1 00:00:15,410 --> 00:00:21,770 Speaker 1: Pushkin. This cautionary tale is based on David Grand's book 2 00:00:22,010 --> 00:00:25,610 Speaker 1: Killers of the Flower Moon and produced in association with 3 00:00:25,730 --> 00:00:29,090 Speaker 1: Apple Original Films. The film of the same title is 4 00:00:29,130 --> 00:00:46,610 Speaker 1: now exclusively in theaters. Once upon a time, the O 5 00:00:46,810 --> 00:00:50,730 Speaker 1: Sage nation stretched across the center of the North American continent, 6 00:00:51,530 --> 00:00:54,810 Speaker 1: from the Rocky Mountains through to what is now Missouri, Kansas, 7 00:00:54,850 --> 00:01:00,050 Speaker 1: and Oklahoma. President Thomas Jefferson viewed the Osage people with 8 00:01:00,250 --> 00:01:04,330 Speaker 1: where we respect? When in eighteen oh four he met 9 00:01:04,410 --> 00:01:07,170 Speaker 1: with a group of towering O Sage chiefs at the 10 00:01:07,170 --> 00:01:11,050 Speaker 1: White House, he remarked, but they were the finest men 11 00:01:11,450 --> 00:01:16,650 Speaker 1: we have ever seen. The wary respect did not last. 12 00:01:17,930 --> 00:01:21,210 Speaker 1: By eighteen seventy, the O Sage people had been pushed 13 00:01:21,250 --> 00:01:27,370 Speaker 1: into buying land that one observer described as broken, rocky, sterile, 14 00:01:27,970 --> 00:01:33,810 Speaker 1: and utterly unfit for cultivation. Ravaged by smallpox, the death 15 00:01:33,850 --> 00:01:37,490 Speaker 1: of the buffalo, and brutal attacks from settlers, only a 16 00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:42,170 Speaker 1: few thousand of them remained alive. The O Sage chief 17 00:01:42,490 --> 00:01:46,690 Speaker 1: wati Ankhar, tried to look on the bright side. My 18 00:01:46,850 --> 00:01:49,210 Speaker 1: people will be happy in this land. 19 00:01:49,330 --> 00:01:49,770 Speaker 2: He said. 20 00:01:50,410 --> 00:01:54,850 Speaker 1: There are many hills here. White man does not like country. 21 00:01:55,090 --> 00:01:59,970 Speaker 1: Whether a hills and he will not come, but the white. 22 00:01:59,730 --> 00:02:00,810 Speaker 2: Man did come. 23 00:02:02,010 --> 00:02:06,050 Speaker 1: O Sage children were forcibly enrolled in Catholic boarding schools, 24 00:02:06,370 --> 00:02:09,530 Speaker 1: days travel away from their parents, and made to change 25 00:02:09,570 --> 00:02:13,130 Speaker 1: their names and their clothes to the European style. The 26 00:02:13,250 --> 00:02:17,450 Speaker 1: United States policy was that the Indian must conform to 27 00:02:17,490 --> 00:02:22,170 Speaker 1: the white man's ways peacefully if they will, forcibly if 28 00:02:22,210 --> 00:02:33,010 Speaker 1: they must. In nineteen oh six, the US government wanted 29 00:02:33,050 --> 00:02:37,450 Speaker 1: to create a new state, Oklahoma and hand it over 30 00:02:37,490 --> 00:02:41,730 Speaker 1: to white settlers. They pressed the Oceage nation to agree 31 00:02:41,770 --> 00:02:44,330 Speaker 1: to a new deal concerning the rights to the land 32 00:02:44,370 --> 00:02:49,050 Speaker 1: they'd purchased. The Oceage negotiators played a weak hand well. 33 00:02:50,090 --> 00:02:53,330 Speaker 1: Under the deal that they agreed, the entire tribe of 34 00:02:53,530 --> 00:02:58,050 Speaker 1: two thousand, two hundred and twenty nine souls collectively held 35 00:02:58,090 --> 00:03:02,930 Speaker 1: the rights to whatever lay beneath their land. And what 36 00:03:03,050 --> 00:03:07,770 Speaker 1: lay beneath, as the Oceage negotiators suspected and the white 37 00:03:07,770 --> 00:03:13,730 Speaker 1: Man had not guessed, was oil vast reserves of black gold. 38 00:03:16,050 --> 00:03:17,010 Speaker 2: As the oil. 39 00:03:16,890 --> 00:03:21,530 Speaker 1: Started to flow, so did the money. Every quarter, every 40 00:03:21,610 --> 00:03:24,970 Speaker 1: member of the Osage tribe received a check to reflect 41 00:03:25,010 --> 00:03:26,450 Speaker 1: the money being paid. 42 00:03:26,090 --> 00:03:26,890 Speaker 2: By the oil men. 43 00:03:27,530 --> 00:03:29,610 Speaker 1: At first, it was little more than a pocket money. 44 00:03:30,330 --> 00:03:35,370 Speaker 1: Soon each check each individual was the equivalent of tens 45 00:03:35,450 --> 00:03:39,410 Speaker 1: of thousands of dollars in today's money every quarter, and 46 00:03:39,570 --> 00:03:44,570 Speaker 1: the checks kept growing. Newspapers couldn't get enough of stories 47 00:03:44,610 --> 00:03:49,250 Speaker 1: about what they called the red millionaires. O Sage girls 48 00:03:49,330 --> 00:03:53,450 Speaker 1: dressed in the latest Parisian fashions. O Sage cookouts, a 49 00:03:53,490 --> 00:03:57,890 Speaker 1: circle of expensive automobiles surrounding an open campfire where the 50 00:03:57,930 --> 00:04:01,650 Speaker 1: bronzed and blanketed owners are cooking meat in the primitive style. 51 00:04:02,570 --> 00:04:06,570 Speaker 1: Osage elders arriving for a ceremonial dance in a private 52 00:04:06,610 --> 00:04:14,050 Speaker 1: plane had finally smiled on the O Sage nation? Or 53 00:04:14,810 --> 00:04:21,130 Speaker 1: had it? I'm Tim Harford and you're listening to cautionary tales. 54 00:04:44,890 --> 00:04:49,530 Speaker 1: Minnie Smith was the first of the four sisters to die. 55 00:04:49,810 --> 00:04:54,490 Speaker 1: She'd been young, fit and healthy, and then she'd grown 56 00:04:54,530 --> 00:04:59,370 Speaker 1: ill quite suddenly. The doctors in Osage County were baffled 57 00:04:59,410 --> 00:05:02,530 Speaker 1: by her death, but of course they had a diagnosis, 58 00:05:03,050 --> 00:05:10,890 Speaker 1: a peculiar wasting illness. Maybe peculiar, it certainly was. Minnie 59 00:05:11,010 --> 00:05:14,970 Speaker 1: left behind a husband, a white man called Bill Smith. 