Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. The Dakota
Speaker 1: people had reached their breaking point. Eighteen sixty two had
Speaker 1: turned out to be a difficult year, and their territory
Speaker 1: lacked the supplies necessary to keep their people alive. With
Speaker 1: the approach of the harsh Minnesota winter, it was clear
Speaker 1: they faced starvation. So the tribal leaders held a conference
Speaker 1: and then asked for assistance, but the US government ignored
Speaker 1: their cry for help. With little choice left to them,
Speaker 1: the leaders made the hard decision to go to war.
Speaker 1: The conflict lasted thirty seven days. The fatalities included seventy
Speaker 1: seven American soldiers, twenty nine Citizens soldiers, three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty eight settlers, and twenty nine Dakota warrior yars. In
Speaker 1: the end, United States Colonel Sibley took in two thousand hostages.
Speaker 1: Many Dakota people on the reservation fled with their families
Speaker 1: and little else. Then the US created a Court of
Speaker 1: Inquiry and military commission. The captured Dakota people were put
Speaker 1: on trial without representation. They likely had no idea what
Speaker 1: was happening, since none of them spoke English. On the
Speaker 1: sole testimony of local white witnesses, three hundred and three
Speaker 1: of the Dakota prisoners were sentenced to death. President Lincoln
Speaker 1: reviewed the cases and spared the lives of all but
Speaker 1: thirty eight of them. No one pulled the warriors about
Speaker 1: their impending death sentences until December twenty second of eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty two. The following day, the condemned men danced, sang,
Speaker 1: and spent a few precious last moments with their families
Speaker 1: and loved ones. The day after Christmas, lawman and soldiers
Speaker 1: led the thirty eight Dakota prisoners to a scaffold constructed
Speaker 1: especially for their execution. Despite the twenty five degree weather,
Speaker 1: four thousand American citizens gathered, each cheering loudly. As the
Speaker 1: men stood bound on the platform. The warriors wriggled their
Speaker 1: wrists loose from the ropes just enough, allowing them to
Speaker 1: hold hands with their brethren. In their final moments, they
Speaker 1: chanted together as sack hoods were placed over their heads.
Speaker 1: A drum tapped three times, signaling the executioner to cut
Speaker 1: the rope that would drop all thirty eight trap doors simultaneously.
Speaker 1: The first attempt failed, but after taking another whack at
Speaker 1: the ropes, the doors dropped while the crowd whistled and shouted.
Speaker 1: One rope broke, and the crowd strung the man up
Speaker 1: once more. For thirty minutes. After the execution, the bodies hung,
Speaker 1: giving the crowd a morbid view some macab museum. When
Speaker 1: everyone had had their fill of viewing the dead, the
Speaker 1: men's bodies were cut loose and buried in a shallow,
Speaker 1: unmarked grave. That night, body snatchers dug the men up
Speaker 1: while doctors drew straws to see which cadaver they'd get
Speaker 1: for anatomy research. One doctor, William Mayo, used a dead
Speaker 1: warrior to teach anatomy to his son's Will and Charlie,
Speaker 1: the same Mayo brothers who would eventually form the now
Speaker 1: famous medical clinic bearing their name. By the end of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three, a quarter of the remaining Dakota people
Speaker 1: who had surrendered were dead. The rest were exiled to
Speaker 1: Montana and Manitoba. Years later, the people of the O
Speaker 1: s Age tribe found themselves moved off the tribes land again.
Speaker 1: This time, they scraped enough money together to buy their
Speaker 1: new home, a piece of rocky land in Oklahoma that
Speaker 1: no one else thought much of. Maybe, just maybe, the
Speaker 1: O s Age finally had a chance to be left alone. Sadly, though,
Speaker 1: that wasn't meant to be. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to
Speaker 1: American Shadows. President Jefferson told the O s Age people
Speaker 1: he'd take care of them when the United States purchased
Speaker 1: the territory of Louisiana from the French. He promised that
Speaker 1: they would know the nation as friends and benefactors. He
Speaker 1: addressed the O Sage as his children and said that
Speaker 1: they should consider him their father in Washington. Now, it
Speaker 1: hardly seemed fair that someone else had the right to
Speaker 1: sell their ancestral homeland, but like other tribes, the O
Speaker 1: s Age had little to know rights, and for four years,
Speaker 1: the newly displaced community was left alone. But then as
Speaker 1: the population and needs of the settlers grew, the O
Speaker 1: s Age found themselves forced off of the one hundred
Speaker 1: million acres originally promised to them. Refusal meant becoming enemies
Speaker 1: of the United States. Essentially, they were threatened with war.
