The very dark purple ones are commonly referred to as Russian Comfrey - Symphytum x uplandicum. Agent White left the FBI to become the warden of the prison that held Hale captive.Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Lamiales - Family: BoraginaceaeĬomfreys (of which there are several growing in the UK and Ireland) are a confusing group of plants because they readily hybridise with each other producing flowers varying from white, through pale pink and mauve to dark purple. Mollie divorced him, horrified that her own husband had been complicit in the murders. Ernest Burkhart was also sentenced to life imprisonment. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, although had the victims been white, he likely would’ve received the death penalty. This retrial resulted in Hale being found guilty of first-degree murder.
#White flower comfrey trial#
Hale’s claims caused prominent politicians and media pundits to call for Agent White’s removal from the FBI until it became apparent that Hale’s accusations lacked credibility.Īfter it was discovered that the original trial of William Hale was riddled with corruption, a retrial occurred. Meanwhile, Hale claimed that the FBI agents had used extreme interrogation tactics to elicit confessions from their witnesses, including death threats and electrocution. Then he again changed his mind and pleaded guilty. But then in court, Ernest recanted after briefly meeting with Hale’s lawyers. Burkhart also confessed that, at the behest of his uncle, he had personally hired the man responsible for murdering one of the Osage victims. Ernest Burkhart admitted that his uncle William Hale was behind the conspiracy to profit from the murder of Osage people. Under Hale’s instruction, Mollie was likely being slowly poisoned to death and would’ve been yet another murder victim had Agent White not intervened.Īfter the FBI had gathered sufficient evidence to convict Hale, the ensuing trial became a media sensation filled with seemingly countless twists and turns.
When Mollie was taken away from these doctors and treated in a hospital, she immediately got better. She had diabetes and was supposedly receiving insulin injections from the corrupt doctors, but mysteriously her condition only seemed to worsen. Realizing that Mollie’s life was in danger, Agent White learned that she was being treated by doctors who were under Hale’s control. But there was still one step left in Hale’s evil plan: taking out Mollie so that all the land rights would belong to Hale’s nephew Ernest. In fact, they were specifically targeted to result in as much oil-rich land as possible falling into Mollie’s ownership. Agent White began to realize that the collective deaths of the Osage victims resulted in land rights being directed towards Mollie Burkhart, the wife of William Hale’s nephew Ernest. He also used a forged creditor’s note to claim $6,000 from the estate of another recently deceased Osage man. He netted $25,000 as the beneficiary of a murdered Osage man’s life insurance policy. But before addressing how the whole conspiracy unraveled, it’s necessary to understand why any deaths occurred in the first place.Īmong those who seemed to profit most from the murders was William Hale. Among the many victims of the killings was Mollie’s sister, whose mysterious death ended up being a centerpiece in the years-long conspiracy to kill off wealthy Osage people. Mollie was an Osage woman and Ernest was a white man. Two of the central figures in both Grann’s book and Scorsese’s film are Mollie and Ernest Burkhart ( Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio, respectively), a married couple living in Oklahoma at the time of the murders. As we dig into the startling true facts behind this story, as recounted in Grann’s book, we’ll see why Scorsese’s next film may turn out to be one of his great masterpieces. It’s an epic tale that explores not only the murders themselves, but also greed, wealth, conspiracy, racism, and the early days of the FBI. Martin Scorsese’s next film, Killers of the Flower Moon, is based on a non-fiction book by David Grann that investigates the murders of dozens of Osage people in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon book.
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