Belle Starr, The Bandit Queen
The Wild West was no place for a woman—or, so they were told—but Belle Starr didn’t listen. Though she began life as a prep school girl, she soon partnered with a series of bad boys, then quickly outdid them at their own game.
By the end of her life, she was already legendary…and then the real scandal began.
1. She Was A Farmer’s Daughter
Starr’s early life looked nothing like her years of infamy. Born Myra Maybelle Shirley near Carthage, Missouri in 1848, she was the daughter of a prominent farmer who came from an even wealthier Virginia family. Starr spent her formative years, then, wanting for almost nothing—but scandal ran in her veins.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
2. Her Father Was A Black Sheep
Although her father was prosperous in growing wheat and corn and raising hogs and horses, he was actually the black sheep of his well-to-do family, and had a checkered romantic past, having married and divorced twice. Starr’s mother Elizabeth was actually her father’s third wife…and she too had something of a past.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
3. Her Mother Had A Notorious Family Tree
An attraction to the outlaw life went deep in Starr’s family. Her mother’s maiden name was none other than Hatfield, and she was a relative (if distant) of the infamous Hatfields that were involved in the bloody family feud with the McCoys when Starr was still just a little girl.
Even so, her parents tried to give more to their daughter.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
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4. She Was A Respectable Young Lady
In the 1860s, Starr’s father sold the family farm and moved into the city of Carthage proper. It was a whole new world for her. With her father working at a livery and blacksmith shop, the family had enough money to give her a classical education, and she learned how to play the piano among other accomplishments. That wasn’t all.
Albert Brument (born in Malaunay, fl. 1883-1901), Wikimedia Commons
5. She Went To Private School
Around this time, Starr’s father was wealthy enough to help found a private institution for girls, Missouri’s Carthage Female Academy. It was a no-brainer that Starr would attend the school, and when she graduated, it must have looked for all the world like she’d slip past her family history’s bumps and flaws and into the gilded life of a Southern Belle.
But it fell apart spectacularly.
6. She Was A Confederate Spy
The outbreak of the American Civil War changed Belle Starr’s fortunes. According to some reports, Starr, like many in her family, sided with the Confederacy, but she wasn’t content to leave it at that. There is some evidence that she used her wiles to work as a spy against the Union forces.
If so, she was likely very good at her job, and never got caught. Other members of her family weren’t so lucky.
Roeder Bros., Wikimedia Commons
7. She Lost Her Brother
Eventually, the family’s loyalty to the Confederacy turned bloody. In the summer of 1864, Starr’s older brother Bud, who had joined up to fight, perished at the hand of Union officers. Starr had offered her espionage efforts in part to help her brother, and she and the rest of the family were devastated by his end. It led to a desperate decision.
Adam Jones from Kelowna, BC, Canada, Wikimedia Commons
8. Her Family Up And Left
Starr’s father was also “sick at heart” over his son’s passing and, more than that, his business in Carthage had been whittled away by the conflict. So, seeking an entirely new start, he up and moved the family into two wagons and set out for Scyene, Texas.
In this, Starr was no stunned bystander.
Sigmund Ferdinand von Perger (1778-1841), Wikimedia Commons
9. She Was No Wallflower
Now somewhere in her teenage years, Starr took an active role in moving her family and all their belongings halfway across the country, even driving one of the wagons for her father. After all, she too wanted and needed a new start away from Missouri.
Yet it wasn’t necessarily the renewal they’d hoped for.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
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10. Her Neighbors Thought She Was “Common”
Where Starr’s family had been somewhat hoity-toity in Carthage, Missouri, they stuck out like country bumpkins in Texas. The locals saw the family as “rather common”—though much of this opinion, disturbingly, came because they owned no slaves.
Either way, Belle Starr took the opportunity to prove to people how right they were.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
11. She Went Wild
Free from the fetters of her prep school existence, an unsettling change came over Starr. While attending school in Texas, Starr became “irregular in attendance,” and it didn’t take long before her teacher Mrs Poole declared the girl “rather wild”.
Adolescence had come fast and furious to Belle Starr, and she wasn’t going to slow down.
illustration from The National Police Gazette, May 22, 1886., Wikimedia Commons
12. A Ghost From Her Past Showed Up
Before they’d left Missouri, Starr came into contact with James “Jim” C Reed, who had fought alongside her brother Bud in Quantrill’s Raiders. Around 1866, she got a surprise. The Reed family, along with some friends, showed up suddenly in Texas.
And while Reed couldn’t help but remind Starr of halcyon days, he was hiding a dark secret.
