WEBVTT - The Guardianship 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.040 Got You. Speaker. Um. I have a young woman here 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:09.200 and she is doing a story. Last time I was 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.720 in Pahasca I met a woman named Billy Panka. I 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:14.680 had heard of billy. She used to work at the 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.360 white hair memorial, the osage research and learning center, and 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.799 while we were talking I told Billy I was trying 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:22.880 to find someone who knew an o s age man 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:27.000 named Myron Banks Jr. Billy hopped on the phone, started 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:32.800 calling friends relatives, and his name was Lauren Banks B 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:38.279 A N G S and he sued his Guardian. I 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.960 was curious about Myron because the Drummond brothers were his guardians, 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.639 some of the white men the US government had put 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:46.960 in charge of the finances of o s ages and 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:51.440 other native Americans. In total, the three Drummond brothers were 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.720 guardians to at least ten o s ages, children and 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.279 adults in the United States. Sued them over how they 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:04.400 handled my affairs. Yeah, they've never heard of him. Okay, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.440 all right, and handld spread the word. I need to 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.400 know who he is. Of course he used to Safetan 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:26.679 gons for quite some time. I found the lawsuit in 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.399 the National Archives. My Iron had commissioned a private audit 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.160 on his accounts and sent what he learned to the government. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.479 He left behind a ton of documents with his lawyer 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.160 other than Myron Byan's juniors records. There isn't a whole 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.480 lot in the archives about the Drummond brothers guardianships. The 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:46.840 official records are under seal in the O s age 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.560 county courthouse. So this is one of the most complete 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:53.320 looks inside a guardianship that I've seen. When I've asked 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.320 members of the Drummond family today about the three brothers, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.360 Fred Gettner, Cecil and Jack and whether any of knew 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.720 anything about their guardianships, the either told me they didn't 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.560 know the brothers were guardians or, if they did, they 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:09.440 had always heard it was because their ancestors were trustworthy. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.920 There's a moment in the tapes with Jack Drummond and 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.440 his biographer, Terry, where Jack brings up guardianships. It's in 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.200 the middle of an unrelated conversation. Actor Terry asked Jack 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:28.640 about his relationship with his brothers. You seem too, as 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:33.160 a boy, have been a friend with your sil then 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:38.600 with them with Gantner. Is that so? Would that be true? Yes, Gattner, 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:46.880 see gettner was always jealous macy from them news. To 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:52.120 be safe, he's griping about his brother Fred ginner again. Remember, 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.360 Jack was mad he didn't get that bonus after he 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.960 made a huge profit at the store. He was also 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.120 mad his brother ended up with control of the store 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.480 once their dad died. Jack Las All this out to Terry, 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.880 all his frustrations with Fred Gettner. Then he says I 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.399 wouldn't want this said. Are repeated and never bring out 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:17.560 in in in anything. You right, but getting with a hipocrap. 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:24.639 He was very selfish and he was the administrator of 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:29.720 my fathers, the state, and somehow he ended up with 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.280 the began thom. Of course, he said, that's him shared. 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.200 But then he dealt with the Indians. Of course he 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.240 made a lot of money off the Indians and he 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:45.280 was administrator of the states and he was he was 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.920 guardian for several Indian to handle all our money and 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.800 all the money never passed through getting Roman's hands. Some 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.800 of it stuck to him, uh, stuck to hit hand, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.000 stuck to his hands. Jack seemed to say his brother 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.360 Fred Getner had been up to something, and what I 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.640 learned from Iron Banks Jr was that Jack Wasn't alone 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.440 in thinking so. One of Fred Getner's boards thought so too, 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.120 and at one point so did the United States government. 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:39.400 This isn't trust. I'm Rachel Adams hurt. Myron banks junior's 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:42.880 lawsuit was filed in the nineteen forties, but to understand 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:44.640 what led to it you have to know that the 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.560 Drummond's involvement with his family starts way earlier, back when 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.240 Myron was a baby. Not long after the nineteen of 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.960 six a lotment. Myron was born just a little too 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.599 late to have a head right in his name. His mother, 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.039 father and older brother got them, as well as land. 