Summary
The next section begins in 1925, as White tries to ease Hoover's nerves about the case. He tells Hoover that he has gathered solid evidence and will likely be able to start drawing the case to a close. At the same time, the tribe treats White and his men with suspicion, as neither law enforcement nor government officials had shown them much care or concern in the past. White captures and interrogates a criminal named Dick Gregg who claims that he was asked to kill Bill and Rita for money, but refused.
Gregg tells White to speak with a robber named Blackie Thompson. White hopes to interview Henry Grammar, but Grammar dies in a car accident, leaving him short yet another witness. He is also pointed towards a possible suspect for the bombing, a man named Asa Kirby, but learns that he has also died in a botched robbery. He is also informed that the robbery went wrong because Hale tipped off the store owner about Kirby's plans. White has little to go off of and knows that Hale is watching him closely. At the same time, Hale tries to solidify his reputation by handing out loans and gifts all over the reservation.
White then receives a tip-off from a man named Burt Lawson. He tells him he was hired by Hale and Ernest Burkhart to pull the fuse for the explosive device at Bill and Rita Smith's home. White also grows worried about Mollie's safety, as he sees that she is set to inherit the fortunes of almost everyone in her family, putting the money in the hands of her husband, Ernest, should she die. He notes that she is stricken with a strange illness and seems to be deteriorating. He has both Ernest and Hale arrested. Ernest is shaken up, but Hale remains unbothered and unafraid.
White gets some important information from Blackie Thompson, who he has also arrested, but he needs more to build a solid case. After days have gone by, Ernest finally confesses. He admits that his uncle has been conspiring to kill members of the tribe and that he had prior knowledge of all of the murders that he did not report to anyone. They arrest another conspirator, John Ramsey, as Ernest indicates that he was directly involved in the plot. They also learn that Kelsie Morrison was not only a double agent, but was the third man present with Anna on the night of her death.
Ernest stops short of implicating his brother Bryan or admitting to poisoning Mollie. White has someone check on Mollie and they find her near the brink of death. Her condition improves suddenly and she is interviewed. She seems scared about the murders, but still trusts that her husband did not kill her sister. Disturbed by Hale's monstrousness, White confronts Hale with the evidence he has gathered, but Hale remains unbothered, saying he will simply fight the charges.
White begins building a case against Hale. They face a number of issues. A land technicality results in some of their testimonies being thrown out and forces them to have the trial in Osage County. They doubt they can find an impartial jury. They place Ernest under protection to prevent him from being murdered before he can testify. The trial begins with a frenzy of media coverage. Ernest recants his testimony and claims to have been abused by White and his agents. However, the case is salvaged when Kelsie Morrison, who switches sides once again, testifies that he murdered Anna at the behest of Hale and was assisted by Bryan Burkhart. Ernest ends up making a written confession of his crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
Hale is also brought to trial, but ends up with a hung jury. White is enraged and starts working on a retrial. In a subsequent trial, Hale and John Ramsay are charged with murder. Bryan and Morrison are also tried for the murders. Mollie attends all of the trials and begins to coldly recognize that her husband had deceived her all along and watched her suffer these devastating losses while knowing who was responsible. With the cases solved, White leaves the Bureau to be a prison warden at Leavenworth State Penitentiary. White spends the remainder of his life working as the warden and is remembered for his sense of fairness and decency. Grann closes this section by noting that, tragically, there was more to the Osage murders than what White had uncovered and that the conspiracy went much further than he imagined.
Analysis
Truth is one of the most important themes in this section. White finally has the testimonies that he needs to take down Hale and his conspirators. However, due to some territory issues and jury problems, he has difficulty getting the case through. While he triumphs against Hale in the end, he finds his reputation questioned during the trial and has to aggressively pursue witness testimony and fair trial conditions. These moments demonstrate how, despite piecing together the awful truth of the case, White does not automatically put Hale behind bars. He finds himself up against Hale's persistent efforts to obscure the facts and sow fear and dissent in the community. White comes to recognize that Hale has managed to protect himself thus far by controlling the narrative around the case and systematically destroying sources of incriminating information.
Evil is another major theme in this part of the story. At one point, White observes Hale walking down the street and sees him as “the incarnation of what [he] and his brothers, and their father before them, had spent their lives chasing.” What Grann means here is that White recognizes true evil in Hale. Hale shows no remorse for organizing the killings and never admits to them. He appears to operate with a complete focus on protecting himself and his business interests and will do anything to make money. White struggles with his feelings towards Hale, as he seeks to be impartial but finds Hale's brazen behavior to be repugnant. Where men like Morrison and Ernest are garden-variety criminals to White, he recognized Hale as a greater, more unsettling kind of monster.
Justice is also a key theme in this part of the book. After carefully amassing evidence, White finally makes his push to get Hale and his henchmen. He recognizes the need to make them atone for their crimes and bring this reign of terror against the Osage to an end. This part of the book is essential in that it shows the importance of not just solving the case, but also taking the perpetrators to trial and convincing a jury of their guilt. White has problems with this, as it proves to be more difficult to get the charges to stick since everyone in Osage County fears Hale's power. White eventually succeeds, but only after fighting Hale's corrupt influence at multiple key junctures and pivoting in the aftermath of several setbacks. Unfortunately, Grann notes that while Hale was brought down, the greater crimes against the Osage remained unanswered, despite White's efforts.
History is also an important theme in this part of the book, as Grann brings up that there is more to the story than White's investigation. He makes it clear that this seemingly resolved case pointed to a much broader conspiracy. In this way, he shows that this neat history does not fully account for what really happened to the Osage. He goes on to make the case that without acknowledging the full extent of these crimes, the systemic violence the Osage faced cannot be accurately portrayed. He upends the tidy end of White's story to showcase the fact that much remains to be said about the Osage killings.
This part of the book deals with the seeming resolution of the case and the attempts to bring Hale to justice. Grann highlights both the challenges White faced in the judicial process and the additional complexity of the story. What Grann brings to the surface is the difficulty in actually getting proper accountability for these crimes. White has to work tirelessly to bring down Hale and faces stiff opposition. In the end, even after Hale is sent to prison, other killers walk free and the oppression of the tribe continued. Grann is not overly optimistic that there will be an adequate response to these inhuman cruelties.
