Character page for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.
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Main Characters
Ernest Burkhart
Portrayed by: Leonardo DiCaprio
A dimwitted World War I veteran who moves to Osage County to work for his uncle.
- Affably Evil: Even though he's a greedy bastard and complicit in his uncle's schemes, he's generally friendly with everyone he comes across.
- Affectionate Nickname: Mollie calls Ernest the Osage word for "coyote", originally as a dig at his obvious attempts to be a Gold Digger; just how affectionate it is varies, especially the last time she uses it when she asks if he had been poisoning her.
- Anti-Villain: Ernest is a crook actively involved in a truly monstrous conspiracy to massacre the Osage, but his genuine love for his wife and children and how he's ultimately just an idiotic pawn of his uncle means he still carries a measure of sympathy.
- Beauty Inversion: Downplayed as Earnest isn't a bad looking guy, as he is played by famed heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mollie lists his good looks as one reason she agreed to marry him, but he's also got a set of crooked, gnarly teeth and a pallid, pale, sweaty complexion which under certain framing and lighting, especially during the later scenes as his guilt really sets in, make him look absolutely revolting.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ernest is sweet on his wife and wants to contribute to the Osage nation... per his uncle's orders. When his wife reasonably thinks someone is screwing with her insulin shots, he goes on a racist tirade on how her 'injun bullshit' is killing her.
- Book Dumb: Ernest answers evasively and uncomfortably when Hale asks him if he reads, and when he's later shown reading a history of the Osage people, he has to move his finger slowly across the page to keep his place. He is at least smart enough to learn Osage to a decent degree of fluency, however, and seems to know his way around people most of the time - enough to help Hale's goons in their stick-up efforts and enough to charm the love of his life, Mollie.
- Brainless Beauty: Ernest is rather dim, but several characters describe him as handsome.
- Chubby Chaser: Says that he likes "heavy" women.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Ernest loves Mollie but is easily pushed by Hale into assisting in his plan to murder her entire family in order to get her inheritance money. Ernest finally chooses Mollie in the end and testifies against his uncle, though by that point, Mollie is aware of what he has done.
- Dirty Coward: Ernest is easily pushed around by his more powerful uncle into betraying his family, breaks down to the BOI after a night of interrogation, then reneges on his testimony as soon as Hale and Hamilton put pressure on him. Only the death of his child moves his conscience enough to confess to his crimes, and even then he can't bring himself to tell his wife that he knowingly poisoned her for months.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- Ultimately left ambiguous with Mollie. He the second half of the film poisoning her, but it's unclear if he knew what he was doing from the start, was too afraid of Hale to stop, or was so in denial that he refuses to accept that he's killing his wife. Regardless, he's clearly not happy with what he's doing to Mollie and is clearly wracked with remorse by the end.
- Played straight with his children, however, who he sincerely loves. The sudden death of one of his kids provokes a Villainous Breakdown that, when combined with Hale subtly threatening the rest of his family, leads to Ernest finally testifying against him.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed. Ernest is very obviously horrified by the bombing on Bill and Rita, even hesitating to give his wife the full dosage of poison afterwards, but he still goes along with his uncle's plots.
- Fatal Flaw: His lack of backbone, Greed, and generally being an idiot is ultimately what does him in.
- Gold Digger: Ernest is a Real Life male version; he is barely able to disguise his longing for Mollie's wealth, leading her to nickname him a "coyote". Ernest is far from the only white man or woman to come to the Osage reservation seeking to marry a wealthy Osage (Bill Smith marries two). Since the Osage's access to their money is often dependent on having a white "guardian", they begrudgingly tolerate the gold diggers' presence and accept their proposals, though not without complaining of how many of their white spouses are lazy at best and potentially dangerous at worst.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: However much Ernest may or may not have loved his children in real life, the original book notes that they nearly died while visiting their aunt and uncle due to a bomb that he set while likely knowing about that visit, and they only survived due to the trip being cancelled over a Life Saving Misfortune illness.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: In the film, Ernest is fully complicit in Mollie's poisoning, but David Grann, the author of the book the film is based on, believes he truly was uninvolved in that part of the conspiracy, merely administering what he thought was real medicine.
- Idiot Hero: Ernest Burkhart is a very stupid and weak-willed man, which is acknowledged by basically everyone In-Universe including his own wife. When Mollie is talking to her Osage friends about him, she acknowledges that he isn't very bright, but he is handsome. His stupidity makes him a very pliable subject for his uncle, who pushes him into becoming a Villain Protagonist.
- Ignored Epiphany: As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the death and destruction that Hale's plan is causing is starting to get to Ernest's conscience. Due to a mixture of greed, cowardice, and simple stupidity, Ernest finds himself unable to come out from under his uncle's thumb and put a stop to it. Even when it becomes clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that the medicine the Shoun Brothers assured Ernest would only 'slow Mollie down' is in fact killing her, he can only bring himself to lower the dosages while silently weeping to himself. It is only after Ernest's daughter dies that he finally works up the courage to testify against his uncle, and even then, he outright lies to her about the poison in her insulin when it's clear everyone knows what's going on.
