1
00:00:15,356 --> 00:00:21,636
Speaker 1: Pushkin, wealth, greed, desire, murder. These are just some of

2
00:00:21,636 --> 00:00:25,516
Speaker 1: the plagues that befell the Osage people after vast oil

3
00:00:25,596 --> 00:00:29,156
Speaker 1: reserves were discovered beneath their land. Killers of the Flower

4
00:00:29,196 --> 00:00:32,276
Speaker 1: Moon tells a story of the disregard for human life

5
00:00:32,636 --> 00:00:36,876
Speaker 1: and betrayal and greed. Today on Revision's History, we're presenting

6
00:00:36,956 --> 00:00:40,756
Speaker 1: a special episode of Cautionary Tales. You'll hear the story

7
00:00:40,796 --> 00:00:44,356
Speaker 1: behind David Grant's book Killers of the Flower Moon, which

8
00:00:44,356 --> 00:00:47,156
Speaker 1: has been adapted for the screen by Martin Scorsese and

9
00:00:47,276 --> 00:00:51,276
Speaker 1: is now exclusively in theaters. Plus hear about the investigation

10
00:00:51,396 --> 00:00:56,396
Speaker 1: that began almost ninety years later. Here's the episode. Listen

11
00:00:56,476 --> 00:00:59,916
Speaker 1: to Cautionary Tales wherever you get your podcasts.

12
00:01:00,636 --> 00:01:04,556
Speaker 2: This cautionary Tale is based on David Gran's book Killers

13
00:01:04,676 --> 00:01:08,196
Speaker 2: of the Flower Moon and produced in association with Apple

14
00:01:08,316 --> 00:01:11,476
Speaker 2: Original Film. The film of the same title is now

15
00:01:11,636 --> 00:01:29,236
Speaker 2: exclusively in theaters. Once upon a time, the O Sage

16
00:01:29,316 --> 00:01:32,796
Speaker 2: Nation stretched across the center of the North American continent,

17
00:01:33,636 --> 00:01:36,876
Speaker 2: from the Rocky Mountains through to what is now Missouri, Kansas,

18
00:01:36,916 --> 00:01:41,956
Speaker 2: and Oklahoma. President Thomas Jefferson viewed the O Sage people

19
00:01:42,036 --> 00:01:46,156
Speaker 2: with where we respect When in eighteen oh four, he

20
00:01:46,236 --> 00:01:49,196
Speaker 2: met with a group of towering O Sage chiefs at

21
00:01:49,196 --> 00:01:52,796
Speaker 2: the White House. He remarked that they were the finest

22
00:01:52,876 --> 00:01:58,756
Speaker 2: men we have ever seen. The wary respect did not last.

23
00:01:59,996 --> 00:02:03,316
Speaker 2: By eighteen seventy, the O Sage people had been pushed

24
00:02:03,316 --> 00:02:08,236
Speaker 2: into buying land that one observer described as broken, rocky,

25
00:02:10,036 --> 00:02:15,876
Speaker 2: and utterly unfit for cultivation. Ravaged by smallpox, the death

26
00:02:15,916 --> 00:02:19,556
Speaker 2: of the buffalo, and brutal attacks from settlers, only a

27
00:02:19,596 --> 00:02:24,236
Speaker 2: few thousand of them remained alive. The O Sage chief

28
00:02:24,556 --> 00:02:28,756
Speaker 2: wati Ankhar, tried to look on the bright side. My

29
00:02:28,916 --> 00:02:32,676
Speaker 2: people will be happy in this land. He said, there

30
00:02:32,676 --> 00:02:36,916
Speaker 2: are many hills here. White man does not like country

31
00:02:37,156 --> 00:02:41,476
Speaker 2: whether a hills, and he will not come. But the

32
00:02:41,476 --> 00:02:46,596
Speaker 2: white man did come. O Sage children were forcibly enrolled

33
00:02:46,596 --> 00:02:50,236
Speaker 2: in Catholic boarding schools, days travel away from their parents,

34
00:02:50,756 --> 00:02:52,996
Speaker 2: and made to change their names and their clothes to

35
00:02:53,036 --> 00:02:57,516
Speaker 2: the European style. The United States policy was that the

36
00:02:57,596 --> 00:03:01,996
Speaker 2: Indian must conform to the white man's ways peacefully if

37
00:03:01,996 --> 00:03:13,596
Speaker 2: they will, forcibly if they must. In nineteen oh six,

38
00:03:13,796 --> 00:03:18,036
Speaker 2: the US government wanted to create a new state, Oklahoma

39
00:03:18,676 --> 00:03:22,276
Speaker 2: and hand it over to white settlers. They pressed the

40
00:03:22,316 --> 00:03:25,476
Speaker 2: Osage nation to agree to a new deal concerning the

41
00:03:25,556 --> 00:03:29,636
Speaker 2: rights to the land they had purchased. The Osage negotiators

42
00:03:29,676 --> 00:03:33,516
Speaker 2: played a weak hand well. Under the deal that they agreed,

43
00:03:34,036 --> 00:03:37,796
Speaker 2: the entire tribe of two thousand, two hundred and twenty

44
00:03:37,876 --> 00:03:42,636
Speaker 2: nine souls collectively held the rights to whatever lay beneath

45
00:03:42,716 --> 00:03:48,036
Speaker 2: their land. And what lay beneath, as the Osage negotiators

46
00:03:48,076 --> 00:03:52,756
Speaker 2: suspected and the white Man had not guessed, was oil

47
00:03:53,836 --> 00:03:59,836
Speaker 2: vast reserves of black gold. As the oil started to flow,

48
00:04:00,436 --> 00:04:04,236
Speaker 2: so did the money. Every quarter, every member of the

49
00:04:04,276 --> 00:04:07,756
Speaker 2: Osage tribe received a check to reflect the money being

50
00:04:07,836 --> 00:04:10,636
Speaker 2: paid by the oil men. At first, it was little

51
00:04:10,636 --> 00:04:16,036
Speaker 2: more than pocket money. Soon each check each individual was

52
00:04:16,036 --> 00:04:19,436
Speaker 2: the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in today's

53
00:04:19,436 --> 00:04:25,476
Speaker 2: money every quarter, and the checks kept growing. Newspapers couldn't

54
00:04:25,476 --> 00:04:29,716
Speaker 2: get enough of stories about what they called the red millionaires.

55
00:04:30,396 --> 00:04:33,916
Speaker 2: O Sage girls dressed in the latest Parisian fashions. O

56
00:04:34,076 --> 00:04:38,876
Speaker 2: Sage cookouts a circle of expensive automobiles surrounding an open

57
00:04:38,916 --> 00:04:42,436
Speaker 2: campfire where the bronzed and blanketed owners are cooking meat

58
00:04:42,516 --> 00:04:46,636
Speaker 2: in the primitive style. O Sage elders arriving for a

59
00:04:46,756 --> 00:04:52,916
Speaker 2: ceremonial dance in a private plane. Luck had finally smiled

60
00:04:52,956 --> 00:04:59,956
Speaker 2: on the o Sage Nation, or had it. I'm Tim

61
00:05:00,036 --> 00:05:28,436
Speaker 2: Harford and you're listening to cautionary tales. Minnie Smith was

62
00:05:28,516 --> 00:05:32,636
Speaker 2: the first of the four sisters to die. She'd been young,

63
00:05:32,996 --> 00:05:37,796
Speaker 2: fit and healthy, and then she'd grown ill quite suddenly.

