“TWO SEPARATE MURDER”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, May 28, 1921.
“set adrift”: Louis F. Burns, History of the Osage People, 442.
“Some day”: Modesto News-Herald, Nov. 18, 1928.
So Mollie turned: My portrait of William Hale is drawn from a number of sources, including court records, Osage oral histories, FBI files, contemporaneous newspaper accounts, Hale’s correspondence, and my interviews with descendants.
“fight for life”: Sargent Prentiss Freeling in opening statement, U.S. v. John Ramsey and William K. Hale, Oct. 1926, NARA-FW.
“He is the most”: Article by Merwin Eberle, “ ‘King of Osage’ Has Had Long Colorful Career,” n.p., OHS.
“like a leashed animal”: Guthrie Leader, Jan. 5, 1926.
“high-class gentleman”: Pawnee Bill to James A. Finch, n.d., NARA-CP.
“Some did hate”: C. K. Kothmann to James A. Finch, n.d., NARA-CP.
“I couldn’t begin”: M. B. Prentiss to James A. Finch, Sept. 3, 1935, NARA-CP.
“I never had better”: Hale to Wilson Kirk, Nov. 27, 1931, ONM.
“We were mighty”: Tulsa Tribune, June 7, 1926.
“willing to do”: J. George Wright to Charles Burke, June 24, 1926, NARA-CP.
“How did she go”: Testimony of Mollie Burkhart before tribal attorney and other officials, NARA-FW.
“When you brought”: Coroner’s inquest testimony of Bryan Burkhart, in bureau report, Aug. 15, 1923, FBI.
“You understand”: Grand jury testimony of Ernest Burkhart, NARA-FW.
“the greatest criminal”: Boorstin, Americans, 81.
“perhaps any”: James G. Findlay to William J. Burns, April 23, 1923, FBI.
“the meanest man”: McConal, Over the Wall, 19.
“diseased mind”: Arizona Republican, Oct. 5, 1923.
“This may have”: Private detective logs included in report, July 12, 1923, FBI.
“absolutely no”: Ibid.
“Honorable Sir”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, July 29, 1921.
“ANNA BROWN”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, July 23, 1921.
“There’s a lot”: Quoted in Crockett, Serial Murderers, 352.
“If you want”: Roff, Boom Town Lawyer in the Osage, 106.
“would not lie”: Ibid., 107.
“sausage meat”: Grand jury testimony of F. S. Turton, NARA-FW.
“the hands of parties”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, May 30, 1921.
“Have pity”: Frank F. Finney, “At Home with the Osages,” Finney Papers, UOWHC.
4: UNDERGROUND RESERVATION
The money had: In describing the history of the Osage, I benefited from several excellent accounts. See Louis F. Burns, History of the Osage People; Mathews, Wah’kon-Tah; Wilson, Underground Reservation; Tixier, Tixier’s Travels on the Osage Prairies; and Bailey, Changes in Osage Social Organization. I also drew on field reports and Tribal Council documents held in the Records of the Osage Indian Agency, NARA-FW.
“we must stand”: Louis F. Burns, History of the Osage People, 140.
“finest men”: Ibid.
“It is so long”: Quoted in Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, 343.
“to make the enemy”: Mathews, Osages, 271.
Lizzie also grew up: Existing records do not indicate her Osage name.
“industrious”: Probate records of Mollie’s mother, Lizzie, “Application for Certificate of Competency,” Feb. 1, 1911, NARA-FW.
“The race is”: Tixier, Tixier’s Travels on the Osage Prairies, 191.
“the beast vomits”: Ibid., 192.
“I am perfectly”: Quoted in Brown, Frontiersman, 245.
“Why don’t you”: Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, 46–47.
“The question will”: Quoted in Wilson, Underground Reservation, 18.
“broken, rocky”: Isaac T. Gibson to Enoch Hoag, in Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1871, 906.
“My people”: Mathews, Wah’kon-Tah, 33–34.
“The air was filled”: Quoted in Louis F. Burns, History of the Osage People, 448.
the most significant: The Office of Indian Affairs was renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947.
“This little remnant”: Gibson to Hoag, in Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1871, 487.
“It was like”: Finney and Thoburn, “Reminiscences of a Trader in the Osage Country,” 149.
“every buffalo dead”: Quoted in Merchant, American Environmental History, 20.
“We are not dogs”: Mathews, Wah’kon-Tah, 30.