Speaker 1: Their entire tribe was pushed into just a fifty by
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty five mile plot of land in Kansas,
Speaker 1: faith in the colonists had long vanished, and they just
Speaker 1: wanted to be left alone, But the federal government still
Speaker 1: wanted more land. In nine their reservation was divided into allotments,
Speaker 1: with each tribe member getting a small portion, while the
Speaker 1: rest became open to settlers. The O s Age watched
Speaker 1: to the government destroy the Cherokee when they resisted a
Speaker 1: similar offer. Essentially, all their land had been parceled out
Speaker 1: to any settler who staked claim on it. The men
Speaker 1: and women who came shot and trampled anyone who got
Speaker 1: in their way. Before long, every bit of Cherokee land
Speaker 1: had been taken. With little choice, the O Sage made
Speaker 1: the best deal with what they had been given. This time,
Speaker 1: the government offered a rocky stretch of land in Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: They tossed in what became known as head rights, rights
Speaker 1: to the land, gases, minerals, and oil on it that
Speaker 1: would only be passed on to family members. It couldn't
Speaker 1: be reclaimed by the government. Maybe this time, they reason,
Speaker 1: that'd finally be left in peace. Little did anyone realize
Speaker 1: that the worthless outcrop of land called O Sage County
Speaker 1: was oil rich. By the early nineteen twenties, the tribe
Speaker 1: members would become some of the wealthiest people in the world.
Speaker 1: Each tribe member with head rights was quickly assigned a
Speaker 1: white guardian to help manage their wealth under the false
Speaker 1: narrative that Native Americans were alcoholics or would squander away
Speaker 1: their money. Swindling was rampant, as you might imagine, but
Speaker 1: merely taking a cut of the tribe's thirty million dollars
Speaker 1: that's three eight three million in today's money wasn't enough
Speaker 1: for some, and that's when the murders started rich. Beyond
Speaker 1: their wildest dreams. The o Sage found themselves with a
Speaker 1: target on their backs, and no amount of money could
Speaker 1: buy them protection. Although some would try a death here,
Speaker 1: there didn't raise a lot of eyebrows, especially if the
Speaker 1: victim was Native American. Even when a handful of turned
Speaker 1: into dozens, no one paid a lot of attention. Officials
Speaker 1: quietly labeled most deaths as accidents or suicides, sweeping the
Speaker 1: matter under the rug of bureaucracy. The stories begged for
Speaker 1: a closer look. Though a healthy champion steer roper suddenly collapsed,
Speaker 1: his body convulsive as he suffocated to death. In any
Speaker 1: other place, the corner would have looked for strict nine,
Speaker 1: a woman named Lizzie died from a mysterious illness, causing
Speaker 1: her to waste away, but no one looked for arsenic
Speaker 1: or any other poison, and sure authorities had no choice
Speaker 1: but to label some as murders. It's hard to hide
Speaker 1: gunshot wounds, after all. One tribe member was found shot
Speaker 1: between the eyes. Hunters found another body thrown down a
Speaker 1: ravine shot execution style. But here's where it gets odd.
Speaker 1: Most of the time, the coroners claimed that they never
Speaker 1: found the bullets and thus couldn't trace the guns. In February,
Speaker 1: I remember Henry Rowan's car was discovered down a steep slope. Rowan,
Speaker 1: the father of two, had also been shot in the
Speaker 1: back of the head. Instead of notifying his wife, though
Speaker 1: authorities informed Bill Hale, a white man who claimed to
Speaker 1: be Rowan's best friend. Just weeks before, Hale had taken
Speaker 1: out a twenty five thou dollar life insurance policy on Rowan.
Speaker 1: More deaths followed, ruled as accidents, unknown causes, and suicides.
Speaker 1: Family members died one after another, sometimes weeks apart, and
Speaker 1: naturally people were scared, but reports to local law enforcement
Speaker 1: did nothing. Afraid they'd be next. They left their lights
Speaker 1: on and bought guard dogs, but neither would save them.
