Short Biography: Belle Starr Or Bandit Queen

Myra Maybelle Shirley, Better known as Belle Starr, or bandit queen was born on February 5, 1948 near Carthage, Missouri to John ”Judge” Shirley and Elizabeth Pennington Shirley. Belle’s mother was a Hatfield who played piano, and her father was a respected member of the community; his library was an attraction to the educated higher class townspeople. Belle attended the Carthage Female Academy, she was very intelligent and known as a famous American outlaw. Belle had 5 brothers and 1 sisters, Preston, Charlotte, John (Bud) Allison, Benton Edwin, Mansfield, and Cravens Shirley, John and Edwin were killed by lawmen. On November 1, 1866 she married James C. Reed who was a member of Quantrill’s Raiders. They had Rosie Lee Pearl (Pearl Younger)
born in Oklahoma, Reed was charged with murder so they went to Los Angeles, where their son James Edwin (Ed) was born on February 22, 1871. They returned to Texas when Reed 's murder charge caught up with him Belle left Reed shortly after and he was killed in Paris, Texas in 1874 by a deputy sheriff. There are no records that Belle was ever involved in murder, the robbery of trains, banks, or stagecoaches, or in cattle rustling. Reed robbed the Austin-San Antonio stage in April 1874, and though there is no evidence that Belle participated, she was named as an accessory.
She was linked to Bruce Younger in 1878, then married Sam Starr on June 5, 1880, they lived on Cherokee Nation at Youngers’ bend near Eufaula Oklahoma, where they provided a hideout for outlaws.
Belle and Sam Starr were later charged with horse stealing, a federal offense, and tried before "The Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker 's Federal District Court in Fort Smith, Arkansas and Belle received two six-month terms at the House of Correction in Detroit, Michigan. After this experience Belle Starr became known as the Bandit Queen. In 1886, she escaped conviction on another theft charge, but on December 17, Sam Starr was involved in a gunfight with Officer Frank West. Both men were killed, while her life as an outlaw queen abruptly ended with her husband 's death, in what had been the happiest relationship of her life. Belle was also rumored to have been with Bluford “Blue” Duck who was an outlaw, Jim French, Jack Spaniard, Cole Younger a confederate guerrilla; member of the James-Younger gang and Jim July(Jim Starr). Belle was living in the Choctaw Nation, near the Canadian River, an unknown assassin killed her from ambush with a shotgun. Although many killers have been suggested, two men remain the primary suspects in the murder. One, Edgar Watson, could have killed her for threatening to turn him in to authorities for murder. The second was Belle Starr 's son, Ed, whom she had recently beaten for mistreating her horse. No one was ever convicted.
In summarizing her life for a Fort
Smith Elevator reporter about a year before her death, Belle said, 'I regard myself as a woman who has seen much of life. ' She certainly had seen her share of Civil War guerrillas, postwar outlaw friends and acquaintances on the run. Her grave site is near Eufair Lake, southeast of Porum, Okla. A horse was engraved on her tombstone, along with these words:
Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret
Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet. I absolutely love the story of Belle Star, my grandmother was named after her and I will name my daughter after her. I believe that she lived a rough life as an outlaw’s wife and that she adapted to her surroundings to survive and do the best that she could for her and her children. People these days do not see her as a beautiful woman but there is something about her that is very attractive, she was linked to many men and she was a very courageous woman that I’m sure people were afraid of. I without a doubt would be afraid of her.
Works Cited

http://www.historynet.com/belle-starr.htm http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-bellestarr.html Belle Starr
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