Okla-homey
2/3/2007, 08:00 AM
February 3, 1889 Belle Starr murdered in Oklahoma
On this day, 118 years ago, Belle Starr is killed when an unknown assailant blows away the famous "Bandit Queen" with two shotgun blasts from behind.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4206/bellestarr2ag.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle Starr
As with the lives of other famous outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, fanciful accounts printed in newspapers and dime novels made Belle Starr's harsh and violent life appear far more romantic than it actually was.
Born Myra Belle Shirley on a small farm near Carthage, Missouri, in 1848, she received an education in the classics and became a competent pianist. Seemingly headed for an unexciting but respectable middle-class life, her fate was changed by the outbreak of the Civil War, which ruined her father's business as a Carthage innkeeper and claimed the life of her brother Edwin. Devastated, the Shirley family abandoned Missouri to try to make a fresh start in texass.
In texass, Belle began her life-long pattern of associating with men of questionable character. She just had a penchant for bad boys. In 1866, she met Cole Younger, a member of the James-Younger gang that was gaining notoriety for a series of daring bank and train robberies.
Rumor has it that Younger fathered Belle's first child, Pearl, though the father might have actually been another outlaw, Jim Reed. She later had a son Eddie as well, and just exactly who his father was is a bit murky too.
http://img497.imageshack.us/img497/363/colemugshot1zm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mugshot of Cole Younger taken after an 1876 arrest.
Regardless, Belle's relationship with Younger was short-lived, and in 1866 she became Reed's wife. Belle was apparently untroubled by her new husband's reputation and she had become his partner in crime by 1869. She joined him in stealing cattle, horses, and money in the Dallas area. Riding her mare, Venus, and sporting velvet skirts and plumed hats, Belle played the role of a "bandit queen" for several years.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5497/bellestarr6ri.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In 1874, a member of his own gang killed Reed, and Belle was suddenly on her own. Pursued by the law, she drifted into Indian Territory, where she led a band of cattle and horse thieves. There she met a handsome young mixed-blood Cherokee named Sam Starr, who eventually became her common-law husband and new criminal partner. The Starrs managed to elude capture for nearly a decade, but in 1883 they were arrested for horse theft and both served five months in federal prison.
As an aside, modern Oklahoma is one of very few states which has "common law marriage" on the books. From time to time, someone in the legislature proposes a bill to repeal it, but it never gets much traction. Perhaps interestingly, if a person is married under the common law rule, they must obtain a divorce in order to become legally eligible to marry again. Lots of folks have gotten sideways with the law by marrying again without first being divorced from their common law spouse. That's called "bigamy."
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9316/bellestarr6qm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle with her preferred weapon, a .41 calibre Colt single-action revolver popularly called a "Thunderer"
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3971/bilyscolt41dathunderer0yi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The .41 calibre "Thunderer" was very popular. it was smaller, and thus easier to conceal than the larger Colt SA .45 revolver. Billythe Kid usually carried a couple of them on his person. The "birds-head" grip made it easier to handle by the smaller hands of women too
Freed from prison, the couple immediately resumed their criminal careers. In 1886, Belle again lost a husband to violent death when Sam Starr was killed in a gunfight with an old enemy. Belle wasted no time in finding a third companion, a Creek named Jim July, an outlaw who was 15 years her junior. Belle chose him mostly because as a white woman in the Territory, she needed an indian husband to retain her legal interest in land in Indian Territory.
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/4658/bstarr8pe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle aboard "Venus". Beplumed and well dressed, she rode side-saddle as dictated by her respectable upbringing before the Civil War in Missouri
In 1889, July was arrested for robbery and summoned to the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to face charges. See, Ft Smith was the site of the federal court which had jurisdiction over Indian Territory at the time. As an aside, for a fascinating account of frontier justice, or the lack of it, check out an account of Judge Isaac Parker, the famous "hangin' judge" of that court.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/6514/belleparker3er.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Judge Isaac Parker. In his 21 years on the federal bench, Parker handed out 161 death sentences, of which 79 were carried out. The rest either died in prison, escaped, were pardoned or had their sentences verturned. “People have said to me, ‘You are the judge who has hung so many men,’ and I always answer: ‘It is not I who has hung them. I never hung a man. It is the law,’” Parker said.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8757/belle1parker0uw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Fort Smith gallows. Designed for multiple executions meant no waiting.