- In Love with the Mark: One interpretation of Ernest and Mollie's relationship. Ernest insists to the very end that he loves his wife, but he met her while working a job his uncle assigned him, only considered marrying her after Hale instructed him to, and commits terrible crimes against her and her family. It's noted in the book that Ernest insisted he loved his wife to the very end, and was very upset when he heard another man had affections for Mollie. In the film, he gets defensive when he learns Mollie had a husband, even when it's clarified it was only symbolic.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed. Ernest loses his wealth, reputation, and the love of his wife and receives a life sentence for the Osage killings. However, he is eventually released and receives a full pardon for his crimesnote , ultimately getting to live the final decades of his life as a free men after being directly and indirectly involved with the murders of dozens of people.
- Loser Protagonist: Ernest is, to his core, a stupid, servile, cowardly, amoral man who simply does whatever is asked of him. His one redeeming factor, his genuine love for his wife and children, still doesn't stop him from slowly poisoning Mollie using her own insulin injections as cover, and even after doing the right thing and testifying against Hale, he still doesn't have the balls to own up to Mollie about his role in poisoning her, showing how little he actually learned from the whole ordeal.
- My God, What Have I Done?: These moments begin to pile up for Ernest as the sheer scale of death that Hale's plan is creating begins to eat away at his conscience, causing him to become a full-on alcoholic wreck once Hale demands that Ernest kill Mollie as well. It takes the death of Ernest's daughter for him to finally gather the moral fortitude to stand up to his Uncle and testify against him, though by that point his relationship with Mollie has been damaged beyond repair.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Ernest and Mollie's youngest daughter dies of whooping cough near the end of the film, which finally motivates Ernest to grow a pair and testify against Hale.
- Perpetual Frowner: Ernest spends pretty much the entire second half of the movie wearing a deep, forlorn frown as he grapples with his guilt.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He gradually begins to adopt his uncle's supremacist ideals as the film progresses, even yelling racist remarks during a heated argument with Mollie.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ernest is a World War I veteran who saw some pretty horrible shit over in Europe that clearly still bothers him despite his cheerful demeanor. He himself admits that he was just a cook who never saw combat, but he recounts serving horribly wounded men and seeing piles of corpses from the Spanish Flu.
- Stupid Crooks: Ernest is ultimately a very dimwitted criminal, with his attempts to emulate his uncle often failing and bringing more attention to Hale's scheme. Hale ultimately keeps him on board mostly because his stupidity and timidity also makes him easy to bully into going along with his plans, down to easily pushing him into signing a life insurance policy on himself that would allow Hale to inherit Mollie's fortune upon both of their deaths, despite this clearly telegraphing what Hale had planned for Ernest once he was done poisoning Mollie.
- Sycophantic Servant: Ernest, the epitome of a dumb henchman, is very much this for his uncle, "King" Hale. Whether from fear, greed, or familial loyalty, Ernest does virtually anything Hale asks, including poisoning the mother of his child, signing everything to Hale in the event of his own death, and allowing Hale to spank him with a paddle. Ernest sycophantically obliges his uncle by calling him “King” and uses his uncle’s name to try and keep his fellow stooges in line, without much success. Until the very end it seems like a coin toss whether he will testify against Hale. Rarely has such a servile goon been the leading man of such a major film.
- Villainous Breakdown: The death of his daughter reduces Ernest to a screaming, sobbing mess.
- Villain Protagonist: The main viewpoint character of the film is Ernest, as he carries out quite a bit of the dirty work of his uncle's Inheritance Murder conspiracy.
Mollie Burkhart
Portrayed by: Lily Gladstone
Ernest's Osage wife and the owner of one of the prized Osage headrights to oil, though being a full-blooded Osage, she cannot access her money without a white "guardian."- All-Loving Heroine: Mollie is one of the few people in town who genuinely has no reservations about befriending or loving white people, so long as they treat her with kindness in return. Unfortunately, she ends up putting her trust in the wrong white person.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has a very dry and witty sense of humor, especially when dealing with people as stupid as Ernest.Ernest: You know, you got… you got nice color skin. What color would you say that is?Mollie: My color.
- Delicate and Sickly: Mollie is often bedridden with diabetes that worsens over the course of the film, and many of the women in her family have similar "wasting diseases" that eventually take their lives. Her illness, and likely the illnesses of many Osage, are worsened by poisoning from white doctors on Hale's payroll. Mollie makes a marked recovery when out of their care, though she still dies fairly young.
- Determinator: Not even being deathly sick from Hale's poisoning can prevent her from traveling all the way to Washington D.C. to seek help for her people.
- Deuteragonist: While Ernest is technically the film's protagonist, the story is just as much about Mollie's connection to her culture and struggles against Hale's conspiracy.
- Genocide Survivor: By the end of the film, Mollie survives the murderous conspiracy against her tribe, but not before losing her mother and sisters. The experience leaves her traumatized and grief-stricken, though she does eventually find love again after divorcing Ernest.
- Hates Small Talk: She's generally a quiet person and, when she talks, she usually says things as directly as possible. Ernest initially struggles to win her over due to her either being annoyed by or giggling at his awkward attempts at flirting.
