|
Myra
Maybelle Shirley (Belle)
Starr
|
|
|
|
Timeline
|
"I
am a friend to any brave and gallant
outlaw."
 Belle
Starr, also known as the "Bandit Queen"
and the subject of much speculation in
innumerable stories and popular
publications, was born Myra Maybelle
(or Belle) Shirley on February 5, 1848,
on a farm near Carthage, Missouri, one
of six children and the only daughter
of John and Elizabeth (or Eliza)
(Hatfield) Shirley. Within a few years,
the Shirleys moved into Carthage, where
they were living when the Civil War
started.
Young May, as the family called her,
probably attended Carthage Female
Academy and a private school, Cravens,
in Carthage. Her father became a
prosperous innkeeper and
slaveholder.
Sympathizers with the southern cause
and supporters of Confederate
irregulars such as the raider William
Clarke Quantrill, the Shirleys were
apparently pleased when their oldest
son, John (or Bud), joined a squad of
bushwhackers in bloody reprisals along
the Missouri-Kansas border.
Whether his death in this activity
influenced Belle Shirley's direction in
life, as some have speculated, is not
certain. By 1864, after Carthage was
burned, the family had migrated to
Scyene, Texas, near Dallas. There in
July 1866 Cole, Jim, Bob, and John
Younger and Jesse James, Missouri
outlaws who had ridden with Quantrill,
used the Shirley home as a hideout.
Belle Shirley's relationship with Cole
Younger is the subject of many stories,
some of which claim that her daughter
Rosie Lee, often called Pearl Younger,
was his child. He denied it; the likely
father was a desperado named Jim Reed,
whom Shirley had known in Missouri. She
and Reed married on November 1, 1866.
Rosie Lee was born in 1868.
For a while the Reeds lived in
Indian Territory at the home of outlaw
Tom Starr, a Cherokee. After Reed was
charged with murder, they went to Los
Angeles, probably where their son James
Edwin (Ed) was born on February 22,
1871. They returned to Texas when
Reed's murder charges caught up with
him later that year. After their
return, Reed became involved with the
Younger, James, and Starr gangs, which
killed and looted throughout Texas,
Arkansas, and Indian Territory.
Accounts differ as to Belle Reed's
participation in these activities. At
least one claims that she disapproved
of Reed's actions; more suggest that
she operated a livery barn in Dallas
where she sold the horses Reed stole.
At one point, however, she more than
likely moved her children to live with
her relatives. There are apparently no
records that Belle Reed was ever
involved in murder, the robbery of
trains, banks, or stagecoaches, or in
cattle rustling. Reed robbed the
Austin-San Antonio stage in April 1874,
and though there is no evidence that
Belle Reed participated, she was named
as an accessory in the indictment. Jim
Reed was killed by a deputy sheriff at
Paris, Texas, in August 1874; the story
that Belle refused to identify his body
in order to prevent the sheriff from
claiming the reward is apocryphal.
In 1878 Belle Reed appears to have
married Bruce Younger, perhaps in
Coffeyville, Kansas. If that
relationship existed, it soured, and
she married Sam Starr in the Cherokee
Nation on June 5, 1880.
Belle and Sam Starr were later
charged with horse stealing, a federal
offense, and Belle received two
six-month terms at the House of
Correction in Detroit, Michigan. After
this experience Belle Starr came to be
known as the Bandit Queen. In 1886 she
was again charged with horse theft.
This time, because of her legal
skills, she was acquitted, but in the
meantime her husband and an Indian
policeman had shot each other to death.
Belle Starr subsequently took several
lovers, including Jim July (or Jim
Starr), Blue Duck, Jack Spaniard, and
Jim French. She survived all but two of
the men she lived with. On February 3,
1889, while Starr was living in the
Choctaw Nation, near the Canadian
River, an unknown assassin killed her
from ambush with a shotgun. Although
many killers have been suggested, two
men remain the primary suspects in the
murder. One, Edgar Watson, could have
killed her for threatening to turn him
in to authorities for murder. The
second was Belle Starr's son, Ed, whom
she had recently beaten for mistreating
her horse. No one was ever convicted.
Belle Starr was largely unknown outside
the Cherokee Nation, Dallas, and parts
of Arkansas when she died. Soon,
however, newspaper reports of her death
were picked up by Richard K. Fox, the
publisher of the National Police
Gazette. When he published Bella Starr,
the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse
James (1889), a twenty-five-cent novel
based loosely on her life, the legends
began. Belle Starr was buried at
Younger's Bend, a remote place on the
Canadian River where she often lived.
Her daughter later erected a headstone
engraved with a bell, a star, and a
horse, purchased with earnings she made
in a brothel.
"STARR,
MYRA MAYBELLE SHIRLEY."
