Legends of the Old West - WOMEN OF THE WEST Ep. 3 | Belle Starr: “The Bandit Queen, part 1”

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

Belle Starr grew up in Missouri during the Civil War and acted as a spy for Quantrill’s Raiders. Her husband and brothers embraced the outlaw lifestyle and became affiliated with Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang. Slowly but surely, Belle gravitated toward the outlaw trail herself. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join To advertise on this podcast, please email: [e-mail] For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In February of 1863, two years into the American Civil War, a beautiful girl about 15 years old rode up to an old mansion in the small village of Newtonia in the southwest corner of Missouri. She claimed she was lost and asked if she could spend the night. The owner agreed and took her in. He had no idea that the young woman was a Confederate co-conspirator. She was about to try to harm the dozen or so Union officers who were also taking refuge at the mansion. In fact, it would be an event that foreshadowed the violent exploits the young woman would commit as an adult. The girl, Myra Maybel Shirley, was born into an educated family. She was headed for a respectable, if boring, middle-class life until the outbreak of the Civil War.

The conflict ruined her father's business as an innkeeper and claimed the life of her older brother. The war and its effects on her family was, in large part, the reason she began her lifelong pattern of associating with men of questionable character. Some of those men were members of the James Younger gang. For much of her adult life, Myra drifted in and out of hot, dusty, contested lands in Missouri, Texas, and Indian Territory. She embraced a life of horse theft, bribery, bootlegging, and aiding her murderous husbands. Soon she became better known by a far more romantic name, Belle Star, otherwise known as the Bandit Queen. Like so many Western legends, the story of Belle Star was highly embellished by dime novelists, and much of it was made up out of whole cloth. But as Belle said shortly before her controversial death, she regarded herself as a woman who had seen much of life.

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I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. And this season, we're telling four stories of some of the legendary women of the West. This is Episode 3, Belle Starr, The Bandit Queen, Part 1. Like so much that happened in Belle Starr's life, that cold night in Missouri at the mansion became the stuff of legend, and was highly embellished after her death in 1889. But a trustworthy account tells us this. That evening, Belle, then known as Myra, ate supper and played piano for all the gentlemen of the house. The next morning, ate supper, and played piano for all the gentlemen of the house.

The next morning, she thanked her hosts for their hospitality, and after breakfast, she asked for her horse to be saddled and brought around. She asked if she could cut some branches off a nearby cherry bush so she could use them as a switch for her horse. She said her parents were probably worried about her, and the branches would help her speed her horse along. The homeowners obliged. After she cut a few, she got on her horse and sped away toward Carthage, where her family lived. According to the story, Starr's cutting of the cherry branches was a signal to Quantrill's raiders, the Confederate guerrilla force that included Cole Younger

and Frank James that was hiding nearby. After she rode two or three miles away, the Raiders fired on the mansion and its outlying buildings. No one was hurt, but they supposedly damaged the structure so thoroughly that the Major in charge could no longer use it as a headquarters for his men. Star arrived back at her father's home to await news of her brother, Bud Shirley. Only 20 years old, Bud was already a captain for the guerrilla outfit and a close friend of its founder, William Quantrill. In fact, Bud was the reason Star took part in the attack on the mansion in the first place. She knew Union forces were there trying to apprehend her brother,

and she would do anything to keep him from harm. Just a few years earlier, neither of them could imagine how their lives would have changed. Bell Starr was born in February 1848 in Jasper County, Missouri. Her father, John Shirley, was born into a prosperous tobacco family in Virginia, but the family moved to Kentucky when he was little. He was divorced twice before marrying Eliza Hatfield of the infamous Hatfield family of West Virginia. In 1839, John moved Eliza to the rolling slopes of the Ozarks in southwestern Missouri, where they claimed 800 acres of land near the Spring River.

There they prospered, and Eliza became stepmother to John's two children and soon gave birth to her own. The first was a son, born in 1842. They named him John Allison, but almost always called him Bud. Then there was Belle and another son, Edwin. By all accounts, Belle was very close with both of her brothers. In 1856, John moved his family to the town of Carthage and constructed a hotel tavern on some of his lots. The Shurleys were wonderful hosts. Eliza made sure the tavern served only the best food and drinks, and that there was no rude behavior or outright drunkenness if women were present.

John assembled a library collection that rivaled many in big towns, and soon became an unofficial advisor to pro-slavery political factions in Missouri. and soon became an unofficial advisor to pro-slavery political factions in Missouri. When Belle was seven, she became one of the first students to attend Carthage Female Academy. She was exceptionally bright and learned quickly. But even as young as ten, she was earning a reputation among her peers, one of whom described her as having a fierce nature. She was willing to fight anyone, boy or girl.

