Russell Cobb

Magic City Books is thrilled to welcome Tulsa native Russell Cobb back for a free event to celebrate the publication of his new book, Ghosts of Crook County: An Oil Fortune, A Phantom Child and the Fight for Indigenous Land on Monday October 21. This event will be hosted at the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum (2445 S Peoria Avenue).

Russell Cobb, a fourth-generation white Oklahoman, is professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta and the author of The Great Oklahoma Swindle, which won the 2021 Director’s Award in the Oklahoma Book Awards.

Through evocative storytelling, Cobb chronicles with unflinching precision the lasting effects of land-grabbing white men on Indigenous peoples. What emerges are the interconnected stories of unabashedly greedy men, the exploitation of Indigenous land, and the legacy of a boy who may never have existed.

“[A] riveting legal thriller . . . superb historical sleuthing . . . It’s an astonishing exposé.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Ghosts of Crook County will be published by Beacon Press on October 8. You can purchase a copy at Magic City Books starting October 8, books will also be for sale at the event on October 21. If you are unable to attend the event but would like to purchase a signed copy, you can buy online at: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/ghosts-of-crook-county/2415.

About Ghosts of Crook County

The true–and unsolved–story of unabashedly greedy men, their exploitation of Muscogee land, and the hunt for the ghost of a boy who may never have existed

In the early 1900s, at the dawn of the “American Century,” few knew the intoxicating power of greed better than white men on the forefront of the black gold rush. When oil was discovered in Oklahoma, these counterfeit tycoons impersonated, defrauded, and murdered Native property owners to snatch up hundreds of acres of oil-rich land.

Writer and fourth-generation Oklahoman Russell Cobb sets the stage for one such oilman’s chicanery: Tulsa entrepreneur Charles Page’s campaign for a young Muscogee boy’s land in Creek County. Problem was, “Tommy Atkins,” the boy in question, had died years prior–if he ever lived at all.

Ghosts of Crook County traces Tommy’s mythologized life through Page’s relentless pursuit of his land. We meet Minnie Atkins and the two other women who claimed to be Tommy’s “real” mother. Minnie would testify a story of her son’s life and death that fulfilled the legal requirements for his land to be transferred to Page. And we meet Tommy himself–or the men who proclaimed themselves to be him, alive and well in court.

Through evocative storytelling, Cobb chronicles with unflinching precision the lasting effects of land-grabbing white men on Indigenous peoples. What emerges are the interconnected stories of unabashedly greedy men, the exploitation of Indigenous land, and the legacy of a boy who may never have existed.

Russell Cobb, a fourth-generation white Oklahoman, is professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta and the author of The Great Oklahoma Swindle, which won the 2021 Director’s Award in the Oklahoma Book Awards. His journalism has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, The Nation, and on NPR. His reporting appearing on This American Life was turned into the film Come Sunday, distributed by Netflix . He is also the host of History X, a podcast about buried histories and nonfiction mysteries, broadcast on 88.5FM in Edmonton, Canada, and across all major podcast platforms.

Praise for Ghosts of Crook County

“Like some bastard son of Angie Debo and David Grann, in Ghosts of Crook County Russell Cobb blends the archival acuity of the former with the reliable readability of the latter.”
–Jeff Martin, Magic City Books

“Russell Cobb is a master storyteller, as well as being prolific. He is dedicated to digging out and revealing the corruption and crookedness of his and my home state. Ghosts of Crook County is his best yet.”
–Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, American Book Award-winning author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

“Russell Cobb has delivered a bombshell of a book. Ghosts of Crook County isn’t just a deeply researched, gripping historical detective story. It is also a compelling meditation on wealth and power. Highly recommended.”
–Scott Ellsworth, author of The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City’s Search for Justice

“With the poetic writing of a literary savant, Cobb brings together Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous children, and the unique capitalist exploitation that happened when oil was discovered in Indian Territory, leading to further forms of Indigenous dispossession. If you’ve read Killers of the Flower Moon and were enraged but engrossed in the story, Ghosts of Crook County is also the book for you–and you’ll likely enjoy it more!”
–Kyle T. Mays (Saginaw Chippewa), author of An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States