s, the Osage Nation of Oklahoma found itself sitting atop a treasure trove of "black gold" in the form of oil reserves. This "underground reservation" led the American Indians of this area to amass vast quantities of wealth-and to attract the fatal attentions of those who sought to gain control of that wealth by any means necessary. The narrative reads like a masterful mystery and epic tragedy all in one, with Grann as the thorough investigator who reports all the facts while underlining the lived humanity of every moment. Comparing the original text to this young reader's edition, the modifications are deftly handled. A scene containing an autopsy, for example, excises the graphic details without losing a trace of the information most valuable to the story. This standard is upheld throughout. This version also contains helpful appendices, including a "who's who" of notable figures as well as a glossary. The foreword by Dennis McAuliffe, Jr. sadly divulges some of Grann's most shocking revelations far ahead of their appearances. Regardless, this version and any other remains an essential read. VERDICT A must-buy for being just the kind of absorbing, gut-wrenching work of narrative nonfiction that readers will breathlessly page through to the conclusion.-Jose Cruz, Shannon Staub P.L., North Port, FLα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, GQ, Time, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, Time Magazine,NPR, Vogue, Smithsonian, Cosmopolitan, Seattle Times, Bloomberg, Lit Hub, and Slate

“Disturbing and riveting. . . . Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true. . . . It will sear your soul.”
—Dave Eggers, New York Times BookReview

“A marvel of detective-like research and narrative verve.”
—Financial Times

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

“A master of the detective form. . . . Killers is something rather deep and not easily forgotten.”
—Wall St. Journal

“The best book of the year so far.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon is unsurprisingly extraordinary."
—Time

“A masterful work of literary journalism crafted with the urgency of a mystery. . . . Contained within Grann's mesmerizing storytelling lies something more than a brisk, satisfying read. Killers of the Flower Moon offers up the Osage killings as emblematic of America's relationship with its indigenous peoples and the 'culture of killing' that has forever marred that tie.”
—The Boston Globe

“[C]lose to impeccable. It's confident, fluid in its dynamics, light on its feet. . . . The crime story it tells is appalling, and stocked with authentic heroes and villains. It will make you cringe at man's inhumanity to man.”
—The New York Times

About the Author

DAVID GRANN is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON was a finalist for The National Book Award. He is also the author of the collection THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE WHITE DARKNESS. Grann has garnered several awards for his journalism including a George Polk Award. He lives in Westchester County, New York.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

The Vanishing

In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma. There are Johnny-jump-ups and spring beauties and little bluets. The Osage writer John Joseph Mathews observed that the galaxy of petals makes it look as if the “gods had left confetti.” In May, when coyotes howl beneath an unnervingly large moon, taller plants, such as spiderworts and black-eyed Susans, begin to creep over the tinier blooms, stealing their light and water. The necks of the smaller flowers break and their petals flutter away, and before long they are buried underground. This is why the Osage Indians refer to May as the time of the flower-killing moon.

On May 24, 1921, Mollie Burkhart, a resident of the Osage settlement town of Gray Horse, Oklahoma, began to fear that something had happened to one of her three sisters, Anna Brown. Thirty-four, and less than a year older than Mollie, Anna had disappeared three days earlier. She had often gone on “sprees,” as her family disparagingly called them: dancing and drinking with friends until dawn. But this time one night had passed, and then another, and Anna had not shown up on Mollie’s front stoop as she usually did, with her long black hair slightly frayed and her dark eyes shining like glass. When Anna came inside, she liked to slip off her shoes, and Mollie missed the comforting sound of her moving, unhurried, through the house. Instead, there was a silence as still as the plains.

Mollie had already lost her sister Minnie nearly three years earlier. Her death had come with shocking speed, and though doctors had attributed it to a “peculiar wasting illness,” Mollie harbored doubts: Minnie had been only twenty-seven and had always been in perfect health.

