Belle Starr
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Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr better known as Belle Starr (February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889) was famous as an American female outlaw. Her legend developed soon after her death and she quickly became more famous for the impossibly fantastic legend than for anything she could have ever genuinely done. Depending on which parts of the legend(s) one reads and/or believes, she married no fewer than three of the Younger brothers and had her first child by Cole Younger. She had control (even carnal control) over every cutthroat brigand, horse thief, and bank robber in Missouri, Kansas, Indian Territory, Arkansas, and Texas. Every person she had any dealings with was on the wrong side of the law, even including her father. She kept a diary. She ran criminal gangs like a 19th century Ma Barker and even began her exploits during the Civil War where she was described as being anything from a spy, to a courier of military intelligence information, to being the only female Confederate General (even though, at that time, she was 13 to 17 years old).
In truth, there exists no evidence predating her death to support any of the above legend but nevertheless, such is the legend of Belle Starr. The historical primary evidence describes a woman who was very different and far more ordinary.
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[edit] Early life
She was born Myra Maybelle Shirley (known as May to her family) on her father's horse farm near Carthage, Missouri. In the 1860s her father sold the farm and moved the family to Carthage buying an inn and livery stable on the town square where the young May Shirley received a classical education and learned piano. After the Union attack on Carthage in 1864, the Shirleys moved to Scyene, Texas. According to the legend, it was at Scyene the Shirleys became associated with a number of Missouri-born criminals, including Jesse James and the Youngers. In fact, she knew the Younger brothers and the James boys because she grew up with them in Missouri, and her brother, Bud, served with them in Quantrill's Raiders in the Confederate Army, alongside another local Missouri boy, Jim Reed. Her brother John Allison Shirley, Bud, had attained the rank of Captain while serving as one of Quantrill's Scouts. Bud was killed in Sarcoxie Missouri, while he and another scout were being fed at the home of a Confederate sympathizer, Union troops surrounded the house and when Bud attempted an escape, was shot and killed in 1864. {The Younger Brothers were involved in the killing of 3 law officers in 1871 and 1874. See [1].}
[edit] After the Civil War
After the war the Reed family, too, moved to Scyene and she married Jim in 1866, giving birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (nicknamed Pearl) in 1868. Jim soon turned to crime and, wanted for murder, the family moved to California, where their second child, James Edwin (Eddie) was born in 1871. Returning to Texas, Jim worked with a number of criminal gangs. In April 1874, despite a lack of evidence, a warrant was issued for her arrest over a stage coach robbery carried out by her husband and others. Jim was killed in Paris, Texas, in August of that year.
[edit] Marriage to Sam Starr
According to the fiction that grew up around her after her death she was briefly married to Bruce Younger in 1878, but again, this was entirely unsubstantiated by any primary evidence. But she did marry a Cherokee Indian in 1880 named Sam Starr and settled on Starr family land in Indian Territory. In 1883, she and Sam were charged with horse theft and went to trial in "Hanging" Judge Isaac Parker's Federal District Court in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Found guilty, she served six months at the Detroit House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan. In 1886, she escaped conviction on another theft charge, but on December 17 Sam Starr got himself into a shootout with Officer Frank West [2] where the two men killed each other.
[edit] Belle Starr's unsolved murder
After Sam died, the legend has her associated with several men (almost all of whom died violently and some on Judge Parker's gallows at Fort Smith), but again, without foundation. In fact, in order to hang on to her interests in her residence on Indian land she very quickly married a member of Sam's extended family, Jim July Starr. In 1889, she was, herself, killed - shot out of the saddle with a shotgun. There were no witnesses but there were many suspects with apparent motive including her husband and both her children. A neighbor, Edgar A. Watson, was tried but acquitted for her murder. There was no further investigation and the case is still considered "unsolved".
[edit] Belle Starr's story becomes popularized
Although an obscure, quiet figure throughout most of her life, her story was picked up by the dime novel and National Police Gazette publisher, Richard K. Fox (who had the reputation of being lax with regard to historical accuracy or the rigours of historical research). Fox made her name famous with the novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of her unsolved murder). Unfortunately, this work of fiction is still often mistakenly cited as a historical reference. It was the first of many popular stories that used her name.
[edit] Belle Starr's children
Her son Eddie was convicted of horse theft and receiving stolen property in July 1889 and Judge Parker sent him to prison in Columbus, Ohio. Belle's daughter, Rosie Reed, also known as Pearl Starr, went into prostitution to raise funds for his release resulting in a presidential pardon in 1893. Eddie eventually became a police officer and was killed in the line of duty in December 1896.
Evidently finding a good living in prostitution, Pearl went on to operate a group of bordellos in Van Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s until World War I.
[edit] Historical fiction
One of the more unique adaptations of the legend of Belle Starr was made by the Japanese mangaka Akihiro Itou - perhaps best known to Western audiences as the creator of Geobreeders - who, in 1993, created a manga known as Belle Starr Bandits. Freely inspired by her life and exploits, the two volume series takes several liberties with historical figures, facts, and events, and, in spite of its heavily comedic and action-orented overtones, portrays Belle Starr as something of a tragic figure. Initially a somewhat ditzy young girl who just happens to be a crack shot, she is, as time progresses, forced to accept living life as an outlaw due to a series of misunderstandings and circumstances beyond her control, eventually developing a kind of inner strength and iron resolve as a result of her experiences.
The framing sequence of the story takes place in Canada in 1932 and chronicles the efforts of a female author and Belle Starr afficianado to write the definitive work on the female outlaw by uncovering the truth about her life and times.
Originally serialized in Fujima Fantasia and later in Dragon Comics, the only known foreign translation was made by the French publisher Pika Edition as part of their Manga Player Collection series in 1997, though, for unknown reasons, translation work ceased following the release of Volume 1. While still available for purchase online and elsewhere, the series is currently out of print and a release of the second and final volume seems highly unlikely after a nearly decade-long hiatus.
In addition, a 1941 film with little historical connection and a 1980 television movie were made with the title Belle Starr.
[edit] References
- Shirley, Glenn, Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts and the Legends. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982, ISBN 0-8061-2276-5.
[edit] Trivia
- The Starrs were related to Bank robber, police killer of a Deputy Marshal [3] and movie actor Henry Starr.
- Contrary to Legend-as stated in Handbook of Texas below-, Belle Starr was not a lover of Cherokee killer Bluford "Blue" Duck -although their picture was taken together.[4]
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=9936
- ^ http://www.odmp.org/officer.php/?oid=14019
- ^ http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=14332
- ^ http://www.westernoutlaw.com/gravesites/bluford_duck.html
[edit] External links
- Belle Starr from the Handbook of Texas Online