64
00:05:38,636 --> 00:05:42,196
Speaker 2: The doctors in Osage County were baffled by her death,

65
00:05:42,516 --> 00:05:47,556
Speaker 2: but of course they had a diagnosis, a peculiar wasting illness.

66
00:05:48,276 --> 00:05:54,276
Speaker 2: Maybe peculiar, it certainly was. Minnie left behind a husband,

67
00:05:54,916 --> 00:05:59,156
Speaker 2: a white man called Bill Smith. A few months after

68
00:05:59,196 --> 00:06:04,836
Speaker 2: Minnie's death in nineteen eighteen, Bill married another of the sisters, Rita.

69
00:06:06,236 --> 00:06:09,516
Speaker 2: Then there was Anna. She had also married a wife man,

70
00:06:09,716 --> 00:06:11,876
Speaker 2: but she had divorced him, and at the age of

71
00:06:11,916 --> 00:06:15,316
Speaker 2: thirty four, she had a habit of disappearing on wild

72
00:06:15,476 --> 00:06:19,236
Speaker 2: nights of drinking and dancing. She had plenty of places

73
00:06:19,276 --> 00:06:23,476
Speaker 2: to go as the oil flowed in Osage County. Once

74
00:06:23,596 --> 00:06:28,556
Speaker 2: modest settlements became bustling towns full of oil workers, bootleggers,

75
00:06:28,636 --> 00:06:33,756
Speaker 2: and gangsters. One overnight oil rush town was named wiz Bang,

76
00:06:34,116 --> 00:06:39,556
Speaker 2: where people whizzed all day and banged all night. Anna

77
00:06:39,796 --> 00:06:43,516
Speaker 2: enjoyed such places that they were risky. She always kept

78
00:06:43,516 --> 00:06:48,156
Speaker 2: a small pistol in her purse. And then one night

79
00:06:48,476 --> 00:06:52,756
Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty one, she went out partying and didn't

80
00:06:52,796 --> 00:06:57,476
Speaker 2: come home. Not the first night, not the second, and

81
00:06:57,556 --> 00:07:04,116
Speaker 2: not the third. Which brings us to Sister number four, Molly,

82
00:07:04,796 --> 00:07:08,076
Speaker 2: the serious, responsible sister, the one who ended up taking

83
00:07:08,156 --> 00:07:11,196
Speaker 2: care of all the other and their mother too. In

84
00:07:11,236 --> 00:07:14,156
Speaker 2: her hunt for her missing sister, Molly could call on

85
00:07:14,316 --> 00:07:19,556
Speaker 2: perhaps the most influential man in Osage County, her husband's uncle,

86
00:07:20,276 --> 00:07:24,356
Speaker 2: William Hale, the man they called the King of the

87
00:07:24,396 --> 00:07:28,716
Speaker 2: Osage Hills. Hale had been a cowboy when he was young.

88
00:07:29,356 --> 00:07:33,036
Speaker 2: Now he was a bespectacled, three piece suit wearing pillar

89
00:07:33,196 --> 00:07:38,076
Speaker 2: of the community. Behind his owlish glasses, he remained a

90
00:07:38,116 --> 00:07:41,476
Speaker 2: formidable character. He was not the kind of man to

91
00:07:41,596 --> 00:07:45,156
Speaker 2: ask you to do something he told you, said Molly's

92
00:07:45,236 --> 00:07:50,916
Speaker 2: husband Ernest. But although Hale was rich, powerful and domineering,

93
00:07:51,356 --> 00:07:54,516
Speaker 2: he was also a reverend and a deputy sheriff, and

94
00:07:54,796 --> 00:07:59,516
Speaker 2: widely regarded as the most public spirited man in Osage County.

95
00:08:00,236 --> 00:08:03,716
Speaker 2: He had supported local schools and charities before the Osage

96
00:08:03,756 --> 00:08:08,356
Speaker 2: people struck oil. One doctor said, I couldn't begin to

97
00:08:08,436 --> 00:08:12,436
Speaker 2: remember how many sick people have received medical attention at

98
00:08:12,476 --> 00:08:16,596
Speaker 2: his expense, nor how many hungry mouths have tasted of

99
00:08:16,596 --> 00:08:21,436
Speaker 2: his bounty. William Hale himself once wrote, I never had

100
00:08:21,556 --> 00:08:26,356
Speaker 2: better friends in my life than the o Sages. Uncle

101
00:08:26,396 --> 00:08:30,596
Speaker 2: William was like a guardian angel for Molly's family. If

102
00:08:30,596 --> 00:08:45,556
Speaker 2: anyone could help Molly find her sister, it would be him.

103
00:08:45,876 --> 00:08:49,676
Speaker 2: In the second half of the twentieth century, economists began

104
00:08:49,756 --> 00:08:54,796
Speaker 2: to observe a pattern striking oil is not the guarantee

105
00:08:54,836 --> 00:08:59,516
Speaker 2: of national prosperity that you might expect. Indeed, the reverse

106
00:08:59,596 --> 00:09:04,516
Speaker 2: is often true. Think of Iraq and Iran, Venezuela and Nigeria.

107
00:09:04,756 --> 00:09:08,236
Speaker 2: There are plenty of countries with vast reserves of oil,

108
00:09:08,356 --> 00:09:11,396
Speaker 2: and few of them seem to have flourished as a result.

109
00:09:12,636 --> 00:09:16,636
Speaker 2: Even the wealthy exceptions, such as Saudi Arabia often have

110
00:09:16,756 --> 00:09:21,276
Speaker 2: a thin and brittle kind of wealth. It's a challenge

111
00:09:21,316 --> 00:09:25,476
Speaker 2: to build foundations for enduring prosperity for something that will

112
00:09:25,556 --> 00:09:30,116
Speaker 2: last longer than wiz bang when the oil money is gone.

113
00:09:30,276 --> 00:09:34,516
Speaker 2: Economists debate the causes and cures of this problem, and

114
00:09:34,596 --> 00:09:38,316
Speaker 2: they call it the resource curse, But I prefer a

115
00:09:38,356 --> 00:09:43,116
Speaker 2: more lyrical description by a former minister of oil, Rich Venezuela,

116
00:09:43,516 --> 00:09:46,236
Speaker 2: when he was asked to describe the effect of all

117
00:09:46,316 --> 00:09:52,476
Speaker 2: that black gold on his country. It is the devil's excrement,

118
00:09:53,196 --> 00:10:01,836
Speaker 2: he declared. We are drowning in the devil's excrement. The

119
00:10:01,916 --> 00:10:05,236
Speaker 2: Oce age had never heard of the resource curse or

120
00:10:05,276 --> 00:10:09,516
Speaker 2: the devil's excrement, though one of their elders, it seemed

121
00:10:09,556 --> 00:10:15,276
Speaker 2: to anticipate the idea. Someday this oil will go, he said,

122
00:10:16,156 --> 00:10:18,916
Speaker 2: and there will be no more fat checks every few

123
00:10:18,956 --> 00:10:22,516
Speaker 2: months from the Great White Father. There'll be no fine

124
00:10:22,556 --> 00:10:28,836
Speaker 2: motor cars and new clothes. Then I know my people

125
00:10:28,876 --> 00:10:35,916
Speaker 2: will be happier. But were those fat checks involved in

126
00:10:35,996 --> 00:10:39,956
Speaker 2: the peculiar death of one sister and the disappearance of another?

