HIstorial Non-Fiction done right

"...exposed the secret history of the Reign of Terror: the evil of Hale was not an anomaly."

I was gifted this book back on 2023 for Christmas and I am little embarrassed to say that it took me this long to read it.

David Grann does an great job of laying out all the important details and people of the events surrounding William Hale and his campaign against the oil rich Osage people. Like so much brutality brought against people of color much of it as lost to history. The racism and contempt of the Osage people allowed for the brutality written about in this book to go unchecked and poorly investigated for decades. And by the time Grann gathered the facts so many details were lost to time.

So much of history, about the American western frontier, is blended together with the Hollywood retelling thus fueling the American myth of the noble, reluctantly violent, lawman and bandits galore. The truth, as told in this book, better illustrates the real villains of all history: entitled people attacking victims society would not miss. Grann does spend plenty of time detailing the officers of the law who investigated and their diligent and skilled investigations surrounding the murders.

As a narrative I found the book interesting and well written better than most historical fiction I have also read. I was so focused on what I was reading that I gave little time to solving the mystery myself as I read it. It was too much fun to discover it as I went. Grann is an excellent storyteller and as the story picked up, as heroes and villains were revealed I found myself staying up later and later to get to the next chapter.

While this case was a major impetus for the creation of the FBI this isn't the story OF the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Its origin simply coincide with the investigation of these Murders. Make no mistake this is a story of the brutality inflicted on the Osage.

The quote at the top of this review is the most poignant line from the entire book and reminds me of a truth that I have come to understand: you don't need a conspiracy if everyone is working from the same book.