“It is a question in my mind whether this jury is considering a murder case or not. The question for them to decide is whether a white man killing an Osage is murder—or merely cruelty to animals.” — Member of the Osage Nation
It’s easy for those who work in law enforcement to conclude that people suck. So many of the people police officers encounter in a given day are scumbags, motivated by the basest of human impulses… And ’twas ever thus. The Osage Murders are an extraordinarily stark exhibit in the indictment against humanity. Stark greed and deep-seated racism motivating cold-blooded murder.
Anna Brown, murdered in 1921 for her oil wealth. (Photo courtesy of the FBI)
This sordid tale from 1920s Oklahoma is getting big play right now, because it is the subject of David Grann’s latest work, Killers of the Flower Moon. Grann is riding high right now. His best-selling The Lost City of Z has been made into what is by all accounts a strong movie, which I will see the moment it hits a screen in my neck of the woods.
The Daily Beast has a good piece on the book, and there’s an interview on NPR.
From NPR:
In his new book, Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann describes how white people in the area conspired to kill Osage members in order steal their oil wealth, which could only be passed on through inheritance. “This was a culture of complicity,” he says, “and it was allowed to go on for so long because so many people were part of the plot. You had lawmen, you had prosecutors, you had the reporters who wouldn’t cover it, you had oilmen who wouldn’t speak out, you had morticians who would cover up the murders when they buried the body, you had doctors who helped give poison to people.”
Grann notes that:
What makes these crimes so sinister is that it involved marrying into families. It involved a level of calculation and a level of betraying the very people you pretended to love. And the way these murders would take place is that people would marry into the families and then begin to kill each member of the family. … That’s exactly what happened to [Osage woman Mollie Burkhart]. She had married a white man, and his uncle was the most powerful settler in the area. He was known as the King of the Osage Hills … and he had orchestrated a very sinister plot played out over years where he directed his nephew, who had married Mollie Burkhart, to marry her so that he could then begin to kill the family members one by one and siphon off all the wealth.
It’ll probably take me a while to get to this book, but I will. It’s an ugly story, but one that bears remembering.
Craig Rullman says
Saw the NPR piece this morning. And you are correct: one of the more difficult aspects of police work is remembering that not EVERYONE sucks. It takes a long time to unravel that when one walks away from the shield. This piece of history is yet another revealing glimpse into the human heart.
JimC says
Had you in mind writing that. That part of the toll is not well understood by the rest of us.
Matthew says
Some days, I have a hard time believing not everyone sucks and I’ve never been a cop. Michael Connolly portrayed this attitude in his Harry Bosch books. Mostly, because Connolly felt the same way. He’s somewhat come out of that now.
Rick Schwertfeger says
There was a full hour interview with the author David Grann on Terri Gross’ NPR show “Fresh Air” on April 17th. Provided the “big picture” and lots of specifics. This episode in U.S. history presents a stark example of how far people can go when they covet something that that other people have – other people who they think are inferior to them.
JimC says
“Othering” your intended victim seems to be an important psychological mechanism to allow for rapacious behavior that would be considered wrong inside your own society.
It is well to bear in mind that it is not a merely “white” or Western phenomenon — although it’s one our “civilization” perfected and scaled up to global proportions. The Apaches and Comanches looked with contempt upon the Mexicans whom they mauled and savaged for 200 years, for example.
Matthew says
There’s a lot of bad blood between Japanese, Koreans and Chinese. The Ainu, the original inhabitants of Japan, at certain points were basically enslaved by the Japanese.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people
JimC says
Excellent point.
lane batot says
People have always dehumanized other people to excuse their genocidal tendencies. Yet I unfortunately agree that more and more people seem to be basically “rotten” these days–I’m continually appalled at the News(fake or real), as well as just what I witness at work(amongst treacherous, sociopathic co-workers and the general public, both of which I have to deal with daily). Folks just AIN’T “raised right” much anymore! And/or they just damn well are allowed to git away with selfish behavior they would NEVER have gotten away with even in the recent past–no consequences for dirty tactics will insure they continue. As for “cruelty to animals”, I’m FAR more likely to respond BRUTALLY to any human that feels that is okay to kill/brutalize something just because it is “just an animal”, IF that particular animal is a true friend of mine! I once infuriated some co-workers by saying I trusted two cougars I help raise(from orphan cubs) FAR more than I did my co-workers, and their ensuing behavior only justified my viewpoint! I’ve YET to have a “wild animal” that I had a true, friendly relationship turn on me, but I’ve had COUNTLESS so-called human “friends” do so at the drop of a hat. So, to others like myself, “cruelty to animals” CAN be viewed as murder, too!
JimC says
You and my wife both!