The Reign of Terror

How the Osage murders in Oklahoma in the 1920s led to the rise of the FBI At three in the morning an explosion rocked the small Oklahoma town of Fairfax in Osage County. Five gallons of nitroglycerin had been used to blow up the Smith home, killing Osage tribal member Rita Smith and her White servant, Nettie Brookshire. Smith’s husband, Bill, died four days later. It was March 10, 1923. By then some 27 Osage tribal members had died in the Osage Hills under mysterious circumstances over a two