60 00:05:16,090 --> 00:05:19,890 Speaker 1: A few months after Minnie's death in nineteen eighteen, Bill 61 00:05:19,970 --> 00:05:25,130 Speaker 1: married another of the sisters, Rita. Then there was Anna. 62 00:05:25,850 --> 00:05:28,130 Speaker 1: She had also married a white man, but she had 63 00:05:28,170 --> 00:05:30,930 Speaker 1: divorced him, and at the age of thirty four, she 64 00:05:31,010 --> 00:05:34,410 Speaker 1: had a habit of disappearing on wild nights of drinking 65 00:05:34,450 --> 00:05:38,210 Speaker 1: and dancing. She had plenty of places to go as 66 00:05:38,250 --> 00:05:43,010 Speaker 1: the oil flowed in Osage County, once modest settlements became 67 00:05:43,130 --> 00:05:48,410 Speaker 1: bustling towns full of oil workers, bootleggers, and gangsters. One 68 00:05:48,650 --> 00:05:52,570 Speaker 1: overnight oil rush town was named wiz Bang, where people 69 00:05:52,570 --> 00:05:58,370 Speaker 1: whizzed all day and banged all night. Anna enjoyed such 70 00:05:58,410 --> 00:06:01,930 Speaker 1: places that they were risky. She always kept a small 71 00:06:01,970 --> 00:06:07,010 Speaker 1: pistol in hot purse. And then one night in nineteen 72 00:06:07,050 --> 00:06:11,210 Speaker 1: twenty one, she went out parting and didn't come home. 73 00:06:12,050 --> 00:06:16,130 Speaker 1: Not the first night, not the second, and not the third, 74 00:06:18,570 --> 00:06:23,370 Speaker 1: Which brings us to Sister number four, Molly, the serious, 75 00:06:23,450 --> 00:06:26,530 Speaker 1: responsible sister, the one who ended up taking care of 76 00:06:26,570 --> 00:06:29,650 Speaker 1: all the others and their mother too. In her hunt 77 00:06:29,690 --> 00:06:32,730 Speaker 1: for her missing sister, Molly could call on perhaps the 78 00:06:32,770 --> 00:06:38,970 Speaker 1: most influential man in Osage County, her husband's uncle, William Hale, 79 00:06:39,650 --> 00:06:43,810 Speaker 1: the man they called the King of the Osage Hills. 80 00:06:44,650 --> 00:06:47,490 Speaker 1: Hale had been a cowboy when he was young, now 81 00:06:47,530 --> 00:06:51,210 Speaker 1: he was a bespectacled, three piece suit wearing pillar of 82 00:06:51,250 --> 00:06:57,170 Speaker 1: the community. Behind his owlish glasses, he remained a formidable character. 83 00:06:58,010 --> 00:06:59,890 Speaker 1: He was not the kind of man to ask you 84 00:06:59,930 --> 00:07:04,450 Speaker 1: to do something he told you, said Molly's husband Ernest. 85 00:07:05,290 --> 00:07:09,530 Speaker 1: But although Hale was rich, powerful and domineering, he was 86 00:07:09,570 --> 00:07:13,690 Speaker 1: also a reverend and a deputy sheriff, and widely regarded 87 00:07:13,770 --> 00:07:18,210 Speaker 1: as the most public spirited man in Osage County. He 88 00:07:18,250 --> 00:07:21,650 Speaker 1: had supported local schools and charities before the O Sage 89 00:07:21,690 --> 00:07:26,290 Speaker 1: people struck oil. One doctor said, I couldn't begin to 90 00:07:26,330 --> 00:07:30,370 Speaker 1: remember how many sick people have received medical attention at 91 00:07:30,370 --> 00:07:34,490 Speaker 1: his expense, nor how many hungry mouths have tasted of 92 00:07:34,530 --> 00:07:39,370 Speaker 1: his bounty. William Hale himself once wrote, I never had 93 00:07:39,490 --> 00:07:44,290 Speaker 1: better friends in my life than the o Sages. Uncle 94 00:07:44,290 --> 00:07:48,490 Speaker 1: William was like a guardian angel for Molly's family. If 95 00:07:48,530 --> 00:08:03,530 Speaker 1: anyone could help Molly find her sister, it would be him. 96 00:08:03,810 --> 00:08:07,570 Speaker 1: In the second half of the twentieth century, economists began 97 00:08:07,650 --> 00:08:12,730 Speaker 1: to observe a pattern striking oil is not the guarantee 98 00:08:12,770 --> 00:08:17,450 Speaker 1: of national prosperity that you might expect. Indeed, the reverse 99 00:08:17,530 --> 00:08:22,450 Speaker 1: is often true. Think of Iraq and Iran, Venezuela and Nigeria. 100 00:08:22,650 --> 00:08:26,170 Speaker 1: There are plenty of countries with vast reserves of oil, 101 00:08:26,250 --> 00:08:29,330 Speaker 1: and few of them seem to have flourished as a result. 102 00:08:30,530 --> 00:08:34,570 Speaker 1: Even the wealthy exceptions, such as Saudi Arabia, often have 103 00:08:34,650 --> 00:08:39,210 Speaker 1: a thin and brittle kind of wealth. It's a challenge 104 00:08:39,250 --> 00:08:43,410 Speaker 1: to build foundations for enduring prosperity for something that will 105 00:08:43,450 --> 00:08:48,050 Speaker 1: last longer than wizbang when the oil money is gone. 106 00:08:48,210 --> 00:08:52,450 Speaker 1: Economists debate the causes and cures of this problem, and 107 00:08:52,490 --> 00:08:56,210 Speaker 1: they call it the resource curse. But I prefer a 108 00:08:56,250 --> 00:09:01,010 Speaker 1: more lyrical description by a former Minister of Oil rich Venezuela, 109 00:09:01,450 --> 00:09:04,130 Speaker 1: when he was asked to describe the effect of all 110 00:09:04,210 --> 00:09:11,050 Speaker 1: that black gold on his country. It is the devil's excrement. 111 00:09:11,090 --> 00:09:11,690 Speaker 2: He declared. 112 00:09:12,410 --> 00:09:20,490 Speaker 1: We are drowning in the devil's excrement. The oce age 113 00:09:20,490 --> 00:09:24,530 Speaker 1: had never heard of the resource curse or the devil's excrement, 114 00:09:25,330 --> 00:09:28,930 Speaker 1: though one of their elders seemed to anticipate the idea. 115 00:09:29,970 --> 00:09:34,530 Speaker 1: Someday this oil will go, he said, and there will 116 00:09:34,570 --> 00:09:37,570 Speaker 1: be no more fat checks every few months from the 117 00:09:37,650 --> 00:09:41,330 Speaker 1: Great White Father. There'll be no fine motor cars and 118 00:09:41,450 --> 00:09:47,570 Speaker 1: new clothes. Then I know my people will be happier. 119 00:09:51,010 --> 00:09:55,050 Speaker 1: But were those fat checks involved in the peculiar death 120 00:09:55,090 --> 00:09:59,890 Speaker 1: of one sister and the disappearance of another. Uncle William 121 00:09:59,930 --> 00:10:04,850 Speaker 1: Hale had quietly expressed his doubts about Bill Smith. He'd 122 00:10:04,930 --> 00:10:09,010 Speaker 1: married Minnie, Remember then she had died suddenly and mysteriously. 