The King of the Osage Hills

Pludert com Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, January fourth, nineteen twenty six. The Osage murder mystery, as dramatic as any created by novelist's pen, today seem nearer a solution. Federal and state officers working in Unison were closing a net around suspected members of a murdering that is believed to have been responsible for the

deaths of nearly a score of O Sage Indians and white persons. Action was divided today between Guthrie, where a federal grand jury is convening to consider the testimony of about one hundred and forty witnesses, and the O Sage Country, where state officials are expected to arrest several suspects. The murders are believed the outgrowth of a conspiracy to gain possession of the fortunes of the victim, estimated

to total two million dollars. Although the most recent of the crimes was committed about three years ago, none of the perpetrators has yet been brought to justice. Numerous investigations have been launched and seemingly have been abandoned because it seemed impossible to obtain information. Federal secret servicemen have been working quietly on the cases, however, and two weeks ago the state was invited to participate in a roundup

of the suspects. It seemed probable solution of the case would revolve around the dynamiting of the w Smith home in Fairfax three years ago. Smith, his wife, and Anna Brookshire, a servant, were killed by the explosion. Some of the persons whose deaths were seemingly connected with the case were Anna Brown, wealthy o Sage woman shot to death, Ace Kirby white Man shot, Henry Rome, Anna Brown's cousin shot, Charles Whitehorn kinsman of Anna Brown shop.

George Bigheart, son of the last Osage hereditary chief, died in an Oklahoma City hospital after a brief mysterious illness. Charles Vaughn, big Heart's attorney, found dead on railroad ride of boy near Pershing after consulting with big Heart in Oklahoma City. William Stepson, associate of Henry Roane, died presumably of alcoholic poisoning. Big Annie Sandford died after short and puzzling illness. Lizzie Kuku,

mother of Anna Brown and Missus Smith, died after mysterious illness. Deaths of five other Indians of less prominence were believed to have been connected with the Caves. Information charging William K. Hale of Fairfax, known as the King of the Osage Hills, Ernest Burkhardt M. A. Boyd, former Deputy Sheriff of Osage County, and Bert Lawson, prisoner in the Levenworth Penitentiary with the slaying of W. E. Smith March tenth, nineteen twenty three,

was filed by the State's Attorney's office. Here today, True Crime Historian presents from the official files a true crime story called from Historic Documents in Law Enforcement Archives, Episode two hundred and fourteen digs deep into the files of the FBI and one of its early successful investigations during the tenure of J. Edgar Hoover, when the Bureau of Investigations as it was called, then looked into the

murder of as many as sixty to seventy O Sage Indians in Oklahoma. The files include a report by agent Frank Smith, as well as statements from informants who helped break the conspiracy. True Crime Historian welcomes guest reader Susan Furman as Catherine Cole, one of these informants. I'm true crime Historian Richard O. Jones, and I bring you The King of the Osage Hills, a terrible reign of murder. The story of the Osage Murders is the story of the

land where the Bad Old West never died. It is the story of a crime that spread its dark, devious paths over a background of ignorance, greed, superstition, and sly craft. A story that, however depressing, is nevertheless blown through with the breath of the romantic devil may care frontier West that we thought was gone. And it is an amazing story too, so amazing that at first you wonder if it can possibly have happened. In modern twentieth

century America, seventeen men and women have been murdered. One William K. Hale, picturesquely known as the King of the Osage Hills, is lodged in jail with various alleged henchmen on a charge of first degree murder. A two million dollar fortune is at stake. A grim tragedy is coupled with a humorless irony in the background of these strange murders of the o Sage Hills. To understand them, you must know something of this background. Otherwise, the whole

thing is inexplicable. It goes back nearly half a century to eighteen eighty three, in fact, when the Osage Tribe, a branch of the once dreaded Sioux, was granted a haven in the wilds of unsettled Oklahoma. The Native American has never in history received a square deal from the white man, and that occasion was no exception. With canny care, the Great White Father looked over his Oklahoma acres and picked out the section that was the most utterly bare

and worthless. This section he gave to the O Sage tribe forever. The O Sages settled on it because there was nothing else to do. But it was unpromising land. It was so desolate and barren, in fact, that all of this one million, five hundred thousand acres would not grow enough produce to support the two thousand odd members of the tribe, and the Great White Father had to dig down and grant each member a pension of some forty five

dollars a month. In eighteen eighty nine, Oklahoma was opened for white settlement, and the land around O Sage County became more or less thickly populated. There was competition for land all over the state, but no white man begrudged the O Sages their million and a half acres. Then, in nineteen o six oil was discovered on the O Sage land. A year or two late,

more oil was found. In nineteen twelve came a news strike, a monstrous field this time, and the Great White Father realized all too late that the land he had given the outcast O Sages contained the richest oil field in the whole country. Further, it was too late to do anything about it. What happened, well, the O Sages became, instead of the most

poverty stricken of red men, the richest body of people on earth. There are just two two hundred and twenty nine accredited members of the tribe, each with an equal share or head right in the wealth of the oil land. This money is collected for them by the government, and each person's share is paid annually. And what do these annual dividends amount to? Just fifteen thousand

dollars. That's all. Every O Sage Indian has a fifteen thousand dollars annual income for the rest of his life, except that it may go up as new wells go down. And in addition, many Indians have invested this money in oil lands outside the reservation. Practically every member is a millionaire. Some are millionaires many times over. And here is what started this mysterious train of murders. Each Indian's head right or share in the fabulous wealth of the o

Sage oil land goes on as death to his next of kin. Consequently, if some white man who had an Indian wife could kill off all her relatives, she would fall heir to a fortune of many millions of dollars. William K. Hale has no Indian wife, but his nephew, Ernest Burkhardt has, and though the two are named in only one indictment, federal investigators hint that by the time the Grand Jury quiz ends, something of this murder by

wholesale nature will be found to have been the case. Several relatives of Molly Burkhardt, Ernest's Osage wife, have died under mysterious circumstances, and the annual income of Molly and her husband through inheritance of head rights is now about one hundred and thirty five thousand dollars a year. At all events, it is common talk throughout this part of the country that the great wealth of the O Sages has led some of them to sudden death. Even the porter on the

train that brought this rider down from Chicago knew of it. He shook his head and remarked, no, sir, I don't want to be no Indian in Oklahoma. They just kill them and throw them in the ditches, that's all. Paulhuska, Oklahoma, fourth nineteen twenty six. The Indians are just a bunch of children, says US agent J. George Wright of Pahuska. They're harmless and inoffensive enough, but they're just children. So now they've got so much money. Funny things happen once in a while. Funny things do

happen. Indeed, for an example, listen to the story of Catherine Cole and Kelsey Morrison. Katherine is an Osage Indian and Morrison is a white man. After each had been to the Altar three times, they married each other. Katherine was very rich because of her share in the O Sage oil lands, and Morrison had accumulated a slice or two of under an increment through his previous marriages. So after their marriage the two had a fortune that was the

