Belle Starr Explained

Belle Starr
Birth Name:Myra Maybelle Shirley
Birth Place:Carthage, Missouri
Birth Date:5 February 1848
Death Place:Eufaula, Muscogee Nation,
Indian Territory
Death Cause:Gunshot wounds
Nationality:American
Criminal Charge:Horse theft
Spouse:
  • James C. Reed
  • Sam Starr
  • Jim July Starr
Children:Pearl Starr
Eddie Reed

Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889), better known as Belle Starr, was an American outlaw who gained national notoriety after her violent death.[1]

She associated with the James–Younger Gang and other outlaws. She was convicted of horse theft in 1883. She was fatally shot in 1889 in a case that is still officially unsolved. Her story was popularized by Richard K. Fox — editor and publisher of the National Police Gazette — and she later became a popular character in television and films.

Early life

Belle Starr was born Myra Maybelle Shirley on her father's farm near Carthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. Most of her family members called her May. Her father, John Shirley, prospered raising wheat, corn, hogs and horses, though he was considered to be the "black sheep" of a well-to-do Virginia family which had moved west to Indiana, where he married and divorced twice. Her mother, Elizabeth "Eliza" Hatfield Shirley, was John Shirley's third wife and a distant relative to the Hatfields of the famous family feud. In the 1860s, Belle's father sold the farm and moved the family to Carthage, where he bought a livery stable and blacksmith shop on the town square.

Myra Shirley received a classical education and learned piano, while graduating from Missouri's Carthage Female Academy, a private institution that her father had helped to found.[2]

Civil War and aftermath

During the American Civil War, Myra's older brother, John A. M. "Bud" Shirley, was an active Jasper County "bushwhackers", fighting for the Confederacy. Myra was reputed to have supported her brother in these efforts, perhaps as a spy, although not much is known about the exact details. Bud was killed by federal troops in late June 1864. Soon after,

sick at heart over Bud’s death and his business ruined by the theft and destruction, [John Shirley] disposed of his property, loaded his family and household goods into two Conestoga wagons, and set out for Texas ... Shirley’s destination was Scyene, a small settlement ten miles southeast of Dallas. Myra [May], a dutiful daughter, drove one of the wagons.
According to the book Belle Starr by Burton Rascoe (Random House, 1941), the "Shirleys were regarded as 'rather common,' because they had no slaves."[3] While in school, Myra was "irregular in attendance" and was regarded as "rather wild" by teacher Mrs. Poole.

Following the war, members of the Reed family also moved to Texas and, according to Collin County marriage records, James C. Reed and Mira [''sic''] M. Shirley were married there on November 1, 1866. Two years later, she gave birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (nicknamed Pearl).[4] Belle always harbored a strong sense of style, which fed into her later legend. A crack shot, she used to ride sidesaddle while dressed in a black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, carrying two pistols, with cartridge belts across her hips.[2] Reed turned to crime and was wanted for murder in Arkansas, which caused the family to move to California, where their second child, James Edwin (Eddie), was born in 1871.

Later returning to Texas, Reed was involved with several criminal gangs. While Reed initially tried his hand at farming, he would grow restless and associated with the Starr clan, a Cherokee family notorious for whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), as well as the James and Younger gangs. In April 1874, despite a lack of any evidence, a warrant was issued for her arrest for a stagecoach robbery by her husband and others. Reed was killed in August of that year in Paris, Texas, where he had settled down with his family.

Marriages and later years

Belle was allegedly briefly married for three weeks to Charles Younger, uncle of Cole Younger in 1878, but this is not substantiated by any evidence. There are numerous claims that Belle's daughter Pearl Reed was actually Pearl Younger, but in Cole Younger's autobiography (quoted in Glen Shirley's "Belle Starr and her times"), he discounted that as rubbish and stated what he knew truly of Belle.

In 1880, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr and settled with the Starr family in the Indian Territory. There, she learned ways of organizing, planning and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free her colleagues from the law whenever they were caught.

In 1882, Belle and Sam were charged with horse theft. The arrest warrant was served by Deputy U.S. Marshal Lemuel Marks.[5] The pair were tried before "The Hanging Judge" Isaac C. Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas; the prosecutor was United States Attorney W. H. H. Clayton. She was found guilty and served nine months at the Detroit House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan. Belle proved to be a model prisoner and, during her time in jail, she won the respect of the prison matron. In contrast, Sam was incorrigible and assigned to hard labor. In a contradictory account after her arrest by the Marshal, "Belle proved to be a loud and unruly prisoner."[6]

In 1886, she eluded conviction on another theft charge, but, on December 17, Sam Starr was involved in a gunfight with his cousin Law Officer Frank West.[7] Both men were killed, and Belle's life as an outlaw queen—and what had been the happiest relationship of her life—abruptly ended with her husband's death.

By her marriage to Sam Starr, she was an aunt to Henry Starr.

For the last few years of her life, gossips and scandal sheets linked her to a series of men with colorful names, including Jack Spaniard, Jim French and Blue Duck, after which, she married a relative of Sam Starr, Jim July, who later became Jim July Starr, who was some 15 years younger than she was.

Children

Eddie Reed, Belle's son, was convicted of horse theft and receiving stolen property in July 1889. Judge Parker sent him to prison in Columbus, Ohio. Belle's daughter Rosie Reed, also known as Pearl Starr, became a prostitute to raise funds for Eddie's release. She eventually obtained a presidential pardon in 1893. Eddie became a deputy in Fort Smith and[8] killed two outlaw brothers named Crittenden in 1895,[9] [10] and was himself killed in a saloon in Claremore, Oklahoma, on December 14, 1896.[11] [12] Pearl operated several bordellos in Van Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s to World War I.

