LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'Killers of the Flower Moon', Martin Scorsese's star-studded Western epic, is based on the true story of the Osage murders. The movie will feature a number of actors, including Lily Gladstone, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow and longtime Scorsese collaborators Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie is based on the 2017 book 'Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI' by journalist David Grann.
With a running time of almost three-and-a-half hours, the movie will provide an in-depth look at the 'Reign of Terror' in Osage County, Oklahoma, during which dozens of Osage Native Americans were brutally murdered between the 1910s and 1930s, requiring the FBI's involvement in its first significant homicide investigation. A significant player in the murders is Ernest Burkhart.
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Who was Ernest Burkhart?
According to an excerpt from the book, Burkhart played a key role in Osage murders. He killed his wife Mollie's family members on a large scale with the help of his uncle, William K Hale, to usurp the money they made from oil. The murders were reported in the press between 1921 and 1926. However, it is believed that the killings originally started in the 1910s.
Mollie witnessed almost every member of her family being murdered in front of her, including her older sister Anna Brown, her cousin Charles Whitehorn and her mother Lizzie Q Kyle. By the time FBI got involved, there were 60 victims. It all came to an end when Hale was taken into custody. He was accused of carrying out the killings with Burkhart and John Ramsey among other accomplices.
How was Ernest Burkhart caught?
In October 1925, detective Tom White received a tip from Burt Lawson, a prisoner at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. Burkhart and Hale allegedly promised Lawson $5,000 in early 1921 to carry out an explosion under Mollie's sister Rita Smith's home.
The agents kept track of Hale, Burkhart and Ramsey because their names kept coming up when they got together to compare notes on their observations. Convinced of their case, the federal agents arrested the three in January 1926 with the help of state authorities. In April, they charged Burkhart's brother Byron and Kelsie Morrison, for the murder of Anna Brown. The trial was upsetting for Mollie because it revealed additional details about the plan to kill off her family.
According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, Burkhart was sentenced to life in prison at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester in June 1926 after entering a guilty plea to the murder of Smith's husband, William. Burkhart testified against Ramsey and Hale, who were found guilty of murdering Henry Roan and sentenced to life in prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, in January and November 1929, respectively, based on the state's evidence.
Burkhart, Hale, and Ramsey eventually received parole despite Osage protests. Unexpectedly, Burkhart was granted a complete pardon by then Oklahoma Governor Henry Bellmon in 1965. After 1925, a federal statute forbade non-Osages from inheriting the headrights of tribal members with more than one-half Osage heritage in order to avoid another Reign of Terror.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart
In 'Killers of the Flower Moon', DiCaprio plays Burkhart, Hale convinced him to wed Mollie, a full-blooded Osage Native American, and then set up the murders of her family to inherit the family's headrights and profit from their insurance policies.
According to ScreenRant, 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is expected to have a limited release on October 6, followed by a widespread release on October 20 before it can be streamed on Apple TV+.