payment page
Main Characters
Mollie (Wah-kon-tah-he-um-pah) Burkhart
A member of the Osage nation, born in 1886. Mollie is one of four sisters and is a mother to three children (James or “Cowboy”, Elizabeth, and Anna), and she commands a large fortune through her several headrights in Osage County, Oklahoma. She is married to a white man, Ernest Burkhart, and speaks English. Quiet, patient, yet determined to win justice for her murdered sisters, Mollie is a central character in the book. After the trial, she divorces Ernest and remarries James Cobb. Mollie dies of natural causes in 1937.
Read an in-depth analysis of Mollie Burkhart
Tom White
Agent in charge of the Osage investigation and then the warden of Leavenworth. A careful investigator and brave warden, White is the chief protagonist of the book and its ethical compass, even if his investigation leaves many of the Osage deaths unsolved.
Read an in-depth analysis of Tom White
William K. Hale
The mastermind behind many of the murders of the Osage. A popular cattleman, Hale’s life is a rags-to-riches story, and he presents a kindly face, making himself a reliable figure among the Osage; however, as the investigation proves, Hale runs a criminal enterprise devoted to swindling and killing the Osage people for their headrights. He is eventually convicted of murder and spends two decades in prison.
Read an in-depth analysis of William Hale
Members of the Osage Nation
Mollie (Wah-kon-tah-he-um-pah) Burkhart
A member of the Osage nation, born in 1886. Mollie is one of four sisters and is a mother to three children (James or “Cowboy”, Elizabeth, and Anna), and she commands a large fortune through her several headrights in Osage County, Oklahoma. She is married to a white man, Ernest Burkhart, and speaks English. Quiet, patient, yet determined to win justice for her murdered sisters, Mollie is a central character in the book. After the trial, she divorces Ernest and remarries James Cobb. Mollie dies of natural causes in 1937.
Read an in-depth analysis of Mollie Burkhart
Anna (Wah-hrah-lum-pah) Brown
The oldest of Mollie’s sisters, who disappears May 21, 1921. High-spirited and lively, Anna is their mother’s favorite. Anna enjoys drinking and is rumored to have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
Minnie (Wah-sha-she) Smith
The fourth of Millie’s sisters, who, despite her youth and history of good health, dies quickly of a mysterious illness in 1918. Although the circumstances are suspicious, no one is charged with murdering her. She was married to Bill Smith.
Rita (Me-se-moie) Smith
Mollie’s sister, who is married to Bill Smith, a white man, after Minnie’s death. Both are murdered when their house explodes in 1923. Rita is known as clever but is also besotted with her husband, who sometimes hits her.
Lizzie
Mother of Anna, Mollie, Minnie, and Rita. Her untimely death in July 1921 is suspected to be caused by poison.
Ne-kah-e-se-y
Mollie’s father. He prefers his Osage name, but traders call him Jimmy and it becomes how he is known. Ne-kah-e-se-y died before the start of the book but was an influential member of the tribe, known to be thoughtful and intelligent.
James Bigheart
An important, multilingual Osage chief. In the early 1900s, Bigheart successfully delays the U.S. government’s allotment scheme and then negotiates terms that are much more favorable to tribal members. Some call him the “Osage Moses.”
George Bigheart
Nephew of James Bigheart. While in the hospital in June 1923, George shares crucial evidence about the murders with W. W. Vaughan before dying of suspected poisoning.
John Palmer
A young lawyer who assists James Bigheart in negotiating allotments with the U.S. government. The son of a Sioux woman and white trader, Palmer is raised by an Osage family and marries an Osage woman.
John Florer
The Osage man who discovers oil on the tribe’s land, over a decade prior to the allotment agreement with the U.S. government.
Charles Whitehorn
Disappears on May 14, 1921, a week before Anna vanishes and is later discovered to have been murdered. David Grann investigates the crime and determines that Charles’ widow, Hattie, may have been involved.
Henry Roan
A 40-year-old married man with two children, who is murdered in 1923. He and Mollie had been married during their youth in an Osage ceremony, a fact that both hid as adults.
Rose Osage
A Native woman who is said to have confessed to murdering Anna for attempting to seduce her boyfriend, Joe Allen. She was later cleared of suspicion.
William Stepson
A champion steer roper and married father of two. He is murdered by an injection of poison in February 1922.
Bacon Rind
An Osage chief from the 1920s who lamented the irony that the whites ousted the Osage to the most seemingly undesirable lands in the emerging United States but became interested once they realized the land’s abundant value.
Katherine Cole
Osage woman and Kelsie Morrison’s ex-wife. She agrees to testify for the prosecution and is nearly killed for it. The gunman decides not to shoot her at the last minute.
John Cobb
Mollie’s husband after Ernest. Part Creek and part white, he and Mollie shared a loving relationship. They wed in 1928.
