5 THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLES

Money was the one means at Mollie’s disposal that might

induce the indifferent white authorities to pursue a killer of
Indians. After Lizzie died in July 1921, Mollie’s brother-in-law, Bill
Smith, had presented his suspicions to authorities that she’d been
slowly poisoned, but by August they had still not looked into the
case. Nor had any progress been made in the then-three-month-
old probe of Anna’s murder. To prod investigators, Mollie’s family
issued a statement saying that because of “the foulness of the
crime” and “the dangers that exist to other people,” they were
offering a $2,000 cash reward for any information leading to the
apprehension of those responsible. The Whitehorn family also
offered a $2,500 reward to catch Charles’s slayers. And William
Hale, who campaigned for stamping out the criminal element
from Osage County, promised his own reward to anyone who
caught the killers, dead or alive. “We’ve got to stop this bloody
business,” he said.

But the situation with law enforcement continued to
deteriorate. The Oklahoma attorney general soon charged Sheriff
Freas with willfully “failing to enforce the law” by permitting
bootlegging and gambling. Freas denied the allegations, and while
the case awaited trial, these two powerful lawmen were pitted
against each other. Given this turmoil, Hale announced that it was
time to hire a private eye.

During much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
private detective agencies had filled the vacuum left by