equivalent of nearly a million dollars. But Morrison had been brought up among the outlaws of the Oklahoma wilds, and the tree often grows in the direction that the bent twig assumes. So Morrison found it hard to break himself of his old habits. In spite of his wealth, he simply could not keep from holding up a bank every now and then. This habit palled on Catherine, who liked things peaceful. Her lectures on reform likewise palled on Morrison, so

the two were divorced. Morrison thereupon married another o sage maiden, but he was the same old Morrison, and at last he robbed one bank too many and fell a foul of the law. He is now in the penitentiary, serving a life term. Shortly after Morrison's imprisonment, his wife died. Catherine ordinarily did not hold any ill feeling against the girl who replaced her in Morrison's

affection, but one night recently she fell to brooding. The brooding may have been made more poignant by the fact that she drank a quart of white mule as she brooded. At all events, when the bottle was empty, she got an axe, jumped into her automobile, and sped to the cemetery. There she went to the grave of Morrison's recently deceased wife, where there had been erected by orders of the imprisoned Morrison, a very costly monument. Catherine

is strong. She went to work with the axe, and in a very short time the tombstone was wrecked beyond repair. Catherine was arrested for this, however, and given a jail term of six months for defacing property. She accepted it with equanimity and went to Guthrie to testify in the probe of the Osage murder lightheartedly. She is ready to get married again, she says, or will be as soon as she gets out of jail. Only this time

she sort of thinks she would like to marry a white man. From the report of Agent Frank E. Smith, the O Sage is located between the crooked at Arkansas River and the Kansas state line in the northeasterly part of Oklahoma, and what up to only a few years ago was barren except for a few poor pastures. In fact, when the Osage tribe was forced to leave Kansas and settled into what is now called O Sage, it was considered that they had paid a million, two hundred thousand dollars for a poor grave for

the tribe. The area of the Osage is two two hundred and seventy seven square miles, and the total population increased approximately three hundred and fifty percent between nineteen hundred and nineteen twenty, the last census showing thirty six thousand, five hundred and thirty six souls. In nineteen hundred and one, the mad rush for oil already had brought into the county unscrupulous prospectors, and the county actually

produced in that year. It was only a short time thereafter that some two thousand Osages found themselves facing the same problem which drove the Indian from Virginia and Massachusetts, which, except for a slight difference in tactic, was to have the same result the ultimate acquisition by the white Man of all that the Indian possessed. Figuratively, the desert blossomed into a garden of roses, and the Oceages overnight became the wealthiest people per capita in the world. Teen hundred and

six, there were two two hundred twenty nine members of the tribe. Today there are but one thousand, six hundred and fifty The federal government on June twenty eighth, nineteen oh six, enact at a law known as the Osage Act, under which the two thousand, two hundred and twenty nine members of the tribe were to receive through the government an equal number of shares known as head rights, growing out of the leasing of the property or portions thereof for

the commercial production of oil, and the total value of each individual share covering the period from nineteen oh six to the present date is seventy two thousand, one hundred and thirty dollars, exclusive of certain other benefits growing out of civil

damages. An o Sage born subsequent to June twenty eighth, nineteen oh six would inherit only his proportionate share of his ancestors head right as one of the two thousand, two hundred and twenty nine enrolled in nineteen oh six, since which time the tribe has received a total of one hundred and eighty five million

dollars through the government. The acquisition of this wealth cannot be said to have constituted a blessing, either to the tribe as a whole or the individual members, For after all, wealth, while bringing comfort, also brought disease immorality

and extravagance, which is appalling. Modern homes, with all of the present day conveniences, have been built for members of the tribe only to have them roll up in their blankets and sleep in the yard, And in fact, many of the homes have a wigwam or canopy outside in which Indians spend a large amount of their time when not driving over the country in automobiles or away

on even less wholesome missions. Among the many adventurous prospectors and other white men who had come to Oklahoma, William Kay Big Bill Hale, who had been identified with the cattle business in Texas, an old friend of frontier showmen and a man whose desire for riches and power was devoid of scruple there, either came with him or later joined him in Osage County, his nephews Ernest and Brian Burkhardt, who with their brothers were employed by and under the dominance of

Hale, who, by one means in another had acquired sufficient wealth to become known as quote the King of the o Sage unquote. He had in his employ from time to time a number of reckless characters, many of whom were either ex convicts or fugitives from justice, and were known killers for a prize. Lizzie Q, otherwise known as Lizzie Kyle, was an o Sage squaw who in nineteen twenty was already old and in bad health. Her own estate

approximated two hundred thousand dollars. She had three daughters, Anna, Mollie, and Rita. Anna was a dissolute character and notorious in the Osage, with a preference for white men, with several of whom from time to time she had had affairs, and at least one of whom, Odie Brown, she married. In nineteen twenty, her estate approximated one hundred thousand dollars. Rita married one W. E. Bill Smith, a white man, with whom she lived up to the time of the destruction of both of them. Mollie

became the wife of Ernest Burkhardt and is living with him today. Mollie appears to have been the first means to draw to Hale through the Burkharts the assets of the entire family. Anna had been somewhat intimate with at least one of the Burkhart boys, but apparently she was too notorious for even the Burkhart to contract a formal marriage. No one knows what became of her husband, Odie

Brown. And the disappearance of a squawman in the Osage, or the remarriage of a squall without any inquiry or investigation into the existence of the husband, were matters which too evidently did not concern anyone. But Anna Brown had money and the stake was large. In nineteen twenty Lizzie q, the aged mother, had been brought to Ernest Burkhardt's home at gray Horse and was living with her daughter. She was the second of the family taken directly under the wing

of Hale in the general scheme. Early in nineteen twenty one, she developed a malady which very evidently would result in her death. She had been induced to make a will leaving the bulk of her estate to Ernest Burkhardt's wife and children, and with the control exercised by the Burkhardts and Hale Well, this meant that the white men really had the money within their grasp. But there

were higher stakes which might be one. If the old woman should outlive Anna Brown, under the law of the state, the fortune would be increased by half of Anna Brown's whereas if Anna should outlive her mother, the greater part of her fortune would be diverted to collaterals. Lizzie Q was sinking and something had to be done. Let me ask you a question. Do podcast commercials get on your last nerve? Let me tell you how to get around it.

