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Killers of the Flower Moon

David Grann, 2017

Oil made the Osage of 1920s Oklahoma rich, and then they started dying. Follow the murders, the investigation that helped make the FBI, and the killings never solved.

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14 parts, about 23 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Reconstructs a string of murders of Osage people whose land sat atop oil, tracing how headright inheritance created a motive
  • Follows the early Bureau of Investigation and its undercover team as they build a chain of evidence against a cattleman
  • Reveals through archive research that the toll was far higher than the official count and that guardians, bankers and lawmen profited

Who it is for

  • True crime readers who want documented archival detail
  • Readers interested in Native American history and injustice
  • Readers curious about the early days of federal policing

What the summary covers

  1. The Flower Killing Moon2 min
  2. Parties Unknown2 min
  3. An Underground Reservation1 min
  4. Poison and Guardians1 min
  5. The Reign of Terror2 min
  6. Hoover's Cowboy1 min
  7. Eliminating the Impossible1 min
  8. Following the Money2 min
  9. Confessions2 min
  10. Trials3 min
  11. What Remains1 min
  12. A Case Not Closed2 min
  13. Not an Anomaly1 min
  14. The Blood Cries Out2 min

Recommended by

  • Dave EggersAmerican writer, editor and publisher
    Disturbing and riveting. . . . Grann has proved himself a master of spinning delicious, many-layered mysteries that also happen to be true. . . . It will sear your soul.

About the author

  • David GrannStaff writer at The New Yorker, journalist and author
    • Grann was born on March 10, 1968, and is an American journalist and author.
    • After graduating from Connecticut College in 1989, he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship and did research in Mexico, where he began his career in journalism.
    • He holds master's degrees in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and in creative writing from Boston University.
    • Before joining The New Yorker he was a senior editor at The New Republic and, from 1995 to 1996, the executive editor of the newspaper The Hill.
    • He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003.
    • His New Yorker story Trial by Fire, about a Texas execution, received a George Polk Award and the Silver Gavel Award and was cited by Justice Stephen Breyer in an opinion on the death penalty.
    • His first book, The Lost City of Z, was a number one New York Times bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty five languages.

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