A famously notorious figure in American history is Belle Starr, the sly outlaw from the Midwest who was associated with the James-Younger Gang and mysteriously shot and murdered in cold blood in 1889. Ms. Starr, known as the ‘Bandit Queen of the American West,’ has become a popular household name, having been portrayed in many actresses in television shows and movies since the 1950s and labeled as a controversial figure in the nation’s culture. This blog post will be a biographical profile on Belle Starr, and how we should perceive infamous historical profiles in our modern world. (a studio photograph of Belle Starr, in later life, Wikipedia).
Myra Maybelle Shirley (‘May’) was born on February 5, 1848, on the family farm near Carthage, Missouri. She would be in the company of three siblings. Her father, John Shirley, prospered as a farmer, raising wheat, corn, hogs, and horses. Though a string of bad fortunes had trounced the first part of his life– he married and divorced twice and various jobs before farming did not allow him to make much money– Mr. Shirley was a wealthy and comfortable man at ‘May’s’ birth. Myra’s mother, Elizabeth Hatfield Shirley, was a midwife and a distant relative to the Hatfields (the family is famous for its feud with the McCoys, i.e. the History Channel TV miniseries). As a teenager, May and her family left the quiet countryside life and moved to the city. John Shirley was an ambitious man, sold his prosperous farm, and bought an inn, livery stable, and blacksmith shop on the town square in Carthage. In the city, May Shirley received a classical education for a young woman of the era, learning the domestic trade and housekeeping tools, basic arithmetic, and piano. She would later attend and graduate at the top of her class from Missouri’s Carthage Female Academy, a private institution that her father had helped found– she excelled at reading, writing, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and music.
The fighting in the Civil War did not seem to spike fear in John Shirley’s heart so the family stayed put instead of retreating to the West like many others in Missouri. It is assumed that May Shirley took an avid interest in the battles and movements of both sides, as history was her strong suite at school. However, after a Union attack on Carthage in 1864, the Shirleys moved to Scyene, Texas. In Southeast Dallas, May Shirley became associated with a number of Missouri-born criminals who had also made the move south, including Jesse James and the Youngers. May’s criminal activities were also influenced by her brother’s. John A.M. Shirley (nicknamed ‘Bud’) was a spy/scout and a local Confederate sympathizer. Bud Shirley was arrested and shot during the fall months of 1864 in Sarcoxie, Missouri, when he and another scout were eating dinner and Union soldiers surrounded the house they were in. (photograph of May Shirley, early years of her life, Legends of America).
May Shirley fell in love and married Jim Reed in 1866, after having had an earlier crush on him as a teen. Jim Reed would later become a prominent member of the James-Youngster Gang. The couple would have two children– Rosie Lee in 1868 and James Edwin in 1871. During the late 1860s, Jim Reed was wanted for murder in Arkansas, which caused the family to briefly move to California. When the couple moved back to Texas in the early 1870s, Jim Reed fell into bad company with the Starr clan, a Cherokee Indian family notorious for whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery. In November 1873, Jim Reed and several other guerrillas robbed Watt Grayson, a wealthy Creek farmer, of $30,000 in gold coins– May Shirley would live off this gold, buying expensive buckskins and tight black jackets. Mr. Reed became an alcoholic and left his family to pursue the interests of another woman, Rosa McCommas. Jim Reed was killed in August 1874 in a standoff outside Paris, Texas. His legacy continued through his wife’s actions, as May Shirley took the reins of her horse and engaged in criminal acts with the James-Younger Gang– in 1874, despite the lack of evidence, a warrant was issued for her arrest for a stagecoach robbery that occurred by her colleagues. The gang would use the Shirley house as a hideout. According to legend, the woman was a crack shot (never missing a shot), riding sidesaddle while dressed in a black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, and carrying two pistols with cartridge belts across her wide hips. (photograph of Jim Reed, 1870, Wikipedia).
