In the film adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon, Leonardo DiCaprio plays the character of Ernest Burkhart, who initially appears to genuinely love Mollie. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Ernest has sinister intentions and wants to destroy Mollie's family, possibly even Mollie herself.
Nobody outright asks Ernest if he loves Molly, but they ask similar questions, and he responds in the full-throated affirmative. She is his wife, and at least some of the time, he treats her as such.
The truth is, Ernest's true feelings for his wife can never really be known. If he did love her, it didn't stop him from murdering her family, as he testified himself in court. Some, like Osage language consultant Christopher Cote, who worked on the film, don't believe that's real love.
What happened to Ernest and Mollie Burkhart's children?
Ernest and Mollie Burkhart's son, James Burkhart, grew up and started a family after the end of Killers of the Flower Moon. According to an article by The Washington Post, James, who went by the nickname "Cowboy," married and had two daughters, Doris and Margie.
Mollie later suffered symptoms of poisoning. She fell ill, but soon discovered that Burkhart was poisoning her. She moved away to Pawhuska after the bombing of her sister's house and made a full recovery. Mollie divorced Ernest in 1926, and their children inherited Mollie's estate.
Ernest Burkhart attempted to reconnect with his family after his release from prison, but his actions were met with resentment due to his involvement in the murder of his own family members. He lived until 1986, dying at the age of 94.
In 1966, Ernest applied for a pardon. Citing his cooperation with the investigation (White had credited his confession as vital for the convictions of Hale and Ramsey), the Oklahoma Parole Board voted 3–2 in favor of a pardon, which was granted by Governor Henry Bellmon. Ernest Burkhart died in 1986.
How many children did Molly and Ernest Burkhart have?
Mollie later meets Ernest Burkhart, her chauffeur, and falls in love. The pair married in 1917, and had three children: Elizabeth, Anna, and James, also known as Cowboy.
She divorced Ernest after he was found guilty of murder and then married John William Cobb, Jr. Sister of Reta Smith. Mollie first married Henry Roan, then married Ernest Burkhart. She divorced Ernest after he was found guilty of murder and then married John William Cobb, Jr.
Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest, but she is even more intrigued by the idea of wickedness. This idea, rather than the virtuous-sounding name, has prompted her to fall in love with Jack's brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them.
When authorities later checked on a gravely ill Mollie, they assessed that someone was secretly and slowly poisoning her. Ernest really never admitted having any knowledge about his wife being poisoned. Grann wrote that Ernest's uncle may not have believed he could kill his own wife.
He and other minerals council members believe there is still oil to be produced on the reservation, but it's a matter of finding new techniques to extract them. “But with time, technology sometimes doesn't move as fast as the time does. And so, like right now, there's a lot of oil still around.
Hale was even the self-proclaimed “King of the Osage Hills.” He was a wealthy rancher with several banking and business interests throughout Osage County. Hale, along with his accomplices, Ernest Burkhart, John Ramsey, and several others, were allegedly tied to more than 20 killings.
After just over ten years in prison, Burkhart was paroled in 1937 but returned to jail a short time later after robbing his former sister-in-law Lillie Morrell Burkhart. His parole was revoked when he was sentenced to jail in 1941.
The movie shows Ernest slowly poisoning Mollie, who was diabetic, by giving her injections of what she was told was insulin to keep her weak and wasting away in bed during the later years of the Reign of Terror, an alleged attempt on her life that Mollie survived.
What happens to Ernest in Killers of the Flower Moon?
Ernest is pardoned and Mollie divorces him, resulting in Ernest living out the rest of his life with Byron. Mollie ultimately dies of diabetes after remarrying, and according to the film's conclusion, no mention of the Osage murders was ever noted in her obituary.
According to Vox, "In 1931, [Mollie Burkhart] successfully sued for an end to her own guardianship and finally gained full control over the family fortune others had tried so hard to take." This was a major financial move for Mollie and her family that secured control over her family's rightful claim to her land that ...
The family of one Osage in particular, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target of the conspiracy. In many ways, Mollie, who was born in 1886, straddled not only two centuries but two civilizations. She grew up in a lodge, speaking Osage; within a few decades, she lived in a mansion and was a married to white settler.
In June 1926 Ernest Burkhart pleaded guilty and received a life sentence in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at McAlester for the murder of William E. Smith.
Other prominent conditions in the film are diabetes and a “wasting disease,” implied to be in many cases undiagnosed diabetes, that takes the lives of many Osage people before they reach the age of 50. Mollie Burkhart, played by Lily Gladstone, is one of several Osage people who suffer with the disease.
The condition plays a pivotal part in the story: In the film, Osage people are said to commonly die before the age of 50, often from a “wasting disease” vaguely associated with diabetes, which itself is attributed to the consumption of “the white man's food.” Mollie's condition means that her husband, Ernest (Leonardo ...