Her hot temper got her in trouble over and over again. She was a good musician, and she became a very competent equestrian. She often roamed the hills with her brother Bud, who was wild and daring and an excellent rider. And it was Bud who taught his little sister how to handle a rifle and a pistol. She soon became an excellent markswoman and hunter. And the Shirley siblings were about to put those skills to use. Before the Civil War between North and South in 1861, there was an undeclared civil war between Missouri and Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Civil War between Missouri and Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by Congress in 1854,

was the last of three compromises between the slavery expansionists of the South and their anti-slavery opponents in the North. The events of Bleeding Kansas ended up being a dress rehearsal and a training ground for the guerrilla raids of the Civil War. and a training ground for the guerrilla raids of the Civil War. Bell's parents railed against the actions of abolitionist John Brown. Brown was a true zealot who was responsible for leading an attack against pro-slavery citizens that became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. Brown and a couple of his sons and a couple of his supporters killed five men and boys in a single night. Bell's parents viewed him first as a nosy northerner who ignored the needs of his own family to stir up trouble for slave owners.

After the attack, they probably viewed him as a demon. Like many other pro-slavery residents of Missouri, they felt that Kansas should be able to join the Union without interference by pesky abolitionists, meaning it should ideally join as a state that supported slavery. All the same, the Shirley family was filled with anxiety when they heard that shots were fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. Confusion reigned in their little corner of Missouri. Some residents were pro-Union. Some were pro-Confederacy. Some just wanted to remain neutral until President Abraham Lincoln tried to force their hand one way or another. And some, like the Shurleys, just wanted to make sure that

if there was going to be bloodshed, it was going to end in their favor. So, when William Quantrill came to Carthage looking for young men to join his not-quite-legal band of marauders to harass Yankees in every possible way, Belle's 20-year-old Bud, joined immediately. As the story goes, 15-year-old Bell watched her brother ride away with a little band of Jasper County Confederate sympathizers. She swore to herself she'd help him any way she could. And in February 1863, she felt a surge of pride when she heard that so much damage had been done to the mansion of the Union sympathizer that morning when she had signaled to her brother's comrades. While details and facts remain elusive to historians, many assume that Belle kept doing little favors like this for her brother and his compatriots, even if it was just passing along gossip she heard from ladies in town. There's no evidence that she actually met

Quantrill himself, contrary to some embellished stories that have filtered down through the ages. She did, however, know some of her brother's fellow raiders, and it's likely she met Frank James and Cole Younger. She certainly knew Jim Reed, a boy who moved to Carthage when she was 13. knew Jim Reed, a boy who moved to Carthage when she was 13. Reed was a quiet, religious young man who had no interest in bloodshed until Quantrill stirred things up in Jasper County. At 17, he joined Quantrill's band and fought alongside Bud Shirley. With a few dozen others, they continued to lurk southeast of Carthage, even as the fortunes of the Confederacy diminished. Bud's reputation still made him a target for Union forces. At the end of June 1864, some Union troops from the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry learned that he and another bushwhacker were

taking their meals at a certain home in Jasper County. The militia quietly surrounded the house at lunchtime, but they were spotted. Bud and his friend broke and ran. Bud was shot as he leapt over the fence, and he died on the other side. When 16-year-old Belle heard the news of her brother's death, she allegedly made it known that she would avenge it any way she could. she allegedly made it known that she would avenge it any way she could. She never committed any violent retribution, but from this point forward, Bell's actions reflected her extreme loyalty to the men in her life, men who thumbed their noses at authority at every turn. And more often than not, Bell helped them get away with it. On September 19, 1864, nearly 12,000 Confederate cavalrymen entered southeast Missouri on a long-heralded expedition to regain the state. It failed, and federal forces drove them back.

Three days later, those residents of Carthage who had not already fled did so as soon as they could pack whatever they could fit on a wagon, if they were lucky enough to have one. A few days later, rebel forces torched the entire town so the federal government couldn't use it. All that remained were burning heaps of rubbish and stone chimneys where homes and businesses once stood. Among the demolished structures were the ashes of John Shirley's beloved hotel, blacksmith shop, and livery stable. Sick at heart over the death of his son Bud and the destruction of his livelihood, John Shirley loaded his family and household goods into two Conestoga wagons and set out for Texas. His son Preston and a number of other Missourians had already settled there, and there was still land available.