127
00:10:41,156 --> 00:10:45,756
Speaker 2: Uncle William Hale had quietly expressed his doubts about Bill Smith.

128
00:10:46,636 --> 00:10:51,276
Speaker 2: He'd married Minnie, remember then she had died suddenly and mysteriously.

129
00:10:52,476 --> 00:10:57,516
Speaker 2: Months later he married her sister Rita. Marrying one o

130
00:10:57,676 --> 00:11:01,996
Speaker 2: sage woman would set a man up for life. Marrying two.

131
00:11:02,516 --> 00:11:06,796
Speaker 2: You had to wander about Bill's motives. But then it

132
00:11:06,956 --> 00:11:10,036
Speaker 2: wasn't as if Bill had stood to gain financially from

133
00:11:10,076 --> 00:11:14,076
Speaker 2: Minnie's death. Under the system of head rights, it wouldn't

134
00:11:14,116 --> 00:11:18,756
Speaker 2: be Bill who'd keep getting those fat checks. Instead, Minnie's

135
00:11:18,796 --> 00:11:24,156
Speaker 2: head right passed to her mother, Lizzie. So would Anna's

136
00:11:24,196 --> 00:11:28,516
Speaker 2: head wright if anything had happened to Anna. And after

137
00:11:28,556 --> 00:11:31,556
Speaker 2: Anna had been missing for a week, there was news

138
00:11:32,356 --> 00:11:38,156
Speaker 2: a rotting corpse had been discovered. The undertakers scattered salt

139
00:11:38,316 --> 00:11:41,956
Speaker 2: and ice on it to reduce the swelling and the stink.

140
00:11:43,436 --> 00:11:46,916
Speaker 2: By the time the sisters Molly and Rita arrived, the

141
00:11:47,036 --> 00:11:53,116
Speaker 2: vultures were wheeling overhead. Was it Anna? The face of

142
00:11:53,156 --> 00:11:58,556
Speaker 2: the corpse was unrecognizable, but Molly knew the traditional blanket

143
00:11:58,636 --> 00:12:02,436
Speaker 2: and the clothes were Anna's. She had washed them freshly

144
00:12:02,476 --> 00:12:05,436
Speaker 2: for her sister the last time she saw her alive

145
00:12:05,516 --> 00:12:10,956
Speaker 2: a week ago, and there was anna distinctive gold filling.

146
00:12:11,836 --> 00:12:19,756
Speaker 2: It was her for sure. Rita wept. Molly was resolute.

147
00:12:19,996 --> 00:12:23,196
Speaker 2: She hired private detectives, and she had help from her

148
00:12:23,276 --> 00:12:27,596
Speaker 2: husband's uncle, William Hale, who swore he'd get justice for Anna.

149
00:12:28,236 --> 00:12:32,036
Speaker 2: He got his personal doctors to perform an autopsy. They

150
00:12:32,116 --> 00:12:36,356
Speaker 2: found a bullet hole in the woman's skull. Although even

151
00:12:36,396 --> 00:12:40,476
Speaker 2: after chopping her brain into mints, they never could find

152
00:12:40,516 --> 00:12:47,116
Speaker 2: the bullet. Curious, but as both the sheriff and the

153
00:12:47,196 --> 00:12:51,396
Speaker 2: private investigators started to look into the mystery, it wasn't

154
00:12:51,476 --> 00:12:54,636
Speaker 2: just Minnie's and Anna's deaths that they'd have to solve.

155
00:12:56,236 --> 00:13:00,196
Speaker 2: Another one of the sisters did not have long to live.

156
00:13:03,116 --> 00:13:11,796
Speaker 2: Cautionary tales will return in a moment. The Indian must

157
00:13:11,836 --> 00:13:16,396
Speaker 2: conform to the white man's ways. But not like this,

158
00:13:16,716 --> 00:13:20,956
Speaker 2: decided the federal government. Not with luxury cars and private planes.

159
00:13:21,796 --> 00:13:26,716
Speaker 2: Congressional committees took to pouring over reports of O Sage expenditure,

160
00:13:27,476 --> 00:13:31,756
Speaker 2: like disapproving parents, scrutinizing the bank account of a teenager,

161
00:13:32,516 --> 00:13:35,636
Speaker 2: and their devised a system just like the one you'd

162
00:13:35,636 --> 00:13:39,356
Speaker 2: impose on a child. If the US Department of the

163
00:13:39,396 --> 00:13:43,676
Speaker 2: Interior decided that a member of a Native American tribe

164
00:13:44,196 --> 00:13:48,556
Speaker 2: wasn't competent to manage their own affairs, their finances would

165
00:13:48,596 --> 00:13:52,916
Speaker 2: be handed over to a guardian. The idea of competence

166
00:13:53,356 --> 00:13:57,876
Speaker 2: was a sham. In truth, the system of guardianship was

167
00:13:58,036 --> 00:14:02,076
Speaker 2: purely a matter of racism. Full blooded O Sage people

168
00:14:02,436 --> 00:14:10,076
Speaker 2: would always be pronounced incompetent and assigned a guardian guardianship

169
00:14:10,276 --> 00:14:14,996
Speaker 2: was supposedly intended to protect O sage people from themselves.

170
00:14:16,476 --> 00:14:20,956
Speaker 2: In fact, and of course, and by design, it made

171
00:14:20,996 --> 00:14:25,636
Speaker 2: them easy to exploit. Guardians had to approve any item

172
00:14:25,676 --> 00:14:30,436
Speaker 2: of expenditure down to toothpaste and groceries. The guardians were

173
00:14:30,476 --> 00:14:33,876
Speaker 2: the ones writing the checks, and it was the easiest

174
00:14:33,876 --> 00:14:36,556
Speaker 2: thing in the world for a guardian to steal from

175
00:14:36,596 --> 00:14:40,876
Speaker 2: their O sage ward. One's gam for example, was for

176
00:14:40,956 --> 00:14:43,476
Speaker 2: a guardian to buy a car for a couple of

177
00:14:43,636 --> 00:14:48,116
Speaker 2: hundred dollars, then parted onto their ward for a thousand.

178
00:14:48,916 --> 00:14:52,276
Speaker 2: Since O sage people were forbidden to have direct control

179
00:14:52,316 --> 00:14:55,236
Speaker 2: of their own money, they might not have known about

180
00:14:55,236 --> 00:14:59,476
Speaker 2: the deception, but in any case they were powerless to

181
00:14:59,516 --> 00:15:07,476
Speaker 2: do much about it. At least, some O sage people

182
00:15:07,556 --> 00:15:11,156
Speaker 2: had white friends. Molly didn't have to rely on some

183
00:15:11,396 --> 00:15:16,596
Speaker 2: exploitative stranger for guardianship. Her own husband, Ernest was her guardian.