Speaker 1: One by one, the dogs met their own mysterious deaths,
Speaker 1: often being left on the family's doorsteps. Barney McBride, a
Speaker 1: wealthy oil man who had befriended many of the Osage,
Speaker 1: went to Washington, d C. To ask the government to investigate.
Speaker 1: After an evening playing pool, locals found McBride's body, with
Speaker 1: a burlap sack over his head and twenty stab wounds
Speaker 1: on the body. The Washington Posts headlines at It All
Speaker 1: conspiracy believed to kill rich Indians tried. Members. Bill and
Speaker 1: Rita Smith moved to a neighboring town, hoping to put
Speaker 1: some distance between themselves and the killers. They had already
Speaker 1: lost part of their family. They settled into a large
Speaker 1: home on a tree lined street in an upscale neighborhood. Bill,
Speaker 1: once outspoken about the murders, grew quiet. A neighbor reported
Speaker 1: hearing the sounds of a blast at three in the morning.
Speaker 1: With the explosion, he said, the earth shook moved as
Speaker 1: if a great earthquake had struck. As people streamed from
Speaker 1: their homes, it became clear what had happened. Someone had
Speaker 1: placed a bomb under the Smith's house, leveling it to
Speaker 1: a pile of fiery rubble. Firemen and neighbors rushed to
Speaker 1: extinguish the flames. In the debris, they found the body
Speaker 1: of Rita, killed by the explosion. Although badly injured and
Speaker 1: covered in serious burns, Bill was miraculously found alive. He
Speaker 1: muttered again and again about how his enemies had gotten
Speaker 1: to him and Rita. Fireman and volunteers searched the rebel
Speaker 1: for Smith's Irish American servant, Nettie, who also lived in
Speaker 1: the house with her small child. In the end, it
Speaker 1: was assumed she must have been downstairs when the bomb
Speaker 1: went off because not enough human remains had been found
Speaker 1: to make an identification. After crying out that someone should
Speaker 1: shoot him now that Rita was gone, Bill faded in
Speaker 1: and out of consciousness. When he awoke two days later,
Speaker 1: he was at the hospital in Oklahoma City. The following
Speaker 1: day Bill Smith was dead. Local attorney W. V. Vaughan
Speaker 1: dug into the murders. After a lot of investigation, he
Speaker 1: got word that O Sage member George Bigheart had key
Speaker 1: information and refused to talk to anyone other than him.
Speaker 1: Time was of the essence. Though Big Heart lay dying
Speaker 1: in an Oklahoma City hospital from suspected poisoning, the attorney
Speaker 1: rushed to meet with him. They talked, and then Vaughan
Speaker 1: stayed with George until he passed away. Excited that the
Speaker 1: case had finally been cracked, he phoned the O Sage
Speaker 1: County Sheriff, telling him that Bigheart had confided valuable information.
Speaker 1: He assured the sheriff that had catched the first train
Speaker 1: out of the city in the morning. The next time
Speaker 1: anyone saw Vaughan, he was faced down next to the
Speaker 1: tracks right outside Oklahoma City. Someone had broken his neck
Speaker 1: and thrown his body from the train by The murders
Speaker 1: became so frequent that the remaining O Sage appealed to
Speaker 1: their tribal council. They were not safe, not on the
Speaker 1: tribes lands and not in their homes, and their leaders
Speaker 1: agreed they didn't bother to go to local law enforcement,
Speaker 1: though everyone had heard what had happened to Vaughan and
Speaker 1: it seemed that they couldn't be trusted. With no other choice,
Speaker 1: the leaders requested that the Department of Justice investigate the
Speaker 1: murders and prosecute whoever was responsible. Their plea came at
Speaker 1: a time when the d o J had selected a
Speaker 1: brand new director, a man named j Edgar Hoover. Hoover
Speaker 1: looked over the case and summoned a Houston, Texas field
Speaker 1: agent named Tom White. He told the young agent that
Speaker 1: he'd need to move his family to Oklahoma City to
Speaker 1: head up the investigation, and that, given the cases history,
Speaker 1: doing so would put them at great risk. Still, the
Speaker 1: agent relocated and got to work immediately. After sifting through
Speaker 1: reports of the deaths, he decided to focus on the
Speaker 1: cases he thought he could most likely solve and bring
Speaker 1: to justice. He ran into a snag, though, the residents
Speaker 1: of o s Age County were afraid that talking would
Speaker 1: get them killed. As White ward over the depths, suicides
Speaker 1: that might be homicides, accidents that probably weren't, executions, stabbings,
Speaker 1: and poisonings. He came to the conclusion that he was
Speaker 1: tracking more than one killer and those killers were organized.