Kathryn Red Corn
Director of the Osage Nation Museum. A scholarly older woman, Red Corn’s family received a headright in 1906.
Margie Burkhart
Granddaughter of Mollie and Ernest, married to a member of the Creek Seminole Nation. Margie played a non-dancing role in the ballet depicting the Reign of Terror.
Martha Vaughan
Granddaughter of W. W. Vaughan who assisted the author with learning details of her grandfather’s life and death.
Melville Vaughan
Cousin of Martha Vaughan, who knows a great deal about his grandfather that were shared with the author.
Hlu-ah-to-me
An Osage trial member, and ward, who dies of tuberculosis when her guardian denies her access to medical care.
Eves Tall Chief
Osage whose cause of death was listed as alcohol. At the time, witnesses disputed this because Tall Chief did not drink.
Mary Elkins
Osage ward who is tortured by her husband but survives.
Sybil Bolton
A beautiful young Osage woman who dies of a bullet wound to the chest.
Marvin Stepson
The grandson of murdered champion steer roper William Stepson, who shares information with Grann.
Mary Jo Webb
A retired teacher, eager to learn what happened to her grandfather, Paul Peace, who died in 1927. She asks Grann to look into the case.
Wah’Kon-Tah
The life force that surrounds everyone and everything in the Osage belief system.
Individuals associated with the Bureau of Investigation and/or Washington D.C.
Tom White
Agent in charge of the Osage investigation and then the warden of Leavenworth. A careful investigator and brave warden, White is the chief protagonist of the book and its ethical compass, even if his investigation leaves many of the Osage deaths unsolved.
Read an in-depth analysis of Tom White
J. Edgar Hoover
Director of the Bureau of Investigation. Hoover uses the Osage case to establish the need for a more fully-empowered Federal Bureau of Investigation and, through it, accrues vast power in Washington, D.C. Secretive and difficult to please, Hoover does not always support his agents, particularly when he decides they reflect badly on him and the Bureau.
Charles Curtis
U.S. Senator from Kansas, with Osage and Kaw ancestry. Hoover fears his influence.
William B. Pine
U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. Pine was a defender of the guardianship system.
J. C. “Doc” White
Tom’s youngest brother. Gruffer and brasher than his older sibling, he too had been a Texas Ranger before joining the Bureau. They were part of a group of agents known as the Cowboys.
Harlan Fiske Stone
Named attorney general in 1924. Stone selects Hoover to run the Bureau, first in a temporary capacity and then permanently.
John Burger
An agent who had been part of the 1923 investigation. White retains him for the 1925 team.
Frank Smith
An agent from Texas, included on White’s team. Smith was injured during the Kansas City Massacre but survived.
John Wren
An agent with Native American (Ute) ancestry who was reinstated as an investigator to work on White’s team.
John Leahy
The prosecutor in Ernest’s trial hired by the Osage Tribal Council.
Flint Moss
Ernest Burkheart’s lawyer.
Dudley White
Tom’s oldest brother, who also becomes a Ranger. Dudley died in the line of duty in 1918.
Coley White
Tom’s third brother, who becomes sheriff of Travis County.
Bessie Patterson
Tom White’s wife.
Individuals associated with the events in Osage County
William K. Hale
The mastermind behind many of the murders of the Osage. A popular cattleman, Hale’s life is a rags-to-riches story, and he presents a kindly face, making himself a reliable figure among the Osage; however, as the investigation proves, Hale runs a criminal enterprise devoted to swindling and killing the Osage people for their headrights. He is eventually convicted of murder and spends two decades in prison.
Read an in-depth analysis of William Hale
Ernest Burkhart
Mollie’s handsome white husband and William Hale’s nephew. Born to a poor Texas family, Burkhart comes to Oklahoma to make his fortune. Despite marrying Mollie and having three children with her, he participates in the plots to kill her family, plots that include his wife and his own children. Ernest eventually confesses, seemingly tormented by guilt, but is not much reformed from his decades in prison.
Bill Smith
Rita’s husband who dies after their house explodes in 1923. Bill is first married to Minnie and, after she dies, marries her sister. He is sometimes violent with Rita but is also among the first to suspect that his female relatives are being murdered.
Bryan Burkhart
Hale’s nephew and Ernest’s younger brother, who participates in killing Anna Brown and later pretends to mourn her death and search for her killer. Bryan later gives evidence against Kelsie Morrison to get immunity during the trial.
Kelsie Morrison
Bootlegger and drug dealer with a long criminal record. A key Hale henchman, he works as an informant for Tom White’s investigation, but it later emerges that he shot Anna. Grann surmises he may have committed other murders as well.
John Ramsey
Cow thief, Hale henchman, and associate of Henry Grammer. Ramsey is responsible for Henry Roan’s murder who is later convicted of first-degree murder.