Like their parents, Mollie and her sisters had their names inscribed on the Osage Roll, which meant that they were among the registered members of the tribe. It also meant that they possessed a fortune. In the early 1870s, the Osage had been driven from their lands in Kansas onto a rocky, presumably worthless reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, only to discover, decades later, that this land was sitting above some of the largest oil deposits in the United States. To obtain that oil, prospectors had to pay the Osage for leases and royalties. In the early twentieth century, each person on the tribal roll began receiving a quarterly check. The amount was initially for only a few dollars, but over time, as more oil was tapped, the dividends grew into the hundreds, then the thousands. And virtually every year the payments increased, like the prairie creeks that joined to form the wide, muddy Cimarron, until the tribe members had collectively accumulated millions and millions of dollars. (In 1923 alone, the tribe took in more than $30 million, the equivalent today of more than $400 million.) The Osage were considered the wealthiest people per capita in the world. “Lo and behold!” the New York weekly Outlook exclaimed. “The Indian, instead of starving to death . . . enjoys a steady income that turns bankers green with envy.”

The public had become transfixed by the tribe’s prosperity, which belied the images of American Indians that could be traced back to the brutal first contact with whites—the original sin from which the country was born. Reporters tantalized their readers with stories about the “plutocratic Osage” and the “red millionaires,” with their brick-and-terra-cotta mansions and chandeliers, with their diamond rings and fur coats and chauffeured cars. One writer marveled at Osage girls who attended the best boarding schools and wore sumptuous French clothing, as if “une très jolie demoiselle of the Paris boulevards had inadvertently strayed into this little reservation town.”

At the same time, reporters seized upon any signs of the traditional Osage way of life, which seemed to stir in the public’s mind visions of “wild” Indians. One article noted a “circle of expensive automobiles surrounding an open campfire, where the bronzed and brightly blanketed owners are cooking meat in the primitive style.” Another documented a party of Osage arriving at a ceremony for their dances in a private airplane—a scene that “outrivals the ability of the fictionist to portray.” Summing up the public’s attitude toward the Osage, the Washington Star said, “That lament, ‘Lo the poor Indian,’ might appropriately be revised to, ‘Ho, the rich redskin.’ ”

Gray Horse was one of the reservation’s older settlements. These outposts—including Fairfax, a larger, neighboring town of nearly fifteen hundred people, and Pawhuska, the Osage capital, with a population of more than six thousand—seemed like fevered visions. The streets clamored with cowboys, fortune seekers, bootleggers, soothsayers, medicine men, outlaws, U.S. marshals, New York financiers, and oil magnates. Automobiles sped along paved horse trails, the smell of fuel overwhelming the scent of the prairies. Juries of crows peered down from telephone wires. There were restaurants, advertised as cafés, and opera houses and polo grounds.

Although Mollie didn’t spend as lavishly as some of her neighbors did, she had built a beautiful, rambling wooden house in Gray Horse near her family’s old lodge of lashed poles, woven mats, and bark. She owned several cars and had a staff of servants—the Indians’ pot-lickers, as many settlers derided these migrant workers. The servants were often black or Mexican, and in the early 1920s a visitor to the reservation expressed contempt at the sight of “even whites” performing “all the menial tasks about the house to which no Osage will stoop.”

Mollie was one of the last people to see Anna before she vanished. That day, May 21, Mollie had risen close to dawn, a habit ingrained from when her father used to pray every morning to the sun. She was accustomed to the chorus of meadowlarks and sandpipers and prairie chickens, now overlaid with the pock-pocking of drills pounding the earth. Unlike many of her friends, who shunned Osage clothing, Mollie wrapped an Indian blanket around her shoulders. She also didn’t style her hair in a flapper bob, and instead let her long, black hair flow over her back, revealing her striking face, with its high cheekbones and big brown eyes.