Unsolved murder

On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, Belle was killed. She was riding home from a neighbor's house when she was ambushed. After she fell off her horse, she was shot again to make sure she was dead. Her death resulted from shotgun wounds to the back and neck and in the shoulder and face. Legend says she was shot with her own double-barrel shotgun.[2]

According to Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, her death was due to different circumstances. She had been attending a dance. Frank Eaton had been the last person to dance with Belle Starr when Edgar J. Watson, one of her sharecroppers and clearly intoxicated, had asked to dance with her. When Belle Starr declined, he later followed her. When she stopped to give her horse a drink at a creek on the way home, he shot and killed her. According to Frank Eaton, Watson was tried, convicted, and executed by hanging for the murder.

However, another story says that there were no witnesses and that no one ever was convicted of the murder. Suspects with apparent motive included her new husband and both of her children as well as Edgar Watson, because he was afraid she was going to turn him in to the authorities as an escaped murderer from Florida with a price on his head. Watson, who was killed in 1910, was tried for her murder, but was acquitted, and the ambush has entered Western lore as "unsolved".

One source suggests her son, whom she had allegedly beaten for mistreating her beloved horse, may have been her killer.[13]

In popular culture

Although she was an obscure figure outside Texas throughout most of her life, Belle's story was picked up by the dime novel and National Police Gazette publisher Richard K. Fox, who made her name famous with his fictional novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of her murder). This novel still is cited as a historical reference despite its artistic license and lack of historical accuracy. It was the first of many popular stories that used her name.

Film and television series

Literature and music

See also

References

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rasmussen. Cecilia. 2002-02-17. Truth Dims the Legend of Outlaw Queen Belle Starr. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20191206230155/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-17-me-then17-story.html. 2019-12-06. Los Angeles Times. en-US.
  2. News: L.A. Then and Now: Truth Dims the Legend of Outlaw Queen Belle Starr . Cecilia . Rasmussen . February 17, 2002 . . 23 January 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160306045246/http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/17/local/me-then17 . March 6, 2016 . live .
  3. Book: Rascoe, Burton . Belle Starr . Random House . 1941 . 1st . New York City . 113 . English.
  4. Meier. Allison. 3 April 2013. Belle Starr the Bandit Queen: How a Southern Girl Became a Legendary Western Outlaw. Atlas Obscura. 16 May 2018.
  5. Web site: Belle Starr in the Fort Smith, Arkansas, U.S., Criminal Case Files, 1866-1900 . Ancestry.com . 5 September 2023.
  6. Book: Mullins, Jonita . Oklahoma Originals: Early Heroes, Heroines, Villains & Vixens . The History Press . 2019 . 9781467143523 . Charleston, SC . 124–125 . English.
  7. Web site: Police Officer Frank West, United States Department of the Interior - Bureau of Indian Affairs - Division of Law Enforcement, U.S. Government. Officer Down Memorial Page. 2013-01-23.
  8. Web site: December 17, 1896 . Indian chieftain. (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, December 17, 1896, Image 2 ].
  9. Web site: December 16, 1896 . The Wichita daily eagle. (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, December 16, 1896, Page 6, Image 6 . 6.
  10. Web site: December 16, 1896 . Kansas City daily journal. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, December 16, 1896, Page 2, Image 2 . 2.
  11. Web site: December 16, 1896 . The San Francisco call. (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, December 16, 1896, Page 3, Image 3 ]. 3.
  12. Web site: December 16, 1896 . The Wichita daily eagle. (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, December 16, 1896, Page 6, Image 6 . 6.
  13. Web site: FrontierTimes - Outlaws - Belle Starr.
  14. Web site: ARKANSAS A-Z: Belle Starr, aka ‘Bandit Queen,’ lived colorful life of crime. Hendricks. Nancy. Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. March 19, 2023. February 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20230319073354/https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2023/mar/19/belle-starr-aka-bandit-queen-lived-colorful-life/. March 19, 2023.
  15. Web site: 'Belle Starr's Daughter' Arrives at Globe. The New York Times. January 10, 1949. February 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20160307085643/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9406E7DC143AE33BBC4852DFB7668382659EDE. March 7, 2016.
  16. Web site: Badman's Territory (1946). American Film Institute. February 25, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20230917224723/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/24683. September 17, 2023.
  17. Web site: Stories of the Century: "Belle Starr", January 23, 1954. Internet Movie Database. September 16, 2012.
  18. Web site: A Bullet for the D.A, Death Valley Days, November 13, 1961. Internet Movie Database. February 25, 2014.
  19. News: Maslin. Janet. 1980-05-16. Film: 'The Long Riders,' With Gangs of the West:Oh Brothers!. en-US. The New York Times. 2024-02-25. 0362-4331.
  20. Web site: Anticipation grows for 'Hell on the Border'. Smith. Scott. Southwest Times Record. November 11, 2019. March 10, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240310014351/https://www.swtimes.com/story/entertainment/local/2019/11/21/anticipation-grows-for-hell-on/2246590007/. March 10, 2024.
  21. Web site: Belle Starr lyrics by Woody Guthrie.
  22. Web site: Bandit/Queen – Clemson University Press . 2022-10-28 . en-US.
  23. Web site: Belle Starr. AllMusic.

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