← All cases

Osage murders

Also known as: Osage Reign of Terror, Osage Indian murders, Killers of the Flower Moon

Active

1921–1923

Region

Osage County, Oklahoma, USA

State

OK

Kind

Serial

Status

Convicted

Victims

6

In the early 1920s, Osage people in Osage County, Oklahoma, made wealthy by oil royalties ("headrights") on their land, were killed by shooting, poison and bombing, many of them in and around Fairfax. Rancher William K. Hale, the self-styled "King of the Osage Hills," organized the killing of his nephew's wife Mollie Burkhart's family and of Henry Roan to gain their headrights and insurance money. After the Osage Tribal Council asked for federal help, the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner of the FBI, took up the case. Hale, Ernest Burkhart and John Ramsey were arrested in 1926 and given life sentences, and Kelsie Morrison was convicted of killing Anna Brown. The story is told in David Grann's book Killers of the Flower Moon.

Ask the Atlas about this case →

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Anna Brown, 36 · May 22, 1921

  An Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart's sister.

• Lizzie Q. Kyle · July 1921

  Mother of Mollie Burkhart, Anna Brown and Rita Smith; her death was first put down to old age, and poison was suspected.

• Henry Roan · 1923

  An Osage man; Hale was the beneficiary of his $25,000 life insurance policy.

• Rita Smith · March 10, 1923

  An Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart's sister.

• William E. "Bill" Smith · March 10, 1923

  Rita Smith's husband.

• Nettie Brookshire · March 10, 1923

Timeline of locations

1. May 22, 1921
   Ravine near Fairfax (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Anna Brown was shot near Fairfax, at Three Mile Creek, and her body was found by hunters in a remote ravine on May 27, 1921. Kelsie Morrison later admitted killing her at Hale's request.

2. 1923
   Road outside Fairfax (Crime scene, approximate area)

   John Ramsey, hired by Hale, met Henry Roan on a road outside Fairfax and shot him in his car. The killing on restricted Osage land made it a federal case.

3. March 10, 1923
   Smith home, Fairfax (Crime scene, approximate area)

   An explosion destroyed Bill and Rita Smith's house in Fairfax, killing them and Nettie Brookshire. Ernest Burkhart later pleaded guilty to Bill Smith's murder.

4. June 1926
   Osage County trials, Pawhuska (Court / trial, approximate area)

   Trials ran from 1926 to 1929 in state and federal courts at Pawhuska, Guthrie, Oklahoma City and Bartlesville. Ernest Burkhart pleaded guilty in June 1926; Morrison was sentenced to life that November; Hale (January 1929) and Ramsey (November 1929) were sentenced to life for Henry Roan's murder.

5. 1929
   United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth (Prison)

   Hale and Ramsey served their life sentences at Leavenworth until they were paroled in 1947.

Watch, listen, read

Sources

• Osage Indian murders (Wikipedia)
• Osage Murders (Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, Oklahoma Historical Society)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.