- The Hero: Ernest may be the protagonist, but he is far from a good person. Mollie, on the other hand, is a very selfless person who suffers throughout the film for the sake of love and the safety of her people. Her actions are what cause the B.O.I. to get involved, leading to the collapse of Hale's operation.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Played with. Every Osage knows the white men pursuing the women are just golddiggers, but the women still marry them anyway, out of a combination of amusement, a want for company and inheritance, and in Mollie's case, Ernest's handsomeness, wholesomeness, and dedication. Unknown to her, while those qualities are real, he's also Hale's right-hand goon in several murders and crimes, to the point that when she suspects someone has been poisoning her insulin, her suspicions go everywhere but her husband. Even before that, she still stays with him even after he goes on a racist tirade about her refusing to have anyone but her husband administer the insulin. It's lampshaded when Mollie and her sisters gossip about their grooms-to-be - her sisters peg Ernest as a snake and a coyote as Mollie laughs it off, agreeing with her one sister that believes Ernest can't just be after her money since Hale is so rich already. In real life, Mollie made several public statements insisting Ernest was incapable of such awful crimes after his imprisonment.
- Morality Pet: Ernest's sole redeeming trait is his love for his wife and children. That's not enough to keep him from betraying them, but his guilt, especially after the death of his daughter, leads him to confess to (most) of his crimes.
- Nice Girl: Despite her introverted disposition, Mollie is a genuinely kind and open-minded person who cares for her family and tribe. This makes Hale's plan look even more despicable as a result.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Ernest and Mollie's youngest daughter dies of whooping cough near the end of the film, which finally motivates Ernest to grow a pair and testify against Hale but also may have contributed to Mollie fully hardening against Ernest.
- Perpetual Frowner: She has an easygoing smile for much of the first act that noticeably wanes into a melancholic frown by the time of the second act, between Hale's machinations, her (justified) paranoia that someone is trying to kill her, her family dying one by one, and her diabetes getting worse.
- Properly Paranoid: As she gets sicker and her relatives begin dropping like flies, Mollie retreats into her home and refuses to eat food she doesn't see made herself. She is absolutely right to do so. Unfortunately, she still trusts her husband enough to take the doctors' insulin...
- The Quiet One: She's generally not one for conversation, preferring silence and serenity over mundane noise. This sometimes carries over into her people's traditions.Mollie: The storm is powerful. So we have to be quiet for now.Ernest: (awkwardly) It's good for the crops, that's for sure.Mollie: Just be still.
- Sweet Tooth: Mollie has one, admitting to eating taffy and hotcakes in one morning. It contributes to her diabetes, and it only gives Hale and Ernest an in to continually poison her via her insulin shots.
- Tragic Hero: Despite being a fundamentally kind and intelligent person, Mollie makes the mistake of falling for a spineless white man, resulting in her losing almost her entire family.
- Trauma Conga Line: Over the course of a few years, Mollie loses her mother, all her sisters, and youngest child, and spends most of the film weak and bedridden due to "diabetes". And that's before she learns that her husband helped orchestrate some of the Osage murders, including those of her sisters, and was slowly poisoning her.
- Women Are Wiser: She is significantly smarter, worldlier, and more determined than her idiotic, weak-willed husband.
William King Hale
Portrayed by: Robert De Niro
Ernest's uncle, a wealthy ranch owner who is seeking to gain control of the Osage's oil-rich lands by any means necessary.- Abusive Parents: Acts like one towards his nephew Ernest. Though he isn't the latter's father, Hale is nonetheless cruel and domineering, making (the admittedly greedy) Ernest into an accomplice for his various vile deeds, at one point even paddling him for a "misdeed".
- Big Bad: William King Hale, also known as "King", is the mastermind of a conspiracy to kill dozens of people, primarily but not exclusively members of the Osage tribe, for the purposes of making off with their land rights and inheritance money.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Hale (who nicknames himself "Uncle" for everybody) casts himself as the Osage's greatest friend, donating generously to the community, learning their language, and offering his aid and sympathy throughout various tragedies... that he is largely the cause of.
- Devil in Plain Sight: When the Osage people gather to discuss the killings, they are all completely oblivious to the fact that the one responsible is sitting among them, out in the open.
- Dirty Old Man: Shows concern that Anna's baby might be his, which is implied to be part of why he moves quickly to have her killed. While the real Hale was considerably younger during the Reign of Terror than Robert de Niro was while playing him, there was still a remarkable age and power gap between the two.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Played with. Hale is motivated primarily by greed rather than abject hatred, has learned the Osage language, culture, and customs very well, and knocks off white or white-passing victims as easily as he does Osage. He also quizzes all his employees as to how much they mind Indians; the more open-minded, like Ernest (who states he loves every kind of woman) become crucial to his plans. The book speculates that some of the killers may have been Osage themselves, and at the very least bribed or coerced Osage and other Native Americans to provide alibis. However, Hale states multiple times to Ernest that he views the Osage as inferior to white people, with his apparent belief in white supremacy and manifest destiny used as justification to steal the tribe's wealth.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed. It's hard to tell how genuine it is, but Hale looks pretty upset while watching a news reel about the Tulsa race massacre. Being an Opportunistic Bastard, however, he immediately uses it to cast community suspicion on The Klan rather than his own network of murderous white people.
- Evil Uncle: Bill Hale tempts nephew Ernest into a life of crime that involves having a direct hand in the poisoning of his own wife and the deaths of all her living relatives. He punishes Ernest with physical violence for his failures and likely planned on killing Ernest himself as the final step of his plan.
- Faux Affably Evil: William Hale almost never drops his self-righteous, philanthropic demeanor, even when speaking to people he plans to have murdered within hours. He even shows up to his victims' funerals and make a show of grieving for them. When his plans are seriously threatened, however, the facade drops and he reveals himself for the dead eyed vulture he truly is, most notably when he bullies Ernest into signing a life insurance policy on himself.