They headed towards Syene, a small settlement ten miles southeast of Dallas. Bell drove one of the wagons and no doubt plotted and planned on the long journey. John Shirley built a four-room house that was the envy of everyone in town, and he attempted to build a new hotel. Belle enrolled in a nearby one-room school, but she stopped attending fairly soon after. She was older than most of the girls and boys in the school, and she had already far surpassed them academically.

More often than not, she helped out with chores at home and helped care for her younger brothers. Then, in the winter of 1866, news came all the way to Syene about the exploits of some of the men who rode with Quantrill's raiders during the war, or at least that was the suspicion anyway. road with Quantrill's raiders during the war, or at least that was the suspicion anyway. On a cold morning in February, a dozen armed men rode into Liberty, Missouri and looted the Clay County Savings Association of $15,000 in gold coins, silver, and greenbacks. They also took $45,000 in U.S. bonds. And worse, they killed a young man who shouted an alarm to the town. It was the first in a long line of bank and train holdups attributed to the soon-to-be-famous gang

led by Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger and his brothers. A few of the robbers rode to Texas, where they could exchange the gold and silver for currency. the robbers' road to Texas, where they could exchange the gold and silver for currency. On their return north in July 1866, Jesse James and the Younger brothers spent at least one night at the Shirley residence in Syene. This short stay gave rise to the long-running myth that Bell became pregnant and gave birth to Cole Younger's child nine months later. The fanciful story still survives, but it's been disproven by several reliable sources. In reality, Bell had already resumed a relationship with Jim Reed, her childhood crush whose family had also moved to Texas. Reed was a disenfranchised gorilla, but at least he was not a wanted man. Not yet, anyway.

Bell married him on November 1st, 1866, and moved back to Missouri with him in 1867. Early in September 1868, Bell gave birth to a baby girl, and it seemed like she'd put aside the rage she felt over the killing of her brother Bud. She might even have decided she could embrace a life of domestic bliss. But over the next few years, several things happened to Belle that took her on a different path. The killing of her brother Edwin, her husband's decision to associate with the James Younger gang, and her introduction to a Cherokee family by the name of Star. After the birth of Bell and Jim Reed's baby in 1868, her brother Edwin was shot off his horse in Dallas by Texas officers. The reason isn't known for sure, but rumor had it

he was fond of picking fights and shooting his gun in public places for no reason. That certainly wasn't uncommon behavior, and lawmen in Kansas cow towns in the very near future would certainly recognize it. Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and a host of others would soon have their hands full with Texas cowboys who got drunk in saloons after long trail drives and galloped through town firing their guns in all directions. Maybe that was what Edwin did, or maybe there was more to it. It's hard to know. Either way, Belle was despondent, but couldn't spend a lot of time mourning. She was caring for a new baby, and her husband was little help.

of time mourning. She was caring for a new baby, and her husband was little help. Jim Reed was seldom at home anymore. He didn't like farming, but he did like racing horses at the tracks at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and doing some other gambling, too. Soon enough, Reed got caught up in a life of thieving. He either rode with the James Younger gang in limited and sporadic fashion, or at the very least he was influenced by their activities. But before long, that wouldn't be his biggest problem. He killed a man in Arkansas, and then he was accused of illegally transporting whiskey into Indian territory, modern-day Oklahoma.

That was a major offense at the time. And with his crimes stacking up, Bell and Jim and their daughter needed a change of venue. The family fled all the way to Los Angeles, California, which was then a town of under 10,000 people. Reed reportedly made his living as a gambler, and Bell had another child, a boy they named Eddie after her late brother. But in 1871, Jim was arrested for passing counterfeit money,

and word of his violent criminal past caught up with him. With a price on his head, Reed moved the family back to Texas to take his chances with the law there. And his actions didn't grow less violent. In Texas in February 1873, he and his brother and two others robbed a man and murdered him in his own bed. Jim was now wanted in both Texas and Arkansas, and there was a $1,500 bounty on his head. Texas and Arkansas, and there was a $1,500 bounty on his head. Reed hid out in Indian territory,

and notably, Bell left her two children with her parents and accompanied him. In November 1873, Reed and two other men robbed a wealthy Creek farmer and stock dealer who lived in North Fork in Indian Territory. They tortured the man and then took all the money he had, which was a lot, about $30,000. Despite wild stories to the contrary, there is no evidence that Belle participated in the robbery. She did, however, go back to Syene with her husband, who hid out somewhere else while she rejoined her parents. The following year, the troubles really started to mount. In April 1874, Jim Reed and two other men robbed a stagecoach about 25 miles north of Austin, Texas. Stagecoach robbery was still relatively new in 1874, so Reed's actions provoked a considerable amount of press

