Heres a later photograph of White with Hoover: To unravel the mystery, White assembled a team of undercover operatives, including an American Indian agent. While the official number of victims has been estimated between27and60, the total number remains unknown. Hale's nephew, whom he had coerced into helping with the scheme, eventually confessed. And despite the fact that headrights were meant to protect the tribe, Congress also allowed headrights to be inherited by non-Osage if they had married an "incompetent" Osage, directly leading to the "Reign of Terror.". After the afternoon-long Pardons Board meeting, Ricketts and Peterson responded to questions from the Examiner about why they rejected Jackson's request. Another Osage, Henry Roan, was shot in the back of the head. William K. Hale encouraged his subservient nephew Ernest Burkhart to marry Mollie Kyle, an allotted full-blood Osage. Indigenous actor William Belleau will portray Henry Roan, Louis Cancelmi will portray Kelsie Morrison, Jason Isbell will portray Bill Smith, and Sturgill Simpson will portray Henry Grammer. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Please try again later. This led to unparalleled corruption and abuse. The agents met regularly to compare observations and noted the reoccurring names of William K. Hale, Ernest Burkhart, and John Ramsey. She moved away, recovered, divorced Ernest, and left her kids a sizable estate. After Edward Byrd, a Cherokee by marriage, discovered oil seeps in 1882, he organized the United States Oil and Gas Company with William B. Linn and a group of Kansas investors. The Osage Tribal Council turned to the federal government, and Bureau agents were detailed to the case. In 1921, he ordered the murders of his nephew's wife's sister and mother, followed by her cousin, another sister, and brother-in-law two years later, to gain control of their oil rights. ernest burkhart pardon. The family of one Osage in particular, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target of the conspiracy. Mollie was married to a white man named Ernest Burkhardt, a native of Texas who had moved to Osage County as a young man. Lawson claimed that his wife had carried on an affair with Bill Smith, while he had been working as Smiths ranch hand. Estimates vary, but approximately twenty-four Osage Indians died violent or suspicious deaths during the early 1920s. Search and view individual court case information (including docket sheets)for free . Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. In January 1926, U.S. E.G. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Two years later, her cousin Henry Roan was shot to death. She especially loves literary fiction, historical fiction, and social, cultural, and historical nonfiction that gets into the weeds of daily life. William K. Hale. This is a carousel with slides. Hale lived to be 87 and is buried in Wichita, Kansas. Half a million dollars a year or more. In 2002, the Osage also filed Fletcher vs. United States, which also alleged a history ofmismanagement by the federal government. Try again. She wrote her first short story at the age of six, about a lost dog who meets animal friends on his journey home. That's what the terrorized community wanted to find out. 231. Hale had threatened or paid off many of them; the rest had grown distrustful of outsiders. Hale, meanwhile, confidently and politely strolled in to the county sheriffs office to surrender. Eventually, after several trials, perjured testimonies, and tampered juries, the sentences were handed down. Continuing with this request will add an alert to the cemetery page and any new volunteers will have the opportunity to fulfill your request. , By the 1920s, the Osage Nation grew rich on headrights to these resources. First, lets place Ernest Burkhart in context. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. But slowly, people began to come forward and admitted to the agents their fear of William K. Hale and his faction. Please enter your email and password to sign in. The image depicts Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart and Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart. William King Hale, 18741962, American cattleman, Osage Indian Reservation boss, convicted murderer. Mollie's older sister, a divorcee who spent a lot of time in the reservation's rowdy boomtowns. Ernests brother Byron agreed to squeal, then backed off, but ultimately did so. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. Selg, Eugene Ernest . Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. It all started with oil. Under interrogation Ernest Burkhart tied Ramsey to the Roan murder, and Ramsey, a local farmer-cowboy, admitted Hale had hired him to kill Roan. Hale had attempted to cash in a $25,000 insurance policy on Roan's life only a week after the man's death; obligingly, Hale had also served as one of Roan's pallbearers. The Osage Murders. He had waited until he was sure Bill and Rita were asleep and then lit the fuse, watching the house blow up. Subscribe Now. They have also lived in Braman, OK and Wichita, KS. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. When Ernest George Burkhart was born on 11 September 1891, in Campbell, Hunt, Texas, United States, his father, Walter Scott Burkhardt, was 31 and his mother, Martha L. Hale, was 18. Image from the National Museum of the American Indian. For Mollie, it was a day of devastation. In response, the U.S. Bureau of Investigation (today's Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI) sent agents to Osage County. Although the Northern Oklahoma District Court ordered the United States to give an accounting of the trust account to the Osage Tribe in 2015, the Osage were still pushing to see the accounting in 2017. Are you adding a grave photo that will fulfill this request? A "dreaded" outlaw serving a ten-year sentence in a Kansas penitentiary. At the time of Lizzie's death in July 1921 (poison was suspected), she possessed three full headrights in addition to her own, having inherited those of her deceased first husband and two daughters. Behind the scenes, there was mounting political pressure to sack White and his team. Even though the Osage's lease was reduced in 1916, by that point there were more than 350 oil pools on Osage territory. To extract that oil, prospectors had to pay the 2,000 or so registered members of the tribe for leases and royalties. Hale, Ramsey, and Ernest Burkhart were all given life sentences, but Hale and Ramsey were released on parole after only 20 years in prison. (Photo courtesy of Apple via Osage News) According to The National Museum of the American Indian, the Bureau of Investigations sent in four agents to work undercover from 1923 to 1925 as an insurance salesman, a cattleman, an oilman, and a medicine man. Plus, between 25 to 30% of headrights owned today are owned by non-Osage, whose ancestors more than likely got those headrights through murderous means. Electronic or intensive monitoring of parolee is required. : Amlex, Inc., 1998). Kelsie Morrison was a bootlegger, a double agent working as both an informant to the FBI and a hitman for William Hale. based on information from your browser. Working alongside his uncle William Hale, Burkhart systematically murdered his wifes Osage family members in order to steal the wealth she accumulated from oil. