Killers of the Flower Moon

As someone who hardly reads true crime or even fiction mystery books, this is not the kind of book you would expect me to read. Killers of the Yellow Moon is also a couple of years old, so I can't say it was even on my radar. But this is the end of a decade and we keep seeing all the “Best of” lists for the past 10 years, and when I saw this book on one of the best non fiction of the decade lists, I did some research and instantly became interested. And obviously getting to know that casting calls have gone out for a movie adaptation by Martin Scorcese starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Robert DeNiro made it the next book on my TBR.

I recently read a history book called How to Hide an Empire and it was revelatory in how much we don't know about the past or even present of our own country. And this book may just be dealing with a small time period of the early 20th century, but it's a matter of shame that it's been forgotten within just a century, despite the people and the descendants who lived through the Reign of Terror still dealing with the ramifications even now. It really is preposterous and obviously the result of prejudice that FBI remains in the public eye as the highly acclaimed national law enforcement agency in the country, but the string of brutal murders, cover ups and rampant systemic corruption that led to the birth of this organization is neither taught as an important part of history, or even remains in anyone's memory. Even I've read quite a bit about Edgar Hoover and how he created and ruled the organization with an iron fist, but this case that he essentially used to publicize the importance of his agency never made it into my readings, probably because it wasn't deemed noteworthy.

The author writes the book like a mystery novel but with a bit of history, giving us the background for how the Osage Nation in Oklahoma came to be and the extraordinary work of their diligent representatives who managed to get them the mineral rights for their lands. Oil brought money and prosperity to the Osage Indians, but much pronounced is the bigotry among the white people and the government who couldn't bear to see people who they felt were inferior living such prosperous lives. And it's fairly obvious that from this prejudice (and we can call it jealousy and greed) came the Reign of Terror that lasted years and ended with scores of murders.

The author details the arrival of Tom White and his team of bureau officers, who took up the mantle of this investigation after many locals failed to do anything, and it was gratifying to see atleast some white people with a fair amount of power willing to do their duty and not discount the lives that were lost or those who were living in constant danger. The conspiracy that they unearth is massive and I think it was sheer persistence on their part, and the resilience of the Osage Indians that ultimately led to bringing the truth to light.

But it was the last part of the book that really stunned me, when the author talks about how he started his research and what he uncovered. With the access of many more documents from decades ago and testimonies from the living descendants of the victims, he pieces together an almost unimaginable tale of conspiracy - where local white businessmen, dangerous outlaws, reputable doctors, corrupt local sheriffs and law enforcement and government officials, and most importantly greedy white people - all formed an informal network of killers, masters of coverups and large scale robbers, leaving numerous families with death and destitution. And the worst part is that while Tom White and his team was able to get convictions for a few murders, many many others were never pursued, and generations of their families have struggled to piece together the truth of what happened to their loved ones - and they are still doing it today.

It's always both fascinating and painful to read such historical accounts and see parallels in our current times, because it just shows that despite a lot of progress we have made, we haven't really in many other matters. Rachel Maddow's recent book Blowout talks about the huge tentacles of the Oil industry in Oklahoma and how long it took for ordinary people to be able to fight back, and what they lost in the meantime. And it's just testimony that the resource curse is alive and well, the unscrupulous and ruthless nature of people clamoring for oil money hasn't changed; it just probably has evolved from murders to more sophisticated business operations. Another thing that was brutal to read about was how some of the killers who were convicted of the Osage murders got paroled very soon, and even got pardons from the governors - just showcasing how less (or no) value this country places on the lives of nonwhite people - eerily similar to the president's pardons of war criminals a few days ago.

No thanks to the establishment of this country, it's through sheer will and resilience and deep rooted love of their history that has managed to sustain the existence of the Osage Nation, and it was an honor to get to know about some of the people that the author had an opportunity to meet. This book is the story of the terror through which they lived and survived, and some law enforcement officers who took their duty seriously. If you like reading historical accounts of true crime, you just can't miss this book. It's brilliantly written and thoroughly researched, bringing a vital part of forgotten history back into the consciousness. The only heartbreak is that so much of it is still unknown and the families may never know the truth.

Utterly fantastic book. The prose grips you right through, but it doesn't cheapen the horror. The scene in the courthouse.... was extraordinarily painful. I cannot even fathom it. A must read book that captures what is only a fraction of the (politically and institutionally supported) cruel treatment of first nations/native americans.