- Final Solution: A chillingly mundane example. Hale seeks to exterminate the Kyle family bloodline (among many others) to obtain their wealth and cement his power over the Osage community, while assimilating the younger children into white American culture over time. This is Truth in Television, as this practice is known as "settler genocide" and is well-documented to have occurred throughout American history.
- Hate Sink: Despite his grandfatherly demeanor, Hale is nothing but a cruel, racist, and greedy psychopath who terrorizes an entire tribe of people and manipulates and abuses his own family members for self-gain.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Hale uses his Christian faith to avert suspicion of guilt, down to sitting down to pray with the family of his victims.
- Historical Villain Downgrade: Somehow, despite Hale being one of the worst villains imaginable, the real him may have been even worse. Many people believed Hale's killing of Anna was to cover up the fact she was pregnant with his child. In the film, this aspect of the case is reduced to a split second exchange where Hale is told after the murder that she was pregnant; he is visibly taken aback and wonders if the child was Byron's or his own, but the film gives no indication before or afterwards of Hale having had sexual relations with her.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: In real life, many Osage and the source book itself are certain Hale was a fall guy for a much wider plot; the movie mostly has the Osage plot start and end with him.
- I Own This Town: Hale is already damn close to it at the start of the film, known as "King of the Osage Hills" due to his numerous business ventures in the area. The whole point of his Inheritance Murder campaign is to gobble up whatever he doesn't already own, and with every local authority already in his pocket, he doesn't work particularly hard to cover his tracks. When faced with federal authorities who he can't bribe away, the tables turn on him very quickly.
- Karma Houdini: A Downplayed Example: Hale receives a life sentence for the Osage killings but is eventually paroled and released. While Hale lost his wealth and reputation, he did live the final decade of his life as a free men after orchestrating the murders of dozens of people.
- Manipulative Bastard: So much so that there's even some in the Osage community who can't believe that Hale is the one who's screwing them over, even after he is charged with the crimes.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Hale's increasing brazenness in the killings of Osage natives, culminating in bombing the home of Rita and Bill Smith, finally drives Mollie to go to Washington directly and beg President Coolidge to investigate, which brings the Bureau of Investigation down on Hale and leads to his downfall.
- Hale sets up Blackie to be caught by the police robbing a bank, to eliminate Blackie as a witness. Instead, Blackie is arrested and the authorities present him with the opportunity to testify against Hale. Hale attempts to hire Blackie again while they are both imprisoned to get him to kill Ernest, which only makes his case even worse.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He clearly views the Osage as beneath him and believes that their wealth should be his as a result.
- Refuge in Audacity: His plans seem to revolve around this. He personally hires people to kill the Osage, then shows up at Osage meetings, ceremonies, and funerals to "help" them solve and move past the crimes that he committed. A combination of him being such a trusted figure in the community and the sheer audacity of his methods are what cause him to get away with his crimes for so many years. This ends up biting him in the ass, however, as his plan to blow up an Osage household is so audacious that it winds up attracting the attention of the federal government itself.
- Sinister Minister: Despite not being an actual clergyman, the real life Hale liked to be called "Reverend" and would sometimes give sermons at the local church. This aspect of his character is reflected in the film, as Hale often uses sanctimonious prayers to avert suspicion and religious rhetoric to justify his evil deeds.
- Smug Snake: Hale's outward veneer as a kindly philanthropist gets real thin real quick; he openly delights in being in the position to force people to praise his generosity and call him "King" and "Uncle" even as he plots to kill and steal from them. However, he's also not nearly as smart as he thinks he is, and his schemes' success has more to do with his position of privilege than it being particularly difficult to figure out who is behind the killings. Even when he is arrested, he doesn't drop the self-righteous attitude, turning himself in to his friend the sheriff with a huge smile and confidently speaking to the press about his certain innocence.
- The Sociopath: Hale is responsible for dozens of deaths and yet never once displays the slightest hesitation or regret for his actions. He's able to seamlessly feign empathy for his victims to their faces while plotting their demise behind their backs. The closest he gets to an emotional display are two instances where he stoically prays over someone who just endured a great personal loss. The first prayer is for someone he already plans to kill. The second is for a bawling Ernest after the two receive the news of the death of Ernest's daughter; one can assume the second was just as genuine as the first.
- Stupid Crooks: The supposed "mastermind" of this complex and lethal plot against the Osage turns out to be not half as clever as he thinks he is. While he initially dons a compassionate face and takes steps to establish plausible deniability that the rapid sequence of deaths in a single family are related and/or unnatural, he is not subtle about his interest in the Osage's wealth, property, and personal affairs, appears oblivious to the growing suspicions of his guilt, and seems to either lose his patience or get overconfident after the botching of Roan's murder. Even his peers agree that he is overstepping when he blows up a house in the middle of a crowded neighborhood in order to ensure Bill Smith can't take part of his wife's inheritance, making it obvious to everyone as far away as Washington D.C. that a single family is being targeted and that the culprit is a threat to public safety. His various attempts to also collect money on very recently made insurance policies, including one on the death of a man who was clearly murdered, are clumsy and draw even more attention to his activities. Ultimately, Hale is only able to get as far as he does because of his wealth, prestige, and power, is no smarter than the low status criminals he employs, and is foiled very quickly by the feds once they reach Oklahoma. Even then, he has the sheer audacity to write a note to another conspirator while both of them are in jail requesting that he kill Ernest.
