Lost City of Z author David Grann’s new book, Killers of the Flower Moon, is about the mass murder — through gunshots, bombs, and poisoning — of almost the better part of an entire generation of Osage Indians in the teens and 1920s, carried out in order to inherit their lucrative mineral rights. Originally hailed as one of the FBI’s first and defining successes, Grann’s investigation uncovers for the first time the true extent of the “Osage Reign Of Terror,” which wasn’t just a single plot, but rather an interlocking web of conspiracy and corruption that sought to usurp American Indian wealth and was only possible through collusion at every level of society. One of the first examples of the FBI investigating corruption among local police, Grann’s book comes out at a time when Attorney General Jeff Sessions is actively trying to weaken the federal government’s mandate to police local police (“it is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies” read a Sessions memo from April). This week I talk to Grann about his book’s relevance, the relationship between racism and greed, and the dying art of shoeleather reporting. In addition to that, it’s Alien: Covenant week on the Frotcast, so we’re watching and breaking down the 1979 original, Alien. Panel includes Vince Mancini, Frotcast co-host Brendan, and comedians Joey Avery and Matt Lieb.
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