Legends of America, Wikimedia Commons
13. She Knew Bad Men
Jim Reed had been busy since Starr’s family left the state. In fact, Reed and some of the surviving Raiders formed what would soon be known as the James–Younger Gang, and had promptly set about terrorizing small towns of Missouri.
When they turned up in Texas, it wasn’t to reminisce…it was to flee.
I.E. Sumner, of Northfield, Wikimedia Commons
14. Outlaws Came Into Her Life
Just before arriving in Texas, Reed and his James–Younger Gang had pulled off a bank robbery in Missouri, and were currently under a lot of heat from the law. So when they came to Starr’s family in Texas, it was to seek a hideout with them until officers stopped actively looking for the culprits.
Starr and her family didn’t just readily agree to stash them; they joined forces with the gang.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, photographer not specified or unknown, Wikimedia Commons
15. She Was Teenaged Bride
For the “wild” Belle Starr, Jim Reed’s checkered past was catnip, and the young pair soon got very reacquainted while he hid out from the law. By November 1, 1866, the still-teenaged Belle Starr married the bona fide outlaw Jim Reed in Collin County, Texas.
Then, two years later, her life changed again.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
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16. She Was His Right-Hand Woman
In 1868, Belle Starr gave birth to her first child with Jim Reed, a little girl they named Rosie Lee but who would later rename herself, in her mother’s image, as Pearl Starr. With this, Starr’s transformation seemed complete: She had gone from promising prep school girl to a gangster’s Moll. But Belle Starr wanted to be so much more than that.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
17. She Had Perfect Aim
Belle Starr didn’t let her outlaw husband get all the fun, and around this time she began building her own legend. For one, she had evidently spent years practicing her marksmanship, and the new mother was also known around the counties as a crack shot. Yet Starr didn’t rely only on skill to make people remember her.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
18. She Knew How To Promote Her Image
One of Starr’s biggest claims to fame was her developed sense of style and drama. Even in these years she became known for dressing herself in the finest fashion—usually a black velvet riding dress, a feather-plumed hat—while showing off her marksmanship riding sidesaddle on horseback.
This image of Starr became iconic, but behind the scenes it was a lot messier.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
19. Her Husband Was A Murderer
Around the 1870s, Starr’s home life took a turn for the worse. Throughout the intervening years, her husband Jim Reed had become more and more involved in criminal activity, until he was pulling off more than just bank robberies. One day, he came home wanted for murder in Arkansas.
It was a serious allegation, but Starr didn’t bat an eyelash.
Screenshot from The Bank Robbery, Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company (1908)
20. She Fled The State
Instead of leaving the no-good Jim Reed, Starr simply left the state with her husband, packing up and moving to California to shake the law off their trail. Indeed, Starr’s devotion to Reed only seemed to grow with his infamy: in 1871, they had their second child together, a son named James Edwin.
Still, something must have been telling her to slow down.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
21. She Tried To Reform
Now the mother of two small children, Starr did try to go straight at one point. When she and Reed ended up back in Texas, the family went back to Starr’s roots and took up farming…for a time. Unfortunately, the pair simply couldn’t stay out of trouble, and they were back on the wrong side of the law soon enough.
This time, they found just the partners in crime.
Internet Archive Book Images, Wikimedia Commons
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22. She Couldn’t Leave The Outlaw Life
While back in Texas Jim and Belle got involved in several different gangs, but became particularly attached to the “Starr” clan, from which Belle would get her name. The Starrs were a Cherokee family known for stealing horses and circulating whiskey and cattle in and around what is now Oklahoma. But their infamy also got Belle into trouble.
Screenshot from The Bank Robbery, Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company (1908)
23. There Was A Warrant For Her Arrest
In April of 1874, bloody allegations came out against Belle Starr. Following a stagecoach robbery that Jim Reed was involved in, there was also a warrant out for her arrest. Although there is little concrete evidence she did partake in the crime, it does suggest that Starr was taking a more active role in her husband’s extracurriculars.
Soon, she’d be taking over for him entirely.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
24. Her Husband Met A Violent End
That August, just a few months after the stagecoach attack, karma came for the outlaw family. After an altercation with a law officer, Jim Reed met his end before he turned 30 years old, leaving Belle and their two young children to fend for themselves.
By then, however, Belle's marriage to Jim Reed was already under some serious scrutiny.