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Under the Osage Allotment Act of 1906 all subsurface minerals within the Osage Nation Reservation (present Osage County, Oklahoma) were tribally owned and held in trust by the U.S. government. A mere 36 hours later, Vaughan's body was found with a broken neck. Anna (pictured) had no known enemies, and the case went unsolved. Drag images here or select from your computer for Ernest George Burkhart memorial. He avoided serving any time. This came to a head in 2000, when the Osage Nation brought a lawsuit against the Department of Interior for mismanagement of the Osage's trust funds and non-monetary assets. and 5 phone numbers associated with Ernest in area codes such as 606, 812, 317. According to Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, Congress also put a cap on how much money Osage with guardians could withdraw annually from their "trust fund." This photograph shows a boarded-up bar in a town where Mollies sister, Anna Brown, was seen before vanishing: This is what the prairie looks like today: I interviewed many of the descendants of the victims, including Margie Burkhart, who is a granddaughter of Mollie Burkhart. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law. Mollie Brown had married William Hale's nephew, Ernest, in 1919, which Tom White began to suspect was the first step in Hale's nefarious plot. Ramsey also confessed his involvement in the Smith murders and not only implicated Hale as the ringleader in that crime too, but Henry Grammar and Asa "Ace" Kirby as well. Bryan propped her up on a rock and held her still while Morrison shot her in the back of the headwith a gun that had been provided by Hale. . Leo DiCaprio stuck with the Burkhart role #KillersOfTheFlowerMoon. Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Gregg and his gang refused the job. Now, Mollie learned that her beloved husband had conspired to murder her sisters and brother-in-law. Guardians came up with schemes to swindle money, such as buying cars and reselling them to their Osage "ward" at five times market value. Ernest Burkhart was rightfully convicted of murder, though this did little to bring peace to his suffering wife, Mollie. Or they would outright steal from the Osage's funds. After each allottee selected 160 acres in three rounds, the rest of the land was divided amongst the allottees. However, according to "Lands Allotted Among the Osage Indians"by Joseph F. Rarick, the Osage Allotments Act of 1906 was unique in that all of the reservation land was allotted. They went undercover as an insurance salesman, cattle buyer, oil prospector, and herbal doctor to turn up evidence. Louis Cancelmi (Scorsese's "The Irishman") will portray Kelsie Morrison, another bootlegger as well as a nefarious Hale connection. In 1923, the 2,229 tribal members collectively earned $30 million, the equivalent of $400 million today. The trial was devastating for Mollie, as she learned more about the plot to eliminate her family. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. Thus, according to NPR, anyone who was full-blooded or more than half-Osage was wrongfully deemed "incompetent" and assigned a guardian who was to receive the royalty checks instead. Are you sure that you want to delete this photo? Make sure that the file is a photo. Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System provides comprehensive public access to court records online and upon request. Its title comes from a Hale-concocted insurance scheme: Bill, what are you going to do, kill this Indian? Beneficiary Hales response: Hell, yes.. The majority of these crimes occurred in or near Fairfax and were rarely investigated by local authorities; some were never solved. [1][3], Bryan Burkhart turned state's evidence and never served time. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. His weak-willed nephew, Ernest Burkhart, was married to Annas sister. 11 junio, 2020. Hale had even provided him with the tools for making the bomb, including the nitroglycerin and the coiled fuse. This time, the corpse belonged to a man named Charles Whitehorn, who had been missing for about two weeks. Bill hung on for several days, but his wounds proved to be too great. The Osage Tribal Council had decreed that each member of the tribe was to receive an equal share of the royalties from the oil money, known as headrights. You have chosen this person to be their own family member. The agents were able to prove that Hale ordered the murders of Anna and her family to inherit their oil rights, cousin Roan for the insurance, and others who had threatened to expose him. The sad tale of the Osage Nation is akin to other Native Americans, such as the Delawares ending up in Oklahoma as well. In 1923, Mollie's mother Lizzie Q was also growing weaker. Year should not be greater than current year. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. His sister-in-law, Anna, was an early victim in the murder spree, and Mollie struggled for some justice over the years. [5] He spent some of his life in Montana, working as a ranch hand for Benny Binion. According to Famous Trials, Tom White, the head of the Bureau's office in Houston, was the only one who was there openly as a Bureau investigator. My new book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, grew out of trying to understand who that figure was, and the investigation led me to one the most sinister crimes in American history. ernest burkhart pardon. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. A. Interviewing more than 150 people, the agents were unable to gather much evidence outside of unsubstantiated rumors. Osage mineral leases earned royalties that were paid to the tribe as a whole, with each allottee receiving one equal share, or headright, of the payments. Fortunately, for the sake of Mollie who was already being discreetly envenomed by her husband, the murders came to an abrupt stop in 1926 when William K . They completed their first well in 1890, but the well was only producing a paltry half a barrel of oil a day, so Byrd's venture was soon shut down. Scene in Fairfax around the time of the Osage Murders(21500.88.1, Griffith Amusement Company Collection, OHS).