- Tyrannical Town Tycoon: Hale not only owns a massive ranch on the edge of the Osage Nation, but he also has the town's police, judges, criminals, and even doctors in his pockets. And with each Osage he assassinates, he gains even more of a stranglehold on the town.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Hale is so respected by the Osage that he is permitted to sit in on tribal council meetings where Osage leaders rail against the encroaching danger of white settlers like himself.
- Wicked Cultured: He's sharply dressed, polite, and well-versed in Osage culture to the point that he's fluent in their language and takes part in their traditions. Of course, it's all a carefully-constructed mask to hide the greedy monster underneath.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Hale is a pillar of his town, a beloved businessman, and a trusted friend of the Osage. All of that is a front to hide a greedy crime lord who is preying on the finances of the very tribe that welcomed him into their community.
Thomas Bruce White Sr.
Portrayed by: Jesse Plemons
The BOI agent leading the murder investigation.- Big Good: The closest thing the film has to one, since he's leading the investigation into Hale's conspiracy.
- The Chessmaster: He leads a complex investigation that is so thorough, he's basically already solved the case before arriving, and he spends most of his screen time luring Ernest, Hale, and their associates into his crosshairs so he can make a proper arrest.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Agent White is one of the few prominent characters who always seems to be wearing dark suits, but he's also one of the only white authority figures actually interested in investigating the murders.
- Everything is Big in Texas: He's Texan to his very core, having been a former Texas Ranger from a Badass Family of Texas Rangers and being played by Dallas native Jesse Plemons. The large cowboy hat really drives the point home.
- Friendly Enemy: He remains polite and sympathetic to Ernest, despite the latter being one of his prime suspects.
- Hero Antagonist: He's directly opposing Ernest by investigating him, but considering what Ernest is responsible for, White has every reason to do so.
- Hero of Another Story: Or, rather, hero of another adaptation. The original book of Killers of the Flower Moon is largely focused on White and casts more of a light on his entire life, from his early days as a Texas Ranger, his codifying of U.S. federal agents' responsibilities and skills, and his later career as a warden at a prison that housed many of the criminals he helped put away. Scorcese chose instead to tell the story from the villains' point of view, but White still leaves an impression in his brief screentime. The book also documents that White collaborated with an Osage author to document a telling of the murders, though their project never got published.
- Nice Guy: Even when dealing with cold hearted criminals like Hale, he is nothing but polite and friendly to the people he meets. He even sympathizes with Ernest when he tells him his daughter died and clearly sees him less as a monster than a weak-willed and not very bright man who was drawn into evil.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: On the surface, he seems like a simple lawman that Hale and Ernest can easily outsmart and convince of any nonsense story they want. In reality, he isn't fooled by them for a moment and has already been investigating them long before he introduced himself.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: After years of U.S. government authorities looking the other way, White leads a relatively quick and successful investigation into the Osage murders.
Family
Lizzie Q
Portrayed by: Tantoo Cardinal
The ailing mother of Mollie and her sisters.- Parental Favoritism: Lizzie openly favors Anna, admiring her "wildness" as compared to her more reserved sisters, at one point even telling Mollie to go away until she brings Anna to her.
Anna Brown
Portrayed by: Cara Jade Myers
Mollie's sister.- The Alcoholic: Anna is a heavy and temperamental drinker. Hale makes use of this addiction in the plot to have her killed, with Byron Burkhart and Kelsie Morrison getting her heavily drunk at a bar before taking her out in the wilderness to kill her.
- Desecrating the Dead: Is a victim of this, as the Shoun brothers tear apart her face and head in an attempt to get rid of the bullet that killed her.
- Defiant to the End: Despite being extremely inebriated, she eventually reads between the lines as she's led out of a bar by Byron Burkhart and Kelsie Morrison for the purposes of killing her. In her final moments before a slug is put between her eyes, she's being as big a pain in the ass as possible, daring them to kill her while she's flopping around as drunken dead weight.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: She proves to have a nasty temper, showcased when she fired off a gun one time during an argument...in public.
- Really Gets Around: She's in a relationship with Byron, but also rumored to bang many people in the town. It's also implied she was carrying Hale's child when she was murdered.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Rather, Anna's death is nearly entirely brushed off as a misfortune bound to happen to her due to her tendency to drink, agitate men around her, and then scare them off by discharging gunshots. Observations made say one day she's going to piss off the wrong person, but its likely this is setting precedent for her eventual murder.
Byron Burkhart
Portrayed by: Scott Shepherd
Ernest's brother.- Adaptation Name Change: His real-life counterpart was named Bryan.
- The Dragon: Byron is William Hale's right hand man in his conspiracy and is responsible for either organizing or outright committing many of the murders.
- Jerkass: Byron doesn't even bother to hide his jackassery, even when he's with his family.
- The Sociopath: Has no qualms about sleeping at his sister-in-law's home and thanking her for kindly bringing him a blanket mere hours after killing her sister. He falls asleep immediately and never shows any of his sibling's later nerves or guilt towards the betrayal of someone who had shown him nothing but kindness.