Her husband, Ernest Burkhart, rose with her. A twenty-eight-year-old white man, he had the stock handsomeness of an extra in a Western picture show: short brown hair, slate-blue eyes, square chin. Only his nose disturbed the portrait; it looked as if it had taken a barroom punch or two. Growing up in Texas, the son of a poor cotton farmer, he’d been enchanted by tales of the Osage Hills—that vestige of the American frontier where cowboys and Indians were said to still roam. In 1912, at nineteen, he’d packed a bag, like Huck Finn lighting out for the Territory, and gone to live with his uncle, a domineering cattleman named William K. Hale, in Fairfax. “He was not the kind of a man to ask you to do something—he told you,” Ernest once said of Hale, who became his surrogate father. Though Ernest mostly ran errands for Hale, he sometimes worked as a livery driver, which is how he met Mollie, chauffeuring her around town.

Ernest had a tendency to drink moonshine and play Indian stud poker with men of ill repute, but beneath his roughness there seemed to be a tenderness and a trace of insecurity, and Mollie fell in love with him. Born a speaker of Osage, Mollie had learned some English in school; nevertheless, Ernest studied her native language until he could talk with her in it. She suffered from diabetes, and he cared for her when her joints ached and her stomach burned with hunger. After he heard that another man had affections for her, he muttered that he couldn’t live without her.

It wasn’t easy for them to marry. Ernest’s roughneck friends ridiculed him for being a “squaw man.” And though Mollie’s three sisters had wed white men, she felt a responsibility to have an arranged Osage marriage, the way her parents had. Still, Mollie, whose family practiced a mixture of Osage and Catholic beliefs, couldn’t understand why God would let her find love, only to then take it away from her. So, in 1917, she and Ernest exchanged rings, vowing to love each other till eternity.

By 1921, they had a daughter, Elizabeth, who was two years old, and a son, James, who was eight months old and nicknamed Cowboy. Mollie also tended to her aging mother, Lizzie, who had moved in to the house after Mollie’s father passed away. Because of Mollie’s diabetes, Lizzie once feared that she would die young, and beseeched her other children to take care of her. In truth, Mollie was the one who looked after all of them.

May 21 was supposed to be a delightful day for Mollie. She liked to entertain guests and was hosting a small luncheon. After getting dressed, she fed the children. Cowboy often had terrible earaches, and she’d blow in his ears until he stopped crying. Mollie kept her home in meticulous order, and she issued instructions to her servants as the house stirred, everyone bustling about—except Lizzie, who’d fallen ill and stayed in bed. Mollie asked Ernest to ring Anna and see if, for a change, she’d come over to help tend to Lizzie. Anna, as the oldest child in the family, held a special status in their mother’s eyes, and even though Mollie took care of Lizzie, Anna, in spite of her tempestuousness, was the one her mother spoiled.

When Ernest told Anna that her mama needed her, she promised to take a taxi straight there, and she arrived shortly afterward, dressed in bright red shoes, a skirt, and a matching Indian blanket; in her hand was an alligator purse. Before entering, she’d hastily combed her windblown hair and powdered her face. Mollie noticed, however, that her gait was unsteady, her words slurred. Anna was drunk.

Mollie couldn’t hide her displeasure. Some of the guests had already arrived. Among them were two of Ernest’s brothers, Bryan and Horace Burkhart, who, lured by black gold, had moved to Osage County, often assisting Hale on his ranch. One of Ernest’s aunts, who spewed racist notions about Indians, was also visiting, and the last thing Mollie needed was for Anna to stir up the old goat.

Anna slipped off her shoes and began to make a scene. She took a flask from her bag and opened it, releasing the pungent smell of bootleg whiskey. Insisting that she needed to drain the flask before the authorities caught her—it was a year into nationwide Prohibition—she offered the guests a swig of what she called the best white mule.

Mollie knew that Anna had been very troubled of late. She’d recently divorced her husband, a settler named Oda Brown, who owned a livery business. Since then, she’d spent more and more time in the reservation’s tumultuous boomtowns, which had sprung up to house and entertain oil workers—towns like Whizbang, where, it was said, people whizzed all day and banged all night. “All the forces of dissipation and evil are here found,” a U.S. government official reported. “Gambling, drinking, adultery, lying, thieving, murdering.” Anna had become entranced by the places at the dark ends of the streets: the establishments that seemed proper on the exterior but contained hidden rooms filled with glittering bottles of moonshine. One of Anna’s servants later told the authorities that Anna was someone who drank a lot of whiskey and had “very loose morals with white men.”