How to listen to this high quality podcast without commercial interruption. What you do is get online and go to www dot patreon dot com slash True Crime Historian. That'll take you to a place we call the safe House. You'll drop a few bucks in the kitty. Every month you can listen to the latest release from the safe House Vault commercial free. Plus you get access to hundreds, I mean literally hundreds of hours of stories from the True Crime Historian

archives. Just kick in a few bucks to help keep the lights on. That's all commercial free. Www dot patreon dot com slash True Crime Historian. Go ahead, I dare you. My name is Catherine Cole. My home is Pahsca, Oklahoma. I am Osage. I married Kelsey Morrison in May nineteen twenty twenty years old. When I married, I have never told anyone all I know about the Anna Brown murder because I was afraid I would get

killed. When Anna Brown was killed. I was living with Kelsey Morrison in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on the street one block west of the Fairfax Hospital, in my own house. On the night that Anna Brown was killed, just after supper, Kelsey Morrison left my house and said he was going to town and said he would be back in about an hour. I told him to send me a taxi that I wanted to go to my mother's. As I

remember, it must have been about six when Kelsey left the house. He did not send me a cab, nor did he come back to the house. Some time after dark, possibly eight or eight thirty, Brian Burkhardt drove up to my house and blowed his horn, and I thought it was a taxi and went out to the car. When I got to the car, Brian was and Anna Brown was sitting on the back seat. Brian Burkhart laughed and spoke and Anna said hello. I could plainly see that Anna Brown was

very drunk. Anna said something about going to get a drink or she wanted a drink, and told me to get in the car, which I did. Brian then drove off, going south on the street I lived on, then east and then onto the main highway going to Ralston and Gray Horse and on out this road and down a steep hill over a little bridge, and then east about a quarter of a mile, and stopped his car some little

distance, possibly fifty or sixty feet away. I saw a car standing on the side of the road, but he had the curtains up, and I don't know who was in it. Brian Burkhart got out of his car and went over to that other car. Then I heard Brian and some other men talking, and I recognized the voice of Kelsey Morrison. Brian Burkhardt then came back and got in his car with Anna and I and said that they, meaning the men he had talked to, were going over there a short ways

and we would go with them. I saw the other car drive away first, and we followed. We drove on a short distance over a round hill and went through a gate and on buy an old house, and then on down the Gray Horse Road toward the Prahusca Road. Before we got to Pahusca Road, we turned off the Gray Horse Road near the head of a ravine where there are a lot of trees, and stopped. The other car had stopped on the north side of the ravine between the ravine and Pahusca Road less

than half a block from where we stopped. When we stopped, Kelsey Morrison and the other two men who I did not know at this time, walked up to our car. Anna had been drinking and Kelsey, Anna and the bunch began joking and talking, and there was something said about getting another drink. Some one of the men said something about having some whiskey hid there and

about taking a drink. Anna Brown was very drunk, and Brian took her on the right side and Kelsey on the left, and walked her off from the car, going in the direction of the ravine and towards the head of the ravine. I looked out and back from the right side of the car and cleared my throat as to speak, and Kelsey looked back at me and said you g D s B. Keep your mouth shut by it. They then walked on with Anna Brown and I did not again look out of the

car. As soon as Anna got out of Brian's car, there was something said about going and getting something. I was still in the car and Brian Burkhardt was still at the wheel. Brian immediately drove off with me in the car and went back in the direction of Gray Horse, by an old cemetery and then through Gray Horse, driving slowly. He did not open his mouth

to me during this time. After driving around a Gray Horse, he then turned around and drove on back to a point near where Anna Brown got out of the car, and near the Pahusca road and near a pond, where we found Kelsey Morrison and the two men who were with him when we left Anna Brown. Anna Brown was not with them, and I never saw her alive again. When we drove up, Kelsey Morrison told me to come and

get in the car with him, which I did. This car was a Ford, as I remember, they had the curtain up on this Ford car. When I got out of Bryan's car and got into the Ford, Brian turned around and drove back in the direction where we left Anna Brown, which was in the direction of Gray Horse. One of the two strangers drove the Ford car and I sat on the rear seat with Kelsey Morrison and we drove to Pahsca. There was not a word said between there and Pahuska about Anna

Brown. When we got to Pahsca, we stopped in front of a restaurant on the main street. Kelsey Morrison one of the strangers and I got out of the car and the other stranger said he was going somewhere I don't remember just where. A few days after this, Kelsey Morrison got mad at me and told me if I didn't keep my mouth shut, he would kill me if I ever told anyone, and I knew he would, and that is

the reason I never said anything. When they took Anna Brown out of Brian's car that night, while no one had told me, I knew something was going to happen, and I was very badly scared. After we left Anna Brown that night, Kelsey Morrison would not let me out of his sight and would not let me leave the house by myself, and if I talked to anyone he would stop me. And this continued for some time after Anna Brown's body was found, and Kelsey acted very nervous, as if he was afraid

that somebody suspected him. When Anna Brown's body was found about a week or ten days after we were riding with her in Brookhart's car, it was reported in Fairfax that they had found a dead Indian woman, but they didn't know whether it was an osh or a car as everyone was going out to the place where the body was found. I hired a taxi and Margaret Walters and I went out to the place. When we got there, the body was

already in a box and I did not get to see it. But when I noticed that the body was found at the same place where Kelsey and Brian Burkhardt assisted Anna Brown out of the car the night we drove out the Gray Horse Road, then I knew it was Anna Brown's body they found. I never mentioned it to anyone that it was Anna Brown or that we had been out riding with her. Kelsey Morrison had threatened me several times that if I did not keep my mouth shut, and I was afraid to say anything about

it. On the night of January ninth, nineteen twenty six, I went with mister Smith, mister Parker, and mister Tom Hubbard to my house in Fairfax and we started from there, going over the same route that we traveled when Brian Burkhart, Kelsey Morrison, Anna Brown, and I went riding the night that I last saw Anna Brown alive, when she was assisted out of the car by Brian and Kelsey close to the ravine where her body was found.

I would have told about this, but I did not have any confidence in the officers of Osh County, and I knew that if I told them that Kelsey Morrison would soon learn about it and either kill me or have someone else kill me. My name is Matt M. Williams. I now reside at Pahuska, Oklahoma. During the time I lived at Ralston and Pahuska, Oklahoma, I became well acquainted with W. K. Hale. In fact, had business dealings with him and was closely associated with him for the past

twenty years. In the year nineteen twenty one, in the month of May, I think about the seventeenth of May, Brian Burkhardt and Anna Brown came to my room over the First National Bank in Ralston, and Brian Burkhardt bought from Fred Shorty Wheeler two courts of whiskey and paid Wheeler fifteen dollars. Brian Burkhart at the time remarked that he had to take care of some business for Uncle Bill Hale that night and that Kelsey Morrison was going to meet them at

the end of the Arkansas River Bridge at Ralston. I remember the date quite well, as that was the time Anna Brown was last seen alive on Saturday

night, preceding the week when she was found murdered. Three or four days after Anna Brown was found dead, Kelsey Morrison saw me at Pahusca and told me that Bill Hale had had him do the worst job he had ever pulled, and that Hale had promised him five thousand dollars and had paid him two hundred and now refused to pay him the balance, and that the job was

a terrible one. That while Brian Burkhardt was loving Anna Brown, he Morrison knocked her on the head from behind with a pistol and she hollered so loud and showed so much life that Morrison and Brian Burkhardt carried her from the car to where she was found murdered and laid her down, and she still had some life, and he Morrison shot her in the back of the head with