123 00:10:10,410 --> 00:10:15,450 Speaker 1: Months later he married her sister Rita. Marrying one o 124 00:10:15,610 --> 00:10:20,010 Speaker 1: sage woman would set a man up for life. Marrying two. 125 00:10:20,410 --> 00:10:24,770 Speaker 1: You had to wander about Bill's motives. But then it 126 00:10:24,850 --> 00:10:27,970 Speaker 1: wasn't as if Bill had stood to gain financially from 127 00:10:27,970 --> 00:10:31,970 Speaker 1: Minnie's death. Under the system of head rights, it wouldn't 128 00:10:32,010 --> 00:10:36,690 Speaker 1: be Bill who'd keep getting those fat checks. Instead, Minnie's 129 00:10:36,690 --> 00:10:42,050 Speaker 1: head right passed to her mother, Lizzie. So would Anna's 130 00:10:42,090 --> 00:10:46,450 Speaker 1: head wright if anything had happened to Anna. And after 131 00:10:46,450 --> 00:10:49,490 Speaker 1: Anna had been missing for a week, there was news 132 00:10:50,290 --> 00:10:56,090 Speaker 1: a rotting corpse had been discovered. The undertakers scattered salt 133 00:10:56,250 --> 00:10:59,890 Speaker 1: and ice on it to reduce the swelling and the stink. 134 00:11:01,370 --> 00:11:04,850 Speaker 1: By the time the sisters Molly and Rita arrived, the 135 00:11:04,930 --> 00:11:11,050 Speaker 1: vultures were wheeling overhead. Was it Anna? The face of 136 00:11:11,090 --> 00:11:16,490 Speaker 1: the corpse was unrecognizable, but Molly knew the traditional blanket 137 00:11:16,570 --> 00:11:20,330 Speaker 1: and the clothes were Anna's. She had washed them freshly 138 00:11:20,410 --> 00:11:23,330 Speaker 1: for her sister the last time she saw her alive 139 00:11:23,450 --> 00:11:28,850 Speaker 1: a week ago, and there was Anna's distinctive gold filling. 140 00:11:29,730 --> 00:11:36,770 Speaker 1: It was her for sure. Rita wept. Molly was resolute. 141 00:11:37,930 --> 00:11:41,090 Speaker 1: She hired private detectives, and she had help from her 142 00:11:41,210 --> 00:11:45,450 Speaker 1: husband's uncle, William Hale, who swore he'd get justice for Anna. 143 00:11:46,170 --> 00:11:49,970 Speaker 1: He got his personal doctors to perform an autopsy. They 144 00:11:50,050 --> 00:11:54,250 Speaker 1: found a bullet hole in the woman's skull, although even 145 00:11:54,290 --> 00:11:58,410 Speaker 1: after chopping her brain into mints, they never could find 146 00:11:58,410 --> 00:12:05,050 Speaker 1: the bullet. Curious, but as both the sheriff and the 147 00:12:05,090 --> 00:12:09,490 Speaker 1: private investigators started to look into the mystery, wasn't just 148 00:12:09,650 --> 00:12:14,490 Speaker 1: Mini's and Anna's deaths that they'd have to solve another 149 00:12:14,570 --> 00:12:18,130 Speaker 1: one of the sisters did not have long to live. 150 00:12:21,050 --> 00:12:29,730 Speaker 1: Cautionary tales will return in a moment. The Indian must 151 00:12:29,770 --> 00:12:34,330 Speaker 1: conform to the white man's ways. But not like this, 152 00:12:34,610 --> 00:12:38,890 Speaker 1: decided the federal government. Not with luxury cars and private planes. 153 00:12:39,730 --> 00:12:44,650 Speaker 1: Congressional committees took to pouring over reports of o sage expenditure, 154 00:12:45,370 --> 00:12:49,690 Speaker 1: like disapproving parents scrutinizing the bank account of a teenager, 155 00:12:50,410 --> 00:12:53,530 Speaker 1: and they devised a system just like the one you'd 156 00:12:53,570 --> 00:12:57,250 Speaker 1: impose on a child. If the US Department of the 157 00:12:57,290 --> 00:13:01,610 Speaker 1: Interior decided that a member of a Native American tribe 158 00:13:02,130 --> 00:13:06,530 Speaker 1: wasn't competent to manage their own affairs, their finances would 159 00:13:06,530 --> 00:13:10,850 Speaker 1: be handed over to a guardian. The idea of competence 160 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:15,770 Speaker 1: was a sham. In truth, the system of guardianship was 161 00:13:15,970 --> 00:13:20,010 Speaker 1: purely a matter of racism. Full blooded O Sage people 162 00:13:20,330 --> 00:13:27,970 Speaker 1: would always be pronounced incompetent and assigned a guardian. Guardianship 163 00:13:28,210 --> 00:13:32,930 Speaker 1: was supposedly intended to protect O Sage people from themselves. 164 00:13:34,370 --> 00:13:38,850 Speaker 1: In fact, and of course, and by design, it made 165 00:13:38,930 --> 00:13:43,530 Speaker 1: them easy to exploit. Guardians had to approve any item 166 00:13:43,570 --> 00:13:48,370 Speaker 1: of expenditure, down to toothpaste and groceries. The guardians were 167 00:13:48,410 --> 00:13:51,770 Speaker 1: the ones writing the checks, and it was the easiest 168 00:13:51,770 --> 00:13:54,450 Speaker 1: thing in the world for a guardian to steal from 169 00:13:54,490 --> 00:13:58,770 Speaker 1: their O Sage ward. One's gam for example, was for 170 00:13:58,890 --> 00:14:01,410 Speaker 1: a guardian to buy a car for a couple of 171 00:14:01,530 --> 00:14:06,050 Speaker 1: hundred dollars, then parted onto their ward for a thousand. 172 00:14:06,810 --> 00:14:10,210 Speaker 1: Since O Sage people were forbidden to have direct control 173 00:14:10,250 --> 00:14:13,130 Speaker 1: of their own money, they might not have known about 174 00:14:13,170 --> 00:14:17,410 Speaker 1: the deception, but in any case, they were powerless to 175 00:14:17,450 --> 00:14:25,370 Speaker 1: do much about it. At least some o sage people 176 00:14:25,490 --> 00:14:28,930 Speaker 1: had white friends. Molly didn't have to rely on some 177 00:14:29,330 --> 00:14:34,530 Speaker 1: exploitative stranger for guardianship. Her own husband, Ernest was her guardian. 178 00:14:35,170 --> 00:14:37,570 Speaker 1: That meant she had as much control over her money 179 00:14:37,610 --> 00:14:40,930 Speaker 1: as most women of the day, and just as you'd 180 00:14:40,970 --> 00:14:45,250 Speaker 1: expect from the nephew of the upstanding William Hale, Ernest 181 00:14:45,490 --> 00:14:49,850 Speaker 1: took good care of Molly. She suffered from diabetes. He 182 00:14:49,970 --> 00:14:53,610 Speaker 1: made sure she went regularly to his uncle's trusted doctors, 183 00:14:54,250 --> 00:14:58,170 Speaker 1: the ones who had performed Anna's autopsy. They gave her 184 00:14:58,250 --> 00:15:01,810 Speaker 1: the regular injections of insulin she needed to stay alive. 