On 20 May 2023, Martin Scorsese, along with cast members Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, attended the premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon at the Cannes Film Festival and received a nine-minute-long standing ovation. Based on the real-life Osage murders, the film resonated with the applauding audience and brought tears to the actors’ eyes who played the Osage people.
The three-and-a-half-hour-long Scorsese film traces one of the darkest moments in America’s history. It is based on the 2017 non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by New Yorker staff writer David Grann.
The Martin Scorsese movie is also one of the hopefuls at the ensuing Awards season, too. As the film probes into the largely unexplored chapters of the Osage nation, its people, the laws of the Osage territory, the killings and the early days of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), several real-life characters have surfaced.
The cast and crew of Killers of the Flower Moon
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone essay the roles of Ernest Burkhart, a white man, and Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman, respectively. Robert De Niro plays the wealthy rancher William Hale who is Ernest’s uncle, and Jesse Plemons plays FBI agent Tom White. The film also stars John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser, Jillian Dion and Cara Jade Myers in other prominent roles.
Killers of the Flower Moon is written by Scorsese and Eric Roth and is backed by Apple TV+. DiCaprio also serves as an executive producer along with the Academy Award-winning director. The film marks the first time DiCaprio and De Niro are working together in a feature film since Michael Caton-Jones’ This Boy’s Life (1993).
Ahead of the film’s release, know all about the true story behind the Killers of the Flower Moon movie that inspired this epic production.
Note: Spoiler alert
Real-life events that inspired Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon
The true events: Who are the Osage people and what happened
Grann’s book is set in the 1920s when the Osage tribe members were the richest people per capita in the world. They originally hailed from the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys and were called the Osage Nation (or Wahzhazhe as they called themselves). In the 19th century, these people were displaced by the United States government, and they settled in the so-called Indian Territory, which serves as present-day Oklahoma.
They legally purchased the land and got rights over the tribe’s mineral trust, which could only be inherited and not sold. Hence, when oil was discovered beneath their surface, the Osage members made enormous wealth, drove in chauffeured cars, built mansions and sent their children to Europe for education.
As greed crept in, the white men, such as Hale, were convinced the Osage County people were unable to manage the newfound wealth. They levied a programme which monitored even the most basic aspects of the people’s lives.
Soon, grave luck befell the Osage land, and one by one, the people were mysteriously killed. Grann’s book follows Mollie Burkhart’s family, who became a prime target. Her older sister Anna Brown (portrayed by Myers) and mother Lizzie Q (portrayed by Tantoo Cardinal) were killed before her. As the body count rose, the FBI, which was functioning at its nascent stage, took up the investigations. The Osage murders became the federal agency’s first homicide probe.
‘The reign of terror’
In 1921, the gruesome murders of Anna Brown and Charles Whitehorn, a few days apart, became sensational news. Both were shot and their bodies were discarded in rural areas. A few days later, Brown’s cousin Henry Roan was found dead in a similar way and the death toll increased. Victims included wealthy native Americans who controlled the reservation land.
The murders were reported in newspapers and were termed “The Reign of Terror”. In 1925, when the death toll reached 24, the FBI (then known as the Bureau of Investigation)’s young director, J. Edgar Hoover, stepped in. He assigned a Texas Ranger Tom White with the case, who became one of the first agents to hunt culprits.
Who killed the Osage people? FBI investigation revealed shocking truths
White arrived at the scene as an impartial and incorrupt investigator with the power to overrule local intervention. He made an undercover team, which included an American Indian to crack down on the heinous crimes.
The team unearthed grave conspiracy theories behind the mysterious deaths. Killers of the Flower Moon chronicles Tom’s investigations that unearth the diabolic plan of the white settlers in Oklahoma. The further they dug, the more they found — within months, the FBI realised the so-called guardians of the Osage people, which had doctors, lawyers, judges and businessmen, were corrupt people who nabbed nearly USD 8 million from their wards.
Hale was one person who gained maximum profits from this scheme. Collider states he bagged USD 25,000 as a beneficiary of a dead Osage man’s life insurance, while a forged creditor’s note of another killed man got him USD 6,000. In fact, he had planned the murders in a way that the victims were Mollie Burkhart’s family members whose death would result in the headrights being directed towards her.
According to Screenrant, Hale hired local criminal Kelsie Morrison to shoot Brown, and Entertainment Weekly reports Hale also roped in people to build and detonate bombs to kill Rita and Bill Smith and were helped by his nephews Ernest Burkhart and Bryan Burkhart throughout.
