Which book by David Grann was adapted into Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon?

David Grann’s book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI was adapted into Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon. The nonfiction book, published in 2017, investigates the murders of Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s.

Grann describes how oil wealth made members of the Osage Nation extremely wealthy while also creating incentives for outsiders to manipulate marriages, inheritances, guardianships, and property rights. The killings became an early major case for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, then still a relatively new national investigative agency.

Scorsese’s film uses the book’s historical events but places greater emotional emphasis on the relationship between Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle. The screenplay was written by Scorsese and Eric Roth. The movie was released in 2023, with Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro in major roles. The full book title distinguishes Grann’s work from the film’s shorter title.