184
00:15:17,236 --> 00:15:19,676
Speaker 2: That meant she had as much control over her money

185
00:15:19,676 --> 00:15:23,036
Speaker 2: as most women of the day, and just as you'd

186
00:15:23,036 --> 00:15:27,316
Speaker 2: expect from the nephew of the upstanding William Hale, Ernest

187
00:15:27,556 --> 00:15:31,956
Speaker 2: took good care of Molly. She suffered from diabetes. He

188
00:15:32,036 --> 00:15:35,676
Speaker 2: made sure she went regularly to his uncle's trusted doctors,

189
00:15:36,316 --> 00:15:40,276
Speaker 2: the ones who had performed Anna's autopsy. They gave her

190
00:15:40,316 --> 00:15:43,876
Speaker 2: the regular injections of insulin she needed to stay alive.

191
00:15:45,596 --> 00:15:49,516
Speaker 2: But the private detectives that Molly hired weren't making much

192
00:15:49,596 --> 00:15:53,396
Speaker 2: progress in figuring out who had shot Anna and why.

193
00:15:54,396 --> 00:15:58,236
Speaker 2: They interviewed Ernest's brother, the last person who'd seen her alive.

194
00:15:58,996 --> 00:16:02,876
Speaker 2: Anna's ex husband was grilled too, but he had nothing

195
00:16:02,916 --> 00:16:07,116
Speaker 2: to gain from her death. Anna's money went to her mother, Lizzie.

196
00:16:07,236 --> 00:16:13,156
Speaker 2: The evidence to charge anyone seemed thin anyway. The local

197
00:16:13,236 --> 00:16:17,236
Speaker 2: sheriff and his deputies were busy, busy taking bribes, busy

198
00:16:17,316 --> 00:16:21,196
Speaker 2: colluding with bootlegging gangs, and soon enough they were busy

199
00:16:21,316 --> 00:16:26,876
Speaker 2: dealing with other untimely deaths. A mood of fear set

200
00:16:26,956 --> 00:16:32,036
Speaker 2: in o Sage. People began to install electric lights outside

201
00:16:32,076 --> 00:16:36,596
Speaker 2: their homes, pushing back the darkness in the hope of

202
00:16:36,676 --> 00:16:43,036
Speaker 2: dissuading the creep of the assassins who would be next.

203
00:16:44,276 --> 00:16:47,556
Speaker 2: At one stage, even the powerful friend of the Osage,

204
00:16:47,916 --> 00:16:52,316
Speaker 2: William Hale, seemed to be a target. Unknown men set

205
00:16:52,356 --> 00:16:55,996
Speaker 2: fire to his pastures, and the flames spread for mile

206
00:16:56,116 --> 00:17:00,756
Speaker 2: upon mile. If the King of the Osage Hills could

207
00:17:00,796 --> 00:17:08,476
Speaker 2: be attacked. Nobody was safe. Rita's husband, Bill Smith, developed

208
00:17:08,476 --> 00:17:12,076
Speaker 2: his own aspisions about what was going on. He hired

209
00:17:12,076 --> 00:17:16,716
Speaker 2: his own private detectives. He told friends he was determined

210
00:17:16,996 --> 00:17:20,196
Speaker 2: to get to the bottom of the killings and that

211
00:17:20,236 --> 00:17:24,476
Speaker 2: he was getting warm, but perhaps his enemies were getting

212
00:17:24,516 --> 00:17:29,156
Speaker 2: warm too. On several nights, Bill and his wife Rita

213
00:17:29,516 --> 00:17:34,596
Speaker 2: were awoken by movement outside the house. It sounded like

214
00:17:34,756 --> 00:17:39,796
Speaker 2: intruders scouting around getting the lay of the land. Rita

215
00:17:39,876 --> 00:17:44,556
Speaker 2: and Bill were scared. Leaving many of their possessions behind,

216
00:17:44,916 --> 00:17:48,596
Speaker 2: they abruptly moved to a neighborhood in the town of Fairfax.

217
00:17:49,516 --> 00:17:53,436
Speaker 2: Most people there had a guard dog, but over the

218
00:17:53,476 --> 00:17:57,836
Speaker 2: course of a few days, one by one the neighborhood

219
00:17:57,836 --> 00:18:04,716
Speaker 2: guard dogs began to sicken, lay down, and die. In

220
00:18:04,756 --> 00:18:09,276
Speaker 2: the early hours of March tenth, nineteen twenty three, the

221
00:18:09,516 --> 00:18:18,836
Speaker 2: entire town was jolted awake. Close to the blast, windows shattered, timber, snatched,

222
00:18:19,276 --> 00:18:24,556
Speaker 2: doors flew from their hinders. People were not flat further away.

223
00:18:24,996 --> 00:18:30,396
Speaker 2: The town shook and shook and wouldn't stop. A rush

224
00:18:30,436 --> 00:18:35,316
Speaker 2: of bewildered townsfolk headed towards the epicenter. It was Bill

225
00:18:35,556 --> 00:18:39,956
Speaker 2: and Rita's new house. There was nothing left of it

226
00:18:41,036 --> 00:18:47,876
Speaker 2: but rubble and choking black smoke. Apparently Bill Smith's investigation

227
00:18:48,796 --> 00:18:55,876
Speaker 2: had got a little too warm. Molly was the only

228
00:18:55,996 --> 00:19:00,796
Speaker 2: one of her sisters left, and despite regular injections to

229
00:19:00,836 --> 00:19:06,716
Speaker 2: treat her diabetes, Molly herself was getting sicker and sicker.

230
00:19:14,596 --> 00:19:20,956
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty five, a lawman strode into Osage County, Oklahoma.

231
00:19:21,356 --> 00:19:24,996
Speaker 2: Tom White was a movie caricature of a Western hero.

232
00:19:25,556 --> 00:19:31,956
Speaker 2: Six foot four, square jawed, incorruptible, and fearless. He wore

233
00:19:31,996 --> 00:19:35,556
Speaker 2: a big cowboy hat even when in the office. The

234
00:19:35,596 --> 00:19:40,316
Speaker 2: office itself was the Bureau of Investigation of Washington, DC,

235
00:19:41,156 --> 00:19:45,436
Speaker 2: a new organization run by an ambitious young man, j

236
00:19:46,036 --> 00:19:49,876
Speaker 2: Edgar Hoover. Hoover wanted to make the reputation of his

237
00:19:49,956 --> 00:19:54,036
Speaker 2: new bureau by solving a high profile case, a case

238
00:19:54,196 --> 00:19:58,396
Speaker 2: that had gripped the nation, so he had sent Tom

239
00:19:58,436 --> 00:20:06,476
Speaker 2: White to Osage County. The authorities in Oklahoma had made

240
00:20:06,716 --> 00:20:10,956
Speaker 2: no progress in solving any of the craft Tis, neither

241
00:20:11,116 --> 00:20:15,516
Speaker 2: the deaths of Molly's family, nor around twenty other murders

242
00:20:15,556 --> 00:20:20,156
Speaker 2: of the Osage and their allies. There were too many

243
00:20:20,196 --> 00:20:25,996
Speaker 2: possible suspects, too many rumors and stories and no hard evidence.