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.560 But right after the Allotment Act Myron's father, Myron being senior, 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:10.600 and his infant brother Percy both died. Myron's mom, Lucy, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.640 was left to raise him on her own. Frederick Drummond, 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.280 the Scottish immigrant who ran the store, he handled myron 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:21.640 senior in Percy's estates, which passed their land and head 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.960 rights to Myron Jr and Lucy. This made them both 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.839 incredibly wealthy. But when Myron was twelve years old, his 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:33.159 mom became sick. The records say she had tuberculosis and 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.719 all of a sudden, a lot of men became very 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:45.279 interested in her affairs. There was a man named Robert 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.400 White Cloud, who married Lucy right when her health took 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.760 a turn. Not long after, she went to New Mexico, 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.240 hoping the dry air would help her symptoms. That's when 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.599 a second man took an interest. His name was bright roddy. 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.040 He followed her to New Mexico, all the way from Pahaska. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:10.359 He wanted to write her will. By February, lucy was 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.520 back in harmony. That's when a third man got involved. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.120 It was another Drummond, Fred Getner, who by now had 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.360 taken over the store. He wanted to write lucy a 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.760 different will. According to probate testimony, Fred getner visited her 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.360 every day while she was so sick she couldn't get 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:37.160 out of bed. Lucy died a few weeks later, on February, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.000 at just thirteen years old. Myron had lost his entire family. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.680 The homony trading company was Lucy's undertaker, just like it 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:55.760 was for a lot of other o sages who lived 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.040 in Hominy, and Fred getner became executor of her will, 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.880 the one he wrote for her. Three estates, myron seniors, 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:08.320 Percy's and Lucy's all handled by the drummonds and then 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.400 a guardianship of myron banks Jr. He was orphaned and 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.400 all his folks and his grandfather, grandmother, his mother and 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.400 his dad, aunt and uncle whatever, they all died and 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.200 that's why he came into all that money. This is Myron, 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.320 Read Eagle. His name was on a Business Card Billy 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.560 Panka gave me when she was trying to help me 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:32.240 track down someone who knew myron banks Jr, my cousin 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.360 Openmar Banks Jr. I live here in Pahaska. Myron's on 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.760 the O sage Minerals Council, the elected officials who oversee 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.440 the O stage mineral estate. When I sat in that 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.640 big room with Everett Waller asking about non Os age 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.480 head right holders, I was just inches away from where 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.320 Myron sits whenever there's a meeting. I think that Nabe 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.960 after him because I kind of looked lacking. That's what 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.320 my mom used to say. It looks like brother Mayron, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.960 she used to say. So this is a picture I 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.360 found of him at Um the Oklahoma historical society. Yeah, 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.800 that's hiamh. Yeah, do you think? Do you think you 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.080 look like him? Yeah, the way I do. Yeah, what 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:12.960 features do you see? Probably a small yeah, for what 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.240 it's worth, I see it too. Myron read Eagle has 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:18.640 a big smile. I thought a lot as he told 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.280 me about his cousin. He don't give me a dollar 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.920 every time he came to the e. You just give 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.600 everybody a dollar and they were silver dollars in those days. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.720 You know, by the time Myron Read Eagle met myron 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:33.280 Banks Jr, Myron bigs junior was in his forties. He 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.679 had airplanes. He could fly airplanes. He was smart, he 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:39.640 wouldn't they were no dumb guy, you know, he knew 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:41.280 how to fly a plane. I don't know what the 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:44.000 restrictions for on those days, but he had his own plane. