twenty times, his skull had been beaten in, and he had been
stripped naked, except for his socks and shoes, in one of which had
been left a card with his name. The forensic evidence suggested
that there had been more than one assailant, and authorities
suspected that his killers had shadowed him from Oklahoma.
News of the murder quickly reached Mollie and her family. The
killing—which the Washington Post called “the most brutal in
crime annals in the District”—appeared to be more than simply a
murder. It had the hallmarks of a message, a warning. In a
headline, the Post noted what seemed to be increasingly clear:
CONSPIRACY BELIEVED TO KILL RICH INDIANS.