a gun. Morrison further stated to me that Catherine Cole was with them on the party for a while and that that they had let her out of the car before Anna Brown was killed. Morrison also told me that if Hale did not pay him in full for killing Anna Brown, he was going to kill Bill Hale a few days later, Hale came to my room at Ralston about three o'clock in the morning and told me he was afraid that damn son of a bitch Kelsey Morrison was going to squeak about the Anna Brown killing and asked

me if I could help him keep Morrison's mouth shut. I then told Hale I thought if he would pay Morrison it would be all right. Hale then asked me to see Morrison and use my influence in keeping his mouth shut, and I told Hale I did not think Morrison could afford to Holler. I later saw Morrison and told him what Hale had said to me, and Morrison said Hale had given him some more money, but if he did not pay

him the balance, he would bump him off too. I asked Hale what he had Anna Brown bumped off for, and he said so Ernest Burkhardt's wife could get the Anna Brown estate. Three days after Ron was found, I met John Ramsey at Mike Foley's hotel at Fairfax, and Ramsey told me about

killing Henry Roan, where he was found shot. That he Ramsey had done as Hale told him to do. That he had told Rome to meet him out there alone to get some whiskey, and when Ron met him, Ramsey opened the side door of the car and shot Roan in the back of the head, and that Hale had promised him five thousand dollars, that Hale had only paid him five hundred and given him a Ford car, and that he Ramsey asked me to help prevail on Hale to pay the balance of the money.

I afterwards talked to Hale about the balance of the money due Ramsey for killing Ron, and Hale told me that he had told Ramsey he would pay him the balance when he collected the insurance, and that's what the agreement he had with Ramsey for the killer of Henry Roan. Hale told me several times that he had everything square to Osage County from the road overseer to the top, and he was exempt from prosecution for the murders, and that rowan insurance

policy. I then told Hale that he had better be careful about pulling off jobs on restricted Indian lands, and Hale told me he had talked to his lawyers about government jurisdiction. And Hale said his lawyers had told him that the government had no jurisdiction and he was in the clear so far as the government was concerned. My name is Dewey's self. I was living with my wife near Pahuska in May nineteen twenty five. I had just got back from Colorado.

Kelsey Morrison, who was in the Pahuska County jail, sent word to me to come to the jail and see him. I went to the jail and saw Kelsey. Kelsey asked me if I would do him a favor. I told him I would. He said that he felt I was the only one he could trust to do it. Kelsey said that he wanted to make some arrangements to get shut of Catherine, his wife, because she knew too

much about the Anna Brown murder deal. Kelsey said that he would give me a note to Bill Hale and that Hale would fix the arrangements for getting shut of Catherine. Kelsey did not offer me any money to help him get shut of Catherine, but said that Bill Hale would foot the bill whatever it was. Kelsey gave me the note to Bill Hale, which said that I was a friend of his and that Hale could trust me to the full extent. I didn't take the note to Hale the same day that Kelsey Morrison gave it

to me. But it was a few days later that I went to Fairfax and found Bill Hale in a pool hall where I gave him the note. As I remember, I believe it was the latter part of may or the first day or so in June nineteen twenty five that I gave Hale the note. When Hale read the note Kelsey Morrison sent him, he asked me if I wanted to help do the job. I told him yes. Bill Hale told me to go on back to Pahusca and that he would send a fellow

around to see me about the plans. Two or three days later, when I was not at my home in Pahusca, a fella came to my house and left a note for me to call him when I came home. He left an address for me to call a hotel, which I don't remember now was in Tonkawa, Oklahoma. This fellow gave the name of Little Skeet. When I came home, I called the address he left, but I could not get him. I called again the next day and got him. He told me he would be over in Pahuska to see me. I told him

I would either be at the Papa Hotel or American Cafe. He came over that same day. I met him at the American Cafe. We commenced to lay out our plans where we would take Catherine Morrison. We decided that I was to take Katherine out on a drinking party with some others and go out on Dial Hill just back of Pauhuska. That Little Skeet was to be close by Dial Hill in another car, and when I got out on the hill, if I had Katherine with me, I was to blow my horn,

pretending that it was accidentally blown. If I did not have Catherine with me, I was to flash my spotlight up and down. That if I blew my horn to let Little Skeet know that I had Katherine with me, then Little Skeet was to drive up to where our party was parked and hijack our party and shoot Katherine, and the rest of our party would not think that it was planned to kill her. Little Skeet stayed in Paalhuska during the last

part of June nineteen twenty five. Just a few days before the fourth of July, I told Little Skeat that I would make up a party that night and try to get Catherine Morrison to go along. He said he would go out near dal Hill and if I got her to go along, when I got out to the hill for me to give the signal to him. That night, I was riding around with a boy from Joplin, Missouri, whose

name I've forgotten. This boy borrowed George Brunt's car. We drove down to where Marie Benson was living and I got her to go along with us. We then drove to white House, Pool Hall, where Luther Province worked, and as soon as he got off work we picked him up in our car. Then drove down to the Markell Hotel where Luther got Katherine Morrison and a ukulele. We drove out on seventeenth or eighteenth Street and got a gallon of

chalk beer. Katherine Morrison had a gallon of chalk hid somewhere and we got that too. We then drove out on Dial Hill, I doing the driving. Then as soon as we got out on the hill, I pulled off the road and stopped. I was afraid to go through with the plan, and instead of blowing my horn to let little Skeet know, I had Katherine and our party. I flashed my spotlight to let him know that I didn't have her. Little Skeet, who has parked a little below us at the

foot of the hill, then drove off. We drank the chalk that we had. Then we ran down to Pehusca and got some jake. We drank this and then drove around for a while. We took Luther home, then took Marie home. Catherine would not get out at her hotel, so we drove on down to the Model Rooms and got a room for her and put her to bed. She was pretty drunk. Then after I put Catherine to bed, I went down to the Pan American Cafe, where I met Little

Skeet. Little Skeet asked me what was the matter I could not get Catherine Morrison to go to the party with me. I told Little Skeet that Catherine was off somewhere drunk and I couldn't find her. Little Skeet then said that he didn't care, that he was kind of proud of it, that he had half the money and he would just keep it anyway. He asked me if I wanted part of the five hundred dollars Hail had given him half of which was to go to me, and I told him I didn't want it.

I was afraid of getting in a jam if I took any of the money. Little Skeet left for Tonkawa, and he told me he was going to leave Tonkawa, but he did not tell me just where he was going.

When I took the note to Bill Hale that Kelsey Morrison gave me, and after I told Hale that I would help put Catherine out of the way, Hale told me he would pay me five hundred dollars for my part of it, that he would pay half of it before the job was done, and then he would send a guy to me with money, and when we

done the deal, he would pay us the other five hundred dollars. About the twelfth or thirteenth of November nineteen twenty five, Frank Kramer, Bessie Rusk, Grace, Roan Madison, and I rode in Grace's Buick car from Pahuska to Ralston and got in Ralston about ten or eleven o'clock that night. We drove to the Jones Hotel and I let Frank and the girl out and they took the baggage to the rooms. I took the car to the garage across

from the Jones Hotel to get the extra tire fixed. The reason we drove to Ralston was because Bill Hale called me over to the telephone and told me he wanted to see me. I got the call and talked to Bill Hale from the Pan American Cafe, but Hale called me at the Papin Hotel. When Hale talked to me over at the telephone, he said he would meet me at Raston at one of the filling stations. There was only two filling stations in Ralston. When I got to the garage and filling station to get

the extra tire fixed, Bill Hale was not there. Finally, Hale came and asked me why we came to do him as we'd done. I told Hale that I never did see that other guy that he was to send me. Bill Hale then told me that he thought it would be a good idea for me to leave that part of the country for a while. I told him all right if he thought so. Hale asked me if I was broke, and I told him I was. Hale then gave me one hundred dollars and told me to take that as that was all he had with him.