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:46.200 There was a story about it. In those days they 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.319 had what they call feast, big feast, you know, and 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.559 they had to start a fire but they couldn't get 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.120 it started and uncle Martin flew into the field. They 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.680 came in there and they said what's going on? You know, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.680 they were all talking oak stage and they were trying 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.840 to start this far. You know, you give me that 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.120 thing and he grabbed grabbed one and he stuck. At 0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:07.800 one time got a spark got started just like yeah, 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.160 and he said, okay, I want to go back to Talso, 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:15.000 I'll be back later. He got into you got the 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:20.400 fire started. I gotta kick out that. The Drummond Brothers 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.679 guardianship of myron banks Jr started when he was just 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.520 a child, but it lasted well into his adulthood because 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.000 even though he was educated, could fly an airplane served 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:35.439 in the army, the US government considered him incompetent. He 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.079 said he couldn't control his own money and kept the 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.480 drummond brothers in charge instead. A lot of myron's personal 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.439 records are in an archive in Oklahoma City at the 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.080 Oklahoma historical society. There are boxes of old handwritten letters, 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.920 postcards and telegrams from Myron's travels, his honorable discharge from 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.920 the army. Even an old date book of his Maroon 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.360 embossed with junior on the front, old the week he 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.920 got married, is full of reminders to pick up pants 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.680 from the dry cleaner and check in about the marriage license. 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.319 Looking at all this, I felt like I got a 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:11.400 little peek into what Myron might have been like as 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:17.400 a person. Intelligent, persistent, a bit sarcastic at times and later, 0:10:17.640 --> 0:10:21.640 when he became a husband and father, doting and pretty religious. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.400 In that archive there are also boxes and boxes of 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.960 legal records, because this collection belonged to Myron's lawyer, a 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:34.280 man named Paul Comstock, and when I met with Myron 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.160 Read Eagle, I showed some of these records to him. 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:40.960 They're old, some handwritten, kind of hard to read. We 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:46.320 have had so much trouble with our guardians that we 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.839 do not want to at least and to either his 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.520 or or any of his employees. This is a letter 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.600 Myron bings Jr wrote directly to the Commissioner of Indian affairs, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.080 the head of the whole agency, right before he hired 0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.800 Paul Comstock. He was in his twenties and Myron he 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.400 had a few choice words for the US government about 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:13.120 his guardian, Fred Ghetner Drummond. He titles the letter one 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:17.040 example in the Os age and then starts describing exactly 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.199 the kind of scheme you might find in the gray book, 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.880 that report from the fifties that listed so many guardianships 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:27.040 gone wrong. Myron said Fred Getner was leasing his land 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:31.040 to Horace Burkhart, a nephew of William Hale, the one 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.640 allegedly behind a lot of the murders during the reign 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.679 of terror. But myron said Horace wasn't actually using the land. 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:42.120 Fred Getner was, and according to this letter, Fred Getner 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.640 was trying to discount the rent for himself and charge 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:46.959 Myron for a barn and offense that he had put up. 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.120 Myron told the commissioner that Fred Getner was perfectly capable 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.440 of paying the full price. He ran the hominy trading company, 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.840 after all. Myron wrote stand incognito in his place of 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.040 business for one were and ascertained the prices that he 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.560 charges the Indians. I remember mom saying a lot of 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:08.800 time he was always fighting for against the system. You know, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.000 that's what it was right there. It's always fight, trying 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.520 to get something going. He he had sound enough evidence 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:19.680 to do it. You know, according to that he was 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.760 trying to get everybody's attention. Evidently, you know, he wasn't 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:25.320 the only one. There was a lot of people in 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:29.480 that same situation. Myron Jr said he had written to 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.200 the O s age agency and PAASCA that oversaw guardianships. 