At Mollie’s house, Anna began to flirt with Ernest’s younger brother, Bryan, whom she’d sometimes dated. He was more brooding than Ernest and had inscrutable yellow-flecked eyes and thinning hair that he wore slicked back. A lawman who knew him described him as a little roustabout. When Bryan asked one of the servants at the luncheon if she’d go to a dance with him that night, Anna said that if he fooled around with another woman, she’d kill him.

Meanwhile, Ernest’s aunt was muttering, loud enough for all to hear, about how mortified she was that her nephew had married a redskin. It was easy for Mollie to subtly strike back because as one of the servants attending to the aunt was white—a blunt reminder of the town’s social order.

Anna continued raising Cain. She fought with the guests, fought with her mother, fought with Mollie. “She was drinking and quarreling,” a servant later told authorities. “I couldn’t understand her language, but they were quarreling.” The servant added, “They had an awful time with Anna, and I was afraid.”

That evening, Mollie planned to look after her mother, while Ernest took the guests into Fairfax, five miles to the northwest, to meet Hale and see Bringing Up Father, a touring musical about a poor Irish immigrant who wins a million-dollar sweepstakes and struggles to assimilate into high society. Bryan, who’d put on a cowboy hat, his catlike eyes peering out from under the brim, offered to drop Anna off at her house.

Before they left, Mollie washed Anna’s clothes, gave her some food to eat, and made sure that she’d sobered up enough that Mollie could glimpse her sister as her usual self, bright and charming. They lingered together, sharing a moment of calm and reconciliation. Then Anna said good-bye, a gold filling flashing through her smile.

With each passing night, Mollie grew more anxious. Bryan insisted that he’d taken Anna straight home and dropped her off before heading to the show. After the third night, Mollie, in her quiet but forceful way, pressed everyone into action. She dispatched Ernest to check on Anna’s house. Ernest jiggled the knob to her front door—it was locked. From the window, the rooms inside appeared dark and deserted.

Ernest stood there alone in the heat. A few days earlier, a cool rain shower had dusted the earth, but afterward the sun’s rays beat down mercilessly through the blackjack trees. This time of year, heat blurred the prairies and made the tall grass creak underfoot. In the distance, through the shimmering light, one could see the skeletal frames of derricks.

Anna’s head servant, who lived next door, came out, and Ernest asked her, “Do you know where Anna is?”

Before the shower, the servant said, she’d stopped by Anna’s house to close any open windows. “I thought the rain would blow in,” she explained. But the door was locked, and there was no sign of Anna. She was gone.

News of her absence coursed through the boomtowns, traveling from porch to porch, from store to store. Fueling the unease were reports that another Osage, Charles Whitehorn, had vanished a week before Anna had. Genial and witty, the thirty-year-old Whitehorn was married to a woman who was part white, part Cheyenne. A local newspaper noted that he was “popular among both the whites and the members of his own tribe.” On May 14, he’d left his home, in the southwestern part of the reservation, for Pawhuska. He never returned.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01CWZFBZ4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (April 18, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 18, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 89.8 MB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 347 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #9,743 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #3 in 20th Century History of the U.S.
- #3 in Native American History (Kindle Store)
- #5 in Native American History (Books)

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David Grann

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DAVID GRANN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books "The Wager," "The Lost City of Z," and "Killers of the Flower Moon," which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of "The White Darkness" and the collection "The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession." His book "Killers of the Flower Moon" was recently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro. Several of his other stories, including "The Lost City of Z" and "Old Man and the Gun," have also been adapted into major motion pictures. His investigative reporting and storytelling have garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.

