The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-01-21

BY BRUCE CATION
Especial CortespoNdeNt.)
Guthrie, Okla, Jan. 21.-The dark
cloak OF mystery and dread that GOV.
cred the oil.bespattered valleys Of
the Usage hills for four long years
is rising at last--unveiling to public
view details Of q chain Of murders so
startling that they seen, hardly cred
iblc.
The long strings Of electric lights
that wealthy Indians hung about
their homes every night for years are
being taken down. No longer, when
you knock on the door Of an Indians
residence at night, are the house
lights suddenly doused~ ~and rifles hur.
ricdly cooked in the darkness within.
Those features of the long reign Of
terror are over.
The story of the murders is COM
plicatcd-a series Of mysteries with
in mysteries. Through it, dim1y seen
but visible with ominous portent,
moves the figure of bluff. hard boiled
William K. Hale, who is under indict-
mcnt for first degree murder, and
who. the federal government charges,
sought by wiping out a whole clan
to make himself millionaire many
times over.
To begin with. there was Lizzie
Bigheart. q full-blood. Her husband
died after she had borne him two
daughters, Grace and Alice. She
thereupon married Ote Q, another
full-blood, and they had four daugh-
ters: Nina. Rita. Anna and Mollie.
Sm0thered to Death
Five years ago Lizzie @ was NOR
tally i'll of cancer. In accordance
with the Usage custom, the aged men,
pers of the tribe gathered about her
bed and smothered her to death. Liz
zie Q's head-rights in the tribal
wealth e. head-right amounts now to
$4,000 year, and Lizzie had three)
Acvolved upon her daughters.
The daughter, Nina, married .
white man, Bill Smith. She soon died,
and he married her sister, Rita. On
March 10, 1928, their home 1t Fair
fax. Okla. was destroyed by . bomb
and Smith and his wife were killed.
The third daughter, Anna, married
Joe Brown. an Indian. He died short
" thereafter, leaving Anna his head
right to add to her own. But Anna
didn't live long to enjoy this wealth.
Shortly before the deaths Of Bill
Smith and Rita she was murdered by
someone unknown, on lonely road.
This left but one OF the daughters
of Lizzie Q. The two daughters by
her first marriage had died. And
Mollie, the surviving daughter, was
heiress to the head-rights OF ell OF
them. Altogether, she has nine q
total income Of $4,000 : year.
And Mollie is the wife Of Ernest
Burkhart, nephew Of Hale and under
indictment with him for murder. !.
ThatSis the story OF Lizzie q and
her family, and the way death staIkcd
through to leave Burkhart's wife sole
recipient Of the entire fortune.
But it is not the whole story. Here
is u separate case as dark and sofdid
as any murder story OF the century.
Indian Poisoned
One George Bigheart, an Usage
(no relation to Lizzie Bigheart) fell
in with Hale. Hale, it ID charged;
got George drunk and induced him to
sign over to him. Hale, all Of his
property. Then while in Oklahoma
City, according to the allegations,
Digheart was poisoned. It Is even
charged that q physician put quick
lime in Bigheart's body after his
death to obliterate the traces Of the
poison.
But Bigheart was suspicious Of
Hale, and before his death he tele-
phoncd former Judge w. w. Vaughn
from Pawhuska to protect him.
Vaughn arrived too late, but collect
ed more than . little evidence Of
what had happened. Then he board
cd a night. train ct Oklahoma City
for Pawhuska.
, He never reached Pawhuska. Some
time during the night someone at
tackled him as he slept and threw his
body out the Pullman window. It
! was found next morning beside the
tracks.
had q $4,000 life insurance policy
made out to Hale. Roam Horse was
shot to death from ambush one night
in january, 1928, rs he drove along :
country road. It is his death on
which the federal indictment against
Hale i6 based.
Other Uns0lved Mysteries
And those are not all. the murders.
VYhere are more that are still unex-
planned. There was Joe YellOwhorse,
for instance, shot to death from the
darkness in April, 1923. There was
Kenneth Rogers, killed 90 he sat in
his house shortly Afterwards. There
was George Grammer killed in an
automobile accident that was not like
other accidents in that the other oc-
cupants OF his car escapsd without ?
scratch. There was Cnrly Johnson,
Who was poisoned lust after federal
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