244
00:20:26,596 --> 00:20:31,556
Speaker 2: Witnesses had a tendency to die in strange circumstances, the

245
00:20:31,636 --> 00:20:37,436
Speaker 2: car crash, bad whiskey falling down the stairs. When the

246
00:20:37,556 --> 00:20:41,316
Speaker 2: cowboy hatted Tom White agreed to go to Osage County,

247
00:20:41,676 --> 00:20:45,396
Speaker 2: he knew that investigations had been stalled for years, that

248
00:20:45,436 --> 00:20:50,036
Speaker 2: the local officials were corrupt, and that some previous investigators

249
00:20:50,476 --> 00:20:54,316
Speaker 2: had been murdered themselves. If he took the job, he'd

250
00:20:54,356 --> 00:20:59,676
Speaker 2: have a target on his back. It wasn't going to

251
00:20:59,716 --> 00:21:04,796
Speaker 2: stop him. Tom White summoned a posse of undercover agents

252
00:21:04,836 --> 00:21:08,796
Speaker 2: to join him in Oklahoma City. The only member of

253
00:21:08,836 --> 00:21:12,676
Speaker 2: a Native American tribe who worked for the Bureau, John Wren,

254
00:21:12,876 --> 00:21:16,956
Speaker 2: who was part ute several experienced gunslingers who could easily

255
00:21:16,996 --> 00:21:22,556
Speaker 2: pose as cowboys or rustlers, a former insurance salesman whose

256
00:21:22,596 --> 00:21:29,356
Speaker 2: cover story was that he was an insurance salesman. More

257
00:21:29,396 --> 00:21:32,636
Speaker 2: than twenty o Sage people had been murdered, along with

258
00:21:32,756 --> 00:21:37,236
Speaker 2: several other locals. White decided to focus on a few,

259
00:21:38,036 --> 00:21:44,116
Speaker 2: including the sisters, Anna who was shot, Rita whose house exploded.

260
00:21:47,876 --> 00:21:51,836
Speaker 2: In his book Killers of the Flower Moon, David Gran

261
00:21:52,196 --> 00:21:57,476
Speaker 2: describes Tom White's investigation as taking place in a wilderness

262
00:21:57,676 --> 00:22:03,916
Speaker 2: of mirrors, evidence inexplicably vanished. Why hadn't the doctor has

263
00:22:03,956 --> 00:22:08,036
Speaker 2: managed to find the bullet in Anna's skull? Useful looking

264
00:22:08,116 --> 00:22:12,996
Speaker 2: leads turned out to be deliberate deceptions. One woman initially

265
00:22:12,996 --> 00:22:16,196
Speaker 2: said Anna had been killed by a jealous wife after

266
00:22:16,236 --> 00:22:20,076
Speaker 2: fooling around with the husband, but later admitted that a

267
00:22:20,196 --> 00:22:24,276
Speaker 2: strange White man had come to her house and forced

268
00:22:24,316 --> 00:22:28,836
Speaker 2: her to sign a fake statement. And Tom White realized

269
00:22:28,876 --> 00:22:34,316
Speaker 2: something else. Some unknown person in his team was a

270
00:22:34,356 --> 00:22:40,476
Speaker 2: double agent, leaking the bureau's internal reports, feeding back everything

271
00:22:40,716 --> 00:22:45,156
Speaker 2: to the men they were pursuing. Who were those men?

272
00:22:46,116 --> 00:22:49,756
Speaker 2: After spending the summer of nineteen twenty five trying to

273
00:22:49,876 --> 00:22:54,276
Speaker 2: navigate the wilderness of mirrors, Tom White started to piece

274
00:22:54,356 --> 00:22:58,636
Speaker 2: together a theory. One of the murdered o Sage men

275
00:22:58,836 --> 00:23:03,276
Speaker 2: had a life insurance policy for twenty five thousand dollars,

276
00:23:03,556 --> 00:23:08,156
Speaker 2: a huge sum, but rather than naming his wife as

277
00:23:08,156 --> 00:23:14,676
Speaker 2: a beneficiary, he had named his wealthy friend, William Hale,

278
00:23:15,596 --> 00:23:21,596
Speaker 2: the King of the Osage Hills. That seemed strange, although

279
00:23:21,836 --> 00:23:25,276
Speaker 2: Hale explained to White that the poor man had discovered

280
00:23:25,276 --> 00:23:28,836
Speaker 2: his wife was having an affair and Hale had comforted

281
00:23:28,916 --> 00:23:34,396
Speaker 2: him in his distress. That would explain everything. Then, a

282
00:23:34,436 --> 00:23:39,116
Speaker 2: woman who lived near Hale's farm told investigators that when

283
00:23:39,276 --> 00:23:43,636
Speaker 2: Hale's land had been set ablaze, it was by Hale's

284
00:23:43,636 --> 00:23:49,236
Speaker 2: workers on Hale's orders. He had collected thirty thousand dollars

285
00:23:49,276 --> 00:23:54,276
Speaker 2: in insurance money. Hale controlled everything around here, she told

286
00:23:54,316 --> 00:24:00,756
Speaker 2: the agents. White looked more and more closely at Hale's affairs.

287
00:24:01,556 --> 00:24:06,196
Speaker 2: Those head rights, the unbelievably lucrative rights to the money

288
00:24:06,276 --> 00:24:10,916
Speaker 2: from o Sage County's oil fields, couldn't be bought or sold.

289
00:24:11,396 --> 00:24:15,916
Speaker 2: They could only be inherited. Minnie's and Anna's head rights

290
00:24:16,356 --> 00:24:21,156
Speaker 2: had gone to their mother, Lizzie. Then Lizzie herself had

291
00:24:21,236 --> 00:24:26,236
Speaker 2: died from a mysterious illness, all of her accumulated head

292
00:24:26,316 --> 00:24:31,636
Speaker 2: rights went to Molly and her sister Rita. This slow

293
00:24:31,796 --> 00:24:36,396
Speaker 2: burning family tragedy started to develop a remorseless logic in

294
00:24:36,556 --> 00:24:40,596
Speaker 2: Tom White's mind, even the use of a bomb to

295
00:24:40,756 --> 00:24:45,596
Speaker 2: murder Rita and her husband Bill, because their will specified

296
00:24:45,636 --> 00:24:50,196
Speaker 2: that if they died simultaneously, everything would pass to Molly.

297
00:24:51,596 --> 00:24:57,356
Speaker 2: Molly herself was very ill, despite the close attention she

298
00:24:57,476 --> 00:25:03,516
Speaker 2: was receiving from William Hale's personal physicians. She hadn't died,

299
00:25:04,196 --> 00:25:08,196
Speaker 2: not yet, but perhaps the killers weren't in a hurry,

300
00:25:08,636 --> 00:25:13,516
Speaker 2: since Molly's money was all controlled by her husband, Ernest,

301
00:25:14,396 --> 00:25:21,516
Speaker 2: a man who was absolutely loyal to his uncle William Hale. Earnest,

302
00:25:21,716 --> 00:25:25,916
Speaker 2: it seemed, might be complicit in the plot to murder

303
00:25:26,276 --> 00:25:33,276
Speaker 2: every member of his wife's family and presumably his wife herself.

