Did the FBI Bungle the Osage Murders Case?

Grann, David.  Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.  New
          York: Doubleday, 2017.  ISBN: 9780385534246

Are you looking of obscure murders not often examined today?  Or are you looking for incidents in American history that seem to be brushed under the rug.  In either case, you have hit upon a find.  Killers of the Flower Moon attempts to illuminate a tale out of American history of horror brought about by greed, jealousy, concealed ambition, not to mention corruption in  high places that helped to lay a base for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to grow into the behemoth that it is now.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann opens with the terror gripping Mollie Burkhart, an Osage Indian, the middle of three sisters.  One sister is killed by a shot in the back of the head, another sister has her house blown up while she and her husband were sleeping, and Mollie's mother was likely poisoned.  Why did these murder's and numerous others happen?  Greed over oil headrights owned by the Osage Indians.  But the mystery lies in who inspired these assassinations.  And this is where the FBI (then known as the Bureau of Investigation) enters the picture.  Local officials were turning up nothing, neither had private eyes, so the government had been called in.  They managed to partially solve the situation, getting a few convictions and declaring victory.  But as the author reveals in the last few chapters, the BI's investigations never answered several key questions and murders still occurred after victory had been declared.

Most readers will enjoy the story despite the rabbit trails that the narrative wanders into upon occasion.  However, be prepared to be enraged over the greed and incompetence displayed by public officials during this case.