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The Reign of Terror - The most serious outbreak of crime in Oklahoma history was the so-called Reign of Terror at the height of the Osage oil boom during the 1920s. Beginning in 1921, at least two dozen Osages were murdered by gunfire, stabbing, poisoning or explosives, but the number may have greatly exceeded that as there were many other Osage deaths that occurred under suspicious circumstances. During the boom, oil royalty and lease money that went through the tribe to individual headright owners made the Osages the richest people per capita in the world. The headrights that topped out at more than $12,000 in a single year would have a buying power today of several hundred thousand dollars. Since a family often had more than one headright, the amount of money involved was stupendous. Wild spending was a trait of people suddenly rich. One woman in a single day spent more than $40,000 for clothing, jewelry, furnishings and land in Florida. Automobile agencies sold expensive cars to Indians who had discovered an aversion to walking; Osage County reportedly had the largest number of Pierce Arrow autos in the nation. An Osage historian wrote, "Grand pianos often stood out on the lawns year around; priceless china and silverware sat on shelves while the Indians ate with their fingers. . . . expensive vases were used to keep vegetables in or as corn bins." With this kind of money acting as a lure, human coyotes soon surfaced. William K. Hale, an Osage County rancher and banker, was the ringleader of a scheme to gain control of headrights by murder or insuring Osages with himself as beneficiary and then having them killed. He, his nephew Earnest Burkhart and a cowhand named John Ramsey were sentenced to prison in 1926 after a long legal struggle, but others may have been involved. It was one of the first big cases of the fledgling FBI. A state investigator named Luther Bishop was a key to cracking the case; he was murdered in his Oklahoma City home in December 1926 and the crime was never solved.

"Earnest Burkhart and a cowhand named John Ramsey were sentenced to prison in 1926 after a long legal struggle."

Please note that the man who killed a lot of these Indians was named John Ramsey.

thanks.

maybe you could get the rocky mtn news or denver post to help you out.

The most serious outbreak of crime in Oklahoma history was the so-called Reign of Terror at the height of the Osage oil boom during the 1920s. Beginning in 1921, at least two dozen Osages were murdered by gunfire, stabbing, poisoning or explosives, but the number may have greatly exceeded that as there were many other Osage deaths that occurred under suspicious circumstances.

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Pales next to what happened in Tulsa/Greenwood that same year.