304
00:25:39,716 --> 00:25:44,636
Speaker 2: Solving the mystery was one thing, Securing a conviction was

305
00:25:44,756 --> 00:25:50,276
Speaker 2: quite another. In an Oklahoma court, everyone from the sheriff

306
00:25:50,316 --> 00:25:53,556
Speaker 2: to the juries would be bought and paid for by

307
00:25:53,556 --> 00:25:57,436
Speaker 2: William Hale. Even if Tom White could get the case

308
00:25:57,516 --> 00:26:01,636
Speaker 2: tried in a federal court, would a white jury convict

309
00:26:03,156 --> 00:26:07,156
Speaker 2: as one O sage elder commented, The question for them

310
00:26:07,196 --> 00:26:10,436
Speaker 2: to decide is whether a white man killing an O

311
00:26:10,596 --> 00:26:22,396
Speaker 2: sage is murder or merely cruelty to animals. The trials

312
00:26:22,636 --> 00:26:27,196
Speaker 2: were a sensation, I say trials, since there were several

313
00:26:27,276 --> 00:26:32,396
Speaker 2: murders and several murderers working for Hale. One was declared

314
00:26:32,396 --> 00:26:35,476
Speaker 2: a mistrial after it became clear that members of the

315
00:26:35,556 --> 00:26:40,756
Speaker 2: jury had been bribed. Ernest made a full confession of

316
00:26:40,836 --> 00:26:45,596
Speaker 2: his and his uncle's crimes, then withdrew it and agreed

317
00:26:45,636 --> 00:26:51,116
Speaker 2: to testify for his uncle's defense, then repented and confessed again.

318
00:26:52,476 --> 00:26:55,996
Speaker 2: It's hard to know why he changed his mind, but

319
00:26:56,236 --> 00:27:00,396
Speaker 2: perhaps it was the sight of his wife, Molly, sitting

320
00:27:00,516 --> 00:27:07,036
Speaker 2: silently in the courtroom day after day, solemnly watching as

321
00:27:07,076 --> 00:27:10,436
Speaker 2: it became clear that the man she had loved had

322
00:27:10,476 --> 00:27:18,276
Speaker 2: conspired to murder every member of her family, including her. Finally,

323
00:27:18,716 --> 00:27:24,796
Speaker 2: a jury reached a verdict. The clerk read it out

324
00:27:25,316 --> 00:27:30,236
Speaker 2: to the charge of first degree murder. William K. Hale

325
00:27:30,476 --> 00:27:37,156
Speaker 2: had been found guilty, but the jury ruled out the

326
00:27:37,196 --> 00:27:41,516
Speaker 2: death penalty that would normally be of foregone conclusion. Hale

327
00:27:41,756 --> 00:27:52,876
Speaker 2: and others would serve long prison terms for their appalling crimes.

328
00:27:54,156 --> 00:27:57,836
Speaker 2: Orson Wells once said that if you want a happy ending,

329
00:27:58,676 --> 00:28:02,796
Speaker 2: it depends on where you stop the story. It's tempting

330
00:28:02,836 --> 00:28:06,956
Speaker 2: to stop the story. On November seventeenth, nineteen twenty six,

331
00:28:09,796 --> 00:28:13,476
Speaker 2: Tom White has gone out on a high, retiring from

332
00:28:13,476 --> 00:28:16,596
Speaker 2: the Bureau to take a more settled job does the

333
00:28:16,676 --> 00:28:20,796
Speaker 2: wardens and Leavenworth Prison, and he's just learning the rope

334
00:28:20,876 --> 00:28:25,836
Speaker 2: of the new job when some new inmates, shackled, pale

335
00:28:26,276 --> 00:28:30,196
Speaker 2: and blinking in the sunlight, are warped up the prison

336
00:28:30,276 --> 00:28:36,956
Speaker 2: driveway are the US Marshals. White recognizes the distinctive round

337
00:28:37,036 --> 00:28:44,356
Speaker 2: face of William K. Hale, and Hale recognizes him too

338
00:28:44,636 --> 00:28:51,836
Speaker 2: by Hello, Tom offers Hale, Hello, Bill says Warden Tom White.

339
00:28:52,476 --> 00:28:57,076
Speaker 2: He shakes William Hale's hand and watches as Hale is

340
00:28:57,196 --> 00:29:04,916
Speaker 2: marched off to his cell. But I can't end the

341
00:29:04,956 --> 00:29:08,996
Speaker 2: story there. When Tom White and the Bureau of Investigation

342
00:29:09,436 --> 00:29:14,676
Speaker 2: convicted Hale and his immediate conspirators, they declared victory and

343
00:29:14,796 --> 00:29:19,396
Speaker 2: got out of town. But the killings didn't stop. Then

344
00:29:20,396 --> 00:29:24,316
Speaker 2: you can still drown in the devil's excrement, even if

345
00:29:24,316 --> 00:29:31,156
Speaker 2: the devil himself has gone to jail. Cautionary tales will

346
00:29:31,196 --> 00:29:45,636
Speaker 2: return after the break. This cautionary tale relies on David

347
00:29:45,716 --> 00:29:51,236
Speaker 2: Grand's magisterial book Killers of the Flower Moon. When I

348
00:29:51,276 --> 00:29:53,916
Speaker 2: told David I was hoping to base an episode on it,

349
00:29:54,356 --> 00:29:57,836
Speaker 2: he told me take a look at the final section

350
00:29:57,956 --> 00:30:01,556
Speaker 2: of the book. That's the part of the history that

351
00:30:01,756 --> 00:30:06,876
Speaker 2: often gets left out. The final section begins in twenty twelve,

352
00:30:07,796 --> 00:30:11,556
Speaker 2: almost ninety year years after our comic book hero Tom

353
00:30:11,596 --> 00:30:16,876
Speaker 2: White strode into town. Another investigator followed in his footsteps.

354
00:30:17,676 --> 00:30:22,316
Speaker 2: He wasn't a former Texas Ranger, standing tall, packing heat

355
00:30:22,396 --> 00:30:26,116
Speaker 2: and wearing a cowboy hat. He was a bespectacled writer

356
00:30:26,276 --> 00:30:32,036
Speaker 2: from New York, David Gran himself. Gran had questions in

357
00:30:32,076 --> 00:30:35,196
Speaker 2: his mind about the murders, and he wanted to see

358
00:30:35,316 --> 00:30:38,756
Speaker 2: Osage County to meet some of the twenty first century

359
00:30:39,156 --> 00:30:44,356
Speaker 2: O Sage people. The oil boom ended in the nineteen thirties.

360
00:30:45,076 --> 00:30:49,876
Speaker 2: The boomtowns of the area are depopulated now. Wizbang is

361
00:30:49,956 --> 00:30:54,996
Speaker 2: long gone, the clues that it ever existed covered by grass.

362
00:30:55,556 --> 00:30:58,556
Speaker 2: There's still a little oil and steal a little money

363
00:30:58,556 --> 00:31:01,356
Speaker 2: for the people with head rights, but not enough to

364
00:31:01,476 --> 00:31:09,796
Speaker 2: change a life or to end it. Under the head

365
00:31:09,836 --> 00:31:13,476
Speaker 2: right system, some of that money remains in a trust,

366
00:31:14,036 --> 00:31:17,636
Speaker 2: and some things don't change. It isn't managed by the

367
00:31:17,676 --> 00:31:22,436
Speaker 2: O Sage Nation, but by the US government, mismanaged, the

368
00:31:22,476 --> 00:31:27,036
Speaker 2: Osage say, and their legal struggle over the money continues.