Speaker 1: No longer able to handle the case alone, White recruited
Speaker 1: others from out of state as well, a retired sheriff,
Speaker 1: a former Texas ranger, a deep cover operative, and a
Speaker 1: fellow agent from the Bureau. Each man had their own style,
Speaker 1: and they slid into the community quietly one by one.
Speaker 1: The sheriff set up shop as an elderly cattleman, the
Speaker 1: ranger as a rancher, the operative as an insurance salesman,
Speaker 1: and the field agent as somebody searching for relatives among
Speaker 1: the osage. The team suffered a few setbacks early on.
Speaker 1: Testimonies and death reports began to vanish. At first glance,
Speaker 1: not a single piece of evidence from the crime scenes
Speaker 1: had been preserved. Then a breakthrough. The undertaker for gunshot
Speaker 1: victim Anna Brown, admitted to taking a rather odd souvenir
Speaker 1: her skull, and on closer examination it proved enlightening. The
Speaker 1: skull had a single gunshot hole in the back of
Speaker 1: the head, but no exit wound, and to the team
Speaker 1: that meant the coroner couldn't have missed the bullet during
Speaker 1: the autopsy. Without it, determining the precise type of handgun
Speaker 1: would be impossible. The coroner turned out to be two
Speaker 1: doctors brothers. In fact, also present to the autopsy had
Speaker 1: been the sheriff, the undertaker, and curiously, the owner of
Speaker 1: a local trading company. Anyone could have tampered with the evidence,
Speaker 1: but as the team dug deeper into the case, three
Speaker 1: men began to surface as primary suspects. William Hale and
Speaker 1: his nephews Ernest and Brian Burkhardt were well known around
Speaker 1: o s Age County. While the men were wealthy, it
Speaker 1: had been Ernest who had married into money though he
Speaker 1: was White, as the husband of an o Sage member
Speaker 1: named Molly, He and the couple's three children would have
Speaker 1: inherited her head rights should she die. And curiously, Rita
Speaker 1: Smith and Anna Brown had been Molly's sisters, and that
Speaker 1: hadn't been all. It seems that Ernest's mother in law
Speaker 1: had also died a mysterious death not too long before,
Speaker 1: and now Molly herself had fallen ill. The doctors claimed
Speaker 1: she had diabetes and they regularly gave her insulent injections,
Speaker 1: but White discovered that her doctors were the same men
Speaker 1: who had been performing the autopsies. He also learned that
Speaker 1: Bill Smith had asked questions after the deaths of his
Speaker 1: family members. Agents considered that his home may have been
Speaker 1: bombed to destroy evidence, and when White questioned the Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City hospital nurse who last attended Bill Smith, she claimed
Speaker 1: he never mentioned anyone who might have been involved, although
Speaker 1: Smith's lawyer recalled that Bill once said his only enemies
Speaker 1: on earth were the Burkhart brothers and their uncle, William Hale.
Speaker 1: The investigation continued to uncover more corruption in the guardianship program.
Speaker 1: Millions of dollars had been stolen from the very people
Speaker 1: the guardians had promised to protect. Though the siphoning had
Speaker 1: hardly been a secret, Judges and politicians openly promised profitable
Speaker 1: guardianships in exchange for votes. White turned his attention to
Speaker 1: Molly's family. He determined that whoever killed her mother, sisters,
Speaker 1: and brother in law knew exactly what they were doing.
Speaker 1: They killed Anna Brown first, who left all had rights
Speaker 1: and money to her mother Lizzie. From there, figuring out
Speaker 1: the motive became easier. When Lizzie died, it left Molly
Speaker 1: and Rita with incredible wealth. And finally, if Bill and
Speaker 1: Rita died together, their entire estate would go to Molly.