Bill Smith
Portrayed by: Jason Isbell
White husband of Mollie's sister Minnie who remarries her other sister Rita after Minnie's death.- Amateur Sleuth: Bill has no experience with law enforcement beyond having been arrested in the past, but he investigates Anna's death and does a good job of tracing her movements and learning what was going on in her life. It is implied that he figures out that King and the Burkharts are the killers.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Bill spends four days slowly dying of explosive burns after his house is bombed. When the rescuers first find him, he's begging them to Mercy Kill him. Ironically, the book notes that this actually hurt his killers' plan; they had chosen to bomb his house specifically to kill him and his wife simultaneously so that her money would pass to her relatives rather than his family.
- Foil: Bill and his brother-in-law Ernest both may be Gold Diggers who marry Osage women and seemingly develop some feelings for them, but otherwise they have a lot of differences between them. Ernest is a Returning War Vet who is ultimately a Dirty Coward, Bill is a meek ex-convict who is ultimately brave enough to oppose the villains. Ernest initially has a strong and loving relationship with his wife but is poisoning her while being involved in a bigger conspiracy against the Osage. Bill has a more troubled and suspicious relationship with Rita after the death of his first wife Minnie, but he seems to genuinely care about her and wants to see the Osage murders solved.
- Gold Digger: Smith bounces back from the death of his wealthy Osage wife by marrying her sister. The rest of her family are infuriated at the idea of a white man inheriting two shares of their family's headrights and mostly shun him for the rest of the film.
- The Quiet One: Minnie's sisters jokingly compare him to a possum due to the way he sits around without talking during many conversations.
- Red Herring: The film sets him as being responsible for Minnie's death and in cahoots with Hale. He's not; Minnie likely died due to medical malpractice, and Bill spends the rest of his screentime investigating her death.
Reta Smith
- Played by: Janae Collins
- The Baby of the Bunch: She is the youngest of the four sisters, being seven years Mollie's junior.
- Love Makes You Dumb: The book describes her as being blinded to common sense by her feelings for Bill and refuses to hear a word against him. While Bill does try to solve the murders and seems genuinely concerned about her safety, he is also suspected (wrongly, at least in the film) of murdering his first wife/her sister and the book mentions that a former servant testified he hit Rita during at least two arguments when he was drunk.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She suggests fleeing to Colorado Springs to escape the killers.
Hale's Associates and Accomplices
W.S. Hamilton
Portrayed by: Brendan Fraser
Hale's lawyer.- Amoral Attorney: His first act in court is to declare himself Ernest's attorney despite Ernest being set to testify against Hale. He proceeds to intimidate Ernest into changing his testimony to falsely claim that he was tortured by the feds into lying about his uncle.
- Large Ham: Hamilton is an over-the-top embodiment of a pompous Southern lawyer, one that Brendan Fraser clearly relishes playing as he bellows at a sniveling, cowering Ernest to insist the BOI tortured him.
- Villain Has a Point: He has self-serving motives to warn Ernest that anything he says while testifiying against Hale may be used in a later case against Ernest, but he is telling the truth and Ernest is later prosecuted.
Henry Roan
Portrayed by: William Belleau
Mollie's first husband and close friend and, later, victim of Hale- The Alcoholic: Roan is a "melancholic" by the parlance of the day and is fond of moonshine during his depressive episodes. This is encouraged by his terrible doctors and is eventually used by Hale and John Ramsey to kill him, drinking Roan into a stupor before shooting him in the head.
- Bungled Suicide: It's mentioned that he's attempted suicide twice before.
James and David Shoun
Portrayed by: Steve Witting and Steve Routman
A sibling pair of white doctors who treat many of the Osage, often on the payroll of William Hale.- Bumbling Henchman Duo: They aren't especially competent as either doctors or henchmen, and the BOI see right through their botching of autopsies and other medical practices.
- Creepy Mortician: The Shoun brothers show a complete lack of empathy for the bodies of the Osage, alive and dead. They deliberately mangle autopsies to cover for Hale's crimes, and cheerfully give off deliberately lethal advice or stonewall investigators, as best showcased when they flippantly blow off the BOI investigators.
- Desecrating the Dead: After Anna is murdered, the Shoun brothers perform a public "autopsy" that involves hacking her entire body into Ludicrous Gibs, for the ostensible reason of finding the bullet that killed her (which it's implied they already found and disposed of).
- Harmful Healing: The Shoun brothers are small town doctors on Hale's payroll. It's possible that they are capable doctors when they choose to be, but they deliberately make their Osage patients' lives worse every time they are on screen. Their medical malpractice ranges from giving a clean bill of health to alcoholic, melancholic Henry Roan so Hale can take out an insurance policy on him (even recommending whiskey as a cure for his suicidal depression), tearing Anna's whole body to shreds to "find" the bullet that killed her, and prescribing insulin laced with poison to Mollie to keep her bedridden and sickly.
- Karma Houdini: Due to lack of evidence, the Shouns are never persecuted.
Undertaker F. S. Turton
Portrayed by: Barry Corbin
The local undertaker on the Osage reservation.- Creepy Mortician: Joins the Shoun brothers in inspecting the bodies of the dead Osage and shows just as little care for them, focusing on the money to made off their funerals.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Turton shamelessly robs dead Osage citizens (and is later among a crowd of citizens who try to bully Ernest out of testifying) but snaps at Ernest that he works for his profits like the Bible says and views people like Ernest, Hale and the Osage as lazy leeches with too much money.