It is widely rumored that May Shirley was briefly married to Charles Younger in Coffeyville, Kansas, uncle of Cole Younger, for three weeks in 1878, however, Rosie Lee would late dismiss this theory about her mother. In 1880, May Shirley married her final husband, Sam Starr, a Cherokee man who was one of the prominent members of the Starr family in the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. As she settled into the Native culture, May, now named ‘Belle,’ learned ways of organizing, planning, and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. Her underground activities proved lucrative enough for her to start accepting bribes and monetary gains. Moreover, she took several lovers, including Blue Duck, Jack Spaniard, and Jim French. She spent much of her downtime in saloons, drinking and gambling at the dice, cards, and roulette. Her image as a pistol-wielding outlaw came from the many times she rode into town on horseback and shot her pistols in the air. In 1883, the Sam and Belle were arrested in Fort Smith, Arkansas, by Bass Reeves, the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River, and charged with horse theft. The Starrs were tried by Isaac Parker of the Federal District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, a judge who was labeled as ‘the hanging judge’ due to the number of sentences by hanging he issued, and prosecuted by United States Attorney W.H.H. Clayton, a Civil War veteran who would later draft the new constitution for the State of Oklahoma. Both were found guilty of the charges– Belle served nine months at the Detroit House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan, and proved to be a model prisoner, impressing the prison guards and matron. Sam Starr was a reckless prisoner, often engaging in fights with others in the jail cell, and thus assigned to hard labor.
On December 17, 1886, Sam Starr engaged in an spontaneous gunfight with Officer Frank West of King Creek, Oklahoma, and was killed. This event abruptly ended Belle Starr’s happiest relationship and her life as an outlaw queen. The woman crept into the shadows and away from crime. In the final two years of her life, Belle Starr married a relative of Sam Starr, Jim July Starr (who was 15 years younger than she was), and engaged in private business affairs with several friends. On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, Belle Starr’s life came to an end– she was riding home from a neighbors house in Eufaula, Oklahoma, when she was ambushed, mugged, and shot twice in the back and neck. Legend says she was shot with her own double barrel shotgun. The mystery of Starr’s killer is alive today, as there has not been a justified answer. Cowboy Frank ‘Pistol Pete’ Eaton believed her killer was Edgar Watson, a man who Belle dismissed at a dance– Watson was tried, convicted, and executed by hanging for the murder although the evidence against him was insufficient. Another unknown source suggests the murderer was her son, whom Belle had allegedly beaten for mistreating her horse. The woman was buried at Younger’s Bend, a remote on the Canadian River in Oklahoma where she often visited. Her daughter later erected a headstone engraved with a bell, a star, and a horse, purchased with earnings she made in a local brothel. Whoever the killer was, Belle Starr’s legacy lived on after that fateful day in 1889. (photograph of Belle Starr on horseback, 1886, Wikipedia).
In literature, Belle Starr’s name was made famous by National Police Gazette published Richard K. Fox, who wrote the novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James (1889). The outlaw has been portrayed by many actresses in television miniseries and movies, including Betty Compson, Jean Willes, and Elizabeth Montgomery. It is noted that though there have been historical figures in our past that have left violence, death, and destruction in their wake, it is important to study these people. They are a part of our history too– though they represent the values and ideals that we do not strive to gain every day, they were a part of our community and past. Therefore, the nature of history is that everyone deserves a chance to make a mark on the past. Everything should be balanced and everyone should have representation, at least some coverage, in the textbooks. These people’s values could either be good or bad, and hopefully, common sense will divert someone to make choices that represent the former. Though labeled as a criminal in our books, Belle Starr played an instrumental role in the development of the American Midwest, and thus, her bad decisions and actions will continuously illustrate that part of the nation’s history. (photograph of the Belle Starr statue in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Pintrest).
On her gravestone, words are marked:
“Shed not for her the bitter tear, Nor give the heart to vain regret; ‘Tis but the casket that lies here, The gen that filled it sparkles yet.”
For more information regarding the life and times of Belle Starr: Glenn Shirley, Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and the Legends (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982).
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