Review pending, but this was so good!!

Ugh. Shocking and depressing and upon consideration, not that shocking.

Solid 4 stars. The book is split up into three sections of unequal lengths – what happens to the Osage, what happens when the Department of Justice gets involved, and how the journalist pursued additional research and evidence for some of the unsolved matters. I started to lose interest after the second section wrapped up, though this may be due to the change in narrators. (There are three narrators for the audiobook.)

A fascinating glimpse into harrowing crimes and the impact on the Osage long-term. I also think that it looked very closely at the stereotype of “drunk Indians” and turned it on its head.

One sentence synopsis... After oil deposits were found under their land, several Osage Native Americans mysteriously started dying and the newly formed FBI took the case.

Read it if you like... real-life murder mysteries like ‘I'll Be Gone in the Dark' or ‘The Devil in the White City'. The true story is captivating but Grann's writing is more dry journalism than sensational storytelling.

Dream casting... Scorsese is adapting with De Niro (presumably as the mastermind behind the murders) and DiCaprio (as Agent White, the FBI investigator).

This was impossible to put down. A True Crime expose on a string of terrible crimes in Native American territory that gave way to the inception of the FBI.

I think I'm ready to give up on narrative non-fiction.

I've read a few acclaimed books with this structure, such as The Lost City Of Z (also by Grann) and The Devil In The White City, and they just haven't been for me. I find the subject matter really interesting, but the storytelling just puts me off.

There's something about the suspension of disbelief when true-life scenes are described in detail combined with the book usually covering so many things that happened in real life that may or may not be interesting. With movies about real life events I immediately accept that it is fictionalized to some degree and is edited down so that each moment is crucial to the story.

Anyways, there's definitely an interesting and harrowing bit of history at the core here and I'm curious to see what Scorcese does with this for his film.

The first three quarters of Killers of the Flower moon play out as a fascinating true-crime historical novel, as Grann pieces together the details of a long-buried series of brutal murders perpetrated by a psychotically evil white man against the residents of an Oklahoma Indian Reservation which in the early 20th century contained one of the wealthiest zip codes in the United States. One investigator tries to do the case right but is ultimately impeded by the structures of white supremacy on the ground in Oklahoma and the bureaucratic machinery of the newly born FBI who had commissioned him. The details of the murders, which were performed in order to consolidate oil head rights which could only otherwise be passed hereditarily are grisly and horrifying in their ruthlessness, but the book ends on a genuinely stomach churning final act wherein the scale and scope of such murders becomes apparent, if not yet (even in 2022) totally clear.

Engrossing and well-written true crime story

Robert De Niro is gonna go bananas in the adaptation of this.

Great book. I liked how it's split into three sections: the first is basically a history of the Osage and the many trials and hardships wrongly imposed upon them. The second focuses on the FBI's investigation into the murders, which would put just about any mystery novelist to shame with all the ups and downs and twists and turns. Lastly, the third section is about David Grann's visit to Osage land and how his own investigations unexpectedly turns up evidence that the crimes against the Osage were much, much worse than what the FBI unearthed.

Amazing book for a very sad story that shows how greed can make humans do unthinkable sins

Very readable account of a murder spree in the '20s of members of the Osage Indian nation, presumably motivated by their oil wealth. It also deals with the early days of J. Edgar Hoover's administration of the FBI.

When truth is stranger and more tragic than fiction. Infuriating and devastating.

I'm not a huge fan of the “True Crime” genre, but this entry appears on enough “best of” lists that it grabbed my attention. I'd also heard the author on a podcast sharing a sketch of the remarkable and shocking “reign of terror” described in this non-fiction book. The Osage Indians in the Plains States got rich in the early 20th century due to the discovery of oil underneath their nation. Although they were able to enjoy their wealth for a while, eventually numerous and notable members of the tribe were murdered. When the local law enforcement authorities were unable or unwilling to bring the killer(s) to justice, the U.S. government sent outside agents from the fledgling agency which would later be called the FBI.

Two intertwined stories are masterfully woven together by Grann - the Osage murders and the hunt for those involved in these crimes and how the FBI was formed by this investigation. The story becomes a page turner due to Grann's abundant use of details in describing the colorful characters and shocking events. Ample period photos add to the drama. Tremendous research and analysis is clearly at work. Once the historical story is told, a substantial epilogue is offered relating how Grann's findings and his communication of these with living descendants of those who were murdered brought healing and closure to wounds eight decades later. An engaging and eye-opening read which should not be missed and which lives up to it's “best of” status!

