Byron Burkhart is the secondary antagonist of the 2023 epic Western crime drama film Killers of the Flower Moon, based on David Grann's 2017 nonfiction novel novel of the same name about the historical Osage Indian murders.
He is the brother of protagonist Ernest Burkhart, and alongside him, the nephew of William Hale, helping the latter murder several Osage for their headrights, while also roping his brother Ernest into their scheme, until that was eventually put to an end.
He was portrayed by Scott Shepherd, who also played Casey in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
Biography[]
In The Beginning[]
After Ernest returns home from WW1, he goes off to live with his uncle William Hale, and his brother Byron, while they seemingly greet him to a warm welcome home. Bonding over stories, drink, and their shared love of money, they initiate Ernest into their scheme to kill and rob several Osage for their headrights and their oil-rich territories, while Hale (presumably with Byron's) has already been picking off Osage for years even before Ernest returned home. They rob Osage for their valuables, which Ernest carelessly gambles away, while Hale plots out for them to marry into a wealthy Osage family for their inheritance.
A Marriage for Wealth[]
After being married for some time, Byron gets into a heated, drunken argument with his wife Anna, while Byron then hits on another women much to Anna's annoyance, and the two of them have to be separated as a result. Later on, when given the greenlight by his uncle, Hale arranges for Byron and Kelsie Morrison to kill Anna. To this end, they first take Anna to a saloon to get her drunk enough that she won't put up too much resistance, then the two of them take her out into the forest. Byron gets her into position while Kelsie Morrison personally shoots Anna in the back of the head with a revolver. It is later discovered that Anna was pregnant, presumably with Byron's child, though possibly Hale's if his concerned line which implies he may have been sleeping with her is any indication, this is never confirmed either way.
The Reign of Terror continues[]
Byron continues to assist his uncle in the Osage murders for years to come. Whether it be from personally murdering or overseeing several more target killings that his uncle marks for him, including that of Charlie Whitehorn, to torturing and/or killing any private investigators who attempt to look into the matter, to helping him beat Ernest on the ass with a paddle when the latter botches an insurance job behind Hale's back (resulting in Blackie Thompson's imprisonment). Byron can even be seen standing directly beside his uncle in several scenes, while also helping him further gaslight Ernest into poisoning Mollie when the latter starts to have doubts.
The End of Terror[]
After the walls start closing in, Hale and his co-conspirators are eventually arrested and tried for their crimes against the Osage nation. Kelsie Morrison describes in detail how he and Byron killed Anna Brown at the behest of Hale, how they got her drunk and drove her into the woods, while Morrison killed her. Byron Helps Hale and his colleagues and lawyer W.S. Hamilton attempt to gaslight and manipulate Ernest one last time to get him to change his testimony by falsely claiming his confessions were coerced. While this initially appears to succeed, this ends when Ernest hears that his daughter Anna has died of whooping cough. Byron was tried as an accomplice to Anna's murder, but was ultimately acquitted by a hung jury, while Hale, Ernest, and several other co-conspirators are found guilty and imprisoned for their crimes, (though most of them got off after over a decade or so). Byron is last heard to be living with his brother Ernest, presumably to tense at best relations, where they would eventually die of natural causes, alone and forgotten, much like their uncle Hale.
Personality[]
Much like his uncle Hale, Byron is capable of putting on a friendly face when necessary, but underneath that, facade, he is just as cold-blooded and heartless as uncle if not more so, willing to kill several Osage for profit, while showing an icy apathy to nearly everyone around him, including his own brother Ernest, and carries out whatever Hale orders him to carry out with nearly total indifference. He seems to particularly dislike Anna, or at the very least his marriage to her, with it being implied that they rarely have sex, and he shows no remorse for helping murder her even though she was pregnant, possibly with his own offspring, though possibly with Hale's (if Hale were sleeping with her, though this remains unconfirmed), whereas Ernest was clearly reluctant to poison Mollie by contrast. He may be an alcoholic, or at least to some level, while not as severe as Anna, he clearly enjoys drinking, and he occasionally displays mannerisms of being drunken.
Gallery[]