Hale then asked me if I was to stay in Roston that night, and I told him know that I was going to leave right out. Hale told me to be sure and leave the country. To enjoy this and other episodes from the True Crime Historian archive without commercial interruption, feel free to join us at www dot patreon dot com slash true Crime Historian. We're still finding and

dusting off old stories for your horror and indignation. On May twenty seventh, nineteen twenty one, decomposed and swollen corpse of Anna Brown was found in a ravine just off the Pehuska Fairfax Road and not far from the road which leads from Greyhorse. The hunters who found the body went at once to Fairfax and notified an undertaker, who with doctors J. G. And D. A. Shoun, proceeded to the place and found a crowd of persons had assembled.

The body was identified as being that of Anna Brown, and a rude autopsy was held showing that death had resulted from a gunshot wound, evidently from a thirty two caliber revolver, the bullet entering the head from the rear. It was very evident that death had taken place in a number of days prior to that time, and the last time that Anna Brown was seen alive was

on the night of May the twenty second, nineteen twenty one. The undertaker and doctors made a very hurried examination, and for some reason they began their search for the boy bullet by opening the skull by sawing it in half vertically rather than removing a cap horizontally. They were unable to find the bullet and the body was buried, although half of the skull was preserved by the undertaker.

W. E. Smith, the husband of Rita, suspecting the parties responsible in the entire county, having been disturbed over the many murders and mysterious disappearances of Indians shortly, theretofore immediately started an investigation independent of the authorities, and it soon became known that through an expenditure of a large amount of money, Smith had acquired sufficient evidence to justify his suspicions that Hale was responsible for

the death. There was no doubt but Anna Brown was dead and that the state of Lizzie Q her mother, had acquired at least half of her property. The next expected happening actually occurred. Two months after Anna Brown died. Old Lizzie Hugh passed away at a home of her daughter, Molly Burkhardt, the wife of Ernest and the niece of Bill Hale by marriage, and with her death, the estate augmented by half of Anna Brown's, passed in balk

to the Burkharts. Brian Burkhardt was arrested and charged with the murder of Anna Brown in the state courts. Hale furnished bond for him, and Brian was acquitted. Things apparently were running favorable to Hale and his nephews, and nothing of particular interest in the story occurred until January nineteen twenty three, other than the finding of the bodies of Joe Gray Horse, Anna Sandford, and others

who evidently had been victims of similar plots. Anna Brown had a cousin, a full blooded Osage Indian named Henry Roane, who in January nineteen twenty three was living with his wife, Mary, also a full blooded Osage, and their children at Fairfax, Oklahoma. Roan frequently left home for as much as three or four weeks at a time on drunken sprees, so that when He left the house on January twenty sixth, nineteen twenty three, and was not

seen for several days. There was no excitement. However, on February sixth, an Indian boy ran across an automobile in a swale or small canyon, about five miles northwest of Fairfax and about two hundred yards from the road. He ran to Fairfax and brought two officers, who found Roan's body on the front seat of his car, where he evidently had been dead several days, shot through the head from the rear. An inquest did not develop any information

other than he had come to his death by a gunshot wound. This in itself was not particularly indicative, but a short time thereafter, Hale presented for payment and insurance policy issued by Capital Life Insurance Company of Colorado for twenty five thousand dollars on the life of Henry Rome. The company refused to pay the indemnity on the ground of fraud and misrepresentation, and Hale entered suit in the

federal court. This brought forth an examination of the various court records, which in themselves disclosed that at the time Ron petitioned the District Court of Osage County for the appointment of a guardian. He owed Hale six thousand dollars balanced due on the purchase of a house in Fairfax, and there evidently was no other ensurable interest of Hale in the life of Rome. A short time prior to his death, Roan was known to have had some personal difficulties with one Roy

Bunch, a white man who was unduly attentive to Ron's wife. It was known that Roan and Bunch had been looking for each other on several occasions when use would be made of arms. Therefore, when Ron's body was found, a rumor started that Bunch was responsible for the death. This rumor appeared to be confirmed by the fact that Bunch mary Gron's widow. A very short time after the finding of Rone's body. The rumor was started by Hale himself.

There appears to have been at the time no serious attempt to identify and prosecute anyone for Ron's murder. Statement of John Ramsay, January sixth, nineteen twenty six. Sometime in the early part of nineteen twenty three, the date I don't recall, Bill Hale came to Henry Grammer's ranch, where I was working for Grammar selling whiskey. I was in the bunk house and Henry Grammer called

me. I went out and saw him in Hale standing together. I walked over to them, and the three of us walked out several yards to a road and stopped. Henry Grammer turned to me and said that Hale had a little job he wanted done, and asked me if I would do it. I said, it depends on what the job was. Grammer said he wanted an Indian bumped off. I said that's different. Hale, Grammar and I

then talk the matter over for a few minutes. I don't recall just what was said, but I remarked that I would look it over, and I went back to the bunk house. In a few days. Grammer told me that Hale was getting anxious to have that job done, as I remember. The next time I saw Hale was in Fairfax and we had another talk about the Indian he wanted killed, and I told him I would do the job, but that I did not have any way to get around. Hale said that he would see me in a day or two, or in a few

days. I again met Hale at Ranch and Hale told me he was going to buy me a car and gave me five hundred dollars. Something was said about where I would buy it the car, and I said I would buy it at Ponka City, and something was said about my getting over there, and Hale said he would drive me over to Pawnee, which he did, and I caught the train there. I went to ponk A City, where I bought a new Ford Roadster from the Ford garage. Before I received the

car, I made application and the Ford people secured a license. I drove back to Grammar's ranch. At some stage of the game, Hale pointed out to me the Indian that he wanted killed on the street in Fairfax. I don't remember Hale ever telling me the indian's name. Several days after Hale pointed this Indian out to me, I met this Indian in a restaurant in Fairfax and he sat down beside me, and I smelled whiskey on his breath and

we got into a conversation about whiskey. Told him I could sell him some. He said he wanted some, and I told him to meet me out at the road running through the saw smith's pasture about ten o'clock and I would meet him and have the whiskey for him. I left him and went to Grammar's and got some whiskey and drove back on the road leading through saw Smith's Pasture and found this Indian sitting in his car waiting at a point near Salt Creek. I drove up and got out of my car and we took several

