True crime story of the FBI's investigation and the trials that brought the murderers to justice. This book is written by a former FBI agent. It includes over 60 photos and illustrations.

The murder of two or three heirs to bring a fortune or a title into the hands of a scoundrel is a familiar theme with fiction writers. But even lurid fiction pales beside the story of these Osage murders.
                                                   --Reviewer: New York World

The [Osage] Indian is the plaything of clever lawyers, the fair game of anybody who can beat him out of his possessions.
                                                --Reviewer: Grand Rapids Press

The Osage saga is grip ping . It's about the FBI's first major homicide probe in the 1920's after the discovery of oil on the reservation of Oklahoma made the tribe very, very rich. The white man cheated them every way they could with swindles and false claims and then came up with the scheme of marrying the tribe, killing all the relatives, the killing their wives so they could inherit.
                                               --Reviewer: The Washington Post

Many, many Osage Indians died in the 1920's from explosions, gunshots, and even poisoning with the killers walking away freely. The Osage Tribe pleaded with the federal government to intercede, and when they did, federal agents were dispatched to Osage County, Oklahoma.  FBI Agents, some of whom worked undercover as a medicine man, cowboy, an oil prospector and insurance salesman, conducted a dangerous, painstaking investigation for several years which finally resulted in the conviction of the murder ring's leaders. A new book by former FBI Agent and former U.S. Congressman Lawrence J. Hogan chronicles the investigation and the four trials which eventually resulted in life sentences for the perpetrators in spite of the fact that some witnesses were killed, others disappeared and still others were bribed to perjure themselves.
                                   --Reviewer: The Pawhuska Journal Capital, OK

I half expected ghosts to step out of the Osage Indian Murders.  [F]rom the author's chapter-and-verse narrative and bare bones prose comes a haunting look back at a lawless time and place. Apart from business owners who upped their prices when an Osage was buying, white thieves routinely got their hands on Osage money. A man could have an Osage declared incompetent, have himself made legal guardian then help himself. Or a man would marry an Osage woman, have her killed and inherit her headright. Author Lawrence J. Hogan -- a former FBI Agent and former U.S. Congressman -- did voluminous research for this book. He quotes from original documents, interviews and confessions and organized an interesting bibliography. The photographs in the book are astonishing. Old black and white photos of Indians and outlaws, murder scenes and city streets evoke the time and place in ways that words never can. The people in the photos bring the story to life. They look straight out of the page and their eyes speak volumes. After a while it sinks in: They were real people and they really did those things!
                                                  --Reviewer: The Hanford Sentinel, CA

  ...The Osage Indian Murders is the true story of a multiple murder plot to acquire the estates of wealthy Osage Tribe members. One of the darkest episodes of Osage history, the conspiracy to exploit through murder at least 17 members of the Osage tribe...is a chilling true-life crime story more dramatic than anything to come out of Hollywood movies. The Osage Indian Murders is a recommended addition to Native American supplemental reading lists, and will thoroughly engage the interest of anyone with an interest in true-life crime stories. Highly recommended.
                                               --Reviewer: The Midwest Book Review

The book takes us through the history and culture of the Osage Indians, their customs, rituals, their distinctions from other tribes, their buffalo hunting and the impact horses had on the tribe. Hogan tells the chilling and uncomfortable tale of these murders in a forthright and matter-of-fact way. He intersperses the factual telling with informative footnotes, testimonies, photographs and records... 

"Countless ways were devised to cheat the Indians out of their money...One of the ways was ruthless murder...The story is a fascinating and horrifying tale of marriage for inheritance, of barbarous murder and of extraordinary cover-up."
                                             --Reviewer: Ponca City , OK News

Here's another fascinating book about native Americans. It's a true story written by a Frederick, Maryland lawyer, Lawrence J. Hogan who served 10 years with the FBI and served in Congress... "When oil was discovered in Oklahoma, Osage Indians became wealthy. Outlaws and con men invaded their reservation to swindle them as best they could, while known criminals were marrying Osage women so they could kill off Indian relatives and acquire their shares of the wealth. It's a fascinating story..."  "Greed, murder and history all combine to make a grisly tale of man's inhumanity to man...Marriage plots became a way for many unscrupulous white men, and a few white women, to obtain some of the vast Osage wealth. It was when the marriages began to end in murder that suspicions were aroused." 
                                          --Reviewer: Frederick , MD News—Post


 

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