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Customers praise the book for its well-written narrative and compelling story. They find the research thorough and detailed, with the author delving deeply into historical records and conducting countless interviews. The storytelling is described as riveting, spellbinding, and thoughtful. Opinions differ on the heartbreaking story and corruption depicted in the book. Some readers find it sorrowful and emotional, while others describe it as disturbing and shocking.

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3,404 customers mention "Readability"3,051 positive353 negative

Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They say it's better than the movie, with cleaner language and sincere emotion. The book is described as a superior effort of journalism and storytelling.

"...It’s both a compelling read and an important one." Read more

"...The book details several of the known killings and the cold, callous, calculated murders are chilling and puzzling...." Read more

"...A good side story in this sad but very important, well-written book. Even if you've seen the movie, please, please read this book...." Read more

"David Grann's "Killers of the Flower Moon" is an enthralling masterpiece that masterfully combines true crime and history to uncover a chilling and..." Read more

2,910 customers mention "Story quality"2,630 positive280 negative

Customers enjoy the engaging story. They find the book well-researched and hard to put down. The book is an entertaining account of historical events that fans of true crime and history will enjoy. Readers describe it as a suspenseful mystery thriller, though it's not a page-turner.

"Killers of the Flower Moon is a gripping true crime book that sheds light on the Osage murders of the 1920s, when wealthy Osage Nation members were..." Read more

"...This book reads like a mystery thriller, however it isn’t a page- turner, like some mystery genre books...." Read more

"...It was also an interesting eye opener as to the formation of the FBI. A good side story in this sad but very important, well-written book...." Read more

"...and impeccable research make this book an absolute must-read for fans of true crime, history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in exploring the..." Read more

1,619 customers mention "Research quality"1,537 positive82 negative

Customers appreciate the book's thorough research and detailed writing. They find the author's research thorough, with extensive historical records and interviews. The book provides a basic understanding of local law enforcement and community relationships, as well as an education about corruption. Readers enjoy the true-to-life stories and how the story keeps them interested in how the FBI is progressing and who is doing the murders.

"...David Grann masterfully blends historical research and investigative journalism, revealing a chilling story of greed, corruption, and systemic..." Read more

"...This book is another solid, educational wakeup call on the prevalence of racism and superiority that pervaded society in the past and is rearing its..." Read more

"...A good side story in this sad but very important, well-written book. Even if you've seen the movie, please, please read this book...." Read more

"...Great history lesson, unfortunately not a great book. Pretty dry stuff, written in a style unlikely to engage the reader...." Read more

127 customers mention "Entrancing storytelling"117 positive10 negative

Customers find the storytelling engaging. They describe it as riveting, spellbinding, thoughtful, and powerful. The words and photos draw readers in and hold their attention throughout. Readers say the book takes a true life story and makes it read like gripping fiction.

"...I found this section of Grann's book to be the most riveting...." Read more

"...Grann's writing is both informative and emotive, capturing the reader's attention and holding it throughout the entire book...." Read more

"...author for his ability to take a true life story and make it read like gripping fiction...." Read more

"...Thank you for a thoughtful telling of a very dark time. I wonder, now, if anything similar happened to other tribes in Oklahoma and other states...." Read more

589 customers mention "Heartbreaking story"331 positive258 negative

Customers have different views on the story. Some find it sad and emotional, while others describe it as disturbing and depressing.

"...fiction or mystery novel, as Grann writes with sincere emotion, both haunting and heartbreaking, creating a complete page-turner...." Read more

"...book to read, not because of the writing but because the subject is so painful...." Read more

"...This is a sorrowful story and the fact that it is a true case makes it even more miserable to think and read about...." Read more

"...The intergenerational trauma is horrible to witness, but very real. (I will be watching this when it comes to film October 2023.) Highly recommend." Read more

494 customers mention "Corruption"155 positive339 negative

Customers have different views on the corruption in the book. Some find it shocking and chilling, exposing a conspiracy and systematic murders. Others say the world was corrupt and savage in the early 1900s, with senseless murders over money and the superior attitudes of whites.