drinks from a bottle I had. I then got my car and went to Fairbanks. Several times after that I met this Indian and gave him drinks. This went on for several days, and I was trying to rib up a little more courage. Finally, one day I decided to pull the job. Everything being favorable, so I told this Indian to meet me out on the road running through Smith's Pasture and that I would have some whiskey for him. I told him about what point on the road I would meet him. So

he went out on one road and I on another. We met about the foot of the big hill near saw Creek. I motioned for him to go up on top of the hill, which he did and stopped. I drove up and I saw a car coming and I told him to drive off under the hill, which he did. I got out of my car, and when the car I had seen past, I then walked down under the hill where I found him wait him for me. He got out of the car and we sat on the running board of his car and drank that whiskey I

had. The Indian then got in his car to leave, and then I shot him in the back of the head. I suppose I was within a foot or two of him when I shot him. I then went back to my car and drove to Fairfax. In a few days I saw Hale and told him enough for him to understand that I had killed the Indian. There

was very little said at this time. Some time later I again met Hale and there was something said about paying me the balance of five hundred dollars, Hale saying he would pay it a little later, as he would have more money then, and I told him that was all right and I didn't need

it. Then, sometime within a month or two, Hale paid me the balance due of five hundred dollars, some several days I don't remember just how long, but something like ten days, this Indian's body that I killed was found, and as I remember, that was the first time I found out that his name was Henry Rome signed John Ramsay Statement of Ernest Burkhardt, Guthrie,

Oklahoma, January sixth, nineteen twenty six. Sometime several weeks before Henry Roan was found murdered, I went with Bill Hale to Henry Grammer's ranch, and while there, Bill Hale called my attention to a man who was there working for Grammar, and told me this man's name was John Ramsey, and that he was a man who would stand pat and keep his mouth shut.

That on one occasion in the past, Henry Grammar was caught with some stolen cattle, and that Grammar got Ramsey to say that he stole the cattle, which cleared Grammar, and that Ramsey served a sentence in McAllister of Penitentiary for

the theft of these cattle. Sometime around one year and a half before Ron's death, Hale took out a policy on Henry Roan's life for twenty five thousand dollars and told me the reason he got this policy was on account of the fact that Henry Roan having family trouble and drinking very hard, and he had made one attempt to commit suicide, and he did not figure he would live long after Hale and I left Grammar's ranch, and after he pointed out Ramsey

to me, Hale said he believed he would put Ramsey on Henry Rohan's trail, and that Ramsey could either give him some poison whiskey or shoot him and lay a gun beside it, and everybody would think he had committed suicide. A few days later, Ramsey came down to Fairfax and I was walking down the street and ran on to Ramsey and Bill Hale talking something about buying a

Ford Roadster at Ponca City. After Ramsey left, Hale told me he had given Ramsey money to buy a Ford Roadster, as Ramsey had no way to get around and kill Roan and get away, that it would be necessary for Ramsey to steer Roan around and keep up with him and get him to a place where he could dump him. In a few days, Ramsey returned to Fairfax and a new Ford Roadster, which I understood he bought at Ponca City. I saw Ramsey round town in this car for the next few days.

About a week before Henry Rohan's body was found, Ramsey walked up to me on the street at Fairfax and inquired for Hale. I told him I did not know where he was. Ramsey then told me to tell Hale that the job was all right and not to worry that had happened out in the soul Smith pasture. I later saw Hale and told him what Ramsey had said. Ramsey left Fairfax, going to his home at Ripley. In a few days, Ramsey came back to Fairfax and later went to Grammar's place. Shortly thereafter,

Henry Rohan's body was found dead in his car. A few days later, Ramsey came back to Fairfax and stayed a short time and went on to Ripley. Sometime after Ron's body was found, possibly a month later, Bill Hale told me he had paid Ramsey the balance he owed Ramsey for killing Roan, which made the job cost him the Ford car and the balance being a

total of one thousand dollars. Sometime after Rone was found dead, I asked Ramsey how it happened, and Ramsey said he met Roan on the road running from Fairfax to Burbank and got in Roane's car with him sitting on the back seat, and they drove off under the hill. He telling Ron that he could take a drink, and when they got to the right place out of side of the road, he shot Rome and walked back to the top of the hill where he had met Roan and left his car. Then he drove

on to Fairfax. He shot Roan with a forty five automatic pistol. Signed Ernest Burkhardt statement by John Mayo, convict in Kansas State Penitentiary, Lansing, Kansas, February sixth, nineteen twenty six. I was raised at Chickasha, Oklahoma, and went to Webb City, Oklahoma, in January nineteen twenty three. Asa Kirby and myself operated a rooming house at Webbs City from January nineteen

twenty three to April nineteen twenty four. During this time, Bill Smith's home at Fairfax, Oklahoma was blown up and Smith and his wife and servant girl were killed. During this time, I was around Henry Grammer's place a good deal and saw John Ramsey at Grammar's place several times. About two weeks before Bill Smith's house was blown up, John Ramsey came to the rooming house that Asa Kirby and I were running at Webb City and had private conference with Asa

Kirby. The following morning, asa Kirby took me out into the country near Webb City in his car and told me we could get two thousand dollars to kill a man in a squaw, meaning Bill Smith and his wife. A few days later, Kirby came to our rooming house at Webb City with a roll of fuse about one hundred feet long and some dynamite caps and told me we would get ready to go over to Fairfax and do the job, meaning

to blow up Bill Smith's house and kill Smith and wife. Kirby asked me if I knew where a nitro magazine was located near Webb City, and I told him I did not. Kirby then said John Ramsey had told him. Kirby then said that John Ramsey had told him that there was a magazine on the road to Call City. The next day, Kirby and myself went to Henry Grammar's and Kirby looked for a magazine but could not find it, and

we drove to Henry Grammar's and had to talk there. The next day, John Ramsey came to our house at Webb City and Ramsey and Kirby had a talk Ramsey drove away from his house in his Ford car and Kirby followed him in his. Kirby returned to our house later and told me John Ramsey had showed him where a Nitro magazine was, and the next evening Kirby came to the house at Webb City with a new five gallon oil can and left the

can there until dark. After dark, Doc Hawkins and Nasa Kirby came to the house and got the oil can and wrapped it with an old quilt and put the can in Kirby's car and they drove away between eight and nine pm. The night before Bill Smith's house was blown up. Kirby returned home after midnight the same night. The next morning, Kirby had told me he had taken the stuff meaning night troglyserin over there and left it and was going back

that night as he wanted to be sure Smith and wife were home. The night Smith's house was blown up, Doc Hawkins and Asa Kirby left our house in Webb City in Kirby's car about dark. Kirby woke me when he came in the following morning about five am. About eleven am the same day, when Kirby got up. Kirby said to me that it was a dandy job that they heard her explode when they were about seven or eight miles away. The following day, Kirby went to Grammar's place and returned home the same day.

