Federal Bureau of Investigation, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The ‘Flower Moon’ is the term the Osage Indians of Oklahoma use to describe that time of year with a full moon in May when the plains around them suddenly burst forth in millions of flowers, signalling the end of winter hardships and the coming of spring. Despite the beautiful and uplifting phrase, this book is not a beautiful or uplifting story. Around a hundred years ago, in Osage County, Oklahoma, someone killed a young Osage woman called Anna Brown. She was taken to a local ravine and shot through the back of the head, her body left there to rot. Pretty soon her sister, diabetic Mollie Burkhardt, began to suspect there might to more to the case than met the eye – and, indeed, in time more of the family were subsequently attacked, shot at, intimidated or seemingly poisoned, along with other Osage. Houses were mysteriously set alight, and in one case even bombed. At this time, the Osage nation were among the richest groups on earth, due to the prevalence of extractable oil beneath their native lands- lands which, ironically, they suspected they had been given because the scrubby creeks and fields were thought to be valueless. The tribe began to enjoy their new-found wealth and started to buy luxuries like new-fangled automobiles in multiple numbers without even thinking twice about it. The money just continued to roll in and roll in. Yet these very rich people were now living in fear, keeping lamps burning outside their homes all night long to try and deter the intruders and shadowy figures who had suddenly appeared around their houses and shacks in the darkness. Who could possibly wish them so much ill? And thereby hangs a very strange tale indeed …
The investigations into what newspapers were calling a ‘reign of terror’ were cursory and in some instances bungled, and an irascible young man out East called J. Edgar Hoover was appointed to try and organise some kind of systematic approach to solving the mysterious happenings. He called his newly-rejigged investigative bureau the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. While relying initially to a certain extent on old school detectives like the incredibly brave sleuth and prison governor Tom White, who had his own (very successful) way of dealing with things, tensions quickly became apparent between those like White, who got results in a more direct and traditional way, and the college-trained newbies of the nascent FBI who regarded themselves as more modern, scientific and analytical. Such professional tensions often hampered rather than helped the search for truth.
As the killings continued, and the trails suddenly inexplicably went cold, the riddles deepened. Diabetic Mollie, who had assumed because of her ill-health she would be the first of her family to die, looked like becoming the one who would have to look after the others – those who were left, at any rate.
It was all so simple, in one way, and yet tremendously complex in another. Just what was the motive for all these tragic events? Was there one thread which connected them all together, or were they random in nature – were some of them unassociated accidents, even?
David Grann decided to look at the old cases again himself, following up long-dead leads in archives and on the ground. He even tracked down living descendants of some of the main players, gaining valuable insights from preserved family traditions passed down orally from parent to child. What he uncovered is simply astonishing. Some estimated that the total number of deaths was not just the official twenty, but instead ran into the hundreds. It’s a story of murder, bravery, outlaws, horrific betrayal and the corroding effect of an evil conspiracy none of the main characters could have predicted. This sweeping saga was eventually made into a film by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo di Caprio and Robert de Niro. This book itself, a gripping true crime narrative, was listed by Time magazine as one of its top ten books of 2017 (its year of publication), and I’m not a bit surprised.
© foxoles 2024
Movie on Amazon: Killers of the Flower Moon
Book:
