George Bigheart’s death by suspected poisoning

George Bigheart’s death by suspected poisoning became a hinge in the investigation of the Osage murders: shortly before he died, he entrusted W. W. Vaughan with information and incriminating documents, then both the material and Vaughan himself disappeared. Later records pointed toward H. G. Burt’s possible involvement, but they did not establish who poisoned Bigheart or prove the full circumstances of his death.

The emergency call

In June 1923, George Bigheart, forty-six, was rushed to a hospital in Oklahoma City suffering from suspected poisoning. A friend called W. W. Vaughan, a fifty-four-year-old Pawhuska attorney and former prosecutor who had worked closely with private investigators trying to solve the Osage murder cases. The caller said Bigheart had information about the murders but would speak only to Vaughan, whom he trusted. When Vaughan asked about Bigheart’s condition, the answer was urgent: he should hurry.

Bigheart’s family history and stated ideals sharpened the contrast between his hopes and the violence surrounding him. He was a nephew of the legendary chief James Bigheart, and on a school application he had once written that he wanted to help the needy, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. Now, gravely ill, he was trying to pass information about the killings to someone he trusted.

Before leaving, Vaughan told his wife about a hiding place where he had stored evidence he had gathered on the murders. He instructed her to retrieve it and give it to the authorities if anything happened to him. He had also left money there for her and their children; she had recently given birth to their tenth child. The precaution made the journey to Bigheart’s bedside part of a larger, dangerous effort to preserve evidence.

The hospital disclosure

When Vaughan reached the hospital, Bigheart was still conscious. Other people were in the room, and Bigheart motioned for them to leave. He apparently then shared his information with Vaughan, including incriminating documents. Vaughan stayed beside him for several hours, until Bigheart was pronounced dead.

Afterward, Vaughan telephoned the new Osage County sheriff. He said he had all the information he needed and was rushing back on the first train. When the sheriff asked whether he knew who had killed Bigheart, Vaughan replied that he knew more than that. The remark suggested that the material Bigheart had entrusted to him implicated a broader set of crimes or people, but the surviving account does not disclose exactly what the documents said.

The missing evidence

Vaughan was seen boarding an overnight train. When it arrived the next day, he was gone. Thirty-six hours later, searchers found his body beside railroad tracks about thirty miles north of Oklahoma City. He had been thrown from the train, his neck was broken, and he had been stripped virtually naked. The documents Bigheart had given him were missing. Vaughan’s widow went to the hiding place he had described and found that it, too, had been cleaned out.

The sequence turned Bigheart’s death into more than an isolated suspected poisoning: the only known recipient of his information was killed, and the materials he had carried vanished. Vaughan’s family was left without income. His widow, Rosa Vaughan, and their ten children had to leave their two-story house for a storage garage; Osage families helped feed them, and some of the children went to live with Osage households, where they learned the language and traditional dances. The support offered by the community stood in stark contrast to the violence and dispossession surrounding the investigation.

Later suspicions and limits

Years later, records and family research added reasons to suspect H. G. Burt, an associate of William K. Hale. An informant told the Bureau of Investigation that Burt and Hale were close and had divided money obtained from Bigheart. Hale had successfully claimed $6,000 from Bigheart’s estate using a bogus creditor’s note; the records left unclear whether the reported division also involved money Burt had tried to take. Bigheart’s fortune passed to his wife and young daughter, but Burt became the daughter’s guardian and thus gained control over her funds. Government records also listed Burt as guardian to several other Osage people.

Other details strengthened suspicion without resolving it. A local lawman recorded that Burt and Hale had both visited Bigheart shortly before he died. Records also indicated that Burt had taken money Bigheart intended for Vaughan, despite presenting himself as Vaughan’s close friend. These circumstances connected Burt to Bigheart’s finances and to Vaughan’s missing evidence, but they did not establish that Burt poisoned Bigheart. The narrator explicitly treated the theory linking Burt to the deaths as circumstantial, and the Justice Department did not prosecute Hale for Bigheart’s killing or pursue Burt further. Bigheart’s death therefore remains a point where the investigation’s clues accumulate without yielding a conclusive account.