Killers of the Flower Moon

In the 1920s, a series of brutal crimes shook the peaceful community of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma, United States. Members of this Indigenous tribe—who had become some of the wealthiest citizens in the country due to oil rights on their land—began dying under suspicious circumstances. What initially appeared to be isolated deaths—poisonings, shootings, explosions—soon revealed a terrifying pattern: these were systematic murders driven by greed.

The phenomenon attracted national attention and, faced with the ineffectiveness of local authorities, the newly established Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took on the case. This would become one of the agency’s first large-scale investigations and would play a crucial role in its development as a federal law enforcement power. J. Edgar Hoover, the young FBI director at the time, saw in the case an opportunity to prove the effectiveness of his model of modern, professionalized investigation.

The investigation uncovered a web of conspiracies involving prominent white men who, taking advantage of racist and corrupt laws, gained legal control over the fortunes of Osage tribe members. Many were forced to appoint legal guardians—almost always white men—who managed their wealth, making it easier to access their assets after their “accidental” deaths.