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a __ Jin tents in the back yard. Grocery bills of more than $1,000 a month #4} for one family were not uncommon. They vied with each bther to sxe, "who could pet the largest car. One Indian went to Oklahoma City and bought a new, shiny hearse with glass sides. He liked to ride through | the countryside and admire the scenery from the depths of a comfort- * able rocking chair. The hearse was driven by a high-priced uniformed Chauffeur. ; The Osages were like children released in a vast new wonderland. But it was a wonderland that was to bring them misery, and ¢vea death. The swindlers, gamblers, prostitutes, pimps and touts moved in to share the Osage wealth. White men a? Indian women solely to get.their hands on the oil money. Others developed a sudden “concern” - for the Osages’, welfare, and arranged to have themselves named legal — guardians with control over their wards’ money. Loan sharks charged . exorbitant interest rates. Salesmen asked, and received, outrageous prices for their merchandise. Some Indians protested. bitterly. But there were. few to listen, 7 cone Hale prospered as the Indians prospered. By" 1920 the one-time ; ke had moved from his tent im the badlands into control of a 50,G00-scre ranch stocked with cattle and fine horses. He controlled a bank in Fairfak, and owned part interest in a mercantile store and an undertaking establishment. Whenever a full-blooded Osage died, Bill Hale prospered i some fashion. ‘The number of unsolved murders of Indians increased. They found Charlie Whitehorn with two bullet holes in his forehead. Joe Yellow Horse died frothing at the mouth and Bill Stetson, the great Osage roper, and Nina Smith, both full-bloods, died violently. Folks said it was poisoned whiskey. Barney McBride, a white oil man, was enraged by the scandalous £ 3 ; _ treatment of his Indian friends. The tribal chiefs appealed to him to ; ne eo help put a stop to the thievery and the murder and McBride set out “4 2 for Washington to make a protest. His body, horribly mutilated, was ee found stuffed in a culvert near Meadows, Maryland. He died before oe #0: 7 filing the protest. 1 ai. Y. Joe (Gray Horse) Bates died, too, and Bill Hale produced a deed : 42 . to his lands. When George Bigheart died, Hale allegedly had an argu- 64S 0 ment at his deathbed over a deed which Hale claimed had been made g 44 - to him. George Bigheart’s lawyer was reported to have said the deed ag 45 . jwas fraudulent. The lawyer later fell—or was thrown—tfrom a train, Z 46 a v He was ground to death by the wheels. «| 47s Then the “King of the Osage Hills” got the most brilliant idea of his 2 e ee life. He must have wondered why the scheme hada't cccurred ¢ to > bien Page 115 of "the FBI Story A Report to the Peuple" de Don Whitehead