Speaker 1: William Hale it seems controlled the Burkhart brothers and they
Speaker 1: did everything he asked. If Molly died, an entire family's
Speaker 1: immense fortune would go to Ernest Burke Heart. Something needed
Speaker 1: to be done, and quickly. White asked for rest warrants
Speaker 1: for Hale and the Burkharts, and the Department of Justice
Speaker 1: issued them on January four of nine. During the interrogation,
Speaker 1: ringleader William Hale refused to talk, but Ernest did. He
Speaker 1: claimed he hadn't wanted to blow up Bill and read
Speaker 1: his home, but he had trusted his uncle's judgment, and
Speaker 1: that Hale had hired a bootlegger to do the job,
Speaker 1: the same man used to kill Henry Rowan. That hitman,
Speaker 1: a guy named John Ramsay, later admitted to the killings.
Speaker 1: Confronted with the statements, though Hale still refused to talk. Instead,
Speaker 1: he's simply shrugged, a cavalier attitude, no doubt, But considering
Speaker 1: how many people Hale had in his pocket, it's hard
Speaker 1: to be surprised. Hale sat in his jail cell smiling.
Speaker 1: I'll fight it, he told the agents, But Agent White
Speaker 1: and others had no idea just how far Hale would go.
Speaker 1: Justice often moved slowly. Tom White's investigation took three years
Speaker 1: and thirteen agents before William Hale and the others ever
Speaker 1: stepped foot in a courtroom. Even then, progress proved difficult.
Speaker 1: While crimes on Native American land fell under federal jurisdiction.
Speaker 1: Those that happened on tribal land that had been sold
Speaker 1: to white people had to be tried at the state level.
Speaker 1: Hale had already proven his reach, Trying him in a
Speaker 1: state court appeared riskier than federal prosecutors chose the one
Speaker 1: case they had the best chance of getting conviction. On
Speaker 1: the murder of Henry Rowan, Hale naturally hired the best
Speaker 1: possible law firm, paying for hitman John Ramsay's defense as well.
Speaker 1: His lawyers were every bit as unscrupulous as Hale and self.
Speaker 1: One of the attorneys claimed federal agents had tortured their
Speaker 1: clients into a confession, and the dirty tactics didn't stop there.
Speaker 1: Witnesses were encouraged to lie, The defense questioned the drinking
Speaker 1: behaviors of others valuing their testimony. Some jurors were bribed,
Speaker 1: and many credible witnesses were threatened. The corruption angered Hoover
Speaker 1: and White so much that they pressured the Justice Department
Speaker 1: to prosecute Hale's lead attorney. And then the prosecution got
Speaker 1: another break. Ernest Burkhardt slipped a note to investigators, fearing
Speaker 1: he might soon be bumped off, He offered testimony in
Speaker 1: exchange for protection. Tom White shared that fear, despite round
Speaker 1: the clock guards and moving their key witness, he feared
Speaker 1: someone might still slip Burkhart poison. The hearings moved along
Speaker 1: until March, when the judge suddenly determined that since the
Speaker 1: case involved head rights, it wasn't strictly involving doable land,
Speaker 1: and therefore the trial must be held in a state court.
Speaker 1: The federal government appealed the decision. The odds that the
Speaker 1: prosecution would get a conviction in o Sage County began
Speaker 1: to look dismal at best. Everyone in town showed up
Speaker 1: for the trial. Oh Sage chiefs wore traditional headdresses and
Speaker 1: ranchers for their cowboy hats. Everyone grew silent when Ernest
Speaker 1: Burkhart entered the courtroom. Things got worse for the prosecution
Speaker 1: after that, a whole lot worse. William Hale's lawyer asked
Speaker 1: to speak with Burkhart in private. Despite the prosecution's objection,
Speaker 1: Ernest left the stand, returning with Hale's lawyers twenty minutes later.
Speaker 1: The defense then asked they be granted a day to
Speaker 1: talk to the prosecution's key witness, and the judge agreed.
Speaker 1: When the court resumed the next morning. Hale was all grins.
Speaker 1: Burkhart took the stand and recanted his confession. In Hale's
Speaker 1: own trial, the one for the bombing of Bill and
Speaker 1: Rita Smith, Hale's attorneys pushed for an acquittal. The defense
Speaker 1: continued to insist that federal agents had tortured and beat
Speaker 1: suspects to gain confessions. Hale took the stand and said
Speaker 1: that Agent White had put a gun to his face
Speaker 1: and threatened him with the electric chair. He added that
Speaker 1: other agents had then put a hood over his head
Speaker 1: and attached a device with a clock to it. The
Speaker 1: story made the newspapers back in Washington. Hoover naturally demanded answers.
