Grandfather Hamilton & the Osage Reign of Terror (Part 1)
When my mother-in-law passed away and my wife, Karen, closed up the house, she came across a couple of manuscripts written by her great-grandfather, William Slaughter Hamilton. The manuscripts were autobiographical. One detailed his family history, the other, his professional life as a prominent Oklahoma attorney. In the closing paragraphs of his thoughts on the law, Hamilton mentioned, in passing, his role in a criminal case that made national headlines and led to his only appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s what he didn’t say that piqued my interest.
In writing histories—both personal and national—we pick and choose. We burnish images. We banish flaws. What I uncovered about “Grandfather” Hamilton’s involvement in the so-called “Osage Reign of Terror” complicated the family’s lore about its patriarch. Although he was widely respected and accomplished, W.S. Hamilton was also shrewd and calculating and deeply immersed in a government-sanctioned, racist system that exploited the Osage and set the stage for their murders.
This Spring a movie, based on the Osage tragedy, will be released. Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon, details the truly diabolical murder-for-money scheme that terrorized the Osage in 1920s Oklahoma.
Brendan Fraser plays W.S. Hamilton, attorney for the defense.
Here’s the story.
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