"...depths of the darkness within the human soul; the murder investigations are less interesting. Four stars." Read more

"...The system was badly flawed, and many of the guardians used their position to embezzle huge sums of money...." Read more

"...several of the known killings and the cold, callous, calculated murders are chilling and puzzling...." Read more

"...I was outraged by the prejudice, heartsick by the killing, and that is what I hope to feel and more when reading a book about a historical atrocity...." Read more

389 customers mention "Pacing"179 positive210 negative

Customers have varying views on the book's pacing. Some find it quick and enjoyable, with the author keeping the narrative moving. Others feel the history lesson parts are slow and difficult to follow, with chapters bogged down in unimportant details.

"...and extended, the cast of characters grows; everything becomes a little confusing and the tidy outline of the Aristotelian plot is lost...." Read more

"...seamlessly combines true crime, historical investigation, and social commentary...." Read more

"...only complaint would be that the final few sections of the book are much slower in comparison to the rest of the book, which starts off at a fairly..." Read more

"...The flow of the book wasn't what I expected, but it made sense...." Read more

111 customers mention "Character development"71 positive40 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book. Some find it strengths-based, with true heroes and villains, and pictures of them that enhance the narrative and allow the reader to connect with the characters. Others feel there are too many characters and it's difficult to keep them straight, especially with the main ones. There is also mention of trivializing minor characters.

"...I like how the book includes pictures so that you can get to know the many characters involved...." Read more

"...The narrative becomes complicated and extended, the cast of characters grows; everything becomes a little confusing and the tidy outline of the..." Read more

"...One of the book's greatest strengths lies in its exploration of the characters involved...." Read more

"...However, there are two remarkable people in this gruesome tale...." Read more

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jada
A Haunting and Necessary True Crime Masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2025
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Killers of the Flower Moon is a gripping true crime book that sheds light on the Osage murders of the 1920s, when wealthy Osage Nation members were systematically killed for their oil money. David Grann masterfully blends historical research and investigative journalism, revealing a chilling story of greed, corruption, and systemic racism.

What I loved most was how immersive and meticulously detailed the storytelling is. Grann makes history feel immediate, drawing readers into the mystery and the broader injustice surrounding it. This book is perfect for true crime fans, history buffs, and anyone who appreciates investigative journalism that exposes hidden truths. It’s both a compelling read and an important one.

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Richard B. Schwartz
More Psychological/Moral than a set of Criminal Investigations
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2023
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This is an excellent true crime book. I would not place it in the same league as the best true crime books (The Onion Field, In Cold Blood, Sidney Kirkpatrick’s wonderful A Cast of Killers, e.g.) but it is very good. The problem is that true crime entails historical restraints. The key lesson (mini-SPOILER) of Killers of the Flower Moon is that there were a multiplicity of killers; the omnipresent examples of human cruelty and greed result in a judgment of human nature itself, one far more extreme than expected. The problem is that the actual narrative is compromised in the process. We think we know who did it; then we find out that someone else did it as well and someone else and someone else. The narrative becomes complicated and extended, the cast of characters grows; everything becomes a little confusing and the tidy outline of the Aristotelian plot is lost. Bottom line: the book is a little too difficult to follow and it becomes difficult to keep the characters straight.

The subtitle suggests that the ‘birth of the FBI’ will be a key part of the story. It is, but only in the sense that one Bureau agent in particular is a key element in the investigation. The material on J. Edgar and his personality is common knowledge and ultimately the birth of the Bureau is tangential to the story of the Osage murders.

The story of the black gold and how it is finally replaced by the windmills of an Italian energy company is, in some ways, more interesting. The horrific treatment of the Osage is well-known; what is not so well-known is its extent. In other words, the psychological/moral elements of the story are ultimately more interesting than the investigative ones.

My bottom line: the story was chilling and moving but not riveting. Given the breadth of its readership and the resources invested in the film, I expected more. The book is essentially an examination of the depths of the darkness within the human soul; the murder investigations are less interesting.

Four stars.

