Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr (February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889), better known asBelle Starr, was an Americanoutlaw who gained national notoriety after her violent death.[1]
She associated with theJames–Younger Gang and other outlaws. She was convicted ofhorse theft in 1883. She was fatally shot in 1889 in a case that is still officially unsolved. Her story was popularized byRichard Kyle Fox and she later became a popular character in television and films.
Belle Starr was born Myra Maybelle Shirley on her father's farm nearCarthage, Missouri, on February 5, 1848. Most of her family members called her May. Her father, John Shirley, prospered raising wheat, corn, hogs and horses, though he was considered to be the "black sheep" of a well-to-do Virginia family which had moved west to Indiana, where he married and divorced twice.[2][page range too broad] Her mother, Elizabeth "Eliza" Hatfield Shirley, was John Shirley's third wife and a distant relative to the Hatfields of thefamous family feud.[3] In the 1860s, Belle's father sold the farm and moved the family to Carthage, where he bought a livery stable and blacksmith shop on the town square.
Myra Shirley received a classical education and learned piano, while graduating from Missouri's Carthage Female Academy, a private institution that her father had helped to found.[4]
During theAmerican Civil War, Myra's older brother, John A. M. "Bud" Shirley, was an activeJasper County "bushwhacker", fighting for theConfederacy. Myra was reputed to have supported her brother in these efforts, perhaps as a spy, although not much is known about the exact details.[5] Bud was killed by federal troops in late June 1864.[6] Soon after,
"sick at heart over Bud’s death and his business ruined by the theft and destruction, [John Shirley] disposed of his property, loaded his family and household goods into twoConestoga wagons, and set out for Texas ... Shirley’s destination wasScyene, a small settlement ten miles southeast of Dallas. Myra [May], a dutiful daughter, drove one of the wagons."[7]
According to the bookBelle Starr by Burton Rascoe (Random House, 1941), the "Shirleys were regarded as 'rather common,' because they had no slaves."[8] While in school, Myra was "irregular in attendance" and was regarded as "rather wild" by teacher Mrs. Poole.[8]
Following the war, members of the Reed family also moved to Texas and, according toCollin County marriage records,James C. Reed and Mira [sic] M. Shirley were married there on November 1, 1866.[9] Two years later, she gave birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (nicknamed Pearl).[10] Belle always harbored a strong sense of style, which fed into her later legend. A crack shot, she used to ridesidesaddle while dressed in a black velvet riding habit and an ostrich feather-plumed hat, carrying two pistols, with cartridge belts across her hips.[4] Reed turned to crime and was wanted for murder in Arkansas, which caused the family to move to California, where their second child, James Edwin (Eddie), was born in 1871.[10]
Later returning to Texas, Reed was involved with several criminal gangs. While Reed initially tried his hand at farming, he grew restless, and associated himself with the Starr clan, aCherokee family notorious for whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), as well as the James and Younger gangs. In April 1874, despite a lack of any evidence, a warrant was issued for Belle's arrest for astagecoach robbery by her husband and others. Reed was killed in August of that year inParis, Texas, where he had settled down with his family.
Belle Starr, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1886; the man on the horse is Deputy U.S. Marshal Benjamin Tyner Hughes who, along with his posse man, Deputy U.S. Marshal Charles Barnhill, arrested her at Younger's Bend in May 1886 and brought her to Ft. Smith for arraignment.Blue Duck and Belle Starr, May 24, 1886.
Belle was allegedly briefly married, for three weeks in 1878, to Charles Younger, uncle of Cole Younger, but this is not substantiated by any evidence. There are numerous claims that Belle's daughter Pearl Reed was actually Pearl Younger, but in Cole Younger's autobiography (quoted in Glen Shirley's "Belle Starr and her times"), he discounted that as rubbish and stated what he knew truly of Belle.
In 1880, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr and settled with the Starr family in theIndian Territory. By her marriage to Sam Starr, she was an aunt toHenry Starr. She learned ways of organizing, planning, and fencing for the rustlers, horse thieves, and bootleggers, as well as harboring them from the law. Belle's illegal enterprises proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free her colleagues from the law whenever they were caught.
In 1882, Belle and Sam were charged withhorse theft. The arrest warrant was served by Deputy U.S. Marshal Lemuel Marks.[11] The pair were tried before "The Hanging Judge"Isaac C. Parker inFort Smith, Arkansas; the prosecutor was United States AttorneyW. H. H. Clayton. She was found guilty and served nine months at theDetroit House of Corrections in Detroit, Michigan. Belle proved to be a model prisoner and, during her time in jail, she won the respect of the prison matron. In contrast, Sam was incorrigible and assigned to hard labor. In a contradictory account after her arrest by the Marshal, "Belle proved to be a loud and unruly prisoner."[12]
In 1886, she eluded conviction on another theft charge, but, on December 17, Sam Starr was involved in a gunfight with his cousin, law officer Frank West.[13] Both men were killed, and Belle's life as an outlaw queen—and what had been the happiest relationship of her life—abruptly ended with her husband's death.
For the last few years of her life, gossips and scandal sheets linked her to a series of men with colorful names, including Jack Spaniard, Jim French andBlue Duck, after which, she married a relative of Sam Starr, Jim July, who later became Jim July Starr, who was some 15 years younger than she was.
Eddie Reed, Belle's son, was convicted of horse theft andreceiving stolen property in July 1889. Judge Parker sent him to prison in Columbus, Ohio. Belle's daughter Rosie Reed, also known asPearl Starr, became a prostitute to raise funds for Eddie's release, eventually obtaining a presidential pardon for him in 1893. Eddie became a deputy in Fort Smith[14] and killed two outlaw brothers named Crittenden in 1895.[15][16] He himself was killed in a saloon inClaremore, Oklahoma on December 14, 1896.[14][16][17][18] Pearl operated several bordellos inVan Buren and Fort Smith, Arkansas, from the 1890s to World War I.
