Killers of the Flower Moon: Chapter 20 Summary & Analysis

At the end of July 1926, as the summer heat climbs to “infernal” temperatures, the trial of Hale and Ramsey for the murder of Henry Roan begins. The press remains transfixed by the whole affair as the drama and violence continue to escalate. White is forced to station extra guards at the jail, after attempts are made to break out the outlaws who plan on testifying against Hale. Hale attempts to bribe Blackie Thompson into refusing to testify, offering to break him out of jail if he will take Ernest to Mexico and off him there. White fears that the jury, too, will be firmly under Hale’s influence, and ensures that the judge probes prospective candidates as to whether they have been approached by anyone from Hale’s team before confirming them.

Another crucial but unspoken question looms over the proceedings: will a jury of twelve white men ever unanimously agree to punish another white man for killing an American Indian? Members of the press and of the Osage tribe alike publicly express their doubts that justice will ever truly be served.

As the proceedings begin, Hale and Ramsey seem relaxed and even bemused. On July 30, when Ernest Burkhart is called to the stand, many wonder whether he will fold again—but this time, Burkhart answers the prosecution’s questions honestly, and his testimony at last makes public what many Osage have long known: members of their tribe have been systematically killed and poisoned.

On August 7, the prosecution rests—but not before begging the jury to understand that “the richest tribe of Indians on the globe has become the illegitimate prey of white men,” and that they must “do [their] part” in securing justice for the Osage. On the 20, the jury begins its deliberations, but as the days go by, they remain deadlocked. The judge learns that more than one member of the jury has indeed been bribed by Hale’s people, and orders them dismissed, and the defendants held for further trial. White is stunned and disappointed, and the Osage are outraged.

White begins investigating the corruption in the first trial and uncovers a series of bribes and threats. In early October, a grand jury tries to charge the defense attorney, Jim Springer, with “flagrant attempts to obstruct justice,” but the man is never charged, even as several witnesses are indicted and convicted.

As the trial begins again, the defense attempts to implicate Ernest Burkhart—not Hale—in all of the killings, calling into question whether or not Burkhart could have been responsible for the death even of his own daughter, Little Anna. As the more streamlined trial comes to a close and the new jury plans to start deliberations, the judge orders them, once again, to do their jobs, warning them that the failure of justice in the courts is the failure of the entire country to thrive.

By the end of October, the jury delivers their verdict. They find John Ramsey and William K. Hale guilty of the murder of Henry Roan in the first degree. The jurors, however, have recommended a sentence of life imprisonment rather than death. Hale and Ramsey are taken away, and reporters fly out of the courtroom to file their stories.

A year later, Anna Brown’s murder is prosecuted. Mollie attends the trial and sits and listens to the “gruesome details” of how Bryan Burkhart, her own brother-in-law, conspired to kill Anna. Bryan takes the stand and recalls returning to the scene of the crime a week after the shooting, with Mollie and her family, to identify the corpse. Morrison, the man who pulled the trigger and killed Anna, is convicted. After the trial, Mollie divorces Ernest, and for the rest of her life is seen to “recoil in horror” at the mere mention of her husband’s name.

For Hoover, the Osage murder investigation becomes “a showcase for the modern bureau,” and the press, reporting on the bureau’s involvement, states that once Hoover’s men got onto the scene the law “became a thing of majesty” in the face of corruption and failure. Hoover does not disclose the bureau’s false starts with the case, and instead uses it to create “a pristine origin story” in which the bureau, under his direction, “emerged form lawlessness and [overcame] the last wild American frontier.”

The press and radio praise Hoover and the bureau, dramatizing the Osage case for listeners around the country and spreading far and wide the news of the bureau’s success. Hoover privately commends White and his men for their success—but in the public dissemination of information about the case, covers up their involvement, knowing that White and his men don’t “quite fit the profile” of the college-educated recruits Hoover wants to be a part of his own mythology.

The Osage Tribal Council is the only governing body to single out and praise White and his men as they pressure Congress to pass a new law barring anyone who is not at least half Osage from inheriting headrights from a member of the tribe. 

Shortly after Hale and Ramsey’s conviction, White is offered a position as warden of Leavenworth prison in Kansas—the oldest federal penitentiary and one of the country’s “most dreadful places to be incarcerated.” There have been allegations of corruption there, and the assistant attorney general wants White to come in and help stamp it out. Hoover doesn’t want White to leave the bureau, but White decides to take the new job and follow in his father’s footsteps. Soon after White begins his tenure there, in November if 1926, Hale and Ramsey arrive at Leavenworth as prisoners.