Book Log 2022 #36: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

When oil was discovered in Oklahoma, it turned out that quite a lot of it was sitting under land owned by the Osage nation. The Osage quickly became rich, and looked to be headed towards long-term security.

Except that the Osage started to die. Some mysteriously, others more obviously murdered. The killings often targeted families, with the inheritances eventually winding up with a sole survivor. This sole survivor was, more often than not, a white man who married into the family.

Officials took up investigations into the killings. Many of the investigators were themselves killed.  The nascent FBI took up the cases, struggling until J. Edgar Hoover assigned a former Texas Ranger, Tom White, to lead things. This book largely tells the story of White and how he was able to unravel the conspiracy against the Osage.

While the book does an excellent job of detailing the crimes and their eventual solution, what stood out to me was how it set the crimes into a larger context of American history and colonization. These were not isolated events, but part of a greater conflict over race and class. Recommended.