About two days later, John Ramsey came to our house in Webb City, and shortly after Ramsey arrived, Doc Hawkins came into the house and Ramsey told Kirby and Hawkins and my present that they had done a good job. That they had killed two of them, Smith's wife and a servant girl, and blowed Smith's privates off, and he was in the hospital and would be gone in a day or two. One or two days later, Kirby myself went to Grammars to get some whiskey, and while at Grammar's asa, Kirby

and Grammar went down to Grammer's barn and had a long talk. When Kirby came back to where I was, he said he would be ready to go as soon as Grammar gave him some money. Kirby walked to Grammar's back door and Grammar handed Kirby a big roll of money. We then returned to our house at Webb City, and Doc Hawkins came into our house. Kirby took out the roll of money from his pocket and count out five hundred dollars to Hawkins and told Hawkins that he would get the rest of it if Smith died.

About two days later, John Ramsey called at our house and told Asa Kirby that Smith was dead and he Kirby would get the rest of the money. Statement of John Ramsey, as I remember, before I was hired to kill Henry Roan, through talking with Henry Grammer, where I was then selling whiskey, I knew that Bill Hale wanted Bill Smith murdered, and I knew

that Henry Grammer was helping Bill Hale to arrange to have him killed. I can't remember right now the different conversations I had with Grammar which convinced me they were going to kill Smith. I can't say for sure whether it was before I killed Henry Roane or after that. Grammar told me that he had a man to do the job and told me it was Asa Kirby. And in a little while after Grammer told me Asa Kirby showed up at Grammar's That was

the first time I met him. Grammar was very drunk, and he in the presence of Asa Kirby, told me Kirby was all right, that he would do that job he wanted done, and for me to help Kirby all I could. Kirby then talked to me and asked me what was the job that Grammer wanted done. I told him that he wanted a squaw man killed down near Fairfax by the name of Bill Smith. Kirby then said, well, I wasn't figuring on staying here long and wanted to know what there was

in it for him. I told him I did not know. He said, well, I'll see Grammar and talk it over with him. I don't remember now other little details and conversations, but I do remember that The next thing I took Kirby down near gray Horse, where Bill Smith was living on a ranch, and pointed out Bill Smith's house to Kirby. The next thing I remember, in some way is I heard Bill Smith left the country and

had gone to Arkansas. In fact, Ernest Burkhart told me that Smith had gone to Arkansas, but he did not think he would be gone long, and for me to tell Kirby. I told Asa Kirby what Ernest Burkhart told me. The next thing that followed, and I don't know how long after, Ernest Burkhart came to me and told me that Bill Smith had come back from Arkansas, and then took me and showed me a house in Fairfax that

Bill Smith was going to move into. The next thing that had happened, Ernest Burkhart came to me at Ripley, where I had my family, and told me that Bill Smith had moved into town and told me to tell Asa Kirby that everything was ready, or words to that effect, and tell him as quick as I could. I told Ernest my wife was sick and I would go as soon as I could get away. I'm not sure whether I

went after Kirby that day or the next day. I drove to the little oil town as I remember, either Webb City or Cooper, where Kirby runs a rooming house, and met Kirby and told him everything was ready and I would take him down and show him the house. Kirby and I drove to Fairfax and I showed him the house that Ernest said Bill Smith lived in. Kirby asked me if I knew where there was any soup, and said Henry Grammar had some and if I knew where it was, and I told him

I did not. Then there was something said about there being plenty of soups stored in the oil field and there would be no trouble for him to get it if he needed it, that he was not sure whether he'd blow up Smith or shoot him. As I remember, I went on home. I suppose Kirby went home. I don't recall exactly when, but soon after that, possibly the next night, Smith's house was blown up. At some stage

of the game, I don't exactly recall when. Before the blow up, I asked asa Kirby if he needed any help to do the job, and he said no. Some few days I don't recall just how long after some few days I don't recall just how long after the Smith blow up, I met Kirby and he told me something about doing a good job. After the blow up, I talked with Grammar and he asked me if i'd seen the

blow up, and he said it was a fair good job. I will say possibly a week after that I went to Fairfax and saw the blow up. Neither he nor Grammar paid me anything for the part I did in this. I was supposed to be just helping out, but at different times since the blow up, Hale has given me a little money. And whenever I needed a little money, I let Hale know it, and he never failed

to favor me. Henry Grammer told me that he paid Asa Kirby for the job, and I asked Asa if he got a settlement for the job, and he said, Henry Grammar paid all but a little. That Grammar came up to pay him all, but got on a drunk and spent a few hundred dollars, but later paid it all. I just got one thing to say. Www dot Patreon dot com, slash true crime historian, that's it. W. E. Smith, the husband of Rita and the brother in

law of Anna Brown, was living in a comfortable home. Smith had continued his active investigation of the murder of Anna Brown and had an open break with Hale due not only to his letting it be known that he had evidence involving Hale in the murder of Anna, but also because of a demand which he had made upon Hale for six thousand dollars and which Hale had refused to pay.

Smith was known to be apt to take action to enforce his claim against Hale, and at two o'clock on the morning of March tenth, nineteen twenty three, less than two months after the finding of Henry Rohane's body, Smith's home at Fairfax was blown up, his wife, Rida and the servant Nettie Brookshire are being killed instantly, and Smith himself being mutilated, so that he died within a few days, but not before making a dying declaration to the

effect that the only enemies he had in the world were Hale and the Burkharts. With the passing of Rita Smith, the last of the members of the family of Lizzie Q was done away with, leaving alone her daughter Mollie, who now lives in Pahusco with her husband Ernest Burkhardt, the nephew of Hale.

And in addition to the wiping out of the six thousand dollars claim which Smith held against Hale, Rida's property, it was felt also would go to the surviving sister, Molly Burkhart. However, a will had been made by Rita and her husband under which the survivor of the two was to acquire the estate of the first to die, and Smith having survived, Rita by approximately four days all of the proper he went to a daughter of Smith's by a

former marriage, a girl in Arkansas. Unknown to Hale and the Burkharts, the debris of once had been a home remained for some time a horrible monument to Hale, But neither he nor anyone else for that matter, was run down until the Department of Justice sent into the country a number of its men, carefully selected because of their knowledge of Indian and frontier life, their indomitable courage and persistence over seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The blast that shook Fairfax also shook

the Osage Tribal Council to action. In desperation, the Indians appealed to Washington.

