Evening Book Club: Book Club
Contact Information
For more information regarding the Evening Book Club, please contact: Jaclyn Gomez at jgomez@rcls.org
Meeting Schedule
Next Meeting:
February 28, 2022 at 7pm on ZOOM
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
1. What do the contemporary media reports on the wealth and lifestyle of the Osage reflect about white perceptions of Native Americans (pp. 6–7; pp. 76–77)? In what way do they lay a foundation for the way the murders and mysterious deaths were treated by law enforcement?
2. What was your first impression of William Hale (p. 17)? How does Grann bring to life his strengths and appeal, as well as the darker side of his nature? What qualities does he share with people who achieve power and influence today?
3. How did you respond to the description of law enforcement in America during the 1920s (p. 19)? What elements most shocked or surprised you? What made the situation in Osage County particularly chaotic? What effect did this have on the investigations into the deaths of Anna Brown and Charles Whitehorn?
4. What does Grann’s account of the relationship between the United States government and Native Americans contribute to your understanding of the country’s history (pp. 37–44)? How did government policies affect individuals like Mollie and her family? What does Grann capture in his description of Lizzie’s death: “Lizzie’s spirit had been claimed by Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, and by Wah’Kon-Tah, the Great Mystery” (p. 36)?
5. Discuss the circumstances that distinguished the Osage from other Native American tribes, including the actions taken by tribal leaders early in the century; the influx of white settlers and oil prospectors; the granting of headrights; and the guardianship system (pp. 78–80).
6. What is the significance of the murder of Barney McBride, the oilman who went to Washington to seek help for the Osage (p. 68) and of W.W. Vaughan, the attorney who worked with private detectives investigating the murders (p. 93–4)?
7. What does Grann’s portrait convey about J. Edgar Hoover (p. 107)? What traits stand out and what do they foretell about Hoover’s future as director of the FBI?
8. In what ways does Tom White combine the qualities of the Old West and of the modern bureaucratic system Hoover is trying to create? How does this influence the steps he takes in investigating the murders? How do the various views of White, including the stories of his childhood and his work as a Texas Ranger (pp. 137–153), shape your impressions of him? Would you define him as the hero of the book?
9. How were manufactured evidence, suborned testimony, and false confessions used to divert the FBI investigation? What role did independently hired private eyes and informants play in the search for the truth?
10. The crimes in Osage County involved many levels of deception and betrayal. In addition to the actual conspirators, who else either directly profited from the crimes or was silently complicit in them? In what ways did accepted mores encourage the corruption that plagued the investigation?
11. What role did new methods of criminal investigation play in uncovering the guilty parties? In addition to introducing up-to-date forensic science, how did Hoover use the case to transform the Bureau of Investigation and simultaneously enhance his own image?
12. During Hale’s trial, a member of the Osage tribe said, “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” (p. 215). Why does this observation resonate beyond the immediate circumstances?
13. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of Killers of the Flower Moon is the marital and familial connections between murderers and their victims. What explains Ernest Burkhart’s actions even as he remained married to and had children with Mollie? How does Grann bring to life the particular horror of crimes committed within a family and a close-knit community?
14. What does the evidence Grann uncovered when he visited Osage County in 2012 reveal about the lasting legacy of the “Reign of Terror”?
15. Killers of the Flower Moon combines the fast pace of a true-life murder mystery with the scope and detail of a narrative history. How does Grann integrate these different aspects of the book?
16. We are familiar with many American crimes and criminals during the early twentieth century from movies, books, and television shows. Why do you think the story of the Osage murders hasn’t received similar attention?
17. Are there recent examples of racial prejudice and injustice that parallel those described in Killers of the Flower Moon? What has changed about the approach taken by law enforcement? About the attitudes expressed by the white community in the face of racial or religious discrimination? In what ways have things remained the same?
Book Summary
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
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 twenty-four, 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.
An interview with the author
An Interview with the Author
Book Reviews
Reviews of our current book.
Click on the links to read the full review!
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DartmuthIn Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann presents the fascinating and deeply compassionate true story of the intense and tragic loss felt by the Osage Indians during the 1920s Reign of Terror that saw up to hundreds of brutal murders carried out against them for their valuable share of an oil wealth they only stumbled into. [1] The book begins as a historical account of a long series of unsolved murders put into the context of a unique point in both Osage history, with the discovery of vast oil reserves, and American history, with the love for Progressivism and science. The accounts and their contexts are thoroughly and clearly explained; the book is readable, thoughtful and succinct...
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The Berkshire EdgeAs one white Oklahoma businessman put it, “The Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it.”
Journalist and author David Grann’s bestselling nonfiction book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” tells the stranger (and darker) than fiction story of what was done to the Osage in the wake of their sudden oil wealth, in the 1920’s. Long story short, they were, in many cases, married or befriended for it, then, instantly or over time, in time-honored fashion or creatively, murdered. No one can say definitively how many were murdered, but the number was certainly in the scores, if not the hundreds. The FBI, or, as it was originally called, just Bureau of Investigation, came to investigate these murders because, it seemed, every single local and state official was either in on the plots, receiving payments to keep quiet about them, or couldn’t be bothered to expend energy on the death of an Indian... -
The Globe and Mail...Between 1921 and 1925, two dozen members of the Osage tribe in oil-rich northern Oklahoma were murdered. A newsreel that flickered in movie houses across the United States at the time called it "the most baffling series of murders in the annals of crime." Band members still refer to this dark chapter in their history as the "Reign of Terror."
"Like most Americans," admits David Grann, a staff writer with The New Yorker, "when I was in school, I never read about the murders in any books; it was as if these crimes had been excised from history."
In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann meticulously excavates the lost history of the Osage and the oil boom that made them rich – and, in turn, made them targets. After being driven from their ancestral territory like so many other Native Americans, a few thousand Osage retreated to a tract that seemed too barren to be of interest to rapacious white settlers.
Everything changed during the First World War...
The Author's Website
The author's website.
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David GrannFor information on the author: back ground information, awards, bibliography, etc.
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Killers of the Flower Moon Movie
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Killers of the Flower Moon MovieInformation on the film adaptation due to release sometime in 2022.