Pike

Pike, a private investigator once presented as someone hired to solve the Osage murders, emerged in the agents’ investigation as a possible obstructionist with knowledge of Bryan Burkhart’s whereabouts on the night Anna Brown was killed. His eventual account reversed the apparent purpose of his earlier assignment: he claimed that William K. Hale had not sent him to find the killer, but to help conceal Bryan’s movements and construct an alibi. Pike’s revelations implicated Hale and placed Ernest Burkhart near the effort, though they did not establish whether Hale was protecting Bryan or pursuing a wider design.

Identity and Initial Assignment

In 1921, Hale had hired Pike to investigate the Osage murders. Pike abandoned the case without making progress, a failure that later made his connection to Hale newly significant when the federal agents revisited the investigation. At first, his earlier employment could be read as that of a private investigator who had simply failed; the agents came to suspect that the apparent investigation had served another purpose.

Pike did not approach the agents directly with his information. A man in Osage County introduced himself to Agent Burger as Pike’s intermediary, placing an additional layer between the investigator and the people seeking answers. The intermediary said Pike knew the identity of a third man seen with Bryan and Anna around the time of the killing, and that Pike had spoken with him. According to this account, Pike would disclose the man’s identity only for an enormous payment.

The Search for the Third Man

The agents demanded that Pike come forward through the intermediary, but he did not comply. They suspected that he was trying to extort money and obstruct justice, and began searching for him. His last known address was in Kansas City; after learning that the agents were pursuing him, he changed addresses. Agent Burger’s report recorded the agents’ suspicion that Pike had been paid to disappear, although the payment itself was not established.

Pike was later caught in Tulsa, allegedly committing highway robbery. With no apparent leverage left, he named a local gambler as the third man. The agents confirmed that the gambler had been drinking with Bryan and Anna at a speakeasy on the night of May 21, but further inquiry showed that he had gone home too early to be the person they sought. The lead therefore failed to resolve the question, and seemed to confirm the agents’ fear that Pike had misdirected them.

A Different Account of His Work

The agents continued questioning Pike, and he began to disclose a different account of his assignment. He said he had never really been hired to solve Anna’s murder. Instead, he claimed, he had been asked to conceal Bryan’s whereabouts on the night of the crime, manufacture evidence, and produce false witnesses to shape an alibi. He said the orders came directly from Hale.

Pike’s account changed the meaning of his earlier failure. If true, he had not merely been an ineffective investigator: he had been recruited to make the investigation misleading. His description also recast Hale’s public posture as Mollie Burkhart’s protector. Pike said Hale avoided explicitly stating that Bryan was involved, but that the work he requested made Bryan’s connection apparent to Pike. The account was Pike’s allegation, not an independently established finding in these passages.

The Burkharts and the Unresolved Implication

Pike added that Ernest was sometimes present when he met with Hale and Bryan. He also said Ernest took care not to discuss the case in Mollie’s presence. This detail placed Ernest within the circle of meetings about Bryan’s alibi while emphasizing the separation maintained between that business and Mollie, whose family had been devastated by the murders.

Pike could not answer the question the agents most wanted settled: whether Hale was only protecting Bryan or was involved in a more extensive criminal design. His revelations therefore supplied a new route into the case without completing its explanation. The man first pursued as a possible seller of a hidden identity became a source of allegations about fabricated evidence and concealed knowledge; his testimony sharpened suspicion around Hale and the Burkharts but left the full scope of their involvement unresolved.