Speaker 1: White and the other agents reassured the Bureau director that
Speaker 1: the entire story had been fabricated. Finally, the prosecution caught
Speaker 1: a break. Bootlegger and hitman Kelsey Morrison stepped forward. He
Speaker 1: had become tired of the lies, he said. He told
Speaker 1: the courtroom how he and Burkhart had gotten Anna Brown
Speaker 1: drunk before driving her to a ravine, where he admitted
Speaker 1: to shooting her with a gun that William Hale had supplied.
Speaker 1: It was a paid job netting him sixteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in cash. His next confess should on the stand revolved
Speaker 1: around killing Bill and Rita Smith. After refusing the job
Speaker 1: once he said the deal was sweetened. He had been
Speaker 1: told that with the Smith's deead, Molly would inherit everything.
Speaker 1: Hale had promised that this windfall would enable Burkhart to
Speaker 1: pay him well. In May, the Supreme Court overruled the
Speaker 1: state judge, placing the trial back in federal court. When
Speaker 1: the trial resumed, all witnesses for the prosecution remained under
Speaker 1: heavy federal guard but protecting star witnesses was only half
Speaker 1: the battle. Finding jurors who hadn't been approached by Hale
Speaker 1: proved difficult enough, but as inhumane as it sounds, and
Speaker 1: the eyes of the white residence of Oklahoma at the time,
Speaker 1: killing a Native American was no more serious than animal cruelty.
Speaker 1: Burkhart became increasingly nervous. White noticed this, but so had
Speaker 1: the man's uncle, William Hale. On June eight, Ernest and
Speaker 1: Molly's four year old daughter died suddenly. While officers led
Speaker 1: Burkehart into the courtroom, he slipped prosecutors another note telling
Speaker 1: them he was ready to testify. He claimed that going
Speaker 1: to his own lawyer would certainly have gotten him killed.
Speaker 1: The courtroom sat in stunned silence. When burke Heart approached
Speaker 1: the judge, he dismissed his defense team and entered a
Speaker 1: guilty plea. He told the courtroom how he had given
Speaker 1: the order to a man named Asa Kirby to blow
Speaker 1: up the smith house. He stated that the allegations of
Speaker 1: beatings and corsion had been an outright lie, and once
Speaker 1: on a roll, Burkhart just kept going. He began to cry,
Speaker 1: telling the courtroom he promised to only tell the truth.
Speaker 1: He said his uncle had planned to poison Henry Rowan's moonshine,
Speaker 1: something had done many times to other Native Americans. The
Speaker 1: plan had changed, though, and he recalled how angry his
Speaker 1: uncle became with Ramsey, shot Rowan in the back of
Speaker 1: the head and kept the gun instead of leaving behind
Speaker 1: to make it look like a suicide. Adding to the statement,
Speaker 1: bootlegger Matt Williams testified that Hale had talked about his
Speaker 1: plans to bump off Henry Rowan. He said hailed also
Speaker 1: as to his lawyers off. Federal prosecutors would have jurisdiction
Speaker 1: in a murder case on Native American grounds. Hale had
Speaker 1: been boasted that his lawyers assured him that the federal
Speaker 1: government had no jurisdiction. An insurance examiner testified that Hale
Speaker 1: once told him had planned on killing Native Americans for
Speaker 1: insurance money. But despite all this shocking testimony, the jury
Speaker 1: failed to reach a verdict even after five days of deliberation,
Speaker 1: as it turned out a large portion of the jurors
Speaker 1: had been bribed, so a retrial was set in Oklahoma City. Finally,
Speaker 1: after four trials, Hale and Ramsay were found guilty of
Speaker 1: murdering Henry Rowan and were sentenced to the Federal penitentiary
Speaker 1: at Leavenworth, Kansas. Ernest Burkhard admitted to having a hand
Speaker 1: in eliminating his wife's entire family and was sentenced to
Speaker 1: life in prison for his crimes. Molly Burkhart recovered from
Speaker 1: being poisoned by the phony insulin. She divorced Ernest and
Speaker 1: lived another ten years, passing away in nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 1: Her three surviving children inherited the remains of the family fortune.