Decided to read this after seeing Scorsese's recent adaptation. While i found the film itself to be a dull, repetitive slog, the story of the Osage Reign of Terror was fascinating and shocking and i felt the need to gain a more complete picture of what happened. This turned out to be a stellar read, with the most illuminating and sobering details being the laws and institutions that not only ignored but actively facilitated a conspiracy of murders with a scope that far exceeds the film's focus on one particularly notable villain. Here we see not only the corrupting effects of individual greed, but the all-consuming barbarism of settler colonialism as a whole.

OK, so I had to laugh. This is totally an aside, but I read several reviews and a lot of people complained that this book didn't have enough action and that it wasn't about the FBI. Yeah, it's a fuckin' non-fiction book. Do you think the author should've thrown in a car chase shootout or something? And it says “birth of the FBI,” which was touched upon. It isn't a Blue Lives Matter history of the FBI shooting bad guys. Sheesh.

Anyhow, I really loved this book. I wasn't too into the idea of watching a dramatized version, but the movie's existence did put this story on my radar. I'm glad I read it. In the US, we tend to stray away from stories that make us look unfavorable. It's hard to convince the world that everyone who isn't a WASP is a savage when those are the ones doing the most heinous shit imaginable. Rather than some shitty allegory about race, the author gives an actual account of capitalism at its worst. Native Americans are told to leave their land, their new land contains oil, the ones that get rich start disappearing. So fucked up. This is the sort of thing that needs to be taught in school.

If I had to make a few complaints, I'd start by saying that because of the subject matter, the writing did feel a little clinical at times. Obviously, it'd be fiction to spruce up the story, but the writing could've been punched up a bit. Another thing that sort of got me was that the story of the creation of the FBI made Hoover sound a little too sympathetic. I feel like there were more politics at play than J Edgar actually caring much about Native Americans. Maybe that's a story for another time and another place.

4.5/5 stars

The Osage of Oklahoma unexpectedly became wildly rich when the land to which the tribe had been relocated was discovered to contain a huge and valuable oilfield.

The headright each tribe member owned could not be sold. It could only be inherited. And this, along with greed and the lack of respect held for Native Americans in early twentieth-century white culture, led to a series of murders in the Osage community.

The murders themselves were horrific, but the way the murders were ignored, covered up, and minimized was just as horrific.

This is yet another story from history that I was never told in school. It's a horrific story, and it's a story that reminds us of the horrific things minority cultures in America have had to endure.

Meh.

Even in a post-2016 world, where we see new disgusting lows almost daily, the horrors documented in this book are appalling. Monstrous in scale, in cruelty, in shamelessness and just pure evil. Also some good, in the form of one helluva decent FBI agent, Tom White: his story—before, during, and after the Osage assignment—is one of nobility and honor. Not quite enough to balance out the monsters, but enough to leave me feeling some gratitude.

Grann shows tremendous respect toward the Osage. His research is exhaustive, and he is careful to remain within the boundaries of fact (with clearly identified moments of conjecture). This rigor sometimes makes for repetition or dryness, but it’s absolutely the right and responsible thing to do: the book is more trustworthy that way, its impact more powerful.

ok so yeah I saw the movie and then was like “oh I should finally read the book” and then I read the book. Here we are. Obviously having seen the movie already I had my eye on what may have been changed or left out, and like. I get that for the movie it's a better arc if it's Hale's conspiracy but I was most intrigued by the last section where Grann is like "yeah Hale was behind a lot of these but also other white people were out here doing their own independent murders of Osage people". Like. The scope of it!! Augh!

A very compelling piece of history.

Eye opening to say the least and definitely worth all the praise. The way the story is laid out makes following it easy while staying compelling. You can tell just how much research went into this book though the author makes reading it very fluid. It’s a must read for any non-fiction fans, and quite possibly readers who don’t typically read nonfiction.

This is the first ever true crime Investigative journalism book I ever read and I had wasn't disappointed. I thought the book was going to be slow and dry but it wasn't.

I couldn't just put it down. And the book just shook me to the core. Never have ever gotten this angry reading a book. God the injustice the osages faced. I am happy that they are making a movie and giving this part of American history the focus it deserves.