The Deaths of Sybil Bolton - by Dennis McAuliffe Paperback

About the Book

Journals Dennis McAuliffe grew up believing that his Osage Indian grandmother, Sybil Bolton, had died an early death in 1925 from kidney disease. It was only by chance that he learned the real cause was a gunshot wound. As McAuliffe peeled away layers of suppressed history, he learned that Sybil was a victim of the "Osage Reign of Terror", a systematic killing spree in the 1920s when white men descended up the oil-rich Osage reservation to court, marry, and murder Native women to gain control of their money."--Page 4 of cover

Book Synopsis

For those seeking a true family story of the Osage Reign of Terror portrayed in Killers of the Flower Moon

Journalist Dennis McAuliffe Jr. grew up believing that his Osage Indian grandmother, Sybil Bolton, had died an early death in 1925 from kidney disease. It was only by chance that he learned the real cause was a gunshot wound, and that her murder may well have been engineered by his own grandfather.

As McAuliffe peeled away layers of suppressed history, he learned that Sybil was a victim of the systematic killing spree in the 1920s--when white men descended upon the oil-rich Osage reservation to court, marry, and murder Native women to gain control of their money.

The Deaths of Sybil Bolton is part murder mystery, part family memoir, and part spiritual journey.

Review Quotes

"An informative, often poignant story of a suppressed chapter of American history-a kind of Native American Roots." --Kirkus Reviews

"An intimate quest for identity, a fascinating real-life whodunit, and a shattering expose of another shameful episode in the painful history of U.S. and Indian relations." --Booklist


"As a boy in the Oklahoma oil patch, I heard rumors of the atrocities committed against the Osages. Dennis McAuliffe's magnificent reporting job brings this terrible episode in American history vividly to life." --Tony Hillerman

About the Author

. David Grann is the New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI and an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.