A lawyer composed their resolution, which said, whereas several members of the Osage Tribe have been murdered and many other crimes committed against members of the tribe, be it resolved that the Honorable Secret Terry of the Interior be requested to obtain the services of the Department of Justice in capturing and prosecuting the murderers of the members of the Osage Tribe. The appeal was relayed to the FBI, and the order went out, launching an investigation that was to last for three

years and become one of the classic man hunts and FBI history. FBI agents moved into Fairfax and found an almost impenetrable wall of fear. People were afraid to talk, and witnesses who might have given information had long since disappeared. There were rumors that sent the agents off for days at a time on false leads. Someone they knew was deliberately planting stories to confuse their search, but

the hunt continued. No one in Fairfax paid any particular attention when four strangers drifted into town one by one, a cattle buyer, an insurance salesman, an oil prospector, and an Indian herb doctor. They went about their business, minding their own affairs. Weeks passed without a break in the case, but then a signal was passed and the four strangers met one night in the

bad lands to pool their information and plan their next moves. The cattle buyer was the oldest, and he was the FBI agent in charge for this special undercover detail. After hearing the reports, he summed up, quote, here's where we stand. Anna Brown was killed on unrestricted land, and so were Bill and Rita Smith. We have no jurisdiction there, but Henry Ronehors was killed on government land, and that's our case. If we can break that

case, I figure we'll find all the killers. The others agreed. Months passed. The four strangers met under the star in the o Sage Hills to exchange information, and each time they met they had a bit more information about the circumstances surrounding the murders. Gradually the picture was taking form, and the man in the picture was William K. Hale. Finally, the agent in

charge told his men, Hale is our man, without a doubt. He had a twenty five thousand dollar insurance policy on Henry Roan's life and had looked as if he was working to get the estates of Lizzie Q and her daughters centered in the hands of that nephew of his. But we have yet to prove it. But prove it they did. The wall against which they had

pounded so long crumbled slowly but steadily. From the bad lands came a tip that a certain convict in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary knew something about the murders. The agents found that convict, who hated Hale was ready to talk. He said, go see Ernest Burkhardt. He can tell you everything you want to know. This dove tailed with other information collected over the months. The agents confronted Burkhardt with what they had and what they suspected. Hale's nephew was the

weak link. He broke and told the agents how Hale had dominated him all his life. He named the killers of Henry Roanehorse and the Smiths. He said that his uncle had plotted the murders. One by one, the killers

confessed in each case. They pointed the finger at Hale, and the story unfolded of how Ace Kirby had been double crossed after he blew up the smith home, how they posed as medicinemen, prospectors, cattlemen, how many times were framed, how they were hunted and lost, how they uncovered scores of false leads and faked confessions, how they gathered from all parts of the country

small bits of evidence, and finally, why they took prisoner. The King of the o Sage will not be told until the evidence comes from the witnesses on the stand. June third, nineteen twenty six, Kelsey Morrison, twenty three years old, Tuesday, admitted from the witness stand that he killed Anna Brown, an Osage Indian woman whose body was found in a ravine near Fairfax

in nineteen twenty two. Morrison was testifying as a state witness in the trial of Ernest Burkhardt, charged with the slaying of W. E. Smith, O Sage County rancher. Morrison related the W. K. Hale, alleged by officers to be the mastermind of the O Sage reign of horror, had given him six hundred dollars in an automobile for killing Anna Brown, a sister of Missus Smith and Missus Burkhardt, and a daughter of Lizzie Q, wealthy woman now deceased. Hale urged him to kill Smith and his wife. Morrison

testified, and offered him money to shoot them. Burkhart, he said, had asked him why he didn't go ahead and go through with it, and asked me how much I wanted to do the job unquote. Morrison's public confession came after he had been informed by the judge that testimony given would not be

used against him in the case. Edward Dabney, Assistant Attorney General and State prosecutor, explained to the court that Morrison had given the statement to him and another prosecuting attorney at Guthrie after they had informed Morrison that the judge would grant him immunity. Morrison, on the stand said that Hale had talked to him at one time at one of his ranch houses and told Morrison that Bill Smith had quote Dunham dirty unquote and asked how much he was would take to kill

the whole bunch. Morrison said, quote. I told him I would study about it. I talked to him later in one of his pastors. Hale wanted me to shoot Smith. Later, he wanted me to set fire to their house and shoot Smith and his wife as they ran out. I was out with Burkhart and Hale in a pasture at a later time. Hale asked me if I was going on through with it, and that if I wasn't, he would get someone else. I told him I didn't believe I wanted

to do it. I had a conversation with Burkhart at the side of the road at another time. He asked me if I was going to go on through with it. He asked me why I didn't go on and kill Bill Smith. I told him I didn't know anything about it because Hale had been talking to me. He said if I'd go on through with it, he would make it right with me later. That he didn't have any money then, He said he would have all the money in the country someday. Unquote,

Morrison spoke in a low with eyes downcast, apparently nervous. His answers to questions asked by attorneys came after long intervals of apparent thought. Quote. He asked me how much I wanted to do the job, and I told him I did not want to do it. I told him I knew who he could get. I said this party would have to have the money down. He said he didn't have it then, but he would when the job

was pulled. Hale said I was to get three thousand dollars. He said Smith and his wife had a joint will, and if one got killed, both should be killed at once. He said, if I did not lose my nerve, Ernest would get it all and I would be taken care of. He meant by all that Burkhardt would get the head right of the Lizzie Q family, Molly's Burkhart, Anna Brown and Missus Smith. Hale told me after the death of Anna Brown that it was a good job I killed her.

I was hired by Hale in nineteen twenty one. He came to me one day and asked me what I would due for one thousand dollars. I told him most anything. He said he wanted me to kill Anna Brown. He paid me six hundred dollars once and later bought me a car. William K. Hale fought back, and one of the bitterest trials ever held in the Southwest. He boasted when arrested that he could raise a million dollar bond if necessary, and he must have spent a chunk of money. The court

room battles were highlighted by charges of bribery perjury threats against witnesses. Bill Hale's battery of lawyers almost succeeded in winning freedom for him. The federal district court held in his first trial that the government had no jurisdiction, but the US Supreme Court reversed this decision. The second trial ended in a hung jury after a defense witness gave perjeak testimony. The perjurer was convicted. Hale was convicted

on the third trial, but the fight hadn't been won. The verdict was set aside on the ground that the trial had been held in the wrong district. On the fourth try, Hale was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

That was January twenty sixth, nineteen twenty nine. In Osage County. The Indian's Tribal Council assembled again, and this time they adopted a resolution voicing, quote, our sincere gratitude for the splendid work done in the matter of the investigating and bringing to justice the parties charged with the murders of members of the o Sage tribe of Indians unquote. The bloody reign of the King of the Osage Hills had ended. The FBI had closed one of its most fantastic cases

in its files. Epilogue. Bill Hale was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled on July thirty first, nineteen forty seven. He spent some of the rest of his life in Montana working as a ranch hand, but died in Arizona in nineteen sixty two and was buried in Wichita, Kansas Byron Burkhardt turned state's evidence and never served any time. His brother, Ernest was sentenced to life in state court and was sent to Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAllister,

Oklahoma. He was relieved in nineteen fifty nine and received a pardon in nineteen sixty six from Governor Henry Bellman. That was the King of the Osage Hills, a terrible reign of murder. The statement of Catherine Cole was read by Susan Furman. Incidental music by Niko Vitessi. Theme music by Dave Sam's

and Rachel Shott. Engineered by David Hish at Third Street Music. Media management by Sean R. Jones, Production assistant by Emily seymer Brown and I'm True Crime historian Richard O. Jones signing off for now.