The Shocking True Story Behind 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

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Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon was one of the most overwhelming hits at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Now that the movie has released nationwide, the buzz is only intensifying. But, did know you that the entire 3 and a half hour film is based on a true story? The film follows chilling real life events that transpired in Oklahoma in the 1920s on the Osage Nation Reservation. It was adapted from David Grann's nonfiction book by the same name, which details the events.

Brief History of the Osage Nation

By the start of the 20th century, the Native American Osage Nation was moved from their ancestral lands primarily in modern day Kansas. The tribe bought lands that would become their reservation in Oklahoma. To everyone's surprise, the lands that were thought to be worthless had rich oil deposits. By the 1920s, the Osage Nation and its people were extremely wealthy due to the revenue generated from oil. At the time, only members of the Osage Nation and their spouses were entitled to the revenue generated by the oil reserves. This prevented non-native settlers from taking over the reservation and profiting off of the oil deposits.

William Hale's Sinister Plan

William Hale (portrayed by Robert De Niro), also known as "The King of Osage Hill," was a white settler who had a successful cattle ranch on the Osage Nation reservation. Because he was not a member of the Osage Nation and therefore wasn't entitled to the oil revenue, he decided to come up with a plan to get a piece of the pie. Knowing that oil revenue rights could be gained through marriage, he encouraged his nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) to marry a native woman. Burkhart agreed and married Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).

Not long after, members of Kyle's family started being murdered. Mollie's sister Anna Brown was shot in 1921, her mother Lizzie Q was poisoned, another of Mollie's sisters perished along with her husband in a home explosion, and Lizzie's nephew Harry Roan died under suspicious circumstances. After the death of each of Mollie's family members, Burkhart and Kyle inherited their entire estates, aside from Harry Roan, whose life insurance payout went to William Hale.

At the same time, other members of the Osage Nation were dying in similarly suspicious ways. The string of murders led to one of the first-ever FBI investigations (known at the time as the Bureau of Intelligence). Tom White (Jesse Plemons) led the investigation which ended in the arrest of both Hale and Burkhart in 1926. By the time the two were arrested, more than 24 people had been murdered. Hale and Burkhart were both sentenced to life in prison along with co-conspirators John Ramsey and Kelsey Morrison.

Though in 1965, Burkhart was pardoned by Governor Henry Bellmon and in 1947 Hale was paroled. Before their arrest the pair attempted to poison Mollie Kyle. On a somewhat bright note, she luckily survived and divorced Burkhart after the trail proceedings, eventually getting remarried before her death.

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