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

Amy  

nonfiction

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is the story of the Osage tribe of Native Americans.  After being sent away from their homelands and pushed into a small, unattractive area of Oklahoma, the Osage ended up becoming wealthy from oil found underneath their lands. However, the white leaders never trusted them to have control of their own money and laws were passed that assigned guardians to oversee the Osage spending of their own money.  Then, the Osage started being murdered in the 1920s so that their “headrights” would fall to greedy outsiders.  Also, those who attempted to solve the crimes were murdered so that the guilty could not be identified and punished. For years, the crimes went unsolved until the group that later became the FBI got involved and finally cracked one of the largest networks of evil.

I had not previously heard about the Osage Murders. In fact, I had never heard much about the Osage Native Americans—perhaps because, as an easterner, my schooling was mostly about eastern tribes.  I had heard of Osage County, Oklahoma thanks to the play August: Osage County (which was a great play!)

It was interesting learning about early law enforcement with its inherent corruption and the sections regarding the formation of the FBI including an early portrait of J. Edgar Hoover and the men who helped him form his reputation.  I liked the way the David Grann dug deep into some of the specific people involved in these tragedies and then he included other findings to illustrate how these plots were widespread and nefarious. It’s a depressing tale that deserves attention. 

The book has three major sections and each was narrated by a different person: first Ann Marie Lee, second Will Patton, and lastly Danny Campbell.  They all did a pretty good job considering it was mostly a report. Some of it read like a novel but much of it read like an article.  None of them needed to stretch their acting or use many different voices in these roles.  I will say that Will Patton has a unique vocal tone which was a bit distracting at times.   But, overall, I’d give them all an A.