- Named In The Adaptation: Despite being a real figure, Grann's Flower Moon never mentions him by name except in the citations. He's always referred to as merely an undertaker, even when being directly quoted.
- Undertaker: Turton has a very lucrative business in Osage country arranging the remarkably high number of funerals at inflated prices (and stealing any valuables they are supposed to be buried with); needless to say, he is in on many of Hale's plots.
John Ramsey
Portrayed by: Ty Mitchell
One of Hale's hired henchmen, assigned to kill Henry Roan.- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed. Ramsay is fine with working for Hale and his goons, who have been openly robbing and murdering Osage, but he's noticeably recalcitrant when he's tasked with killing Henry Roan. Ernest has to practically force him to do it, and while he does ultimately see the job through it he's visibly unhappy with it in the end and orders that Ernest never approach him for work again.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: It is questionable if the real-life Ramsey was as conflicted about killing Henry Roan as he is in this film, given how he only ever referred to his victim as "The Indian" in his confession.
- In Love with the Mark: Heavily downplayed with John Ramsey and Henry Roan. Despite being hired to kill him, Ramsey ends up striking up a friendship with Roan as the two bond over their love of moonshine. It's not enough to prevent Ramsey from killing Roan, though the deed weighs heavily on his conscience, and he later puts up no resistance when the BOI come to collect.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed, but Ramsey is clearly not happy with being tasked with murdering Henry Roan, and seems to genuinely befriend the man. It's heavily implied he deliberately bungled the murder and gave the weapon back to Ernest, the man who ordered him to kill Henry, out of spite.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He is introduced as the Bumbling Sidekick of a prominent moonshiner, chats about how criminal money supports his large family of a wife and eight kids, and initially empathetically refuses when offered a job to kill someone. While his reluctance quickly fades when he is told that his target is a Native American, he does genuinely befriend Henry Roan while setting him up to be killed and comes to regret taking the job.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Being pressured into killing Henry Roan causes John Ramsay to angrily quit after doing the deed (and potentially sabotaging the job deliberately by making it an obvious murder instead of looking like a suicide), handing back the murder weapon openly to Ernest and telling him to never contact him again. Sure enough, by the time the BOI pick him up for the murder, he's long stopped seeing Hale or his goons. It's also implied John had been chafing under Hale's orders for some time, if not a turn of conscience.
- Stupid Crooks: Ramsay is tasked by Ernest with murdering the terminally depressed Henry Roan in a way that looks like a suicide so that Hale can collect on the insurance policy he had on him. John not only shoots Henry in the back of the head but also removes the murder weapon from the scene, ensuring that Henry's death won't look like anything but murder and causing Hale's scheme to fail. Since Hale still attempts to collect the insurance money, this also brings Hale's insurance schemes to the attention of the BOI and is a major factor in his subsequent arrest. That said, it's implied John was so done with Ernest and Hale's bossing around and crimes that he put zero effort into the murder or the coverup.
Kelsie Morrison
Portrayed by: Louis Cancelmi
One of Hale's hired henchmen, assigned to kill Anna.- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kelsie is introduced as a cheerful, energetic Returning War Vet who gets along well with the Osage, but he is one of their most pitiless betrayers.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He can't understand why anything that he did or was planning to do was wrong or why he's meant to feel guilty about any of it. He can't even understand why someone would take issue with him openly planning to murder his stepchildren for the money.
- Lack of Empathy: None of the men involved have much to begin with but Morrison seems genuinely unable to feel any remorse or reservation about anything he's done, discussing murdering his own stepchildren as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
- Refuge in Audacity: Certainly has the audacity to all but tell an insurance agent (really a BOI agent) if he can kill his stepchildren for their money. It ends predictably with his arrest.
- The Sociopath: Even compared to the other killers, there is something deeply off about Morrison. He was seriously considering killing his own stepchildren for their headrights and admits in court to returning to where he murdered Anna multiple times to host parties and be alone with girls, seemingly not seeing any reason why he should have negative feelings towards that space.
- Stupid Crooks: Morrison is dumb enough to ask a BOI agent undercover as an insurance agent whether it would be legal for him to kill his own stepchildren for their headrights and is easily tricked by White into confessing his identity when he complements the criminal.
- Too Dumb to Live: He all but tells an undercover BOI agent that he's planning to kill his adopted stepchildren for their money. This unsurprisingly leads to his arrest.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: He isn't seen again after giving his testimony at Hale's trial. Despite being one of the key players in Hale's scheme, his fate also goes unmentioned in the epilogue. note
- Would Hurt a Child: One of the very few lines Hale and Ernest don't cross is targeting children directly. However, Kelsie Morrison, one of the men Hale hires to kill Anna, is absolutely willing to, planning at one point on adopting two Osage children for the purposes of killing them and getting their headrights.
Acie Kirby
Portrayed by: Pete Yorn
One of Hale's hired henchmen, assigned to kill Rita and Bill Smith.- Demolitions Expert: Hired by Hale because of his experience with dynamite in earlier bank robberies to kill Rita and Bill Smith simultaneously.
- Properly Paranoid: Kirby is called paranoid and jumpy by everyone who knows him, and he holes up tight in his room when not on a job. He slips up by trusting a tip from Hale on a store he can rob, which costs him his life.