On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, Belle was killed. She was riding home from a neighbor's house when she was ambushed. After she fell off her horse, she was shot again to make sure she was dead. Her death resulted from shotgun wounds to the back and neck and in the shoulder and face. Legend says she was shot with her own double-barrel shotgun.[4]
According toFrank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, Belle's death was due to different circumstances. She had been attending a dance. Frank Eaton had been the last person to dance with her, when one of hersharecroppers,Edgar J. Watson, clearly intoxicated, had asked for a dance. Belle declined, and he later followed her out of the dance. When she stopped to give her horse a drink at a creek on the way home, he shot and killed her. According to Eaton, Watson was tried, convicted, and executed by hanging for the murder.
However, another story says that there were no witnesses and that no one was ever convicted of the murder. Suspects with apparent motive included her new husband, both of her children, and Edgar Watson, because he was afraid she was going to turn him in to the authorities as an escaped murderer from Florida with a price on his head. Watson, who was killed in 1910, was tried for her murder, but was acquitted, and the ambush has entered Western lore as "unsolved".
One source suggests her son, whom she had allegedly beaten for mistreating her beloved horse, may have been her killer.[19]
Although she was an obscure figure outside Texas throughout most of her life, Belle's story was picked up by thedime novel andNational Police Gazette publisher Richard K. Fox, who made her name famous with his fictional novelBella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of her murder). This novel still is cited as a historical reference despite its artistic license and lack of historical accuracy. It was the first of many popular stories that used her name.
In 1957,Jeanne Cooper, later a soap opera star, played Belle Starr in an episode ofDale Robertson'sTales of Wells Fargo. In this episode, Starr calls herself Mrs. Reed. There is mention of "Hanging Judge"Isaac C. Parker, and the episode makes mention of his sentencing Starr to a comparatively short prison term in a correctional facility at Detroit. In 1960, Cooper again played Belle Starr in an episode of the TV seriesBronco titled "Shadow of Jesse James".
In 1995, Belle Starr was portrayed by Melissa Clayton in season 3 ofDr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, in an episode titled "Baby Outlaws", as a 14-year-old outlaw who falls under the care of the good doctor and her family. This episode takes place in 1870, when Belle actually would have been 22.
In 2007, independent filmmakerRon Maxwell optioned the film rights to novelist Speer Morgan's 1979 bookBelle Starr. In the December 2008 issue ofChronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, Maxwell is mentioned as being the director of a forthcoming film titledBelle Starr.
The 2010 filmBass Reeves is a fictionalized version of lawmanBass Reeves's life, and it features a depiction of Belle Starr.
In the 2013 seriesQuick Draw!, a fictionalized account of Belle Starr portrays her as the deceased spouse of the protagonist Sheriff John Henry Hoyle. She is referenced as wife of Cole Younger and Sam Starr.Arden Myrin appears in two episodes as Belle Starr, andAlexia Dox appears as Pearl Starr as a series regular.
An early 2015 episode ofThe Pinkertons features Sheila Campbell as Belle Carson at the beginning of Belle's exploits as an outlaw (highly fictionalized, with the name Belle Starr as her fantasy persona and an affair with Jesse James in Kansas City).
Amber Sweet plays Belle Starr in the 2019 filmHell on the Border, written and directed by Wes Miller.[26]
Margot Douaihy wrote a docupoetry book called "Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr" (2022), imagining the inner life of the outlaw, casting Belle Starr as trailblazing feminist and intersectional figure, a "runaway".[28]
Belle Starr (1979) was the first novel of American author and editorSpeer Morgan.
The Legend of Belle Starr (1979) was a historical novel by Stoney Hardcastle.
The unsolved murder of Belle Starr is the basis for theDouglas C. Jones novelThe Search for Temperance Moon (1991). A character based onPearl Starr, Belle's daughter, is featured as a bordello owner in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Pulp western authorJ.T. Edson featured Belle Starr in several of hisFloating Outfit series of novels as the love interest of Mark Counter, one of the three lead protagonists in the series. Edson's novelGuns in the Night features Belle Starr's being murdered when pregnant with Mark Counter's child after which the Floating Outfit team to catch her murderer.
One of the more distinctive adaptations of the legend of Belle Starr was made by the Japanese manga artistAkihiro Ito, who in 1993 created a manga known asBelle Starr Bandits, loosely based on historical figures, facts and events. She had an appearance in the mangaGun Blaze West fromNobuhiro Watsuki, as one of J.J.'s (Jesse James) gang members.ISBN3-89885-759-X
Belle Starr appeared as a caricature in the 1995Belle Starr album of theLucky Luke comics series, illustrated byMorris and written by Xavier Fauche.
The 2009 historical novelThe Branch and the Scaffold byLoren D. Estleman deals in part with Belle Starr's life in the Indian Nations as her path crossed that of JudgeIsaac C. Parker.
Peter Mattheissen's historical fiction (The Killing of Mr. Watson Trilogy and nowShadow Country) includes the story of E.J. Watson's murdering Belle Starr.
American country singerMichael Martin Murphey sings about Belle Starr's life in a song titled "Belle Star" on his albumCowboy Songs III: Rhymes of the Renegades.
^Mullins, Jonita (2019).Oklahoma Originals: Early Heroes, Heroines, Villains & Vixens. Charleston, SC: The History Press. pp. 124–125.ISBN9781467143523.