185 00:15:03,530 --> 00:15:07,450 Speaker 1: But the private detectives that Molly hired weren't making much 186 00:15:07,530 --> 00:15:11,290 Speaker 1: progress in figuring out who had shot Anna and why. 187 00:15:12,330 --> 00:15:16,170 Speaker 1: They interviewed Ernest's brother, the last person who'd seen her alive. 188 00:15:16,890 --> 00:15:20,810 Speaker 1: Anna's ex husband was grilled too, but he had nothing 189 00:15:20,810 --> 00:15:25,090 Speaker 1: to gain from her death. Anna's money went to her mother, Lizzie. 190 00:15:25,130 --> 00:15:31,090 Speaker 1: The evidence to charge anyone seemed thin anyway. The local 191 00:15:31,170 --> 00:15:35,170 Speaker 1: sheriff and his deputies were busy, busy taking bribes, busy 192 00:15:35,210 --> 00:15:39,130 Speaker 1: colluding with bootlegging gangs. And soon enough they were busy 193 00:15:39,210 --> 00:15:44,810 Speaker 1: dealing with other untimely deaths. A mood of fear set 194 00:15:44,850 --> 00:15:49,970 Speaker 1: in o Sage. People began to install electric lights outside 195 00:15:50,010 --> 00:15:54,530 Speaker 1: their homes, pushing back the darkness in the hope of 196 00:15:54,570 --> 00:16:00,970 Speaker 1: dissuading the creep of the assassins who would be next. 197 00:16:02,210 --> 00:16:05,450 Speaker 1: At one stage, even the powerful friend of the Osage, 198 00:16:05,810 --> 00:16:09,450 Speaker 1: William Hale, seemed to be a target on the known 199 00:16:09,570 --> 00:16:13,250 Speaker 1: men set fire to his pastures, and the flames spread 200 00:16:13,330 --> 00:16:17,850 Speaker 1: for mile upon mile. If the King of the Osage 201 00:16:17,970 --> 00:16:25,370 Speaker 1: Hills could be attacked, nobody was safe. Rita's husband, Bill Smith, 202 00:16:25,930 --> 00:16:29,570 Speaker 1: developed his own suspicions about what was going on. He 203 00:16:29,650 --> 00:16:33,850 Speaker 1: hired his own private detectives. He told friends he was 204 00:16:33,970 --> 00:16:37,290 Speaker 1: determined to get to the bottom of the killings and 205 00:16:38,010 --> 00:16:42,050 Speaker 1: that he was getting warm, but perhaps his enemies were 206 00:16:42,090 --> 00:16:46,650 Speaker 1: getting warm too. On several nights, Bill and his wife 207 00:16:46,770 --> 00:16:52,370 Speaker 1: Rita were awoken by movement outside the house. It sounded 208 00:16:52,450 --> 00:16:56,130 Speaker 1: like intruders scouting around getting the lay of the land. 209 00:16:57,410 --> 00:17:02,490 Speaker 1: Rita and Bill were scared. Leaving many of their possessions behind, 210 00:17:02,810 --> 00:17:06,530 Speaker 1: they abruptly moved to a neighborhood in the town of Fairfax. 211 00:17:07,450 --> 00:17:11,370 Speaker 1: Most people there had a guarden dog, but over the 212 00:17:11,410 --> 00:17:15,730 Speaker 1: course of a few days, one by one the neighborhood 213 00:17:15,770 --> 00:17:22,650 Speaker 1: guard dogs began to sicken, lay down, and die. In 214 00:17:22,690 --> 00:17:27,210 Speaker 1: the early hours of March tenth, nineteen twenty three, the 215 00:17:27,450 --> 00:17:36,770 Speaker 1: entire town was jolted awake. Close to the blast, windows shattered, timber, snatched, 216 00:17:37,170 --> 00:17:42,450 Speaker 1: doors flew from their hinges. People were not flat Further away, 217 00:17:42,890 --> 00:17:48,330 Speaker 1: The town shook and shook and wouldn't stop. A rush 218 00:17:48,370 --> 00:17:53,250 Speaker 1: of bewildered townsfolk headed towards the epicenter. It was Bill 219 00:17:53,490 --> 00:17:57,850 Speaker 1: and Rita's new house. There was nothing left of it 220 00:17:58,930 --> 00:18:05,810 Speaker 1: but rubble and choking black smoke. Apparently Bill Smith's investigation 221 00:18:06,730 --> 00:18:13,770 Speaker 1: had got a little too warm. Molly was the only 222 00:18:13,890 --> 00:18:18,730 Speaker 1: one of her sisters left, and despite regular injections to 223 00:18:18,770 --> 00:18:24,650 Speaker 1: treat her diabetes, Molly herself was getting sicker and sicker. 224 00:18:32,490 --> 00:18:38,890 Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty five, a law man strode into Osage County, Oklahoma. 225 00:18:39,290 --> 00:18:42,890 Speaker 1: Tom White was a movie caricature of a Western hero. 226 00:18:43,450 --> 00:18:49,890 Speaker 1: Six foot four square, jawed, incorruptible, and fearless. He wore 227 00:18:49,890 --> 00:18:53,250 Speaker 1: a big cowboy hat even when in the office of 228 00:18:53,410 --> 00:18:58,210 Speaker 1: the office itself was the Bureau of Investigation at Washington, DC, 229 00:18:59,090 --> 00:19:03,410 Speaker 1: a new organization run by an ambitious young man, j 230 00:19:03,970 --> 00:19:07,770 Speaker 1: Edgar Hoover. Hoover wanted to make the reputation of his 231 00:19:07,890 --> 00:19:11,970 Speaker 1: new bureau by solving a high profile case, a case 232 00:19:12,130 --> 00:19:16,290 Speaker 1: that had gripped the nation, so he had sent Tom 233 00:19:16,330 --> 00:19:24,450 Speaker 1: White to Osage County. The authorities in Oklahoma had made 234 00:19:24,650 --> 00:19:29,090 Speaker 1: no progress in solving any of the crimes, neither the 235 00:19:29,170 --> 00:19:33,570 Speaker 1: deaths of Molly's family nor around twenty other murders of 236 00:19:33,610 --> 00:19:37,970 Speaker 1: the o Sage and their allies. There were too many 237 00:19:38,090 --> 00:19:43,930 Speaker 1: possible suspects, too many rumors and stories, and no hard evidence. 