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MY REVIEW
I was appalled when I saw the promotion for the film Killer Of The Flower Moon. I immediately went to my library app and put a hold on the book. I got access to it a lot faster than I thought and immediately began reading.
In May, taller plants creep over tinier blooms, stealing their light and water. The small flowers become buried under the ground and that is why the Osage refer to May as the time of the flower killing moon.
It was in May of 1921 when Mollie Burkhart began to suspect evil was afoot. She was right. The conspiracy was so widespread, the Osage never stood a chance.
It always amazes me when I come across such a brutal injustice in our history…that I knew nothing about. Shouldn’t this be part of the history we are taught in school? I mean, the conspiracy was so wide and tragic, it helped lead to the creation of the FBI. Of course, that creates a monster of its own. We all know the saying:
Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
In the 1920s, the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma had the richest people per capita in the world. Greedy, power hungry individuals flock to the area like flies on s***. Racism is rampant and the Osage people were looked at as less than human.
I cannot begin to imagine their despair and sense of hopelessness, that no one would come to their aid. Not just to keep the white people from stealing their riches, but to keep them from being MURDERED. The people of the town turn a blind eye to the tragedy taking place right before them. We can see history repeat itself, over and over again, so I don’t know why I am so surprised. After all, if discrimination, racism, and inequality can exist as overtly as it does in the 21st century, it seems it would be even easier to perpetrate such violence in the 1920s.
I will be adding more of his work to my reading list. In fact, I just put a hold on The Wager.
The depth of David Grann’s research is displayed at the end of the book, where he has included all the materials, paper and human, he drew information from.
GOODREADS BLURB
Goodreads Choice Award
A twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history
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, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage 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 such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.
In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. The book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly riveting, but also emotionally devastating.
- Genre: American History, Biography, Conspiracy, Historical Nonfiction, History, Mystery, Native American, Nonfiction, True Crime
- This edition:
- Format: 354 pages, Kindle Edition
- Published: April 18, 2017 by Doubleday
ABOUT DAVID GRANN (from Amazon)
DAVID GRANN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books “The Wager,” “The Lost City of Z,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the author of “The White Darkness” and the collection “The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession.” His book “Killers of the Flower Moon” was recently adapted into a film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro. Several of his other stories, including “The Lost City of Z” and “Old Man and the Gun,” have also been adapted into major motion pictures. His investigative reporting and storytelling have garnered several honors, including a George Polk Award and an Edgar Allan Poe Award.
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