Asa Kirby
A gold-toothed outlaw and associate of Henry Grammer. He is a “soup man” or explosives expert. In a set-up by Hale, Kirby is shot robbing a jewelry store.
W. W. Vaughan
A former prosecutor who is murdered for trying to help the Osage. Upright and decent, Vaughan rushes to the bedside of his ailing client, George Bigheart, but not before providing his wife, Rosa, with details for the support of his family should something happen to him. He disappears from a train before he can share what Bigheart tells him. His murder is never solved, but Grann collects a compelling belated case against Bigheart’s guardian, H.G. Burt.
James Shoun
Doctor who performs Anna’s autopsy and former owner of Bill Smith’s obliterated home. James and his brother David who are close with Hale are actively involved in the conspiracy against the Osage tribe, falsifying information and even administering poison. James is named guardian of Bill Smith’s surviving children.
David Shoun
Doctor who performs Anna’s autopsy. Like his brother James, he actively participates in the conspiracy against the Osage by administering poison under the guise of providing healthcare. He is involved in the plot against Mollie’s life and likely many others, including Bill Smith.
H. G. Burt
Osage County Bank president and guardian for several Osage tribal members. Grann’s investigations reveal that Burt was likely responsible for several murders including W. W. Vaughan.
Oda Brown
Anna’s white ex-husband. Oda is suspected of murdering his ex-wife early in the investigation.
Irvin “Blackie” Thompson
One-quarter Cherokee gangster, known as “Blackie.” In 1923, he is released from incarceration to work undercover with the Bureau of Investigation to find the Osage killers. He escapes from their surveillance and commits additional crimes, to the Bureau’s chagrin. White interviews him in 1925, and he admits that he was approached by Ernest about killing Bill and Rita.
Al Spencer
A notorious and violent gangster, also known as the Phantom Terror. He becomes a prominent criminal figure in the popular imagination and was allegedly contacted by Hale to commit the murders of Bill and Rita Smith.
Dick Gregg
A young stick-up man with Spencer’s gang, who, while incarcerated for robbery, becomes an important informant in White’s investigation.
Frank “Jelly” Nash
A member of Spencer’s gang. Nash was one of the convicts being transported during the Kansas City Massacre.
Sheriff Harve M. Freas
Osage County sheriff in 1921. Although he has a reputation of being tough on crime, Freas is also known to allow bootleggers and gamblers to operate in his jurisdiction.
Scott Mathis
Proprietor of the Bill Hill Trading Company and a local undertaker. Mathis is the manager of Anna Brown’s finances.
William J. Burns
A prominent private eye, known for his willingness to bend the law. His detectives investigate Anna’s murder. In 1921, he is appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation, but his corrupt tenure is brief.
A. W. Comstock
Local attorney and guardian for several Osage tribal members. He has a white English Bulldog. He inserts himself into the investigation. Necia Kenny says he is involved in the conspiracy.
Necia Kenny
White woman with an Osage husband. Kenny pointed out that the attorney A. W. Comstock, a guardian for several Osage, was likely involved in the conspiracy. Despite her history of mental illness, Hoover felt she may hold the key to the case as an informant for leads and possibly as a witness.
Curley Johnson
A man Gregg believes has information about the murder of the Smiths.
Sargent Prentiss Freeling
Hale’s lawyer and a former Oklahoma attorney general.
Jim Springer
John Ramsey’s lawyer, hired by Hale. Springer was a "fixer,” an attorney with inside pull within the legal system.
Burt Lawson
A prisoner at McAlester State Penitentiary, who falsely confesses to having been involved in the plot to murder Bill and Rita Smith.
George Getty
Minneapolis attorney who leases Lot 50 in Osage territory. His son, Jean Paul Getty, will go on to found the Getty Oil Company.
Boxcar
The Leavenworth inmate who shoots White during an escape attempt.
Clyde Tolson
Associate director of the F.B.I and Hoover’s companion
LeRoy Smitherman
Hattie Whitehorn’s second husband. Grann finds evidence that he may have plotted with Hattie and another woman to kill Charles Whitehorn.
J. J. Faulkner
An unscrupulous character, who tries to blackmail Hattie Whitehorn. Grann finds compelling evidence that he also tries to poison her, although she survives.
Dennis McAuliffe Jr.
A newspaper editor who researches the death of his grandmother, Sybil Bolton. He publishes a memoir, The Deaths of Sybil Bolton (1994), about the case.
Governor Walton
Oklahoma governor impeached in 1923. Walton abused the pardon system and accepted illicit oil contributions.
Horace Burkhart
Brother to Ernest and Bryan. The good brother, Horace was uninvolved in crimes.
Ernie Pyle
Famous reporter who interviews White in 1939.
Fred Grove
A writer of westerns, who works with White to write a book on the Osage case.