Interestingly, Mollie Burkhart was also supposed to be with Bill and Rita that fateful night but changed her mind last minute, luckily escaping her husband’s plans. Tom realised Mollie Burkhart was in danger when he found corrupt doctors under Hale were treating her diabetes. Their medicines had adverse effects on her. But when she was taken to a hospital, Mollie immediately recovered. This implied she was a victim of slow poisoning.
The trial and who was charged?
Because of the nature of the grisly crimes and the investigating agency’s inexperience, very few people were taken to justice. Screenrant states, “Even members of Hoover’s own investigation team were aware of the true nature of the murders and turned a blind eye due to avarice and racism.”
However, many couldn’t escape trial such as Hale and Ernest and Bryan Burkhart. While the uncle headed the crime nexus and was called the “King of the Osage Hills”, the nephews assisted him. On 4 January 1926, Hale and Ernest Burkhart were arrested, with the latter confessing his crimes and identifying John Ramsey as Henry Roan’s shooter. According to reports, Bryan was also arrested for Brown’s death but was later acquitted when Hale furnished bonds for him.
A frenzied trial continued with shocking twists and turns. However, when it was discovered that Hale’s initial trial was marred with corruption, a second trial took place and both Ernest Burkhart and Hale were sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment. Mollie divorced Ernest Burkhart, remarried in 1928 and passed away in 1937. Shortly after, Ernest was released on parole but was imprisoned again for robbery in 1941. He was again paroled in 1959 and died in 1986. Hale was released in 1947 and died in 1962 in Arizona,
Although two perpetrators of the crime were punished, David Grann says there are many deaths which remain unsolved. Additionally, like William Hale and his familial accomplices, there are many more who married Osage women for their oil rights, that have gone unscathed. “Virtually every element of society was complicit in this murderous system,” says the book.
In 1925, the US federal government passed a law in favour of the Osage members that prohibits any non-Osage person from inheriting headrights from an Osage person who has half or more native American ancestry. However, the government continues to exercise regulations over the people and their lives.
Evolution of the FBI
The Bureau of Investigation, under Hoover, took up the case as a chance to mend its fallen reputation after the Teapot Dome scandal.
Speaking to HISTORY, Grann said, “The bureau badly bungled the case initially. They released an outlaw named Blackie Thompson, hoping he would work as an undercover informant, but he instead robbed banks and killed a police officer. At one point Hoover wanted to get out of it and turn it back to the state, but after the scandal, he didn’t have a choice.” This is when he turned the case to White who carried out the probe.
However, besides the Burkhart family, the Osage murders largely remain unaddressed. “Hoover was in a rush to close the case—really the case was closed prematurely,” Grann told HISTORY. The bureau did not unearth a deeper conspiracy and a calculated culture of killing. Hence, many escaped untouched.
However, with White stepping in to probe the case, the crimes of Hale and the Burkhart brothers were established. The high-profile arrests and subsequent success paved the way for the FBI’s authoritative image as a capable and prominent law enforcement agency.
How accurate are the depictions?
Grann’s book draws information primarily from FBI reports and archival documents. “For this reason, the book offers an in-depth look at the life of the Osage tribe and the agents designated to investigate, while the perspective of the perpetrators is addressed only in the background,” says Movie Web. Scorsese takes refuge in the speculative advantage of movies and seamlessly blends the suggestive with the real facts.
Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemons, along with other actors, play real-life characters. Scorsese and Roth made extra efforts to speak with Osage historians and tribe members to understand the cultural implications.
Since Grann’s book studies the matter and gathers information to chart the growth of the FBI, the Killers of the Flower Moon movie’s narrative had to be changed to make it a historical retelling.
(Hero and feature image: Courtesy Killers of the Flower Moon/ IMDb)
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– Is the Killers of the Flower Moon book based on a true story?
Written by journalist David Grann in 2017, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is a non-fiction work based on the heinous murders in 1920s Oklahoma. The book is adapted to screen by Martin Scorsese.
– Why is Killers of the Flower Moon rated R?
Killers of the Flower Moon has received an R rating from the Motion Picture Association because of its violence, bold and disturbing images and language.
– Is Killers of the Flower Moon difficult to read?
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann depicts heart-wrenching crimes and the grave injustice to the Osage people. Hence, it should be read cautiously. Grann has extensively collected facts from archives and FBI reports, which has made it an authentic depiction of the incidents. The Wall Street Journal has described it as, “A master of the detective form…Killers is something rather deep and not easily forgotten.”
– What type of book is Killers of the Flower Moon?
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is a non-fiction book based on the brutal murders of the Osage people and the events that led to the legitimisation of the FBI.