Screenshot from The Bank Robbery, Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company (1908)
25. Her Marriage Was No Fairy Tale
The life of an outlaw doesn’t particularly foster love and fidelity, and there’s evidence that Belle Starr and Jim Reed weren’t the picture of domestic bliss. One source even claims that they’d already split at the time of Reed’s passing, with Reed having left Starr for a woman named Rosa McCommas.
Starr, as usual, didn’t let her husband have all the fun.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
26. She May Have Had A Quickie Wedding
Legend has it that in 1878, a few years after Reed’s passing, Belle Starr married Charles Younger, another notorious outlaw and uncle to the terrifying gunslinger Cole Younger. Even if this is true, it didn’t stay that way for long: they split within three weeks. But some claim their dalliance did have a lasting impact.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
27. Her Daughter Was In The Middle Of A Scandal
According to some, Belle and Charles had been dealing with each other for quite some time before their alleged marriage. Rumor even had it that Belle’s first child, Pearl, was actually “Pearl Younger,” and the lovechild of her and Charles. Charles’s nephew Cole Younger eventually denied these whispers…but reportedly, Pearl did share an eerie resemblance to Charles.
Whatever the truth about Belle’s lovers, by 1880 she had thoroughly moved on.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
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28. She Married An Old Friend
Belle did certainly marry again, and once more, her choice was scandalous. Her new groom was Sam Starr, a member of the Starr gang that she and her late husband had run with. Of course, this also likely led to more rumors about the nature of their relationship during Belle’s first marriage, but neither of them seemed to care.
Besides, now that she was officially a Starr, Belle got an underworld promotion.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
29. She Became A True Outlaw
If Belle Starr held down the fort while she was married to Jim Reed, with Sam Starr she was ready to burn everything down. She took an active role in the gang’s activities, learning everything from how to organize fencing for the various thieves coming through town, to secreting criminals away from the law.
As it turned out, she was very good at this.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
30. She Made Herself Rich
As the years went on, Belle Starr became a towering figure in the outlaw world. She was so good at what she did that she and Sam Starr were quickly rolling in ill-gotten money—money she would frequently use to bribe law officials and get her shady friends out of sticky situations.
She was now the true bandit queen…but she wasn’t invincible.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
31. She Got Caught
In 1882, Belle Starr had to pay the piper again. That year, after a run of successful months racking up contraband, she and her husband Sam were caught stealing horses and eventually charged with horse theft. Sheriffs had been waiting a long time to finally catch the notorious duo—and it showed.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
32. She Faced Down The “Hanging Judge”
When Belle and Sam went to court, they were put in front of one of the most terrifying judges in America: Isaac C Parker, the so-called “Hanging Judge,” who earned his bloody nickname from the trigger-happy way he sent numerous criminals to the gallows. So when the verdict came down, Belle must have been shaking in her boots.
Mathew Benjamin Brady, Wikimedia Commons
33. She Was Spared
In the end, Belle and her husband got extremely lucky. Obviously in a forgiving mood, Judge Parker sentenced Belle to “only” nine months behind bars in a Detroit correctional facility. Nonetheless, it was, as far as we know, Belle’s first time behind bars. Which made her reaction all the more surprising.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
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34. She Knew How To Get What She Wanted
According to most, Belle used her time in Detroit to charm even her guards. She was apparently a “model prisoner,” and the matron of the facility took a special liking to the outlaw queen. That said, Belle Starr always did have two sides: one lawman’s contradictory account also claimed she was “a loud and unruly” inmate.
Her husband, in any case, definitely didn’t thrive.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
35. Her Husband Floundered
While Belle lived it up behind bars, Sam Starr never figured out how to game the system. He spent his own months in lock-up constantly getting into trouble and being assigned to hard labor, a fate Belle learned how to avoid.
When she finally got released, she continued playing it smart.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
36. She Was A Quick Learner
Belle’s time with the sheriff didn’t dissuade her from the outlaw life, but it did teach her a few tricks. In 1886, four years after her first charges, she was wanted on another theft case. This time, though, no Hanging Judge (or anyone else) nabbed her, and she evaded an actual conviction.
But not long after, her good luck finally plummeted.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
37. She Lost Another Husband Violently
That same year, Belle got harrowing news. On December 17, 1886, her husband Sam Starr got into an altercation with law officer Frank West—who happened to be his own cousin—and the ensuing gunfight took the lives of both men.