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.800 They apparently didn't do much. He was fed up. He 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.880 wanted someone, anyone in the US government to care in 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:42.600 other words, they went along with the Guardian. You know, 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.079 that's what they did. They didn't. They didn't really take 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.560 up for Uncle Maron. They just passed the buck and 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:49.760 give it to them. Let's say get the Guardian makes 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:53.400 the decision, and if he makes the decision, they're noting 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.520 uncle American. So myron was complaining to the agency about 0:12:57.520 --> 0:12:59.480 his guardian and the agency was telling him to go 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.440 back to his guardian with his complaints. Yeah, yeah, exactly 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:07.600 what it raged. Okay, no, Mr Springer tries to discourage 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.000 us and taking an interest in our affair. Mr Dabble 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.600 or dibble or whatever it is, is the only one 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:18.839 in a Plaska to see that seems to take any 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.880 interest in our affairs, and it's hard to read him. Yeah, sorry, 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.200 this one is tough. Yeah, I mean, did you see 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.319 the point though? And it's crooked. Even the agency was 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.640 crooked reopening in affairs. They were crooked. They didn't want 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.200 to mess with it. They knew that the Guardian would 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.560 get whatever we wanted and went along with it. In 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.720 this letter that Myron sent to the Commissioner of Indian affairs, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.960 he says we are writing to you personally because we 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:52.440 cannot get action elsewhere. A couple of weeks later Myron 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.880 wrote the O C age agency again. He said he 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.920 wanted his guardian removed, that he preferred the agency have 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.720 control of his finance. Says not, Fred Getner. And yet, 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.000 as far as I could tell, the office of Indian 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.280 affairs didn't step in. So myron took matters into his 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.240 own hands. He hired comstock at the end of n 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.560 four and a few months later Fred getner resigned as 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.240 his guardian. Myron and comstock had enlisted a team of 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.320 accountants in Tulsa to conduct an audit of his account 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.920 the accountants came back with a five page report. The 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.120 word confidential is written on the front. They offer a 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.080 disclaimer of sorts at the beginning. They say there wasn't 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.520 any standard way that guardians submitted receipts, so it would 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:47.760 have been, quote, almost impossible for the US government to 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.680 conduct any sort of accurate review of how the Drummond 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.160 brothers were handling Myron's money. But even without a lot 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:58.360 of those receipts, the auditors filled five pages with discrepancies. 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:03.920 Were issues they found after coming through Myron's affairs. According 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.080 to this, Fred Getner was leasing out land that Myron 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:09.720 wasn't getting paid for and he was making loans to 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.840 people from Myron's funds that were in default for years 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.960 before Fred Getner did anything about it. Another example stood 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.240 out to me. Fred Getner Drummond apparently sold some of 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.160 Myron's property to a man named you Nelson. He Got 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.240 Myron a thousand dollars for the land, but a few 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.200 months later Fred getner about the same piece of land back, 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.800 paying seven thousand dollars of Myron's money. According to the audit, 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.360 Myron was left with the same piece of land, but 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:41.520 he was out six thousand dollars. It's only after the 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.760 audit myron commissioned that the federal government took an interest 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.760 in his complaints. A U S attorney used one of 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.520 the examples in the report and sued the drummonds in 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.000 the lawsuit is filed in federal court in the northern 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:59.080 district of Oklahoma, the United States of America, versus Fred 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.560 G Drummond, R C Drummond and Alfred a drummond. I 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.720 showed it to Myron ready. Goal R C Drummond, a 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:09.880 guardian of the said Mayron banks junior and Fred g 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.200 drummond conspired in the devised a scheme. Due to Aud 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:16.840 the said moner banks junior in the following manner. The 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.560 case names all three brothers because, even though Fred Getner 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.480 was calling all the shots, Cecil was the one who 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.880 is technically listed as Myron's guardian. Jack Drummond was involved 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.800 to in order to be a guardian, you needed a 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.920 surety bond, basically a promise from someone else that if 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.040 you didn't act in the best interests of your reward 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.040 or took advantage of your position, they'd be on the 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.720 hook to a lot of times these bonds came from banks, 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.480 but in Myron Junior's guardianship the bond was issued by 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.840 Jack Drummond. So all three brothers had a hand in 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.960 controlling myron junior's affairs and all three brothers were sued 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.640 by the federal government. Out of everything in the audit, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.320 the US focused on one specific land dispute from when 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.280 Myron Junior was thirteen, when Lucy banks died, Fred Getner, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.960 who was acting as myron junior's guardian, transferred a piece 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.720 of land into Myron Junior's name. He paid himself three 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.240 thousand seven hundred thirty two dollars and ninety nine cents 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.960 from my iron's account. The US thought this transaction showed 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.240 fraud because what the auditors found was the Land Fred 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.879 Getner sold to Myron Junior. It already belonged to Myron Junior. 