“Tell these gentlemen”: Information on the Osage delegation, including any quotations, comes from Mathews’s account in ibid., 35–38.
“There lingers memories”: Ibid.
“The Indian must conform”: Louis F. Burns, History of the Osage People, 91.
“for ambush”: Mathews, Wah’kon-Tah, 79.
“big, black mouth”: Mathews, Sundown, 23.
“It is impossible”: Quoted in McAuliffe, Deaths of Sybil Bolton, 215–16.
“His ears are closed”: Mathews, Wah’kon-Tah, 311.
“A RACE FOR LAND”: Daily Oklahoma State Capital, Sept. 18, 1893.
“Men knocked”: Daily Oklahoma State Capital, Sept. 16, 1893.
“Let him, like these whites”: Quoted in Trachtenberg, Incorporation of America, 34.
“great storm”: Wah-sha-she News, June 23, 1894.
“to keep his finger”: Russell, “Chief James Bigheart of the Osages,” 892.
“the most eloquent”: Thoburn, Standard History of Oklahoma, 2048.
“That the oil”: Quoted in Leases for Oil and Gas Purposes, Osage National Council, 154.
“I wrote”: Indians of the United States: Investigation of the Field Service, 398.
Like others on the Osage tribal roll: Many white settlers managed to finagle their way onto the roll and eventually reaped a fortune in oil proceeds that belonged to the Osage. The anthropologist Garrick Bailey estimated that the amount of money taken from the Osage was at least $100 million.
“Bounce, you cats”: Quoted in Franks, Osage Oil Boom, 75.
“ack like tomorrow”: Mathews, Life and Death of an Oilman, 116.
“It was pioneer days”: Gregory, Oil in Oklahoma, 13–14.
“Are they dangerous”: Quoted in Miller, House of Getty, 1881.
5: THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLES
“the foulness”: Probate records of Anna Brown, “Application for Authority to Offer Cash Reward,” NARA-FW.
“We’ve got to stop”: H. L. Macon, “Mass Murder of the Osages,” West, Dec. 1965.
“failing to enforce”: Ada Weekly News, Feb. 23, 1922.
“turned brutal crimes”: Summerscale, Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, xii.
“to detect”: For more on the origin of the phrase “the devil’s disciples,” see Lukas, Big Trouble, 76.
“depart from”: Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, General Principles and Rules of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, LOC.
“miserable snake”: McWatters, Knots Untied, 664–65.
“I fought in France”: Shepherd, “Lo, the Rich Indian!”
“My name is”: William J. Burns, Masked War, 10.
“perhaps the only”: New York Times, Dec. 4, 1911.
“a thousand times”: Quoted in Hunt, Front-Page Detective, 104.
That summer: Descriptions of the activities of the private eyes derive from their daily logs, which were included in bureau reports by James Findlay, July 1923, FBI.
“Mathis and myself”: Report by Findlay, July 10, 1923, FBI.
“Everything was”: Grand jury testimony of Anna Sitterly, NARA-FW.
“This call seems”: Report by Findlay, July 10, 1923, FBI.
“General suspicion”: Ibid.
“Consequently I left”: Ibid.
“The watchful Detective”: Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, General Principles and Rules of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency, LOC.
“weakens the whole”: Ibid.
“shot her”: Report by Findlay, July 13, 1923, FBI.
“clue that seems”: Ibid.
“We are going”: Report by Findlay, July 10, 1923, FBI.
“she came out”: Mollie Burkhart et al. v. Ella Rogers, Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, NARA-FW.
“a love that”: Ibid.
“prostituting the sacred bond”: Ibid.
“Burns was the first”: “Scientific Eavesdropping,” Literary Digest, June 15, 1912.
“a little baby”: Grand jury testimony of Bob Carter, NARA-FW.
“The fact he”: In proceedings of Ware v. Beach, Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma, Comstock Family Papers.
“Operative shadowed”: Report by Findlay, July 13, 1923, FBI.
“endowed with”: Christison, Treatise on Poisons in Relation to Medical Jurisprudence, Physiology, and the Practice of Physic, 684.
“agitated and trembles”: Ibid.
“untrained”: Oscar T. Schultz and E. M. Morgan, “The Coroner and the Medical Examiner,” Bulletin of the National Research Council, July 1928.
“kind-hearted”: Washington Post, Nov. 17, 1935.
“Be careful”: Washington Post, Sept. 6, 1922.
“the most brutal”: Washington Post, July 14, 1923.
