Killers of the Flower Moon

unconnected to the systematic killings. The case did not fit into
the bureau’s dramatic theory of the murders: that a lone
mastermind was responsible for all the killings, and that when
Hale and his henchmen were captured, the case of the Osage
murders was solved. Yet, in hindsight, the fact that Hale appeared
to have played no role in the Whitehorn plot was the very reason
the killing was so important. Like the suspicious death of Red
Corn’s grandfather, the plot against Whitehorn—and the failed
plot against his widow—exposed the secret history of the Reign of
Terror: the evil of Hale was not an anomaly.