It was yet another Wild West family feud, and the aftermath left Belle devastated.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
38. She Was Broken
According to those who knew her, Belle Starr’s first marriage to Jim Reed was nothing compared to the happiness she felt with Sam Starr, and her time in his gang was certainly the most lucrative and infamous phase of her life. His passing stunned and pummeled her…but she found a way to get back on her feet.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
39. She Dated Around
For the next few years, Belle Starr set the gossip rags alight with her carousing, and several scandal sheets linked her to a seemingly never-ending series of men. According to these columns, outlaws with names like Jack Spaniard, Jim French, and Blue Duck took up with the outlaw queen, who was still only in her late 30s.
But in the end, Belle—of course—settled down again with the most infamous man she could.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
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40. She Married A Much Younger Man
Some time in the late 1880s, Belle Starr got married again, this time to a man named Jim July. Her new husband made jaws drop. Not only was July a relative of Sam Starr, which probably didn’t help further rumors, but he was also 15 years younger than Belle—which might explain why he took her last name.
Yet all was not domestic bliss in Belle’s world.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
41. Her Children Rebelled
As Belle’s children grew up, they took on her more self-destructive and wild qualities. At 18 years old, her daughter Pearl even fell pregnant out of wedlock—but Belle responded more like a judgmental mother than a notorious outlaw. Perhaps ironically catering to notions of respectability, she sent Pearl off to live with relatives to have the child out of sight.
This is where the story took a mysterious twist.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
42. She Had A Ghost Grandchild
Pearl likely gave birth to an illegitimate girl, Flossie, just months after Sam Starr’s fatal gunfight…but we know little else of the baby. Except for some possible articles written by someone credited as Flossie in 1933, she disappears from history; when Pearl returned home to Belle’s house in the summer of 1888, she carried no child with her.
While the fate of Belle’s granddaughter is unsettling, it had nothing on her son Edwin.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, 20th Century Fox (1941)
43. Her Son Was In Deep
The same year that Pearl returned back home, Belle’s son Edwin got himself into a mess even his mother couldn’t fix—and it involved both sides of the law. For one, officers found him with stolen property and prepared to have him tried. For another, one of his accomplices shot him, severely injuring him and sending him running back to Belle to recover.
Once more, his mother’s reaction…left something to be desired.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
44. She Wasn’t Very Motherly
Belle’s children Pearl and Edwin appear to have been as thick as thieves, but there is little to suggest they got along well with Belle. Indeed, although Edwin took up in Belle’s house while he awaited trial and convalesced from his wounds, it was his sister Pearl who seems to have nursed him back to health, not his mother.
Then, while the Starr family was waiting out one disaster, another struck.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
45. She Met A Brutal End
In February of 1889, just a couple of days before she turned 41, Belle Starr met her infamous end. While riding home from a neighbor's house, someone ambushed her, shooting her first off her horse and then shooting her again once she was on the ground, just to make sure the job was done.
The questions started multiplying.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
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46. There Was A Prime Suspect
When Belle’s body was found, Belle’s acquaintance Frank Eaton claimed that a sharecropper named Edgar J Watson must have been the culprit. According to Eaton, Watson had taken offense when Belle wouldn’t dance with him at the neighbor’s gathering, and followed her out to get his revenge. Eaton even claimed Watson was later tried and hung for the crime.
Only, another version of the story tells a much different tale.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
47. The Mystery Continues
Other evidence suggests that while Watson may have been tried for Belle’s murder for one motive or another, he was ultimately acquitted. Indeed, many historians believe that no one ever did any time for the violent act on the bandit queen, and that Belle’s ghost went unavenged.
But one theory about the murderer is blood curdling.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
48. Her Family May Have Turned On Her
Belle was reportedly shot with her own double-barreled shotgun—and this is fitting, because some say the most likely culprits were those closest to her. Besides Watson, people suggested the hit could have come either from Starr’s new husband Jim July, or else from either one of her disgruntled children. In fact, from one child in particular.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
49. Her Son Had Motives
Again and again, one name comes up in Belle Starr’s ignominious end: Her son Edwin. One source suggests Edwin offed his own mother after she had him beaten for mistreating one of her horses; another that he always resented Belle’s attention toward Pearl and was driven to an act of revenge. Whatever the case, Edwin was in town, and he and Belle did seem to clash.
If it’s true, Edwin got away with it.
Screenshot from Belle Starr, Warner Bros (1980)
50. Her Children Took After Her
In the end, Belle Starr’s legacy was truly written in blood: Her daughter Pearl fell into soliciting, though she did crawl her way back up to own a series of bordellos. Meanwhile, although Edwin eventually received a pardon for his charges and became a deputy on the right side of the law, he was taken out all the same in an Oklahoma saloon fight in 1896.
Screenshot from The Belle Starr Story, PEA (Produzioni Europee Associate) (1968)
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