238 00:19:44,530 --> 00:19:49,490 Speaker 1: Witnesses had a tendency to die in strange circumstances, the 239 00:19:49,570 --> 00:19:55,370 Speaker 1: car crash, bad whiskey falling down the stairs. When the 240 00:19:55,490 --> 00:19:59,250 Speaker 1: cowboy hatted Tom White agreed to go to Osage County, 241 00:19:59,610 --> 00:20:03,330 Speaker 1: he knew that investigations had been stalled for years, that 242 00:20:03,370 --> 00:20:07,890 Speaker 1: the local officials were corrupt, and that some previous investigators 243 00:20:08,410 --> 00:20:12,290 Speaker 1: had been murdered themselves. If he took the job, he'd 244 00:20:12,290 --> 00:20:17,570 Speaker 1: have a target on his back. It wasn't going to 245 00:20:17,650 --> 00:20:22,690 Speaker 1: stop him. Tom White summoned a posse of undercover agents 246 00:20:22,770 --> 00:20:26,770 Speaker 1: to join him in Oklahoma City. The only member of 247 00:20:26,770 --> 00:20:30,610 Speaker 1: a native American tribe who worked for the bureau, John Wren, 248 00:20:30,810 --> 00:20:34,850 Speaker 1: who was part ute several experienced gunslingers who could easily 249 00:20:34,890 --> 00:20:40,490 Speaker 1: pose as cowboys or rustlers, a former insurance salesman whose 250 00:20:40,490 --> 00:20:47,290 Speaker 1: cover story was that he was an insurance salesman. More 251 00:20:47,290 --> 00:20:50,530 Speaker 1: than twenty o sage people had been murdered, along with 252 00:20:50,650 --> 00:20:55,170 Speaker 1: several other locals. White decided to focus on a few, 253 00:20:55,970 --> 00:21:02,050 Speaker 1: including the sisters Anna who was shot Rita whose house exploded. 254 00:21:05,810 --> 00:21:09,770 Speaker 1: In his book Killers of the Flower Moon, David Gran 255 00:21:10,090 --> 00:21:15,330 Speaker 1: describes Tom White's investigation as taking place in a wilderness 256 00:21:15,610 --> 00:21:22,210 Speaker 1: of mirrors. Evidence inexplicably vanished. Why hadn't the doctors managed 257 00:21:22,210 --> 00:21:26,410 Speaker 1: to find the bullet in Anna's skull? Useful looking leads 258 00:21:26,690 --> 00:21:31,170 Speaker 1: turned out to be deliberate deceptions. One woman initially said 259 00:21:31,290 --> 00:21:34,490 Speaker 1: Anna had been killed by a jealous wife after fooling 260 00:21:34,530 --> 00:21:38,610 Speaker 1: around with the husband, but later admitted that a strange 261 00:21:38,690 --> 00:21:42,370 Speaker 1: White man had come to her house and forced her 262 00:21:42,450 --> 00:21:47,530 Speaker 1: to sign a fake statement. And Tom White realized something else. 263 00:21:48,650 --> 00:21:53,130 Speaker 1: Some unknown person in his team was a double agent, 264 00:21:53,970 --> 00:21:58,890 Speaker 1: leaking the bureau's internal reports, feeding back everything to the 265 00:21:58,970 --> 00:22:04,810 Speaker 1: men they were pursuing. Who were those men? After spending 266 00:22:04,850 --> 00:22:08,450 Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen twenty five, Trying to navigate the 267 00:22:08,490 --> 00:22:14,650 Speaker 1: wilderness of mirrors, Tom White started to piece together a theory. 268 00:22:14,690 --> 00:22:17,330 Speaker 1: One of the murdered o Sage men had a life 269 00:22:17,410 --> 00:22:22,890 Speaker 1: insurance policy for twenty five thousand dollars, a huge sum, 270 00:22:23,490 --> 00:22:27,450 Speaker 1: but rather than naming his wife as a beneficiary, he 271 00:22:27,490 --> 00:22:34,450 Speaker 1: had named his wealthy friend, William Hale, the king of 272 00:22:34,490 --> 00:22:40,730 Speaker 1: the Osage Hills. That seemed strange, although Hale explained to 273 00:22:40,810 --> 00:22:43,930 Speaker 1: White that the poor man had discovered his wife was 274 00:22:43,970 --> 00:22:48,050 Speaker 1: having an affair and Hale had comforted him in his distress. 275 00:22:48,650 --> 00:22:53,650 Speaker 1: That would explain everything. Then, a woman who lived near 276 00:22:53,770 --> 00:22:58,370 Speaker 1: Hale's farm told investigators that when Hale's land had been 277 00:22:58,410 --> 00:23:03,970 Speaker 1: set ablaze, it was by Hale's workers on Hale's orders. 278 00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:09,410 Speaker 1: He had collected thirty thousand dollars in insurance money. Hale 279 00:23:09,650 --> 00:23:15,410 Speaker 1: controlled everything around here, she told the agents. White looked 280 00:23:15,690 --> 00:23:20,650 Speaker 1: more and more closely at Hale's affairs. Those head rights, 281 00:23:21,170 --> 00:23:25,130 Speaker 1: the unbelievably lucrative rights to the money from oce Age 282 00:23:25,170 --> 00:23:29,650 Speaker 1: County's oil fields, couldn't be bought or sold. They could 283 00:23:29,650 --> 00:23:34,690 Speaker 1: only be inherited. Minnie's and Anna's head rights had gone 284 00:23:34,730 --> 00:23:40,050 Speaker 1: to their mother Lizzie. Then Lizzie herself had died from 285 00:23:40,050 --> 00:23:45,090 Speaker 1: a mysterious illness, all of her accumulated head rights went 286 00:23:45,170 --> 00:23:50,770 Speaker 1: to Molly and her sister Rita. This slow burning family 287 00:23:50,850 --> 00:23:55,970 Speaker 1: tragedy started to develop a remorseless logic in Tom White's mind, 288 00:23:56,690 --> 00:23:59,690 Speaker 1: even the use of a bomb to murder Rita and 289 00:23:59,810 --> 00:24:04,250 Speaker 1: her husband Bill, because their will specified that if they 290 00:24:04,290 --> 00:24:10,970 Speaker 1: died simultaneously, everything would pass to Molly. Molly herself was 291 00:24:11,210 --> 00:24:16,650 Speaker 1: very ill, despite the close attention she was receiving from 292 00:24:16,730 --> 00:24:23,810 Speaker 1: William Hale's personal physicians. She hadn't died, not yet, But 293 00:24:23,930 --> 00:24:27,930 Speaker 1: perhaps the killers weren't in a hurry. Since Molly's money 294 00:24:28,410 --> 00:24:33,090 Speaker 1: was all controlled by her husband, Earnest, a man who 295 00:24:33,250 --> 00:24:40,210 Speaker 1: was absolutely loyal to his uncle William Hale. Earnest, it seemed, 296 00:24:40,810 --> 00:24:45,250 Speaker 1: might be complicit in the plot to murder every member 297 00:24:45,410 --> 00:24:58,090 Speaker 1: of his wife's family and presumably his wife herself. Solving 298 00:24:58,130 --> 00:25:03,370 Speaker 1: the mystery was one thing, Securing a conviction was quite another. 299 00:25:04,690 --> 00:25:08,450 Speaker 1: In an Oklahoma court, everyone from the sheriff to the 300 00:25:08,570 --> 00:25:12,210 Speaker 1: juries would be bought and paid for by William Hale. 301 00:25:13,530 --> 00:25:15,890 Speaker 1: Even if Tom White could get the case tried in 302 00:25:15,930 --> 00:25:21,530 Speaker 1: a federal court, would a white jury convict. As one 303 00:25:21,730 --> 00:25:25,810 Speaker 1: O Sage elder commented, the question for them to decide 304 00:25:26,570 --> 00:25:29,730 Speaker 1: is whether a white man killing an O sage is 305 00:25:29,930 --> 00:25:41,850 Speaker 1: murder or merely cruelty to animals. The trials were a sensation, 306 00:25:42,490 --> 00:25:46,730 Speaker 1: I say trials, since there were several murders and several 307 00:25:46,850 --> 00:25:51,530 Speaker 1: murderers working for Hale. One was declared a mistrial after 308 00:25:51,570 --> 00:25:54,970 Speaker 1: it became clear that members of the jury had been bribed. 