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.159 It was Lucy's and when she died it passed to 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.639 Myron Jr. The US was arguing there was no reason 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:38.760 for Fred Getner to sell it him. It's further lands. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.200 R C Drummond, the guardian of this ward, had allowed 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.560 to said Fred G Drummond to draw and checks upon 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.320 the funds of Said Ward, to incur claims against this 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.440 ward and generally assumed in conduct the affairs and official 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:56.600 authority of such guardianship, without authority of law and contrary 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.520 to the statutes of Oklahoma. Yeah, that was illegal. He 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:05.359 didn't do that. The Drummond brothers had a drastically different 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.480 version of events, one a federal judge agreed with. They 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.400 argued that this was all part of a well orchestrated plan, 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.240 a plan lucy was in on. According to the brothers, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:18.800 they were just trying to keep Lucy's husband of less 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.040 than a year, Robert White Cloud, from getting her land 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.000 after she died and the three thousand seven hundred thirty 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.200 two dollars and ninety nine cents that Fred Getner paid 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.320 himself for my iron junior's account. That was just to 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:35.040 cover a debt Lucy owed him from before she died. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:38.879 The judge who presided over this case was actually the 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.680 same one who gave William Hale a life sentence, judge Kennemer, 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:45.720 and what Kennemer said in his order in this case 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.720 was that there wasn't any evidence the drummonds cheated or 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:52.520 defrauded Myron bings Jr. He said the Drummond brothers had 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.320 in fact helped Myron by getting him land that he 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.399 would have had to share with Robert White Cloud. The 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.680 money Fred Getner paid himself was a quote, irregular way 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.720 to settle a debt, Kinnamer wrote, but Fred Getner was 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:07.920 just acting in accordance with Lucy's will, the one Fred 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.240 Getner wrote and executed. Judge Kinnamer said the county court 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.040 had signed off on all this and the superintendent of 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:17.399 the O s age agency had full knowledge of it. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.679 I'm not sure why the US didn't include any of 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.160 the other transactions that came up in the audit myron commissioned. 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.679 Maybe Fred Getner had information that explained a lot of 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:33.639 the questionable transactions. When Fred Getner resigned, Paul compstock filed 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.960 a bunch of objections to the Guardians Final Report. The 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.119 County Corps overruled those objections and the stage agency signed 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:46.200 off on it. But I'm not sure the auditors found everything, 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.000 because while I was going through Jack Drummond's financial records 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:55.920 I found something else. This one's kind of interesting. This 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:01.840 was actually part of the Drummond's personal collection. In yeah, 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.119 this piece of paper is unlike a lot of the 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:08.000 other records in Jack Drummond's collection. Most of those were 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.840 formal written to business colleagues or bankers, but this one 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.480 it's written more like notes from a conversation between two brothers. 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:19.080 The top says getting her Drummond told a, a d, 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.920 The initials for Jack's given name, Alfred Alexander. Below it 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.960 there's a list numbered one through ten, each a description 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.280 of some sort of transaction. It's number two, the one 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:35.880 about May and banks, G D N And Guardian. Guardian. 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.680 Fifteen thousand views in payment Bill Hill Land, repaid by a, 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:47.400 a and D. Jack writes myron banks Guardian. Fifteen thousand 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:51.600 dollars used in payment Bill Hale Land, repaid by a 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:56.760 a D fifteen thousand dollars that the drummonds borrowed from 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:00.840 Iron Banks Jr to buy Bill Hale's land, land that 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.440 belonged to the mastermind of the O s age murders, 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.360 land he sold before he went to prison. I had 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.960 read in Jack's biography that the drummonds bought Bill Hale's ranch. 