but also Burt in the murder plots.
The theory of Burt’s involvement in the murder of Bigheart and
Vaughan, though, was still based on circumstantial evidence. I
didn’t even know who was with Vaughan when he was thrown
from the train. Then, while searching through old newspapers, I
found an article in the Pawhuska Daily Capital about Vaughan’s
funeral. Partway through the story, it mentioned that Burt had
boarded the train with Vaughan in Oklahoma City and was on the
journey when Vaughan disappeared from his berth. According to
another story in the newspaper, it was Burt who reported
Vaughan’s disappearance.
Before I left the National Archives in Fort Worth, I came across
a folder that contained an interview with a bureau informant who
had been close to Hale and who had provided critical evidence
against him in the other murder cases. The informant was asked if
he had any information regarding the murder of Vaughan.
“Yes,” he replied. “I think Herb Burt pulled that.”I was conscious of the unfairness of accusing a man of hideous
crimes when he could not answer questions or defend himself.
And when I called Martha Vaughan to tell her about my findings, I
underscored the limitations of what we could know for sure. I
then went through the research I had gathered. I also mentioned
that at a library in New Mexico I had come across notes from an
unpublished interview with the Fairfax town marshal, who had
investigated the murders of the Osage. He indicated that Burt had
been involved in Vaughan’s killing and that a mayor of one of the
boomtowns—a local tough—had helped Burt throw Vaughan off
the train. The town marshal also indicated that during the
bureau’s investigation into the Osage murders, in 1925, Burt was
so scared that he considered fleeing. Indeed, Burt abruptly moved