369
00:31:29,996 --> 00:31:33,716
Speaker 2: The O Sage Nation is twenty thousand strong, of whom

370
00:31:33,916 --> 00:31:38,236
Speaker 2: four thousand still live in Osage County, in and around

371
00:31:38,316 --> 00:31:43,116
Speaker 2: their capital, Poor Huskar. The Osage have an elected government

372
00:31:43,396 --> 00:31:46,756
Speaker 2: and ratified a new constitution in two thousand and six.

373
00:31:48,156 --> 00:31:52,596
Speaker 2: In some ways, the Sage Chief's prophecy has come true.

374
00:31:54,556 --> 00:31:59,156
Speaker 2: Someday this oil will go and there will be no

375
00:31:59,276 --> 00:32:02,916
Speaker 2: more fat checks every few months from the Great White Father.

376
00:32:04,076 --> 00:32:09,796
Speaker 2: Then I know my people will be happier. The terror

377
00:32:09,876 --> 00:32:13,796
Speaker 2: of the nineteen twenties is a low bar for happiness.

378
00:32:14,916 --> 00:32:20,716
Speaker 2: One O Sage historian Lewis F. Burns wrote, to believe

379
00:32:20,796 --> 00:32:25,876
Speaker 2: that the Osages survived intact from their ordeal is a

380
00:32:25,916 --> 00:32:30,956
Speaker 2: delusion of the mind. What has been possible to salvage

381
00:32:31,716 --> 00:32:35,956
Speaker 2: has been saved, and is dearer to our hearts because

382
00:32:36,276 --> 00:32:40,116
Speaker 2: it survived. But much of what the O Sage nation

383
00:32:40,316 --> 00:32:54,476
Speaker 2: had now exists only in memory. David Grant visited the

384
00:32:54,516 --> 00:32:58,316
Speaker 2: region several times to meet people and hear their stories.

385
00:32:59,476 --> 00:33:04,036
Speaker 2: He attended a ceremonial dance, watching the drummers and the singers,

386
00:33:04,796 --> 00:33:12,676
Speaker 2: the dancers in headdresses stepping together counterclockwise, intensity building. At

387
00:33:12,676 --> 00:33:15,716
Speaker 2: the dance, a woman came up to David gran and

388
00:33:15,836 --> 00:33:19,996
Speaker 2: introduced herself. She was in her fifties wearing a blue

389
00:33:20,076 --> 00:33:24,596
Speaker 2: dress with long black hair in a ponytail. She seemed

390
00:33:25,116 --> 00:33:32,756
Speaker 2: familiar somehow, Hi, she said, I'm Margie Burkhart. She was

391
00:33:32,796 --> 00:33:38,316
Speaker 2: the granddaughter of Ernest and Molly Burkhart. Mollie who'd watched

392
00:33:38,316 --> 00:33:44,396
Speaker 2: her sisters and mother die one by one, Ernest, who'd

393
00:33:44,476 --> 00:33:51,956
Speaker 2: conspired in their murder. Margie talked about her father, Cowboy Burkhart,

394
00:33:52,556 --> 00:33:55,876
Speaker 2: how much he had doted on his mother, Molly, and

395
00:33:55,956 --> 00:33:58,636
Speaker 2: how haunted he had been by the crimes of his father.

396
00:34:00,316 --> 00:34:03,476
Speaker 2: She drove David Graham to the site of the bombed house,

397
00:34:04,236 --> 00:34:07,356
Speaker 2: and as they sat outside in the car, she told

398
00:34:07,396 --> 00:34:10,796
Speaker 2: him that little Cowboy and his sister had been due

399
00:34:10,876 --> 00:34:14,436
Speaker 2: to visit their aunt Rita the night her house blew up,

400
00:34:15,676 --> 00:34:22,076
Speaker 2: but Cowboy had earache, so it didn't go. Ernest would

401
00:34:22,076 --> 00:34:25,156
Speaker 2: have known very well what would happen to the house

402
00:34:25,196 --> 00:34:29,956
Speaker 2: that night, as Margie explained to gran my dad had

403
00:34:29,956 --> 00:34:39,276
Speaker 2: to live knowing that his father had tried to kill him.

404
00:34:39,516 --> 00:34:43,676
Speaker 2: The more often David Graham visited Osage County and the

405
00:34:43,716 --> 00:34:47,236
Speaker 2: more stories he heard, the more he came to realize

406
00:34:47,276 --> 00:34:51,236
Speaker 2: that reality didn't quite squeeze into the neat story of

407
00:34:51,356 --> 00:34:57,396
Speaker 2: William Hale's murderous plot and Tom White's brilliant investigation. Hale

408
00:34:57,756 --> 00:35:01,636
Speaker 2: was guilty of organizing the murder of Molly Burkhardt's family,

409
00:35:01,756 --> 00:35:07,476
Speaker 2: to be sure, and the Oceage haven't forgotten in the

410
00:35:07,476 --> 00:35:12,916
Speaker 2: Oceage Nation Museum poor Huskar. There's an expansive group photograph

411
00:35:13,036 --> 00:35:17,036
Speaker 2: from nineteen twenty four depicting many members of the tribe

412
00:35:17,316 --> 00:35:22,476
Speaker 2: alongside the most influential and admired White locals. A section

413
00:35:22,596 --> 00:35:27,236
Speaker 2: of the picture has been cut away, the section depicting

414
00:35:27,276 --> 00:35:32,996
Speaker 2: William Hale. The museum director, Catherine Redcorn explained to David

415
00:35:32,996 --> 00:35:37,036
Speaker 2: gran that it was too painful to show the devil

416
00:35:37,276 --> 00:35:44,116
Speaker 2: was standing right there. But there's no evidence connecting Hale

417
00:35:44,276 --> 00:35:48,476
Speaker 2: with the murder of Barney McBride, an oil man who'd

418
00:35:48,516 --> 00:35:51,716
Speaker 2: set off for Washington, d c determined to appeal to

419
00:35:51,716 --> 00:35:55,756
Speaker 2: the federal authorities for help in solving the Osage murders.

420
00:35:56,396 --> 00:36:00,516
Speaker 2: His naked body was found the next morning, a sack

421
00:36:00,636 --> 00:36:04,636
Speaker 2: tied over his head, his skull smashed in had been

422
00:36:04,676 --> 00:36:11,356
Speaker 2: stabbed two dozen times. Nor was Hale apparently connected with

423
00:36:11,396 --> 00:36:15,356
Speaker 2: the murder of Charlie Whitehorn, who disappeared around the same

424
00:36:15,396 --> 00:36:20,476
Speaker 2: time as Anna. He was found under a bush, a bloated,

425
00:36:20,876 --> 00:36:25,196
Speaker 2: fly blown corpse, identified only by a letter in his pocket.

