The book is very enlightening about the lack of criminal investigations regarding serious crimes against a minority group in America. Americans pride themselves that "no one is above the law" and yet this book shows there are those in our country that presume to be untouchable simply due the the subject against whom the law is broken. What was done to many Osage Indians in the first few years of the 20th century is unconscionable. White America needs to realize that racial bias is still with us and has a long history of bigotry dating back to the founding of our country. This is a must read book of our history regarding the need for the FBI, which is under intense attack by the so called leaders of our country. We need support for our law enforcement community and this truthful series a murderous history lesson is reason enough to want the FBI to remain the mainstay of America's best law enforcement service. Oh, by the way, I am part of white America.Read full review
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Maybe 3 1/2 stars. Interesting story. It actually appears to be 1 story that is repeatedly interrupted by another. This created an uncomfortable read for me. It seemed just as the first story was really getting going there was a switch to another story and then back again. This, for me, was quite a put off for I really was interested in the first story. This first story is about a collection of terrifying set of crimes that begin as a set of social injustices and end in terror, murder and more injustices. It is a complicated story, and the stories do certainly collide. The flow of whole book seemed rough to me but certainly it is a rough, almost horror, story complete with at least 1 big monster. I'm glad the story is told but very sorry the first story is a story at all.
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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON This book chronicles in detail the murders of dozens – probably hundreds – of Osage who had the bad/good luck of being placed on a plot of Oklahoma land that Whites didn’t want, only to have oil found on their lands. So, bad luck, then good luck, then bad luck again as Whites who lived among them, even married some of them, killed them for their oil money. It documents the victims of these swindles, the historical background and the suspected perpetrators. Victims were murdered by bullet, cudgel, poison and nitroglycerine – one of the homes was blown sky high, with body parts found on neighbors’ roofs more than 300 meters away. Most of this took place between 1921 and 1926, but there were suspicious deaths both before and after these dates. The book chronicles the depravity of almost a whole community as it leaches money away from wealthy but not money-savvy people who never asked for their fates in so many ways. Ranchers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen all participated in the murders and swindles with a cold-bloodedness usually associated with hardened professional hit-men, with no sense of decency or remorse for “watering” (executing by bullet) “injuns,” “blankets,” “squaws,” and other derogatory terms. At the same time there were Whites in the community that were so determined to do right by the Osage that they were also eliminated in the same horrible ways. Was justice served? No. Two of the worst were convicted of first degree murder which automatically carried the death penalty, but the White jury could not bring itself to pass this sentence when a White killed an Indian so they were given life sentences which meant that the worst person spent 15 years in Leavenworth, then was pardoned and lived another comfortable 20 years in an Arizona retirement community. This book illustrates the intensity of distain and hatred then, that still permeates the attitudes of some Whites toward Native Americans. How could this be found in our country? Apparently easily. “United We Stand” is just a dummy phrase in that we still have a long way to go before we are united.Read full review
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Years ago, I had read an article in the local newspaper about the murder of Native Americans in Oklahoma for their mineral head rights. The article was brief and I had not read anything more about these events until a friend mentioned the movie about the FBI starring James Stewart. The Osage murders were mentioned in the movie, and it piqued my interest. This book is a must read, it will shock even the most cynical person to see how greed will compel some people to commit the most heinous crimes imaginable. This account of these events is very well written.
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This is the true story of the investigation into the murders of Native Americans that led to the formation of the FBI under Hoover. We are all familiar with the murders of African-Americans during the early decades of the 20th century, and we know that the Native Americans were pushed further west as white settlers moved in. Much less familiar to us, this book documents the systematic murder of one particular Native American tribe for the purpose of seizing their land holdings. And the ending is a shocking and stunning surprise, with new information coming to light about these events all these decades later. One of the very best nonfiction books of the year! Highly recommended!
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