Herman Fox Davis

Herman Fox Davis was a lawyer and former private detective dispatched to Osage County in April 1923 to investigate the growing number of Osage murders. Some Osage people hoped that an investigator from outside the county could cut through local corruption. Instead, Davis himself became evidence of how thoroughly that corruption had reached the effort to solve the crimes.

Appointment and Public Persona

Governor Jack C. Walton sent Davis, his top state investigator, to Osage County. Davis had previously worked as a private detective for the William J. Burns International Detective Agency. The book presents him with a deliberately theatrical polish: he puffed on cigars, his eyes shining through blue smoke, and a law-enforcement official likened him to a dime-novel detective. That image of a conspicuous, almost fictional sleuth contrasted with the serious purpose of his assignment.

An Investigator Compromised

The murders had left many Osage people convinced that local authorities were colluding with the killers. Davis seemed to offer the possibility of an outside force able to investigate the cases without being entangled in county loyalties. But within days he was seen associating with some of the county’s notorious criminals. Another investigator caught him accepting a bribe from the head of a local gambling syndicate in exchange for allowing the syndicate to continue its illicit businesses. The man sent to confront corruption was himself taking payment to protect it.

Convictions and Consequences

In June 1923, Davis pleaded guilty to bribery and received a two-year sentence. A few months later, Walton pardoned him. Davis then joined conspirators in robbing and murdering a prominent attorney; for that crime, he received a life sentence. His trajectory—from appointed investigator to convicted bribe-taker and murderer—shows why the hope that state intervention would bring impartial justice proved so precarious.

Davis’s pardon also belonged to a wider political crisis. In November 1923, Walton was impeached and removed from office, partly over his use of pardons and paroles to release criminals and partly over illicit contributions from oilman E. W. Marland, which were used to build a lavish home. Davis’s release thus became part of the record against the governor who had sent him to investigate. In the account of the murder cases, Davis is not a solution to the failures of local authority but a revealing instance of their extension into state power.