Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Blood And Black Gold

May 18, 2023, by JimC

“There are many, so many, hungry wolves. Can you find the wolves in this picture?” 

Lordy. The trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon just dropped. Wow.

This tale exposes one of the darkest corners of American history. A lot of blood has been spilled for that Black Gold.

In the 1920s the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West – where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes like Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror”, roamed – many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than 24, the FBI took up the case. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations, and the bureau badly bungled the case. In desperation the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only American Indian agents in the bureau. The agents infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

Filed Under: Chapters

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Comments

  1. Monk says

    May 18, 2023 at 7:40 am

    Scorsese: I am old. I read stuff. I see things. I want to tell stories,
    and there’s no more time.

    Wow just wow !

    Reply
  2. Joe says

    May 19, 2023 at 6:13 pm

    Incredible trailer. Scorsese is one of the few directors who can get A list actors to work for him at a discount and make time to film on his terms. I know precious little about the Osage murders and will definitely need to find some reading material to remedy that.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      May 19, 2023 at 7:09 pm

      The book Killers of the Flower Moon is worthy.

      Reply
      • Jerry N says

        May 24, 2023 at 8:11 am

        Agreed

        Reply
  3. echnamoc says

    May 20, 2023 at 12:26 am

    Matt Braun’s 2004 novel “Black Gold”: https://archive.bookfrom.net/matt-braun/637432-black_gold.html
    The Osage Indians lost their ancestral freedom on a windswept reservation in Oklahoma. Now, in the Roaring Twenties, the land is spewing black gold; oil has been found, and every Osage owns a share of the rights. Soon Osage tribal members are being killed for their oil royalties while a corrupt sheriff turns his back on the murders, Special Agent Frank Gordon organizes and undercover operation while working openly with frontier legend U.S. Marshall Will Proctor. Their investigation unearths a string of thirty-three murders, and as they race against death, Osages are still being killed. Gordon is determined to bring down the mastermind behind the ring of cold-blooded butchers. But when one of his own men is murdered and the killers turn on him, Gordon realizes there is a law beyond the law–the law of survival…

    Reply
    • JimC says

      May 20, 2023 at 5:12 am

      Yes! Braun always wrote a ripping yarn, solidly based in history. I need to do a post on him — read a lot of his stuff.

      Reply

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