THE STORY OF BELLE STARR

According to Kathy Weiser's article in Legends of America (August 2006), Myra Belle Shirley was born in a Missouri log cabin to "Judge" John Shirley, the black sheep of a wealthy Virginia family who later moved to Indiana, and his third wife, Eliza. Eliza Shirley's maiden name was Hatfield, of the famously feuding Hatfield and McCoy families.

The Shirley family farmed and prospered. They then sold their land and moved to Carthage Missouri where they built an inn, a tavern, livery stable and blacksmith shop, all of which took up almost an entire city block. Myra Belle was sent to the prestigious Carthage Female Academy where she was taught music and classical languages. She was smart, courteous, and a talented pianist, reportedly. Some accounts say that she "liked to flaunt her staus as a rich girl and liked having an audience”.

She also enjoyed the outdoors and often roamed the countryside with one of her younger brothers, Bud, who taught her to ride and be proficient with a gun. But then came the Kansas-Missouri Border War.

“Jayhawkers" and "Red Legs" harassed Jasper County forcing residents to take sides North or South, and laid waste to Missouri towns in support of the Union. Bud joined Quantrill's Raiders and was promoted to captain after serving as a scout. Other members of Quantill's Raiders were the Younger brothers, the James Boys, and Jim Reed. In June 1864, Bud was killed in Sarcoxie, Missouri, and his father, "Judge" Shirley took it very hard. He sold out and moved the family to a farm near Scyene, Texas, a small settlement southeast of Dallas.

In 1866, legend tells, the James-Younger Gang robbed their first bank in Liberty, Missouri. Jesse and Frank James, along with Bob, Jim, and Cole Younger, fled to Texas where they "met up with Myra Shirley." Myra Belle fell hard for Cole and became a member of the gang. Or so legend says. It appears to be one of Belle's later tall tales that Cole Younger seduced her in Texas at the Shirley home, and that she subsequently gave birth to his illegitimate daughter. Younger said he did visit the Shirleys in Texas, but in 1864, not 1866. He said that the next time he saw Belle was at the Reed home in Missouri in 1868 where she was six months pregnant with Pearl. Richard Reed, brother of Belle's husband Jim, supported Younger's story. But then again, with things so fast and loose, who really knows.

Because things must have been busy at the Shirley home as applies gangs of outlaws, because there’s another similar story that another gang of outlaws stayed at the Shirley house one night and Myra Belle later said she fell in love with gang member Jim Reed, whom she had known back in Missouri. They married on November 1, 1866. Busy place, busy little lady.

By late 1867, he and Belle were living in back in Missouri where Belle gave birth to Rosie Lee, dubbed "Pearl," in 1868. They had moved back because Reed had become wanted for murdering a man named Shannon. Some historians say they then fled to California with Pearl and subsequently had another child, Edward. All this in two year’s time.

Moving on, In 1869, Belle, Jim Reed, and two other outlaws rode to the North Canadian river country where they allegedly tortured an old Creek Indian until he revealed his hiding place for $30,000 in gold. With their share, Jim and Belle returned to Texas and Belle now has the reputation of the "Bandit Queen."

It might have been around this time that Bell made one of her famous statements, "I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw." That is, if she actually said that. We’re still having a little trouble understanding how or why a gently raised female suddenly becomes an outlaw. It is not at all clear that she had any political leanings, or was much of a rebel. But then again, this is a legend.

In 1874, Jim Reed was killed in Paris, Texas, by a member of his own gang in a bloody gunfight. Having left her children with her mother, Belle rode alone on the Outlaw Trail. In what is now Oklahoma, was then referred to as Indian Territory, Belle became "involved" with a flat-faced Indian outlaw called Blue Duck, though again, there are conflicting stories about the extent of this involvement. Some historians claim they were lovers, others claim they were just friends. In any event, the Blue Duck thing didn't last long and Mr. Duck was replaced by Mr. Sam Starr, a Cherokee, who married Belle immediately. They settled down on Starr’s 62 acres on the north side of the Canadian River, near Briartown. Belle names the place "Younger's Bend," apparently after her first love; that is, if you don't count her other first love, Jim Reed. We’re thinking that she did this because her “love” for Cole Younger was just a romanticization, a figment, and therefore, unrequited. More of a hope or wish than reality.