Speaker 1: But the story was far from over. After the trials
Speaker 1: were over, so too were the murders. Well, mostly, you
Speaker 1: see some of the killers had never been caught, while
Speaker 1: others weren't brought to justice at all. Burkhart hadn't been
Speaker 1: the only one to marry and kill for head rights,
Speaker 1: and it's easy to wonder just how tolerant American citizens
Speaker 1: would have been if those murders had taken place in
Speaker 1: mainstream suburbia. William Hale never served time for his part
Speaker 1: in killing all of Molly's family. The murder that sent
Speaker 1: him to prison had been that of Henry Rowan. Even then,
Speaker 1: he served just twenty one years, and when he was
Speaker 1: set free, he moved right back to os Age County.
Speaker 1: Brian Barkhardt was acquitted as part of a deal with
Speaker 1: the prosecution for his testimony, and his brother Ernest spent
Speaker 1: just ten years in prison for his part in murdering
Speaker 1: his wife's family. Appallingly, Governor Henry Bellman granted him a
Speaker 1: full pardon. Years later, hitman Kelsey Morrison was sentenced to
Speaker 1: life in prison, but was paroled in Asa Kirby, the
Speaker 1: man who bombed Bill Smith's house, didn't even make it
Speaker 1: past the trials, though after he gave his testimony. He
Speaker 1: was shot and killed during a store robbery after a
Speaker 1: convenient tip off to the store's owner by William Hale.
Speaker 1: Just like the Dakota before them, the O s Age
Speaker 1: had found themselves with nowhere to turn. Everyone, it seems,
Speaker 1: was out to get them. Bankers and lawyers, businessmen and undertakers,
Speaker 1: doctors and the local authorities. All of them had conspired
Speaker 1: against them, and those that hadn't simply turned a blind
Speaker 1: eye consent by silence if you will. As you might imagine,
Speaker 1: the case had a long reaching effect. One O Sage
Speaker 1: descendant said, it's in the back of our minds. You
Speaker 1: just have it in your head that you don't trust anybody.
Speaker 1: The Bureau of Investigation, which later became the FBI, had
Speaker 1: to unravel a lot of leads. Just getting the cases
Speaker 1: to trial took an enormous amount of work from Agent
Speaker 1: White and the others, and while they did their best
Speaker 1: in some instances, they spent more time working on the
Speaker 1: cases than the perpetrators spent behind bars for committing those crimes.
Speaker 1: And if what passed is justice for the O Sage angers, you,
Speaker 1: well it should in the end, though, what made the
Speaker 1: investigation so difficult, aside from how Native Americans were viewed,
Speaker 1: was the cover up that swept it away, with much
Speaker 1: of evidence ignored or destroyed. It's honestly a miracle that
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice had enough to try the five
Speaker 1: cases they did. But if the story of the O
Speaker 1: s Age tragedy has larger lessons to teach us, maybe
Speaker 1: the most obvious one on the list is also the
Speaker 1: most hopeful. Even looking back more than a century later,
Speaker 1: we can try to bury the truth, but one way
Speaker 1: or another, it will always find its way back to
Speaker 1: the surface. There's more to the story. Stick around after
Speaker 1: this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. Before
Speaker 1: the FBI's creation and Hoover's work in standardizing the field
Speaker 1: of law enforcement, investigators were on their own. Most have
Speaker 1: limited training, little resources, and without higher authority and inquiries,
Speaker 1: they could be bought off more easily. But there's more
Speaker 1: dissolving a case than interrogating suspects and field observations. When
Speaker 1: we turn on any crime show today, there are the
Speaker 1: people behind the agents in the field who are instrumental
Speaker 1: in solving a case or making a charge stick. We
Speaker 1: know that field as forensic science. It wasn't one of
Speaker 1: Hoover's men who started that field, though, no the founder
Speaker 1: was a fifty one year old millionaire named Frances Lee,
Speaker 1: who had three grown children and six grandchildren. The road
Speaker 1: leading up to Lee's career had been a long one,
Speaker 1: stretching back to early childhood. Lee was born in eighteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, the youngest of three children born to John
Speaker 1: and Francis Glessner. Eldest brother, John George, was born in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, and a second brother, John Francis, died
Speaker 1: in infancy in eighteen seventy four. It was common practice
Speaker 1: to name children similarly at the time. The family enjoyed
Speaker 1: immense well their far there being the vice president of
Speaker 1: International Harvester with the best education money could buy, The children,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, became intellectual forces to be reckoned with
Speaker 1: and right from an early age. The two remaining siblings
Speaker 1: shared other family traits as well, perfectionism and attention to detail,
Speaker 1: which they later attributed to their mother, Francis, a talented
Speaker 1: seamstress and needleworker. As a teen, Lee became fond of
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes novels and decided to follow Dr Watson into
Speaker 1: a career in medicine, with sights set on attending Harvard.