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Bryan Carey
Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2023
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American history is loaded with episodes of shame. A large percentage of our less memorable moments, as a nation, have been swept under the rug, kept out of classrooms, and largely forgotten as time progresses. But these events are real and all it takes is a skilled author to bring the lost history back to life. Such is the case with Killers of the Flower Moon.
I did not know anything about these murders against the Osage until I read this book, so this was a definite eye- opener for me. I had heard of the Osage tribe, yes, but I did not know they fell into tremendous oil wealth and, subsequently, saw their members slowly dying off, either through gunfire or poisoning, as greedy individuals tried to get their hands on some easy cash. The book details several of the known killings and the cold, callous, calculated murders are chilling and puzzling. Chilling, because of the gruesomeness of the murders; puzzling, because of the nonchalant behavior of those who plotted the killings. Even when confronted with the murders, most of the guilty individuals seem to have no remorse at all. They don’t even perceive what they did as immoral in any way.
This book reads like a mystery thriller, however it isn’t a page- turner, like some mystery genre books. You do start to make guesses as to who is responsible, but rather than get wound up in the who- done- it, the book grips you more for its educational aspects. You learn all sorts of things about the Oklahoma region that the Osage called home. You learn about the newly formed FBI and its role in solving the mystery. You learn about the problems of racism and the feelings of superiority that people felt against Indians. And you learn just how evil people can be when vast amounts of wealth are at stake.
There are several surprises in this book, and one is the book’s final section. The book leads you to believe that the mystery has been solved and it sounds like everything is coming to a close. Then suddenly, the book continues for dozens more pages as the author tries to solve more of the mystery on his own, with the aid of local Osage tribe members. No one will ever know exactly how many people were killed during this reign of terror but I like how the author took it on himself to investigate and try to answer more questions.
This book is another solid, educational wakeup call on the prevalence of racism and superiority that pervaded society in the past and is rearing its ugly head once again today. I like how the book includes pictures so that you can get to know the many characters involved. With so many names and so many people involved, it’s easy to lose track of who is who. The pictures help you put a face with the name. But the most important part of this book is its educational value. It’s another sad, shameful episode from America’s past and one that we all need to know about and, hopefully, learn from.

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Bryan Carey

Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life

Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2023
American history is loaded with episodes of shame. A large percentage of our less memorable moments, as a nation, have been swept under the rug, kept out of classrooms, and largely forgotten as time progresses. But these events are real and all it takes is a skilled author to bring the lost history back to life. Such is the case with Killers of the Flower Moon.
I did not know anything about these murders against the Osage until I read this book, so this was a definite eye- opener for me. I had heard of the Osage tribe, yes, but I did not know they fell into tremendous oil wealth and, subsequently, saw their members slowly dying off, either through gunfire or poisoning, as greedy individuals tried to get their hands on some easy cash. The book details several of the known killings and the cold, callous, calculated murders are chilling and puzzling. Chilling, because of the gruesomeness of the murders; puzzling, because of the nonchalant behavior of those who plotted the killings. Even when confronted with the murders, most of the guilty individuals seem to have no remorse at all. They don’t even perceive what they did as immoral in any way.
This book reads like a mystery thriller, however it isn’t a page- turner, like some mystery genre books. You do start to make guesses as to who is responsible, but rather than get wound up in the who- done- it, the book grips you more for its educational aspects. You learn all sorts of things about the Oklahoma region that the Osage called home. You learn about the newly formed FBI and its role in solving the mystery. You learn about the problems of racism and the feelings of superiority that people felt against Indians. And you learn just how evil people can be when vast amounts of wealth are at stake.
There are several surprises in this book, and one is the book’s final section. The book leads you to believe that the mystery has been solved and it sounds like everything is coming to a close. Then suddenly, the book continues for dozens more pages as the author tries to solve more of the mystery on his own, with the aid of local Osage tribe members. No one will ever know exactly how many people were killed during this reign of terror but I like how the author took it on himself to investigate and try to answer more questions.
This book is another solid, educational wakeup call on the prevalence of racism and superiority that pervaded society in the past and is rearing its ugly head once again today. I like how the book includes pictures so that you can get to know the many characters involved. With so many names and so many people involved, it’s easy to lose track of who is who. The pictures help you put a face with the name. But the most important part of this book is its educational value. It’s another sad, shameful episode from America’s past and one that we all need to know about and, hopefully, learn from.

