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9 of them all in this oil-and-Indian kingdom was William K. Hidde, © banker, cattleman, merchant, politician and killer-by-proxy. a” Throughout the Roaring Twenties there was no stranger case than! that of Hale, who became known as “King of the Osage Hills.” : For twenty years, Bill Hale was a power above the law in “ County, growing rich from frauds and murders planned behind a froat of respectability. He didn’t kill with his own hands. He hired his kill- ers. If anyone talked too much . . . well, there were ways to shut him . up. Nobody had ever proved that Bill Hale had done anything wrong. Before the turn of the century, Bill Hale had left his family’s ranch near Greenville, Texas, and drifte® into the “bandit hills” of Osage ns - County. This was rough, broken country where outlaws bid in the re- ia vines and caves, safe from pursuit until they were ready to ride again. . Hale had no trouble making friends. He lived in a tent for a time, scratching out a living by trading with the Indians. Curiously, when an Indian reported some of his cattle missing in ong part of the county, Hale wouldjurg up in another part with quantities of fresh meat for sale. iis One day Hale went to collect a small bill from an Indian customer, only to find the man had just died. This wasn't misfortune for Hale— it was @pportunity knocking for the first time. Hale saw a lawyer and arranged to have a lies filed against almost _ everything the Indian had owned, including land, cattle and household “ possessions. It was sheer robbery, and the Indian's relatives prepared to fight the claim. But out of the badlands came Hale's friends to swear the Indian rightfully owed Hale the money. Yes, sir, they had heard Bill Hale plenty of times demanding payment from the Indian. More- over, the Indian had acknowledged the debt. There wasn’t a shred of documentary proof to support the claim, but Hale won his case. After that it was easy. Rarely did an Indian die that there wasn't a claim of some kind against his property, filed cither by Hale or by some other white man. Then came the deluge of wealth for Osage County. Drillers struck oil and almost overnight the Osage Indians became the richest people per capits on earth, By reason of the “head rights” granted by the fed- eral government to some 2,200 full-blooded Osage Indians, they were ' ¢ligible to share the royaities paid on each gallon of oil pumped from their reservation. And there were the bonuses, too, from the lease sales. * ‘ When an Osage died, his “head right” was passed on to his heirs. In this manner some Indians had more than one share in the tribe's ooled income. Suddenly these Indians who had lived in poverty were fabulously wealthy. They bought huge houses and then spent most of their ti “4 nee EE Fage 114 of "The FRE Story, -- . A Report to the People” by Don Whitehead