309 00:25:56,490 --> 00:26:00,610 Speaker 1: Ernest made a full confession of his and his uncle's crimes, 310 00:26:01,610 --> 00:26:05,570 Speaker 1: then withdrew it and agreed to testify for his uncle's defense, 311 00:26:06,570 --> 00:26:11,570 Speaker 1: then repented and confessed again. It's hard to know why 312 00:26:11,610 --> 00:26:15,450 Speaker 1: he changed his mind, but perhaps it was the sight 313 00:26:15,530 --> 00:26:21,050 Speaker 1: of his wife, Molly, sitting silently in the courtroom day 314 00:26:21,770 --> 00:26:26,330 Speaker 1: after day, solemnly watching as it became clear that the 315 00:26:26,330 --> 00:26:31,130 Speaker 1: man she had loved had conspired to murder every member 316 00:26:31,250 --> 00:26:38,690 Speaker 1: of her family, including her. Finally, a jury reached a verdict. 317 00:26:41,210 --> 00:26:44,770 Speaker 1: The clerk read it out to the charge of first 318 00:26:44,810 --> 00:26:53,450 Speaker 1: degree murder. William KA Hale had been found guilty, but 319 00:26:53,730 --> 00:26:56,890 Speaker 1: the jury ruled out the death penalty that would normally 320 00:26:56,930 --> 00:27:01,890 Speaker 1: be a foregone conclusion. Hale and others would serve long 321 00:27:02,090 --> 00:27:13,610 Speaker 1: prison terms for their appalling crimes. Awson Wells once said 322 00:27:13,690 --> 00:27:17,290 Speaker 1: that if you want a happy ending, it depends on 323 00:27:17,330 --> 00:27:21,690 Speaker 1: where you stop the story. It's tempting to stop the story. 324 00:27:21,770 --> 00:27:28,930 Speaker 1: On November seventeenth, nineteen twenty six, Tom White has gone 325 00:27:28,970 --> 00:27:32,650 Speaker 1: out on a high, retiring from the Bureau to take 326 00:27:32,690 --> 00:27:36,730 Speaker 1: a more settled job, does the warden of Leavenworth Prison, 327 00:27:37,290 --> 00:27:39,530 Speaker 1: And he's just learning the ropes of the new job. 328 00:27:39,970 --> 00:27:45,730 Speaker 1: When some new inmates, shackled, pale and blinking in the sunlight, 329 00:27:46,370 --> 00:27:48,690 Speaker 1: are warped up the prison driveway. 330 00:27:48,890 --> 00:27:50,970 Speaker 2: Are the US Marshals. 331 00:27:51,650 --> 00:27:57,850 Speaker 1: White recognizes the distinctive round face of William K. Hale, 332 00:27:58,690 --> 00:28:07,410 Speaker 1: and Hale recognizes him too by Hello, Tom offers Hale. Hello, Bill, 333 00:28:08,170 --> 00:28:13,530 Speaker 1: says Warden Tom. He shakes William Hale's hand and watches 334 00:28:14,170 --> 00:28:21,730 Speaker 1: as Hale is marched off to his self. But I 335 00:28:21,810 --> 00:28:25,690 Speaker 1: can't end the story there. When Tom White and the 336 00:28:25,730 --> 00:28:30,730 Speaker 1: Bureau of Investigation convicted Hale and his immediate conspirators, they 337 00:28:30,770 --> 00:28:35,490 Speaker 1: declared victory and got out of town, but the killings 338 00:28:35,930 --> 00:28:36,850 Speaker 1: didn't stop. 339 00:28:37,090 --> 00:28:38,810 Speaker 2: Then you can. 340 00:28:38,690 --> 00:28:42,690 Speaker 1: Still drown in the devil's excrement, even if the devil 341 00:28:42,770 --> 00:28:50,530 Speaker 1: himself has gone to jail. Cautionary tales will return after 342 00:28:50,570 --> 00:29:05,290 Speaker 1: the break. This cautionary tale relies on David Grand's magisterial 343 00:29:05,370 --> 00:29:09,930 Speaker 1: book Killers of the Flower Moon. I told David I 344 00:29:10,010 --> 00:29:12,850 Speaker 1: was hoping to base an episode on it. He told me, 345 00:29:14,010 --> 00:29:16,410 Speaker 1: take a look at the final section of the book. 346 00:29:17,850 --> 00:29:20,930 Speaker 1: That's the part of the history that often gets left out. 347 00:29:22,290 --> 00:29:27,330 Speaker 1: The final section begins in twenty twelve, almost ninety years 348 00:29:27,410 --> 00:29:31,370 Speaker 1: after our comic book hero Tom White strode into town. 349 00:29:32,130 --> 00:29:36,770 Speaker 1: Another investigator followed in his footsteps. He wasn't a former 350 00:29:36,930 --> 00:29:41,970 Speaker 1: Texas Ranger, standing tall, packing heat and wearing a cowboy hat. 351 00:29:42,570 --> 00:29:47,210 Speaker 1: He was a bespectacled writer from New York, David Gran himself. 352 00:29:48,450 --> 00:29:52,330 Speaker 1: Gran had questions in his mind about the murders, and 353 00:29:52,370 --> 00:29:55,250 Speaker 1: he wanted to see Osage County to meet some of 354 00:29:55,290 --> 00:30:00,370 Speaker 1: the twenty first century O Sage people. The oil boom 355 00:30:00,730 --> 00:30:04,490 Speaker 1: ended in the nineteen thirties. The boomtowns of the area 356 00:30:04,850 --> 00:30:09,770 Speaker 1: are depopulated. Now wiz Bang is long gone. Clues that 357 00:30:09,850 --> 00:30:14,530 Speaker 1: it ever existed covered by grass. There's still a little 358 00:30:14,570 --> 00:30:17,090 Speaker 1: oil and steal a little money for the people with 359 00:30:17,130 --> 00:30:21,530 Speaker 1: head rights, but not enough to change a life or 360 00:30:22,650 --> 00:30:29,250 Speaker 1: to end it. Under the head right system, some of 361 00:30:29,250 --> 00:30:34,010 Speaker 1: that money remains in a trust, and some things don't change. 