Sam and Belle formed a new outlaw gang, rustling horses and bootlegging whiskey to Indians. The mastermind of this gang was now the infamous Belle Starr. Or so legend has it. Making another legend for herself, it is said that Belle herself told a story of how a slender man with blinking eyes once visited her and Sam at Younger's Bend. Starr was suspicious of the cold and silent man, but Belle told him he was an "old friend from Missouri." Sam Starr never knew the blinking blue-eyed man was Jesse James. Outlaw magnet. Small world.

Sam and Belle found the bandit life lucrative. Belle learned to use both her newfound money and her feminine wiles to free captured gang members from the clutches of lawmen, who found both her cash and sex appeal most tempting. We know, we know. We can see her pictures. Anyway, from 1875 to 1880, Belle was the undisputed leader of this band of cattle and horse thieves who made their headquarters in the Oklahoma Territory. In fact, most of Belle’s reputed and actual adventures took place within the bounds of the Cherokee Nation.

The nearest settlement to the Starr gang's operation was Fort Smith, Arkansas. Judge Isaac Parker - the "Hanging Judge." became determined to put Belle Starr behind bars. Of the several times his deputies had brought Belle in to face rustling or bootlegging charges, none of them stuck for lack of evidence. But, in the fall of 1882, the Judge got lucky when Belle was caught red handed stealing a neighbor’s horse. He sentenced Belle to two consecutive six month prison terms at the Detroit House of Corrections and Sam to one year in the Federal Prison in Detroit. After serving their time, history gives us two paths to choose from: Belle and Sam returned to Younger's Bend, or Belle worked briefly in a Wild West show playing the part of an outlaw bandit holding up a stagecoach. We vote for Younger’s Bend.

Probably they did, because again they were brought up on charges in 1886 that didn’t stick. But, in December off that same year, at a friend's Christmas party, Sam got into a drunken brawl and gunfight with Officer Frank West. Both men died of their wounds. Again, there's a conflict as some historians of the Old West say that only Starr was killed. Well, yes, he was dead, that we know for sure. But Belle, moving along smartly married again in 1889 to a much younger bandit by the name of Jim July, a member of Sam Starr's extended family. Bad move this, and may literally have been the death of Belle. After one terrible fight, July reportedly offered $200 to a friend to kill his wife. Supposedly the offer was rejected and July reportedly screamed, "Hell - I'll kill the old hag myself and spend the money for whiskey!" A few days later On February 3, 1889, Belle Starr was shot to death from ambush on a lonely country road. She was 41 years old. Her death is still officially unsolved. Unofficially, too. Too many suspects, and maybe some that no one knew about.

An investigation into her death went forward and several suspects were questioned including a neighbor she had quarreled with named Watson, her husband July, her son Ed, and even her daughter, Pearl. Well, take your pick. Out of this rowdy crowd, anyone could have and would have done the killing. IBelle had caught July fooling around with a young Cherokee girl, and this caused much strife between them. Belle was estranged from her son Ed and rumors speculated she may have had an unnatural relationship with him and that she routinely beat him with a bullwhip. Just before the murder, rumor has it that she beat Ed badly. Daughter Pearl worked in prostitution, which her mother severely disapproved of, and even tried to get Pearl’s child taken from her. After her mother’s death Pearl made a good living as a prostitute and eventually operated a chain of bordellos in Van Buren and Forth Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s until World War I. It was speculated that she also might have killed her mother because Belle had interfered with Pearl's marriage to the father of her child.

Pearl did, from her earnings as a prostitute and madam, buy a headstone for her mother. On this headstone, along with a likeness of Belle’s favorite mare, Venus, at the top, the following is inscribed:
Shed not for her the bitter tear Nor give the heart to vain regret, 'Tis but the casket that lies here, The gem that fills it sparkles yet.

But it was after her death that her legend grew and grew. Depending on which parts of the legend you read or believe, Belle married no less than three of the Younger brothers, had nominal and working control over every thief, murderer, cutthroat, bandit, bank robber, stage coach robber, in Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, Arkansas, and Texas. Each and every person she had anything to do with was an outlaw, including her own father. She single-handedly ran far-ranging criminal gangs, and even may have been a spy during the Civil War, or a courier, or a female Confederate General, even though she was no more than 13 years old at the time. Truth is, there’s no evidence to support any of this. Her life is more fiction than fact, and it is her unsolved murder that fueled the legend more than anything else; in fact, it was from that point she became “famous”. In the final analysis, her’s was a dreadful life, and she negatively affected all the lives around her, and most definitely those of her poor children. That she acted from, was a final victim to, her own vanity and narcism may be all we need to know about Belle Starr to be able to sort fact from fiction.