426
00:36:26,316 --> 00:36:32,356
Speaker 2: Between his eyes gaped two bullet holes. His widow, Hattie,

427
00:36:32,516 --> 00:36:36,436
Speaker 2: then seemed sure to die of a mysterious illness until

428
00:36:36,476 --> 00:36:39,836
Speaker 2: her sisters moved her away from the area, where she

429
00:36:39,956 --> 00:36:47,156
Speaker 2: staged a full and surprising recovery. Hale didn't seem to

430
00:36:47,196 --> 00:36:50,796
Speaker 2: be behind the death of George Bigheart, who died in

431
00:36:50,836 --> 00:36:55,996
Speaker 2: an Oklahoma City hospital in nineteen twenty three after being poisoned,

432
00:36:58,156 --> 00:37:02,236
Speaker 2: or W. W. Vaughan, big Heart's lawyer, who rushed to

433
00:37:02,276 --> 00:37:05,876
Speaker 2: his deathbed to hear his testimony and collect some vital

434
00:37:05,956 --> 00:37:12,516
Speaker 2: incriminating documents. Vaughn then phoned the Osage County sheriff to

435
00:37:12,596 --> 00:37:15,996
Speaker 2: tell him that he knew who killed big Heart, and

436
00:37:16,076 --> 00:37:19,996
Speaker 2: a lot more than that. Vaughan boarded a train home

437
00:37:20,836 --> 00:37:24,036
Speaker 2: but never made it. His body was found by the

438
00:37:24,076 --> 00:37:31,236
Speaker 2: tracks north of Oklahoma City, neck broken, incriminating documents god

439
00:37:34,396 --> 00:37:38,916
Speaker 2: In his conversations with O Sage people, Gran kept hearing

440
00:37:39,036 --> 00:37:43,356
Speaker 2: similar stories O Sage grandparents who died young in the

441
00:37:43,436 --> 00:37:47,956
Speaker 2: nineteen twenties or nineteen thirties, With the family convinced of

442
00:37:48,036 --> 00:37:53,716
Speaker 2: foul play and the authorities showing no interest. Digging into

443
00:37:53,716 --> 00:37:58,516
Speaker 2: the archives, he sometimes found clues. In Killers of the

444
00:37:58,516 --> 00:38:02,956
Speaker 2: Flower Moon, Gran's detective work reveals the identity of the

445
00:38:03,156 --> 00:38:08,876
Speaker 2: influential man who killed W. W. Vaughan, but some of

446
00:38:08,916 --> 00:38:13,116
Speaker 2: them ers will never be solved. Too much evidence was

447
00:38:13,156 --> 00:38:18,396
Speaker 2: deliberately destroyed by corrupt officials. And then there are other

448
00:38:18,756 --> 00:38:23,876
Speaker 2: heartbreaking cases of white guardians with three, four or more

449
00:38:24,116 --> 00:38:29,916
Speaker 2: O Sage wards who all died young for no apparent reason,

450
00:38:31,236 --> 00:38:34,756
Speaker 2: deaths that at the time were never even recognized as

451
00:38:34,876 --> 00:38:43,436
Speaker 2: murder at all. The resource curse is seen as a

452
00:38:43,476 --> 00:38:49,156
Speaker 2: subtle economic problem. There's a lively academic debate on why

453
00:38:49,356 --> 00:38:52,636
Speaker 2: some nations seem to suffer more than others and what

454
00:38:52,796 --> 00:38:57,396
Speaker 2: policies they should adopt, But the basic truth of the

455
00:38:57,436 --> 00:39:03,916
Speaker 2: resource curse isn't subtle at all. It's that money brings trouble,

456
00:39:05,276 --> 00:39:12,596
Speaker 2: civil wars, nasty geopolitics, brutal dictatorships. Or if you're the

457
00:39:12,716 --> 00:39:17,156
Speaker 2: last remaining two thousand, two hundred and twenty nine members

458
00:39:17,156 --> 00:39:21,756
Speaker 2: of the O Sage nation suddenly rich and hemmed on

459
00:39:21,876 --> 00:39:25,236
Speaker 2: all sides by a society with no respect for you

460
00:39:25,436 --> 00:39:32,476
Speaker 2: at all, it brings murder. The Oceage was surrounded by murderers.

461
00:39:33,076 --> 00:39:37,596
Speaker 2: Those murderers weren't all orchestrated by William Hale. They didn't

462
00:39:37,636 --> 00:39:41,316
Speaker 2: need to be. They had their own reference and their

463
00:39:41,356 --> 00:39:46,556
Speaker 2: own motives, and they were protected by a white society

464
00:39:47,316 --> 00:39:54,516
Speaker 2: that didn't much care about dead rich Indians. Sometimes a

465
00:39:54,596 --> 00:40:25,316
Speaker 2: conspiracy is so big you simply can't call it a conspiracy.

466
00:40:33,596 --> 00:40:36,756
Speaker 2: This cautionary tale is based, with permission, on David Grand's

467
00:40:36,756 --> 00:40:41,156
Speaker 2: book Killers of the Flower Moon. The film of the

468
00:40:41,156 --> 00:40:44,676
Speaker 2: same title is now in theaters, directed by Martin SCORSESEI

469
00:40:44,836 --> 00:40:49,916
Speaker 2: and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert de Niro, and Lilli Gladstone.

470
00:40:50,756 --> 00:40:56,596
Speaker 2: This episode was produced in association with Apple Original Films.

471
00:40:56,596 --> 00:40:59,716
Speaker 2: Next week, I'll be back discussing this story with Jim

472
00:40:59,876 --> 00:41:03,436
Speaker 2: Roan Gray, a former principal chief of the Osage Nation.

473
00:41:10,316 --> 00:41:13,876
Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim Harford with Andrew Wright.

474
00:41:14,316 --> 00:41:17,636
Speaker 2: It's produced by Alice Fines with support from Marilyn Rust.

475
00:41:18,116 --> 00:41:20,676
Speaker 2: The sound design and original music is the work of

476
00:41:20,716 --> 00:41:25,636
Speaker 2: Pascal Wise. Sarah Nix edited the scripts. It features the

477
00:41:25,676 --> 00:41:30,476
Speaker 2: voice talents of Ben Crowe, Melanie Guttridge, Stella Harford, Jammas Saunders,

478
00:41:30,556 --> 00:41:34,276
Speaker 2: and Rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been possible

479
00:41:34,316 --> 00:41:38,396
Speaker 2: without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Ryan Dilly, Greta Cohne,

480
00:41:38,676 --> 00:41:44,036
Speaker 2: Dital Millard, John Schnaz, Eric's handler, Carrie Brody, and Christina Sullivan.

481
00:41:44,836 --> 00:41:49,436
Speaker 2: Cautionary Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. It's recorded

482
00:41:49,476 --> 00:41:53,196
Speaker 2: at Wardoor Studios in London by Tom Berry. If you

483
00:41:53,436 --> 00:41:57,636
Speaker 2: like the show, please remember to share, rate and review,

484
00:41:58,156 --> 00:42:00,316
Speaker 2: tell your friends and if you want to hear the

485
00:42:00,356 --> 00:42:03,836
Speaker 2: show ad free, sign up for Pushkin Plus on the

486
00:42:03,876 --> 00:42:08,036
Speaker 2: show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot Fm,

487
00:42:08,316 --> 00:42:09,356
Speaker 2: slash yes