At the inquest, while Mollie seemed eager to answer every
question, to make sure that nothing was missed, the justice of the
peace and the jurors asked her barely anything. Perhaps they
discounted her because of prejudice—because she was an Osage
and a woman. The panel questioned with greater depth Bryan
Burkhart, about whom many locals had begun to whisper; after all,
he was the last person seen with Anna before she went missing.
Bryan lacked the good looks of his brother Ernest, Mollie’s
husband, and there was something cold about his appearance; he
had uncomfortably steady eyes. Hale had once caught him stealing
his cattle and, to teach his nephew a lesson, filed charges against
him.
The county prosecutor asked Bryan about the day that he said
he’d given Anna a ride to her house. “When you brought her back,
where did you go?”
“Come to town.”
“When was this?”
“About 5 or 4:30.”
“You haven’t seen her since then?”
“No, sir.”
At one point, the county prosecutor paused and asked,
“Positive?”
“Yes, sir.”
At a later hearing, Ernest was also questioned. A law-
enforcement official pressed him about his brother: “You
understand he is the last person seen with this woman, Anna
Brown?”
“I understand,” Ernest replied, adding that Bryan told him “he
left her at her house. That is his story.”
“Do you believe it?”