from local newspapers and from private detectives and FBI reports at the National
Archives.
Genial and witty: It should be noted that one newspaper account says that Whitehorn’s
wife was part Cherokee. However, the FBI files refer to her as part Cheyenne.
“popular among”: Pawhuska Daily Capital, May 30, 1921.
“Oh Papa”: Quotations from the hunters come from their grand jury testimony, NARA-
FW.
“The body was”: Report by Weiss and Burger, Jan. 10, 1924, FBI.
“It was as black”: Grand jury testimony of F. S. Turton, NARA-FW.
“That is sure”: Grand jury testimony of Andy Smith, NARA-FW.
2: AN ACT OF GOD OR MAN?
A coroner’s inquest: My descriptions of the inquest were drawn primarily from eyewitness
testimony, including that of the Shoun brothers. For more information, see records at
NARA-CP and NARA-FW.
“not faintly”: Quoted in A. L. Sainer, Law Is Justice: Notable Opinions of Mr. Justice
Cardozo (New York: Ad Press, 1938), 209.
“A medical man”: Quoted in Wagner, Science of Sherlock Holmes, 8.
“She’s been shot”: Grand jury testimony of Andy Smith, NARA-FW.
“An officer was”: Quoted in Cordry, Alive If Possible—Dead If Necessary, 238.
“terror to evil”: Thoburn, Standard History of Oklahoma, 1833.
“I had the assurance”: Grand jury testimony of Roy Sherrill, NARA-FW.
“religion, law enforcement”: Shawnee News, May 11, 1911.
“The brains”: Grand jury testimony of David Shoun, NARA-FW.
“keep up the old”: Quoted in Wilson, “Osage Indian Women During a Century of
Change,” 188.
Mollie relied: My description of the funeral is drawn primarily from statements by
witnesses, including the undertaker, and from my interviews with descendants.
“devotion to his”: A. F. Moss to M. E. Trapp, Nov. 18, 1926, OSARM.
“It was getting”: Statement by A. T. Woodward, U.S. House Committee on Indian Affairs,
Modifying Osage Fund Restrictions, 103.
The funeral: The Osage used to leave their dead aboveground, in cairns. When an Osage
chief was buried underground, in the late nineteenth century, his wife said, “I said it will
be alright if we paint face of my husband; if we wrap blanket around my husband. He
wanted to be buried in white man’s grave. I said it will be all right. I said we will paint
face of my husband and he will not be lost in heaven of Indian.”
“It filled my little”: From introduction to Mathews, Osages.
3: KING OF THE OSAGE HILLS