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Picture


 
 
 
 
Myra                  
                  Maybelle Shirley (Belle)                                   
Starr








1848-1889



Died                                             age
40




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   
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