Maps on endpapers. Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-336).
Contents:
Pt. 1: The marked woman -- The vanishing -- An act of God or man? -- King of the Osage Hills -- Underground reservation -- The devil's disciples -- Million dollar elm -- This thing of darkness -- Pt. 2: The evidence man -- Department of easy virtue -- The undercover cowboys -- Eliminating the impossible -- The third man -- A wilderness of mirrors -- A hangman's son -- Dying words -- The hidden face -- For the betterment of the Bureau -- The quick-draw artist, the yegg, and the soup man -- The state of the game -- A traitor to his blood -- So help you God! -- The hot house -- Pt. 3: The reporter -- Ghostlands -- A case not closed -- Standing in two worlds -- The lost manuscript -- Blood cries out.
Summary:
Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies 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, 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.
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