“CONSPIRACY BELIEVED”: Washington Post, March 12, 1925.
6: MILLION DOLLAR ELM
“ ‘MILLIONAIRES’ SPECIAL’ ”: Pawhuska Daily Journal, March 18, 1925.
“PAWHUSKA GIVES”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, June 14, 1921.
“MEN OF MILLIONS”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, April 5, 1923.
“Osage Monte Carlo”: Rister, Oil!, 190.
“Brewster, the hero”: Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 28, 1923.
“There is a touch”: Ada Evening News, Dec. 24, 1924.
“Come on boys”: Daily Journal-Capital, March 29, 1928.
“It was not unusual”: Gunther, The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way, 124.
“the oil men”: Quoted in Allen, Only Yesterday, 129.
“I understand”: Quoted in McCartney, The Teapot Dome Scandal, 113.
“Veterans of”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, April 6, 1923.
On January 18: My description of the auction is drawn from local newspaper articles, particularly a detailed account in the Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 28, 1923.
“the finest building”: Thoburn, Standard History of Oklahoma, 1989.
“What am I”: Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 28, 1923.
“Where will it”: Shepherd, “Lo, the Rich Indian!”
“The Osage Indian”: Brown, “Our Plutocratic Osage Indians.”
“merely because”: Quoted in Harmon, Rich Indians, 181.
“enjoying the bizarre”: Ibid., 185.
some of the spending: For more on this subject, see ibid.
“the greatest, gaudiest”: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up (1945; repr., New York: New Directions, 2009), 87.
“To me, the purpose”: Gregory, Oil in Oklahoma, 40.
“The last time”: Ibid., 43.
“like a child”: Modifying Osage Fund Restrictions, 73.
“racial weakness”: From the decision in the case of Barnett v. Barnett, Supreme Court of Oklahoma, July 13, 1926.
“Let not that”: Indians of the United States: Investigation of the Field Service, 399.
“I have visited”: H. S. Traylor to Cato Sells, in Indians of the United States: Investigation of the Field Service, 201.
“Every white man”: Ibid., 204.
“There is a great”: Modifying Osage Fund Restrictions, 60.
“We have many little”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, Nov. 19, 1921.
“a flock of buzzards”: Transcript of proceedings of the Osage Tribal Council, Nov. 1, 1926, ONM.
“Will you please”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, Dec. 22, 1921.
“bunched us”: Indians of the United States: Investigation of the Field Service, 281.
7: THIS THING OF DARKNESS
One day, two men: My description of the discovery of Roan’s body and the autopsy comes from the testimony of the witnesses present, including the lawmen. For more information, see records at NARA-FW and NARA-CP.
“He must be drunk”: Grand jury testimony of J. R. Rhodes, NARA-FW.
“I seen he”: Ibid.
“Roan considered”: Pitts Beatty to James A. Finch, Aug. 21, 1935, NARA-CP.
“We were good”: Lamb, Tragedies of the Osage Hills, 178.
“Henry, you better”: Testimony of William K. Hale, U.S. v. John Ramsey and William K. Hale, Oct. 1926, NARA-FW.
“truly a valley”: Tulsa Daily World, Aug. 19, 1926.
“his hands folded”: Grand jury testimony of J. R. Rhodes, NARA-FW.
“$20 in greenback”: Ibid.
“HENRY ROAN SHOT”: Osage Chief, Feb. 9, 1923.
“Man’s judgment errs”: Charles W. Sanders, The New School Reader, Fourth Book: Embracing a Comprehensive System of Instruction in the Principles of Elocution with a Choice Collection of Reading Lessons in Prose and Poetry, from the Most Approved Authors; for the Use of Academies and Higher Classes in Schools, Etc. (New York: Vison & Phinney, 1855), 155.
And so she decided: Mollie’s secrecy regarding her marriage to Roan was later revealed in U.S. v. John Ramsey and William K. Hale, Oct. 1926, NARA-FW.
“Travel in any direction”: Daily Oklahoman, Jan. 6, 1929.
“do away with her”: Report by Findlay, July 13, 1923, FBI.
“paralyzing fear”: Unpublished nonfiction account by Grove with White, NMSUL.
“dark cloak”: Manitowoc Herald-Times, Jan. 22, 1926.
Bill Smith confided: My description of Bill and Rita Smith during this period and of the explosion is drawn largely from witness statements made to investigators and during court proceedings; some details have also been gleaned from local newspaper accounts and the unpublished nonfiction account by Grove with White. For more information, see records at NARA-CP and NARA-FW.
