You’ve probably seen the posters. Leonardo DiCaprio looking weathered, Lily Gladstone’s haunting gaze, and Martin Scorsese’s name plastered across everything in that bold, classic font. But Killers of the Flower Moon isn't just a three-and-a-half-hour cinematic marathon or a vehicle for Oscar campaigns. It is a true, grizzly, and deeply uncomfortable piece of American history that stayed buried for far too long.
The Osage Nation. Oil. Greed. Murder.
In the 1920s, the Osage people in Oklahoma were technically the wealthiest people per capita in the entire world. Think about that for a second. Because of the oil discovered under their reservation, they were out-earning Wall Street bankers and European royalty. But that wealth came with a massive target on their backs. What followed was a systematic "Reign of Terror" that involved dozens—perhaps hundreds—of murders that the local authorities simply chose to ignore.
Honestly, it's a miracle we’re even talking about this at scale today. For decades, this was a localized tragedy, whispered about in Oklahoma but largely absent from American history textbooks. David Grann’s book changed that, and Scorsese’s film turned it into a cultural moment. But even the movie can't capture every nuance of the bureaucratic evil that fueled these crimes.
Why the Osage became targets in the first place
It started with a trick of geography. The Osage had been pushed off their lands multiple times, eventually buying a "worthless" rocky reservation in Oklahoma because they figured white settlers wouldn't want it. They were wrong. Underneath that rock was one of the largest oil deposits in the United States.
By the early 1920s, the Osage were receiving massive "headright" payments. You couldn't buy or sell a headright; you could only inherit it. This created a perverse incentive. If an Osage person died, their wealth went to their heir. If a white man married an Osage woman and she died, he got the money.
The government made it even worse with the "guardianship" system. Because the feds deemed many Osage "incompetent" to manage their own fortunes—simply because of their race—they appointed white guardians to oversee their spending. It was a license to steal. Local lawyers, businessmen, and ranchers were basically skimming off the top of every check.
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And then, the dying started.
The chilling reality of the Reign of Terror
Anna Brown was the first major alarm bell. She disappeared in May 1921. Her body was found in a ravine, a bullet hole in the back of her head. Then her mother, Lizzie Q, died of a mysterious wasting illness—likely poison. Then another sister, Rita Smith, was killed when her house was literally blown up with nitro-glycerine in the middle of the night.
This wasn't just random violence. It was a calculated liquidation of a single family to consolidate oil headrights.
William K. Hale, played by Robert De Niro in the film, was the self-proclaimed "King of the Osage Hills." He was a benefactor, a friend to the tribe, and a cold-blooded mastermind. He pressured his nephew, Ernest Burkhart, to marry Mollie Kyle (Anna and Rita's sister). The goal was simple: kill off the rest of the family so Ernest—and by extension, Hale—would inherit the entire family's fortune.
It’s hard to wrap your head around that level of intimacy mixed with betrayal. Ernest lived with Mollie, had children with her, and reportedly loved her, all while he was actively helping his uncle murder her sisters and slowly poisoning her.
The birth of the FBI
Local police were either on the payroll or terrified. Private investigators were murdered. It wasn't until the newly formed Bureau of Investigation (which became the FBI) took the case that things moved. J. Edgar Hoover, a young, power-hungry director, saw this as a chance to prove his agency's worth.
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Tom White, the lead investigator, was an old-school Texas Ranger type. He didn't use high-tech gadgets; he used undercover agents. He sent a former insurance salesman, a Native American agent, and others into the community to pose as cattle buyers and herb doctors.
They found a "culture of killing."
It wasn't just Hale and Burkhart. It was the doctors who provided the poison. It was the morticians who covered up bullet wounds. It was the jurors who were bribed. The Killers of the Flower Moon story is less about a single "whodunnit" and more about a "who didn't do it," because the entire social structure of the county was complicit in the theft of Osage lives and land.
What the movie gets right (and what it misses)
Scorsese made a very specific choice. Originally, the script focused on Tom White and the FBI's heroics. It was a procedural. But after talking to the Osage community and Lily Gladstone, the focus shifted to the marriage between Ernest and Mollie.
- The Nuance of Betrayal: The film captures the terrifying reality that the killers were often sleeping in the same beds as their victims.
- The Scale: While the movie focuses on the Kyle family, the book highlights that there were likely hundreds of other deaths that were never officially solved.
- The Ending: Scorsese’s meta-ending—where he appears on stage to read Mollie’s obituary—is a gut punch. It acknowledges that for white audiences, this is "entertainment," but for the Osage, it is a generational trauma that never truly closed.
However, the film can't quite convey the sheer complexity of the headright system. The legal loopholes used to strip the Osage of their rights were just as lethal as the bullets. Even after Hale went to prison, the exploitation continued in different forms.
The lasting impact on the Osage Nation today
You can't just move on from something like this. The wealth that was stolen helped build cities and empires, while many Osage families were left with nothing but grief. To this day, the Osage Nation is working to reclaim headrights that are still held by non-Osage individuals and institutions.
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The "Flower Moon" refers to the month of May, when millions of small flowers cover the Oklahoma hills. But then, taller plants grow over them, stealing their light and water, and the tiny flowers die. It’s a heartbreakingly accurate metaphor for what happened to the tribe.
Common misconceptions about the case
A lot of people think the FBI swept in and saved the day. Truthfully? They did the bare minimum to get a conviction for Hoover’s PR. They ignored dozens of other suspicious deaths because they were "too hard" to solve.
Another big one: people assume William Hale was just one "bad apple." In reality, the entire system of "guardianship" was designed to facilitate this. Hale was just the most brazen about it.
Actionable steps for further understanding
If you want to go beyond the Hollywood spectacle and truly understand the gravity of this history, here is how you can engage:
- Read the Source Material: David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI provides the granular detail the movie leaves out, especially regarding the other families targeted.
- Support Osage Creators: Look into the work of Osage nation members like Charles H. Red Corn, whose novel A Pipe for February covers similar ground from a deeply indigenous perspective.
- Research the "Guardianship" Laws: Look into how these laws paved the way for the Civil Rights abuses of the 20th century. It’s a rabbit hole of American legal history that explains a lot about modern property rights.
- Visit the Osage Nation Museum: If you’re ever in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, visit the museum. They have a famous photograph with a section missing—the piece that was cut out contained the face of William Hale. It’s a powerful physical reminder of a community’s attempt to excise a monster from their history.
The story of the Killers of the Flower Moon isn't just a true crime tale. It is a fundamental part of the American story that demands we look at the cost of our country's expansion and the lives that were considered "expendable" in the pursuit of black gold. Understanding this history is a necessary step in acknowledging the systemic injustices that still echo in the legal and social structures of the United States today.