the new Osage wealth by marrying into families with headrights. Osage Indian murders Alarmed about the way the Osage were using their wealth, in 1921 the U.S. Congress passed a law requiring any Osage of half or more Indian ancestry to be appointed a guardian until proving "competency". Minors with less than half Osage ancestry were required to have guardians appointed, even if their parents were living. This system was not administered by federal courts; rather, local courts appointed guardians from among white attorneys and businessmen. By law, the guardians provided a $4,000 annual allowance to their charges, but initially the government required little record keeping of how they invested the difference. Royalties to persons holding headrights were much higher: $11,000–12,000 per year during the period 1922–1925. Guardians were permitted to collect $200–1,000 per year, and the attorney involved could collect $200 per year, which was withdrawn from each Osage's income. Some attorneys served as guardians and did so for four Osage at once, allowing them to collect $4,800 per year. The tribe auctioned off development rights of their mineral assets for millions of dollars. According to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in 1924 the total revenue of the Osage from the mineral leases was $24,670,483. After the tribe auctioned mineral leases and more land was explored, the oil business on the Osage reservation boomed. Tens of thousands of oil workers arrived, more than 30 boom towns sprang up and, nearly overnight, Osage headright holders became the "richest people in the world." When royalties peaked in 1925, annual headright earnings were $13,000. A family of four who were all on the allotment roll earned $52,800, comparable to approximately $600,000 in today's economy. The guardianship program created an incentive for corruption, and many Osage were legally deprived of their land, headrights, and/or royalties. Others were murdered, in cases the police generally failed to investigate. The coroner's office colluded by falsifying death certificates, for instance claiming suicides when people had been poisoned. The Osage Allotment Act did not entitle the Native Americans to autopsies, so many deaths went unexamined. In the early 1920s there was a rise in murders and suspicious deaths of Osage, called the "Reign of Terror." In one plot, in 1921, Ernest Burkhart, a European American, married Molly Kyle, an Osage woman with headrights. His uncle William "King of Osage Hills" Hale, a powerful business man who led the