362 00:30:34,450 --> 00:30:37,450 Speaker 1: It isn't managed by the O Sage Nation, but by 363 00:30:37,490 --> 00:30:42,530 Speaker 1: the US government, mismanaged, the Osage say, and their legal 364 00:30:42,610 --> 00:30:49,210 Speaker 1: struggle over the money continues. The O Sage Nation is 365 00:30:49,330 --> 00:30:53,690 Speaker 1: twenty thousand strong, of whom four thousand still live in 366 00:30:53,810 --> 00:30:59,050 Speaker 1: Osage County, in and around their capital, Poor Huskar. The 367 00:30:59,090 --> 00:31:02,530 Speaker 1: O Sage have an elected government and ratified a new 368 00:31:02,610 --> 00:31:07,210 Speaker 1: constitution in two thousand and six. In some ways, the 369 00:31:07,250 --> 00:31:14,090 Speaker 1: Osage Chief's prophecy has come true. Someday this oil will 370 00:31:14,130 --> 00:31:18,730 Speaker 1: go and there will be no more fat checks every 371 00:31:18,770 --> 00:31:22,930 Speaker 1: few months from the Great White Father. Then I know 372 00:31:23,890 --> 00:31:28,010 Speaker 1: my people will be happier. But the terror of the 373 00:31:28,130 --> 00:31:33,370 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties is a low bar for happiness. One O 374 00:31:33,530 --> 00:31:39,010 Speaker 1: Sage historian, Lewis F. Burns wrote, to believe that the 375 00:31:39,010 --> 00:31:44,810 Speaker 1: Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a delusion of 376 00:31:44,890 --> 00:31:50,090 Speaker 1: the mind. What has been possible to salvage has been 377 00:31:50,170 --> 00:31:55,410 Speaker 1: saved and is dearer to our hearts because it survived. 378 00:31:56,490 --> 00:31:59,570 Speaker 1: But much of what the O Sage Nation had now 379 00:31:59,730 --> 00:32:13,370 Speaker 1: exists only in memory. David Gran visited the region several 380 00:32:13,450 --> 00:32:17,970 Speaker 1: times to meet people and hear their stories. He attended 381 00:32:18,010 --> 00:32:22,810 Speaker 1: a ceremonial dance, watching the drummers and the singers, the 382 00:32:22,930 --> 00:32:31,130 Speaker 1: dancers in headdresses stepping together counterclockwise, intensity building at the dance, 383 00:32:31,610 --> 00:32:34,770 Speaker 1: a woman came up to David gran and introduced herself. 384 00:32:35,810 --> 00:32:38,610 Speaker 1: She was in her fifties wearing a blue dress with 385 00:32:38,730 --> 00:32:45,650 Speaker 1: long black hair in a ponytail. She seemed familiar somehow, Hi, 386 00:32:46,130 --> 00:32:51,850 Speaker 1: she said, I'm Margie Burkhart. She was the granddaughter of 387 00:32:52,170 --> 00:32:57,090 Speaker 1: Ernest and Molly Burkhart, Molly who'd watched her sisters and 388 00:32:57,170 --> 00:33:04,170 Speaker 1: mother die one by one, Ernest who'd conspired in their murder. 389 00:33:06,050 --> 00:33:11,050 Speaker 1: Margie talked about her father, Cowboy Burkhardt, how much he 390 00:33:11,090 --> 00:33:14,690 Speaker 1: had doted on his mother, Molly, and how haunted he 391 00:33:14,730 --> 00:33:18,690 Speaker 1: had been by the crimes of his father. She drove 392 00:33:18,850 --> 00:33:22,290 Speaker 1: David Graham to the site of the bombed house, and 393 00:33:22,410 --> 00:33:25,490 Speaker 1: as they sat outside in the car, she told him 394 00:33:25,490 --> 00:33:28,850 Speaker 1: that little Cowboy and his sister had been due to 395 00:33:28,970 --> 00:33:32,610 Speaker 1: visit their aunt Rita the night her house blew up, 396 00:33:33,610 --> 00:33:40,010 Speaker 1: but Cowboy had earache, so it didn't go. Ernest would 397 00:33:40,010 --> 00:33:43,090 Speaker 1: have known very well what would happen to the house 398 00:33:43,130 --> 00:33:47,850 Speaker 1: that night, As Margie explained, to Gran, my dad had 399 00:33:47,890 --> 00:33:57,290 Speaker 1: to live knowing that his father had tried to kill him. 400 00:33:57,410 --> 00:34:01,610 Speaker 1: The more often David Grand visited Osage County and the 401 00:34:01,610 --> 00:34:05,170 Speaker 1: more stories he heard, the more he came to realize 402 00:34:05,210 --> 00:34:09,250 Speaker 1: that reality didn't quite squeeze into the neat story of 403 00:34:09,290 --> 00:34:15,290 Speaker 1: William Hale's murderous plot and Tom White's brilliant investigation. Hale 404 00:34:15,690 --> 00:34:19,570 Speaker 1: was guilty of organizing the murder of Molly Burkhardt's family, 405 00:34:19,690 --> 00:34:25,210 Speaker 1: to be sure, and the oce Age haven't forgotten. In 406 00:34:25,250 --> 00:34:29,490 Speaker 1: the Oceage Nation Museum in poor Huskar, there's an expansive 407 00:34:29,690 --> 00:34:34,370 Speaker 1: group photograph from nineteen twenty four depicting many members of 408 00:34:34,370 --> 00:34:39,330 Speaker 1: the tribe alongside the most influential and admired White locals. 409 00:34:39,930 --> 00:34:43,690 Speaker 1: A section of the picture has been cut away, the 410 00:34:43,770 --> 00:34:50,450 Speaker 1: section depicting William Hale. The museum director, Catherine Redcorn explained 411 00:34:50,450 --> 00:34:53,570 Speaker 1: to David Gran that it was too painful to show 412 00:34:54,410 --> 00:35:01,170 Speaker 1: the devil was standing right there. But there's no evidence 413 00:35:01,170 --> 00:35:05,690 Speaker 1: connecting Hale with the murder of Barney McBride, an oil 414 00:35:05,770 --> 00:35:08,930 Speaker 1: man who'd set off for Washington, d c determined to 415 00:35:09,130 --> 00:35:12,130 Speaker 1: appealed to the federal authorities for help in solving the 416 00:35:12,170 --> 00:35:17,370 Speaker 1: Osage murders. His naked body was found the next morning 417 00:35:17,970 --> 00:35:21,170 Speaker 1: a sack tied over his head. His skull smashed in 418 00:35:22,210 --> 00:35:28,690 Speaker 1: had been stabbed two dozen times. Nor was Hale apparently 419 00:35:28,690 --> 00:35:32,850 Speaker 1: connected with the murder of Charlie Whitehorn, who disappeared around 420 00:35:32,930 --> 00:35:36,850 Speaker 1: the same time as Anna. He was found under a bush, 421 00:35:37,690 --> 00:35:42,330 Speaker 1: a bloated, fly blown corpse, identified only by a letter 422 00:35:42,410 --> 00:35:47,530 Speaker 1: in his pocket. Between his eyes gaped two bullet holes. 423 00:35:49,010 --> 00:35:52,330 Speaker 1: His widow, Hattie, then seemed sure to die of a 424 00:35:52,370 --> 00:35:57,290 Speaker 1: mysterious illness until her sisters moved her away from the area, 425 00:35:57,370 --> 00:36:04,690 Speaker 1: where she staged a full and surprising recovery. Hale didn't 426 00:36:04,690 --> 00:36:08,210 Speaker 1: seem to be behind the death of George Bigheart, who 427 00:36:08,290 --> 00:36:12,690 Speaker 1: died in an Oklahoma City hospital in nineteen twenty three 428 00:36:12,770 --> 00:36:13,890 Speaker 1: after being poisoned. 