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Cindy72
If you've seen the movie PLEASE read this book
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2025
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By now everyone knows about this book. As always, it's better than the movie and the movie was so good. It's hard to even imagine this a true story and I even took a native American Indian history class in college. It was also an interesting eye opener as to the formation of the FBI. A good side story in this sad but very important, well-written book. Even if you've seen the movie, please, please read this book. Why aren't we insisting these stories be required reading in high school?

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Bob
Fascinating, Disturbing, A Must Read . . . .
Reviewed in Canada on September 28, 2024
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This is a fascinating yet deeply disturbing multi-layered account of how greed drove men to murder and of how a combination of uncaring and sloppy police work allowed them to almost escape justice. Truth be told, it was the dogged efforts of one man, Tom White, a former Texas Ranger recruited into the fledgling FBI (before it was even so-named) that must receive the lion’s share of credit for solving these crimes.
The Osage Indian Nation would prove to be a wealthy one; at one time considered to be among the richest in the world. After years of struggles and hardship - mostly imposed on them and every other Native American tribe by a federal government which considered them to be “non-humans” (a belief widely held among the White population as well), the Osage finally got what they’d long sought, a permanent home. They purchased a non-descript piece of land in Oklahoma; rocky, barren and not much good for farming, but they were satisfied as were, it seems, the Federal Government and the Whites. But the satisfaction of the latter two would soon sour when it was discovered that “worthless” land sat atop one of the (at that time) largest known oil reserves in the world. The sour note was struck by the fact the lawyer the Osage hired to negotiate the land purchase got mineral rights (the rights to underground resources whatever they might be i.e., oil, coal, gold, uranium, etc.), included in the deal so that when oil was discovered on their land, every Osage tribal member became entitled to a percentage of any revenue that would flow from oil production. And some unscrupulous men wanted to not just share in that wealth, but to take control of it entirely.
That is what forms the basis of David Grann’s factual accounting of all the evil these men enacted and the long hard battle to finally find justice for, and return a sense of peace to, the Osage people.
Grann has written a well-laid out, researched, and what proved to me to be, a truly horrific story. I believe this to be a book of historical significance that which, upon reading, caused me to reflect on many similarities existing in the way our First Nations people (in Canada) were used and abused by governments, religious orders, and the broader “white” population. And while on the surface it would seem efforts are being made to examine past events; to expose the truth and to seek reconciliation for the many wrongs imposed or inflicted, there remains a long road ahead. We must all work hard to complete that journey.

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Zufrieden GE
Fantastic. Well written.
Reviewed in Germany on December 29, 2024
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Fantastic. Well written. Better even than the excellent movie. Could not put it down

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Hangonamo
Excellent.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2024
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Readable, shocking and enlightening. Well worth spending the time.

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jam
Brilliant
Reviewed in Belgium on August 3, 2024
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A non fiction - must reading

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aMazel
Aminzing story
Reviewed in France on May 6, 2024
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I was not aware of this machination... terrible....

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

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Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Haunting and Necessary True Crime Masterpiece

4.0 out of 5 stars More Psychological/Moral than a set of Criminal Investigations

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life

Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life

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5.0 out of 5 stars If you've seen the movie PLEASE read this book

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, Disturbing, A Must Read . . . .

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic. Well written.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

5.0 out of 5 stars Aminzing story

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A Haunting and Necessary True Crime Masterpiece

More Psychological/Moral than a set of Criminal Investigations

Another Largely Forgotten Piece of American History, Brought Back to Life

If you've seen the movie PLEASE read this book

Fascinating, Disturbing, A Must Read . . . .

Fantastic. Well written.

Excellent.

Brilliant

Aminzing story