Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Subtitled: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

Vintage, 400 pages, $16.95 (c2017)

This book is nominated for the 2018 Edgar Award for Best Non-Fiction.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” won’t be read for its breakthrough style or literary edginess, although it is thoroughly readable and author David Grann paces the presentation of the murders in a commendably dramatic way. It is the content that drives this non-fiction work. As location is to real estate, so content is to most writing. Grann has that covered.

What is also satisfying is that Grann introduces his own sleuthing into the picture. It is not just about reporting the atrocities of the Osage killings, a tragedy that stunned America when it happened (1920s through the 30s), but of doing research in primary sources and talking to people who were close to the victims. Reporters, the judicial system, and politicians made a big deal of the killings at the time, but the story was overwhelmed by other issues: e.g., the Depression, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. It is Grann’s honor to have uncovered the story again and to have breathed new direction into it.

Tom White was a Texas Ranger who became one of the first FBI agents, although it was a few years from being officially named the FBI. He was an honorable, intelligent man – luckily. There was so much corruption and racism at all levels of the Oklahoma community in and around the Osage Indian nation. Many members of the tribe were murdered, some clumsily and some with more subtlety. Although many clues and witnesses existed to the events, by the time White became involved, a lot had been covered up.

J. Edgar Hoover was ambitiously trying to set up a nationally-established investigative department. He was not the rough-and-ready type himself and was a germaphobe, but his agents were canny and tough. Ex-Rangers made good agents to send into the fray in Oklahoma. Hoover hired White and let him recruit his team. Hoover was hoping a success by the team would lead to government approval for a new department.

Central to Grann’s story is the inhumanity evinced by the “good citizens” of Oklahoma towards Native Americans. In their lights, the Osage were not fully human, intelligent, or capable of handling their own lives. They encouraged federal legislation to that effect. Why was it so important that the Osage be relegated to non-person status? Money.

The “underground reservation” on the Osage land contained oil. Buckets and barrels and monstrous fountains of it. The Osage were among the richest people in America because of that. And that prosperity brought tragedy.

Grann’s clear exposition of what happened to the Osage is stellar. The tragedy is riveting. And so disturbing. I’m glad this book was chosen by many critics as a best book and nominated for a bunch of awards, because this is a story that will probably be forgotten again. At least, with such a prominent book, the story may be resurrected again and again. Lest we forget.