Belle accompanied her young lover for part of the journey but turned back before crossing into Arkansas. On her way home, someone ambushed and fatally wounded her with two shotgun blasts to her back on the banks of the Canadian River about 70 miles west of Ft Smith...that spot is under Lake Eufala now. Her young stud husband Jim July always believed the murderer was a neighbor with whom the couple had been feuding, but no one was ever convicted of the crime. Some have even opined that Belle's son Eddie did the dirty deed...but that doesn't make sense. Read on and you'll understand.
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/7995/bellestarr0ca.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Belle Starr became a legendary figure and has been the subject of a movie or two.
After Belle was gunned down, 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.
Meanwhile, Belle's daughter Rosie Lee "Pearl" Reed (by Jim Reed) decided to capitalize on the dime novel fame of Belle, and changed her name to Pearl Starr. She moved east to Arkansas and took up residence in Ft Smith which was, to say the least, a wide-open rip-roarin' frontier town which sported dozen of saloons, gambling houses and numerous fleshpots. In its heyday Ft. Smith was, by all accounts, the wildest place between New Orleans and San Francisco. Pearl subsequently went into prostitution to support herself and to raise funds for Eddie's release and she pulled it off...or pulled something anyway. ;) Eddie received a presidential pardon in 1893.
IMHO, if Pearl thought Eddie had killed their mother, she probably wouldn't have whored herself to help get him out of the Pen...which for me at least, debunks the allegation that Eddie killed Belle. At any rate, the rumor persists. Eddie eventually became a police officer and was killed in the line of duty in December, 1896.
http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/10430/2000597067534296412_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000597067534296412)
Pearl Starr (right) and two of her "employees."
Belle's daughter, Pearl Starr, ultimately operated an impressive network of very popular and profitable wh0re houses in Van Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s until World War I. Quite a few Okie and Arkie boys had their first "experience" in the arms of one of Pearl's gals.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg
On this day, 118 years ago, Belle Starr is killed when an unknown assailant blows away the famous "Bandit Queen" with two shotgun blasts from behind.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4206/bellestarr2ag.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle Starr
As with the lives of other famous outlaws like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, fanciful accounts printed in newspapers and dime novels made Belle Starr's harsh and violent life appear far more romantic than it actually was.
Born Myra Belle Shirley on a small farm near Carthage, Missouri, in 1848, she received an education in the classics and became a competent pianist. Seemingly headed for an unexciting but respectable middle-class life, her fate was changed by the outbreak of the Civil War, which ruined her father's business as a Carthage innkeeper and claimed the life of her brother Edwin. Devastated, the Shirley family abandoned Missouri to try to make a fresh start in texass.
In texass, Belle began her life-long pattern of associating with men of questionable character. She just had a penchant for bad boys. In 1866, she met Cole Younger, a member of the James-Younger gang that was gaining notoriety for a series of daring bank and train robberies.
Rumor has it that Younger fathered Belle's first child, Pearl, though the father might have actually been another outlaw, Jim Reed. She later had a son Eddie as well, and just exactly who his father was is a bit murky too.
http://img497.imageshack.us/img497/363/colemugshot1zm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mugshot of Cole Younger taken after an 1876 arrest.
Regardless, Belle's relationship with Younger was short-lived, and in 1866 she became Reed's wife. Belle was apparently untroubled by her new husband's reputation and she had become his partner in crime by 1869. She joined him in stealing cattle, horses, and money in the Dallas area. Riding her mare, Venus, and sporting velvet skirts and plumed hats, Belle played the role of a "bandit queen" for several years.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5497/bellestarr6ri.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In 1874, a member of his own gang killed Reed, and Belle was suddenly on her own. Pursued by the law, she drifted into Indian Territory, where she led a band of cattle and horse thieves. There she met a handsome young mixed-blood Cherokee named Sam Starr, who eventually became her common-law husband and new criminal partner. The Starrs managed to elude capture for nearly a decade, but in 1883 they were arrested for horse theft and both served five months in federal prison.
