Killers of the Flower Moon

At the site, several men were chosen to conduct a coroner’s inquest. At that time, remote areas like the Osage territory still used common citizens rather than police for inquests. Two brothers who were both doctors, James and David Shoun, were brought in to perform the autopsy. They laid Anna’s body on a wooden plank and examined her clothing and wounds. As they were moving her head, they discovered a hole from a gunshot wound.

Since Anna had clearly been murdered, the sheriff of Osage County, Harve Freas, was informed. However, he was busy investigating the murder of another member of the Osage tribe, Charles Whitehorn, whose body had been found shortly before Anna’s. A deputy sheriff and the town marshal therefore took Freas’s place. The bullet could not be found in Anna’s skull or brain, so the group investigated the spot by the river where she had been found. They located only a bottle containing what smelled like moonshine, so they concluded that she had been sitting on a rock drinking when someone shot her from behind. The marshal also noticed two sets of car tracks between the road and the ravine where the creek was.

Mollie arranged everything for Anna’s funeral, which included both Catholic and Osage rites: a Mass at the church and then a gathering at a cemetery in Gray Horse where Mollie’s father and another sister, Minnie, were buried. The condition of Anna’s body precluded several Osage customs: The casket could not be opened for a final goodbye, nor could Anna’s face be painted to show her tribe and clan affiliation, which guides the deceased’s spirit in the afterlife. However, some Osage traditions were observed: Food was placed in the casket for Anna’s journey, Osage prayer-songs were recited, and Anna’s casket was lowered into the ground at noon, when the sun is highest in the sky.

The similarities between the murders of Anna Burkhart and Charles Whitehorn caused stir. Both were wealthy Osage members in their thirties. Whitehorn had been shot with a .32-caliber pistol—seemingly the same caliber of gun that caused Anna’s death (although no bullets were found in her case). Mollie led the family in seeking justice for her sister. When she felt the authorities were not working urgently enough, she looked to Ernest’s uncle, William Hale, for help. Hale was a self-made man who had moved to Osage from Texas and worked as a cowboy before getting rich through land purchases and becoming a model citizen. He had also donated money to help the Osage Nation before they struck it rich.

One theory was that the killer was an outsider. The area certainly had no shortage of gangs and criminals on the lam. Prohibition spurred organized crime, and the wealth of the Osage Nation drew the worst elements from around the country eager to prey upon them. Another theory was that the killer was someone local. Suspicion fell on Anna’s ex-husband, Oda Brown. He had been distraught at her funeral, which some saw as an act to deflect suspicion. Anna had left him nothing, and he was now contesting the will. Moreover, Sheriff Freas received a letter from a man imprisoned in Kansas who claimed that Brown had paid him to shoot Anna. After arresting Brown and investigating the claims, however, the sheriff could find no corroborating evidence, and Brown was released.

In July, the investigation stalled and came to an end after all leads had been exhausted. Anna’s killer, the justice of the peace concluded, could not be identified. During this time, Mollie’s mother Lizzie fell gravely ill. The family relied on traditional healers and the Western medicine of the Shouns, but she died that month. Bill Smith, Rita’s husband and Mollie’s brother-in-law, found the timing and cause of Lizzie’s death suspicious. The more he looked into it, the more Bill believed that Lizzie may have been poisoned.