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:13.960 It was that single reference to the reign of terror. 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:18.200 It read Bill Hale, a local rancher, had to sell 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:20.920 his land because he was going to prison for conspiring 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.119 to murder most of an O s age Indian family 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:27.240 so their head rights would evolve to his nephew. Despite 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.359 the auditors and the lawyers, no one ever noticed that 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.800 the drummonds seemed to have bought this land with Myron's money, 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.240 or if they did, they never said anything. This note 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.159 was the first I had seen of it. When the 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.520 DRUMMONDS bought Bill Hale's land in x Myron bangs was 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:48.359 eighteen years old. Part of the land included three hundred 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.520 fifteen acres that hale had gotten from an o sage 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:56.359 man named George Bigheart. Five years before bigheart mysteriously died 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:58.440 in what is now one of the most well known 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.439 examples of an unsolved order during the reign of terror. 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.040 And what this note written by Jack seemed to say 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:08.840 was that O s age money, Myron's money, helped the 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:12.679 drummonds buy it from Hale. I've looked into what happened 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.520 to this land after the drummonds bought it. It turns 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:17.880 out a lot of the bill hall ranch they bought 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.000 in partnership with another big ranching family in Osage County, 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.240 the mullandors. Eventually the Drummond brothers sold their interests in 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.520 the land to the mullandors. Today it's owned by a 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:32.600 bunch of different people and ranching incorporations, including one affiliated 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:48.680 with the Mormon Church. By the time Fred Genner resigned 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:54.359 as his guardian on January three, Myron Banks Jr was 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.560 twenty eight years old. He had spent most of his 0:22:57.640 --> 0:23:01.320 life under the drummonds financial control, and that whole time 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.000 Fred Getner was collecting a fee for doing it, more 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.480 than fifteen thousand dollars over the course of Myron's guardianship, 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:18.760 something like a quarter million dollars in today's money. In 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:21.960 y eight, after more than two decades of O s 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:26.679 age guardianships like Myron Juniors, the acting secretary of Interior 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.280 sent a letter to the head of the OS age agency. 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.760 He said a series of audits the government had conducted 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:35.640 on O s age guardianships showed that many of these 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:40.760 guardians were profiting directly or indirectly off their wards. He 0:23:40.800 --> 0:23:43.240 wrote that it was a generally accepted rule of law 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:46.679 that guardians shouldn't have business dealings with their awards, that 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:50.560 it was against public policy. He told the superintendent to 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:52.720 make a copy of the letter and send it to 0:23:52.760 --> 0:24:01.920 all the existing guardians and their lawyers. Meanwhile, Myron wasn't 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:05.600 stopping at his own guardians. In nineteen thirty nine, he 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:08.720 wrote a letter to Paul Comstock asking for his help 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.480 with a young o sage man named Otis Penn. Myron 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:16.639 said he told Otis about Paul Honesty and ability to 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:20.359 help him in the past. According to Myron, Otis wanted 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:22.760 an audit of his account. He didn't know who was 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:26.560 leasing his land where his money was being invested. Myron 0:24:26.560 --> 0:24:28.920 thought Paul Comstock would be able to help him out. 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:33.440 After reading this letter, I looked into Otis Penn's guardianship. 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:37.480 Otis was an orphan too. He had been under guardianship 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.800 since he was just a kid. Just like Myron. His 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:44.040 Guardian was Fred l shed, the man who worked in 0:24:44.080 --> 0:24:48.119 the Drummond store. At one point Fred l shed was 0:24:48.200 --> 0:24:52.480 leasing Otis's land to Cecil, Drummond and Hugh Nelson, the 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.480 same Hugh Nelson who had bought and sold Myron's land 0:24:55.520 --> 0:24:59.760 through Fred Gentner and apparently made six thousand dollars. So 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:03.000 you Nelson was also in business with the DRUMMONDS, leasing 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:06.960 land and partnership with Cecil through Fred l shed. At 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:10.359 one point, it seems Cecil and Hugh Nelson weren't paying rent. 0:25:10.960 --> 0:25:14.159 In n the Department of Interior threatened to sue them 0:25:14.200 --> 0:25:16.560 if they didn't pay two hundred dollars in rent on 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:19.520 six hundred forty acres of Otis's land they were leasing. 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:24.000 And just like Fred Getner loaned out myron's money, Fred 0:25:24.119 --> 0:25:27.479