As an aside, modern Oklahoma is one of very few states which has "common law marriage" on the books. From time to time, someone in the legislature proposes a bill to repeal it, but it never gets much traction. Perhaps interestingly, if a person is married under the common law rule, they must obtain a divorce in order to become legally eligible to marry again. Lots of folks have gotten sideways with the law by marrying again without first being divorced from their common law spouse. That's called "bigamy."
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9316/bellestarr6qm.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle with her preferred weapon, a .41 calibre Colt single-action revolver popularly called a "Thunderer"
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3971/bilyscolt41dathunderer0yi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The .41 calibre "Thunderer" was very popular. it was smaller, and thus easier to conceal than the larger Colt SA .45 revolver. Billythe Kid usually carried a couple of them on his person. The "birds-head" grip made it easier to handle by the smaller hands of women too
Freed from prison, the couple immediately resumed their criminal careers. In 1886, Belle again lost a husband to violent death when Sam Starr was killed in a gunfight with an old enemy. Belle wasted no time in finding a third companion, a Creek named Jim July, an outlaw who was 15 years her junior. Belle chose him mostly because as a white woman in the Territory, she needed an indian husband to retain her legal interest in land in Indian Territory.
http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/4658/bstarr8pe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Belle aboard "Venus". Beplumed and well dressed, she rode side-saddle as dictated by her respectable upbringing before the Civil War in Missouri
In 1889, July was arrested for robbery and summoned to the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, to face charges. See, Ft Smith was the site of the federal court which had jurisdiction over Indian Territory at the time. As an aside, for a fascinating account of frontier justice, or the lack of it, check out an account of Judge Isaac Parker, the famous "hangin' judge" of that court.
http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/6514/belleparker3er.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Judge Isaac Parker. In his 21 years on the federal bench, Parker handed out 161 death sentences, of which 79 were carried out. The rest either died in prison, escaped, were pardoned or had their sentences verturned. “People have said to me, ‘You are the judge who has hung so many men,’ and I always answer: ‘It is not I who has hung them. I never hung a man. It is the law,’” Parker said.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8757/belle1parker0uw.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The Fort Smith gallows. Designed for multiple executions meant no waiting.
Belle accompanied her young lover for part of the journey but turned back before crossing into Arkansas. On her way home, someone ambushed and fatally wounded her with two shotgun blasts to her back on the banks of the Canadian River about 70 miles west of Ft Smith...that spot is under Lake Eufala now. Her young stud husband Jim July always believed the murderer was a neighbor with whom the couple had been feuding, but no one was ever convicted of the crime. Some have even opined that Belle's son Eddie did the dirty deed...but that doesn't make sense. Read on and you'll understand.
http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/7995/bellestarr0ca.gif (http://imageshack.us)
Belle Starr became a legendary figure and has been the subject of a movie or two.
After Belle was gunned down, 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.
Meanwhile, Belle's daughter Rosie Lee "Pearl" Reed (by Jim Reed) decided to capitalize on the dime novel fame of Belle, and changed her name to Pearl Starr. She moved east to Arkansas and took up residence in Ft Smith which was, to say the least, a wide-open rip-roarin' frontier town which sported dozen of saloons, gambling houses and numerous fleshpots. In its heyday Ft. Smith was, by all accounts, the wildest place between New Orleans and San Francisco. Pearl subsequently went into prostitution to support herself and to raise funds for Eddie's release and she pulled it off...or pulled something anyway. ;) Eddie received a presidential pardon in 1893.
IMHO, if Pearl thought Eddie had killed their mother, she probably wouldn't have whored herself to help get him out of the Pen...which for me at least, debunks the allegation that Eddie killed Belle. At any rate, the rumor persists. Eddie eventually became a police officer and was killed in the line of duty in December, 1896.
http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/10430/2000597067534296412_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000597067534296412)
Pearl Starr (right) and two of her "employees."
Belle's daughter, Pearl Starr, ultimately operated an impressive network of very popular and profitable wh0re houses in Van Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s until World War I. Quite a few Okie and Arkie boys had their first "experience" in the arms of one of Pearl's gals.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg