This troubling but important book is a history of the murders, plots, investigations and ultimate convictions surrounding the violent deaths of many Osage Indians in Oklahoma during the 1920s, by which a few local white men conspired to kill off tribal members in order to gain control of the victims' shares of the tribe's fabulous oil holdings and wealth.
It's a story of despicable greed, betrayal, racism, conspiracy and the rise of the FBI, for which this was one of the first big sensational cases J. Edgar Hoover used to promote his new FBI organization.
A disturbing last chapter reveals that the author, through additional research beyond the main arrests and convictions which make up the book's narrative, discovered abundant historical evidence of the involvement of a much larger number of white participants than those convicted, in murder, theft and cover-up of many more crimes against the Osage Indians, over an even longer duration than that covered by the book. Recommended.
The Memory Cache is the personal blog site of Wayne Parker, a Seattle-based writer and musician. It features short reviews of books, movies and TV shows, and posts on other topics of current interest.
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