Speaker 1: That wasn't to be, though Harvard opened its doors to
Speaker 1: only one of the Glessner children, eldest sibling, George. Lee
Speaker 1: married shortly after finishing school, settling down in Chicago and
Speaker 1: raising three children. Happily. Ever after wasn't in the cards, though,
Speaker 1: and the marriage fell apart in nineteen fourteen, and then
Speaker 1: tragedy struck when George passed away from influenza complications in
Speaker 1: ninety nine. The rest of the family soon followed, mother
Speaker 1: Francis in nineteen thirty two and father John in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty six. With nothing left in Chicago and the children
Speaker 1: all grown up, Lee moved to the Cottage, a private
Speaker 1: residence on the family estate in New Hampshire, and this
Speaker 1: was the pivotal point Lee, who inherited a hefty fortune,
Speaker 1: finally reconnected with Harvard, donating two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars a cool four point six million in today's money,
Speaker 1: But it came with a catch. The money was to
Speaker 1: help establish the Department of Legal Medicine, the forerunner to
Speaker 1: forensic science. To assist students, Lee created the Nutshell Studies,
Speaker 1: a series of twenty miniature models that depicted real challenging
Speaker 1: cases spanning homicides, accidents and suicides. Each set had been
Speaker 1: meticulously crafted, right down to the very last detail. Light
Speaker 1: switches and door locks were fully functional. The nuts shells
Speaker 1: contained small trash cans filled with beer cans, hand rolled cigarettes,
Speaker 1: and pencils made of toothpicks. Ligature marks and blood splatter
Speaker 1: were intricately painted on the doll victims. Even skin colorations
Speaker 1: such as those associated with rigor mortis were included. It
Speaker 1: was with these tiny details that specialists that the FBI
Speaker 1: usually solved a case. Lee believed that investigators often only
Speaker 1: found clues to support hunches, ignoring key information such as
Speaker 1: social and financial status, possible frame of mind, and a
Speaker 1: time of death by the seminars were highly sought after
Speaker 1: participants were given a flashlight, a nutshell model resting behind
Speaker 1: a plate of glass, and ninety minutes to deduct what
Speaker 1: had happened. Whereas witness statements could be inaccurate, Lee believed
Speaker 1: the scene had all the potential to expose the guilty
Speaker 1: and clear the innocent, and that bias often led to
Speaker 1: missteps that may permanently harm the investigation. New Hampshire State
Speaker 1: Police granted Lee an honorary post that was completely unheard
Speaker 1: of in nineteen forty three the title of captain an
Speaker 1: educational director. What's more astounding than the nutshell models is Lee.
Speaker 1: You see, Francis Glessner Lee was a woman. Harvard didn't
Speaker 1: allow women to attend their medical school until nineteen forty five,
Speaker 1: a full half century after she went looking for her education,
Speaker 1: and her honorary post as captain in New Hampshire came
Speaker 1: at a time when women weren't permitted to have their
Speaker 1: own beats on patrol, much less rise to the top.
Speaker 1: Those tiny dioramas are still used to teach at both
Speaker 1: Harvard and the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office in Baltimore to
Speaker 1: this day. Francis Glessner Lee is considered the mother of
Speaker 1: forensic science, and thanks to her, modern investigators have a
Speaker 1: chance to do what Agent Tom White and his team
Speaker 1: never could, follow every clue on the trail to the truth,
Speaker 1: no matter how hidden it might be. American Shadows is
Speaker 1: hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle
Speaker 1: Muto with researcher Robin Miniter, and produced by Miranda Hawkins
Speaker 1: and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Minky, Alex Williams,
Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild dot com. For more podcasts from My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.