Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon explores the Osage murders of the 1920s and the primary culprit William King Hale, but little information is given about what happened to Robert De Niro’s character after. As depicted in the movie, Hale acted as a sort of corrupt political boss in Osage County, feigning love and admiration for the Osage people while constantly scheming to amass a small fortune through fraud, manipulation, and murder. Hale orchestrated a plot to murder the family of his nephew Ernest Burkhart, among others, in order to secure the wealth and property rights granted to them as full-blooded Osage.
As detailed in the unique epilogue featured in Killers of the Flower Moon‘s ending, Hale was eventually convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Henry Roan, alongside John Ramsey, the man who actually pulled the trigger on Roan on Hale’s orders. Both men received life sentences, and despite numerous retrials and appeals, Hale was eventually sent to the infamous Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas to serve his sentence. While Hale did not die in prison, the remainder of his life was far less glamorous than his time as the influential crime boss of Osage County.
William King Hale Was Paroled In 1947, 21 Years After Killers Of The Flower Moon
William King Hale was finally convicted in federal court for the murder of Henry Roan in October 1929, at which time he was sent to Leavenworth to begin his sentence. As noted in David Grann’s non-fiction Killers of the Flower Moon book the movie is based on, Hale spent nearly two decades in Leavenworth, doing manual labor on a prison farm and in the prison’s tuberculosis ward. The warden at the prison during Hale’s time there was, ironically, Tom White, the Bureau of Investigation agent who led the investigation into the Osage murders, and whose team of agents ultimately were responsible for Hale’s conviction and incarceration.
Hale was paroled in July 1947, after only 18 years served of his life sentence. His release came 24 years after the murder of Henry Roan which Hale was convicted for, and 21 years after the events of Killers of the Flower Moon ended. Following his release from prison in 1947, Hale never regained any of the wealth or prominence that he enjoyed during his time leading the crime ring responsible for the Osage Indian murders. Per The Oklahoman, Hale moved to Montana and worked as a cowboy and dishwasher for a time, having been banned from ever returning to Oklahoma.
When William King Hale Died & How Old He Was
As his age advanced and the life of a cowboy became unsuitable, Hale moved to Phoenix, Arizona in the early 1950s to live out his remaining days. William King Hale died in a nursing home in Phoenix in August 1962 at the age of 87. The unscrupulous business dealings detailed in Killers of the Flower Moon made him one of Oklahoma’s wealthiest men in the 1920s, but he never approached anywhere near that level of success for the rest of his life.