Blackie Thompson
Portrayed by: Tommy Schultz
A local thug who often is hired to do dirty work for Hale and Ernest.- Dumbass No More: For all of his Stupid Crooks moments, he sees through Hale trying to use him for dirty work and hang him out to dry yet again when Hale asks him to kill Ernest in prison and tells White about the offer.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: In addition to being fine with victimizing the Osage, Blackie is a firm believer of the Greedy Jew stereotype and uses it as an insult to anyone who is being greedy around him regardless of their religion.
- Stupid Crooks: Blackie is roped in to a hair-brained insurance fraud scheme by Ernest which quickly fails and results in him being caught and arrested, which also leaves Hale scrambling to find a new triggerman to kill Bill and Rita as Blackie is incarcerated for several years. After being freed and despite him being openly suspicious of both Hale and Ernest, he's easily tricked by the former in to participating in a bank robbery in a neighboring town which turns out to be a trap as Hale tipped the police off to have him killed as a loose end. Blackie survives the ensuing shootout but is arrested again and faces life in prison for killing a police officer, causing him to cut a deal with the BOI to testify against Hale for some leniency in his case.
Henry Grammer
Portrayed by: Sturgill Simpson
A cowboy who runs the local underworld.- The Don: He runs moonshine stills, is willing to poison Osage customers for Hale, and knows where to find robbers and hitmen for any given job.
- Sports Hero Backstory: He has a Trophy Room of rodeo blue ribbons and, even today, is almost as well known for being a world champion steer roper as he is for his role in the murders.
- Token Competent Minion: He is chillingly efficient in getting results for Hale and seems devoid of Stupid Crooks moments, almost to Knight of Cerebus levels.
Supporting Characters
William J. Burns
Portrayed by: Gary Basaraba
A Private Investigator hired by Mollie to investigate her family's murders.- Composite Character: Burns is a stand-in for the many private investigators hired by the Osage and their "allies" to investigate the killings. His beating and possible death from it is combined with W.V. Vaughn's, a lawyer assisting the Osage who was the second white man to be confirmed killed by the conspiracy.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: A twofer. Burns himself is depicted as straightforward and earnest up until the beating he gets from Ernest either kills him or sends him packing. In real life, he was a much shadier figure who may have even been bribed by Hale. The private investigators he is combined with were either bribed or stonewalled.
- Private Detective: Mollie hires him to investigate the death of her sister, rightly assuming that none of the local law enforcement will be trustworthy. He starts to sniff out some clues before Ernest and Byron beat him and scare him off, if not outright kill him. In Real Life, several private detectives were hired to investigate the deaths... by Hale and fellow murderer Mathis (the trading post owner), who used them to set up false leads that the BOI had to untangle when they started their investigation.
Barney McBride
Portrayed by: Brent Langdon
An oil driller who works with the Osage Nation.- Foil: To Hale. Both of them are wealthy businessmen who are respected by the Osage, to the point both are permitted to sit in on tribal council meetings. The difference is McBride is a good man who honestly cares about the Osage and wants to help them, while Hale is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who is secretly trying to obtain all of their oil wealth and is the mastermind behind the murders.
- Honest Corporate Executive: He's an honest businessman who cares about the Osage enough to try to get investigation help from Washington D.C. Sadly this leads to his death.
- Make an Example of Them: He's brutally murdered while in Washington D.C. to show what will happen to anyone else who tries to get the feds involved with the murder investigations.
- Real Men Love Jesus: The book describes McBride as a man who constantly carries both a Bible and a .45 caliber revolver.
Chief Arthur Bonnicastle and Paul Red Eagle
- Played by: Yancey Red Corn and Everett Waller
- Ascended Extra: They are only mentioned a few times in the book, and not even by name, but play larger roles in the film.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Mostly averted, but they view Hale as a trusted friend and let him sit in their councils even as they talk about how there are few white men they can trust.
- Large and in Charge: They are the leaders of the Osage Nation and are noticeably burlier than many of their fellow council members.
- Retired Badass: Bonnicastle is a former cavalry soldier who saw action in the Philippines and The Boxer Rebellion.
- Those Two Guys: They share most of their screen time and are prone to insightful conversations about what is going on around them.
- The Unfettered: They react to the murders with angry speeches about how they can't trust the authorities but will band together to protect each other, remember their warrior roots, and won't ever leave the reservation.
Pitts Beaty
Portrayed by: Gene Jones
A white businessman and the financial guardian of Mollie Burkhart.- Ambiguously Evil: He is a Klan leader who shows signs of knowing or suspecting Hale is the killer, but also allows Mollie to seek help in investigating the murders and is one of the jurors who convicts Hale (although he may have had pragmatic motives for both acts and the book notes that the jury refused to sentence a white man to death for killing Native Americans).
- Ascended Extra: He is mentioned once in the appendix of the book but has several scenes in the film.
- Fat Bastard: He is a jowly man who is patronizing to Mollie and leads The Klan in the area.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He is a Fat Bastard Klansman, but he seems civil with the Osage and even volunteers to help hunt for the killers. However, a comment he makes to Hale after the Smith bombing implies that he knows Hale is the killer and has no concerns about stopping him as long as the murders remain out of the public eye.
- Pet the Dog: Ambiguous Situation is very much at play, but he authorizes a pleading Mollie to withdraw enough money to go to Washington and seek federal help in solving the murders (even though he could keep her from doing so and is implied to be shielding the killers) after she says she is convinced she will die soon and wants to do this one thing first.
