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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