The latest film by Martin Scorsese traces the trajectory and tragedy of the real-life Osage murders.
Here’s what Grann uncovered, and how Scorsese interpreted it.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forKillers of the Flower Moon.
Lily Gladstone in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
Eventually, the Osage settled in “Indian territory,” in modern-day Oklahoma.
Headrights could not be bought or sold, only inherited.
This became extremely important just a few years later, when oil fields were discovered under the Osage land.
Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
Both had been shot, and their bodies had been dumped in isolated rural areas.
He had been shot in the back of the head.
Twenty-four people were eventually murderedin what the tribe began to call the “Reign of Terror.”
Robert De Niro and Jesse Plemons in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
Some victims, like Osage rodeo star William Stepson, were poisoned.
Others simply vanished or were killed execution-style.
Even the dogs Osage people had bought to protect their homes were mysteriously dying.
Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon”.Apple TV+
Four years later, little progress had been made.
One posed as an insurance salesman, another as a cattleman.
A third was an American-Indian agent who also went undercover.
Matthew Richman; Doubleday Publishing
On March 12, 1926, a preliminary hearing was held in Pawhuska, Okla. Hale would end up serving 18 years in Leavenworth, a federal prison in Kansas.
None other than Tom White, who came to greet Hale upon his arrival at the penitentiary.
He was paroled in 1947, as was John Ramsey.
Stephane Cardinale/getty
And most of them had escaped with zero accountability and millions in Osage wealth.