429 00:36:16,050 --> 00:36:16,890 Speaker 2: Or W. W. 430 00:36:17,170 --> 00:36:21,170 Speaker 1: Vaughan, big Heart's lawyer, who rushed to his deathbed to 431 00:36:21,210 --> 00:36:26,890 Speaker 1: hear his testimony and collect some vital, incriminating documents. Vaughan 432 00:36:27,370 --> 00:36:31,370 Speaker 1: then phoned the Osage County sheriff to tell him that 433 00:36:31,490 --> 00:36:34,570 Speaker 1: he knew who killed big Heart, and a lot more 434 00:36:34,610 --> 00:36:39,650 Speaker 1: than that. Vaughan boarded a train home but never made it. 435 00:36:40,370 --> 00:36:44,130 Speaker 1: His body was found by the tracks north of Oklahoma City, 436 00:36:45,490 --> 00:36:53,890 Speaker 1: neck broken, incriminating documents gone. In his conversations with O 437 00:36:54,050 --> 00:37:00,050 Speaker 1: Sage people, Graham kept hearing similar stories O. Sage grandparents 438 00:37:00,090 --> 00:37:03,490 Speaker 1: who died young in the nineteen twenties or nineteen thirties, 439 00:37:04,050 --> 00:37:08,210 Speaker 1: with the family convinced of foul play and the authorities 440 00:37:08,250 --> 00:37:14,330 Speaker 1: showing no interest. Digging into the archives. He sometimes found clues. 441 00:37:15,530 --> 00:37:19,690 Speaker 1: In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grand's detective work reveals 442 00:37:19,730 --> 00:37:24,730 Speaker 1: the identity of the influential man who killed W. W. Vaughan, 443 00:37:26,370 --> 00:37:30,010 Speaker 1: But some of the murders will never be solved. Too 444 00:37:30,090 --> 00:37:35,570 Speaker 1: much evidence was deliberately destroyed by corrupt officials. And then 445 00:37:35,610 --> 00:37:40,170 Speaker 1: there are other heartbreaking cases of white guardians with three, 446 00:37:40,850 --> 00:37:45,330 Speaker 1: four or more O Sage wards who all died young 447 00:37:46,170 --> 00:37:51,290 Speaker 1: for no apparent reason, deaths that at the time were 448 00:37:51,330 --> 00:37:59,930 Speaker 1: never even recognized as murder at all. The resource curse 449 00:38:00,450 --> 00:38:05,250 Speaker 1: is seen as a subtle economic problem. There's a lively 450 00:38:05,370 --> 00:38:09,330 Speaker 1: academic debate on why some nations seem to suffer more 451 00:38:09,370 --> 00:38:14,090 Speaker 1: than others and what policies they should adopt. But the 452 00:38:14,130 --> 00:38:17,850 Speaker 1: basic truth of the resource curse isn't subtle at all. 453 00:38:18,730 --> 00:38:27,970 Speaker 1: It's that money brings trouble, civil wars, nasty geopolitics, brutal dictatorships, 454 00:38:29,170 --> 00:38:33,890 Speaker 1: or if you're the last remaining two thousand, two hundred 455 00:38:33,890 --> 00:38:37,810 Speaker 1: and twenty nine members of the O Sage Nation suddenly 456 00:38:37,930 --> 00:38:41,850 Speaker 1: rich and hemmed on all sides by a society with 457 00:38:42,050 --> 00:38:47,810 Speaker 1: no respect for you at all. It brings murder. The 458 00:38:47,890 --> 00:38:52,610 Speaker 1: O Sage was surrounded by murderers. Those murderers weren't all 459 00:38:52,730 --> 00:38:57,490 Speaker 1: orchestrated by William Hale. They didn't need to be. They 460 00:38:57,530 --> 00:39:01,410 Speaker 1: had their own reforts and their own motives, and they 461 00:39:01,410 --> 00:39:06,250 Speaker 1: were protected by a white society that didn't much care 462 00:39:06,370 --> 00:39:13,890 Speaker 1: about dead rich Indians. Sometimes a conspiracy is so big 463 00:39:14,770 --> 00:39:16,290 Speaker 1: you simply can't call. 464 00:39:16,130 --> 00:39:41,330 Speaker 2: It a conspiracy. 465 00:39:51,530 --> 00:39:54,690 Speaker 1: This cautionary tale is based with permission, on David Grand's 466 00:39:54,690 --> 00:39:59,050 Speaker 1: book Killers of the Flower Moon. The film of the 467 00:39:59,090 --> 00:40:02,610 Speaker 1: same title is now in theaters, directed by Martin SCORSESEI 468 00:40:02,770 --> 00:40:08,050 Speaker 1: and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert de Niro, and Lillie Gladstone. 469 00:40:08,650 --> 00:40:12,450 Speaker 1: This episod was produced in association with Apple Original Films. 470 00:40:14,530 --> 00:40:17,610 Speaker 1: Next week, I'll be back discussing this story with Jim 471 00:40:17,810 --> 00:40:21,330 Speaker 1: Roan Gray, a former principal chief of the Osage Nation. 472 00:40:28,250 --> 00:40:31,730 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is written by me, Tim Harford with Andrew Wright. 473 00:40:32,250 --> 00:40:35,570 Speaker 1: It's produced by Alice Fines with support from Marilyn Rust. 474 00:40:36,010 --> 00:40:38,610 Speaker 1: The sound design and original music is the work of 475 00:40:38,650 --> 00:40:43,530 Speaker 1: Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the scripts. It features the 476 00:40:43,610 --> 00:40:47,810 Speaker 1: voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, Jemmy 477 00:40:47,850 --> 00:40:51,730 Speaker 1: Saunders and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been 478 00:40:51,770 --> 00:40:56,330 Speaker 1: possible without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohne, 479 00:40:56,570 --> 00:41:01,970 Speaker 1: Diteal Millard, John Schnaz, Eric's handler, Carrie Brody, and Christina Sullivan. 480 00:41:02,730 --> 00:41:07,370 Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded 481 00:41:07,370 --> 00:41:11,130 Speaker 1: at Wardoor Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you 482 00:41:11,370 --> 00:41:15,530 Speaker 1: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review, 483 00:41:16,090 --> 00:41:18,250 Speaker 1: tell your friends and if you want to hear the 484 00:41:18,290 --> 00:41:21,770 Speaker 1: show ad free, sign up for Pushkin Plus on the 485 00:41:21,810 --> 00:41:25,810 Speaker 1: show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot Fm, 486 00:41:26,210 --> 00:41:28,610 Speaker 1: slash plus