“Rita’s scared”: Unpublished nonfiction account by Grove with White, NMSUL.
“Now that we’ve moved”: Ibid.
“expect to live”: Report by Wren, Oct. 6, 1925, FBI.
“county’s most notorious”: Osage Chief, June 22, 1923.
“I’m going to die”: Shoemaker, Road to Marble Hills, 107.
“It seemed that the night”: Unpublished nonfiction account by Grove with White, NMSUL.
“It shook everything”: Statement by Ernest Burkhart, Jan. 6, 1926, FBI.
“It’s Bill Smith’s house”: Quoted in Hogan, Osage Murders, 66.
“It just looked”: Quoted in Gregory, Oil in Oklahoma, 56.
“Come on men”: Osage Chief, March 16, 1923.
“He was halloing”: Grand jury testimony of David Shoun, NARA-FW.
“Rita’s gone”: Unpublished nonfiction account by Grove with White, NMSUL.
“Some fire”: Report by Wren, Dec. 29, 1925, FBI.
“blown to pieces”: Grand jury testimony of Horace E. Wilson, NARA-FW.
“I figured”: Grand jury testimony of F. S. Turton, NARA-FW.
“The time of the deed”: Report by Burger and Weiss, Aug. 12, 1924, FBI.
“They got Rita”: Report by Frank Smith, James Alexander Street, Burger, and J. V. Murphy, Sept. 1, 1925, FBI.
“He just kind”: Grand jury testimony of Robert Colombe, NARA-FW.
“I tried to get”: Grand jury testimony of David Shoun, NARA-FW.
“beyond our power”: Osage Chief, March 16, 1923.
“should be thrown”: Report by Wren, Dec. 29, 1925, FBI.
“loose upon”: Indiana Evening Gazette, Sept. 20, 1923.
Amid this garish corruption: Details of Vaughan’s investigation and murder were drawn from several sources, including FBI records, news
paper accounts, the Vaughan family’s private papers, and interviews with descendants.
“parasite upon”: Advertisement for Vaughan’s candidacy for county attorney, Vaughan Family Papers.
“help the needy”: Student file of George Bigheart, accessible on Dickinson College’s Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center website and held in Record Group 75, Series 1327, at NARA-DC.
“OWNER VANISHES”: Tulsa Daily World, July 1, 1923.
“Yes, sir, and had”: Grand jury testimony of Horace E. Wilson, NARA-FW.
“shot in lonely”: Literary Digest, April 3, 1926.
“dark and sordid”: Manitowoc Herald-Times, Jan. 22, 1926.
“bloodiest chapter”: John Baxter, “Billion Dollar Murders,” Vaughan Family Papers.
“I didn’t want”: Grand jury testimony of C. A. Cook, NARA-FW.
“WHEREAS, in no”: Report by Frank V. Wright, April 5, 1923, FBI.
part-Kaw, part-Osage: Charles Curtis would later serve as vice president of the United States during the administration of Herbert Hoover.
“Demons”: Palmer to Curtis, Jan. 28, 1925, FBI.
“Lie still”: Testimony of Frank Smith, included in Ernest Burkhart’s clemency records, NARA-CP.
“a horrible monument”: Bureau report titled “The Osage Murders,” Feb. 3, 1926, FBI.
“in failing health”: Mollie Burkhart’s guardian records, Jan. 1925, NARA-CP.
8: DEPARTMENT OF EASY VIRTUE
“important message”: White to Hoover, Nov. 10, 1955, FBI/FOIA.
“as God-fearing”: Tracy, “Tom Tracy Tells About—Detroit and Oklahoma.”
“bureaucratic bastard”: Quoted in Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, 112.
“In those days”: Transcript of interview with Tom White, NMSUL.
“rough and ready”: James M. White (Doc White’s grandnephew), interview with author.
“bullet-spattered”: Hastedt, “White Brothers of Texas Had Notable FBI Careers.”
During the Harding: For more information on J. Edgar Hoover and the early history of the FBI, see Gentry’s J. Edgar Hoover; Ungar’s FBI; Powers’s Secrecy and Power; and Burrough’s Public Enemies. For more background on the Teapot Dome scandal, see McCartney’s Teapot Dome Scandal; Dean’s Warren G. Harding; and Stratton’s Tempest over Teapot Dome.