The Handbook of Texas Online.
|
Born
February 5,
1848
Near Carthage, Missouri
|
|
|
1864
Her family moved to Scyene, Texas
near Dallas.
age
16
|
|
|
July
1866
Cole, Jim, Bob and John Younger,
and Jesse James used her family's
home as a hideout.
age
18
|
|
|
November
1,
1866
Belle married Jim Reed.
age
18
|
|
|
1868
Belle's daughter, Rosie Lee was
born
age
20
|
|
|
February
22,
1871
The Reeds moved into outlaw Tom
Starr's home in Indian Territory
(now Oklahoma).
After Jim Reed was charged with
murder, they moved to Los
Angeles, where their son, Edwin
was most likely born on this
day.
age
23
|
|
|
Later
in
1871
With the law closing in on Jim
Reed, they moved back to
Texas.
age
23
|
|
|
After
their return to Texas,
Jim
Reed joined the
Younger-James-Starr gangs.
age
23?
|
|
|
November
1873
Jim Reed and two others robbed
Watt Grayson of $30,000 in the
Indian Nation.
age
25
|
|
|
April
1874
Jim Reed robbed the Austin-San
Antonio stage, but evidence ever
surfaced that Belle
participated.
age
26
|
|
|
August
1874
Jim Reed was killed by a deputy
sheriff in Paris, Texas.
age
26
|
|
|
1878
It is possible that Belle married
Bruce Younger in Coffeyville,
Kansas.
age
30
|
|
|
June
5,
1880
Belle married Sam Starr in the
Cherokee Nation (Oklahoma)
age
32
|
|
|
1882
Belle and Sam Starr were charged
with horse stealing west of Fort
Smith, Arkansas.
age
34
|
|
|
March
1883
They both were convicted and
sentenced to serve their terms in
Detroit, Michigan where she was
sentenced to two six-month
terms.
age
35
|
|
|
1886
Belle was charged with robbing a
post office while dressed as a
man. She mangaged to get herself
aquitted. During this time Sam
and an Indian policeman shot each
other to death.
age
38
|
|
|
February
3,
1889
An unknown assassin ambushed and
killed her with a shotgun.
age
40
|
|
|
|
Buy
The Book
Fugitives
From
Justice
|
|
|
|
Books about Belle
Starr
|
|
|
 Belle
Starr and her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and
the Legends
Description from The Reader's
Catalog
"Books, articles, poems, songs,
and movies have described her as a 'bandit queen'
or as a 'female Jesse James.' She was neither. In
Belle Starr and Her Times, a book that is likely to
become the standard reference on this subject,
noted western writer Glenn Shirley examines the
extensive popular literature surrounding Belle
Starr and compares it to the historical record.
Shirley does a good job of sorting out the numerous
disagreements between the two. Belle Starr emerges
from Shirley's detailed analysis as a tough,
independent woman who lived in an unsettled and
difficult time. She associated with western
outlaws, and was herself convicted once of horse
theft." -- Choice
|
|
|
 Belle
of the West: A True Story of Belle
Starr
From Children's
Literature
The first paragraph of Belle
Starr's story raises adult hackles as we are told
that neighbors laughed "good humoredly" as this
girl of ten galloped down the main street, "at
intervals popping off bullets from the huge pistol
she carried." Even a hundred and fifty years ago in
the lawless West, sensible people did not "laugh
good-humoredly" at behavior that endangered their
lives. Moreover, life lived on the outskirts of the
law begs an important question—how to make a
law-breaker the protagonist in a young adult book
without inviting young readers, in the midst of
adolescent struggles with limits, to identify with
her or find outlaws daring or admirable. The story
needs a larger canvas to view its characters in
context. Belle Starr deserves to be taken
seriously, as a young woman from a violent and
possibly abusive home. That her life ended
miserably seems mainly the fault of her repeated
floutings of the law as well as poor judgment in
aiming for shortsighted goals. Belle ruined her
daughter's life as well; Pearl became a prostitute.
Despite an interesting bibliography and a narrative
that grows stronger as it reaches its sad
conclusion, the book fails to guide teens to view
Belle as more than simply "headstrong" or
"misunderstood," as hyped on the cover copy. 2001,
Morgan Reynolds, $20.95.
Ages 9 to
12. Reviewer: Nancy
Tilly
|
|
|
 Belle
Starr and the Wild West
From School Library
Journal
Gr
5-9-Fascinating
black-and-white illustrations and reproductions and
informative sidebars are the highlights of this
biography of the legendary female outlaw. The book
covers Starr's life from her birth in 1848 on a
farm near Carthage, MO, to her violent death in
1889. In between, discussions of her family,
education, her initiation into a lawless life after
the death of one of her brothers, her marriages and
children, her relationships with other outlaws, and
her criminal pursuits are intertwined with the
story of America's westward expansion. In Starr's
story, as with other notorious figures in our
history, it is often difficult to separate fact
from fiction.
However, in doing so, the
authors introduce readers to the questions,
sources, and techniques used by historians in their
search for truth.-Patricia Ann Owens, Wabash Valley
College, Mt. Carmel, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners
Business Information.
|
|
|
 Starr
Tracks: Belle and Pearl Starr
|
|
|
 Legend
of Belle Starr
|
|
|
|
|
We are adding
books on other Outlaws,
so check each one for list.
|
|