and spurred a $7,000 reward for his capture. That was far more money than was stolen, and because of the size of the reward, every lawman and bounty hunter was on the lookout. Finally, on August 6, 1874, Jim Reed was captured by John Morris, a marshal from Arkansas. When Reed resisted arrest and turned a gun on Morris, the marshal shot and killed him. Bell was left in a pitiful state of affairs. Despite the huge amounts of cash her husband had stolen, none of it made it to her household. He'd gambled most of it away. A short time later, her father died and her own farm had been too neglected to produce anything. Adding to her depression was the fact that she'd expected her dead husband's brother to avenge his death, but Jim's brother decided he'd like to stay on the straight and narrow.

brother decided he'd like to stay on the straight and narrow. By 1875, Bell was destitute and desperate. Bell's exact activities over the next three years after Jim Reed's death aren't known, but she did send her two small children to live with her in-laws back in Missouri. There's some credible evidence to suggest that she had a romantic relationship with Bruce Younger, a cousin of Cole Younger, and that she lived off some relationship with Bruce Younger, a cousin of Cole Younger, and that she lived off some of his ill-gotten gains. But whatever relationship might have existed, it was over by 1879. Now Belle turned to a family she'd met through her late husband, the Starr family. When she married Samuel Starr, it marked the true beginning of a life of crime from which there was no turning back. The Starrs were Cherokee and lived in Indian territory

near present-day Muskogee, Oklahoma, about 60 miles west of Fort Smith, Arkansas. The family was headed by a man named Tom, who conducted brisk business after the war in whiskey, by a man named Tom, who conducted brisk business after the war in whiskey, cattle, and horse theft. Former Quantrill guerrillas and the new outlaws of the Reconstruction era found the Starr residence a safe haven. Cole Younger used Tom's ranch so often during and after the war that Tom named the bend in the river by his house Younger's Bend. Tom Starr had eight sons, one of whom was named Sam. Belle and Sam married in the Cherokee Nation on June 5, 1880. Sam was 23, and Belle told the clerk she was 27, but she was really 32.

The couple set up a household on some forest land in the extreme southwest corner of the Cherokee Nation. That first year after her marriage, Belle helped her husband build a cabin and plant about three acres of crops. It wasn't grand, but it was safe, and they had plenty to eat. Belle brought her daughter, Pearl, to live with them. But it didn't take long for outlaws to find Belle and Sam's cabin and invite themselves to hide there. A lot. The outlaws knew that the U.S. government did not like to tangle with Tom Starr's rough brand of relatives.

His Cherokee status prevented them from taking much action anyway. By all accounts, Belle hated these intrusions but had no agency to stop them. The Starr family's lands were rugged and hidden and well-known to any number of sketchy people who had done business with them over the prior decade. Local Oklahoma history says that Bell found it necessary to outfit a nearby cave because there wasn't enough room at their cabin for all the outlaws and their horses. Over the next year, Bell slowly acquiesced to a life supported by crime. The fact was, Indian Territory was a haven for it. The nearest town to the stars was described as a hellhole of vice,

drunkenness, and murder. Cattle were loaded there and shipped to markets in St. Louis and parts of Texas. And so, while there is no aha moment when Belle Starr decided to become a full-time partner in crime with her husbands, it simply became too difficult to resist. with her husbands, it simply became too difficult to resist. Bell's first documented criminal act and arrest occurred in April of 1882. According to legal records, she and Sam stole two horses, one of which belonged to a man named Andrew Crane. It was worth $85, which was a good amount for the time. The other was a pregnant mare that belonged to another man, also a very valuable animal. The men obviously wanted their horses back, and Crane found and confronted Bell. At the time, he didn't know for sure that Bell and Sam had stolen the animals,

and Bell told Crane that she had seen a black man riding his horse, and that both animals were currently at the ranch of a man named John West. If Crane would give her $40, she would be glad to go get the horses back by paying off West. Crane basically said hell no. He told her in no uncertain terms that if he found out who took the horses, he would report them to the authorities. Belle told him to go to hell in a minute. She also told him that it would be terrible if her husband came across Crane on a trail. Undeterred by the threat, Crane went to the home of John West and demanded to know why he had the horses. West knew that Bell and Sam Starr had tried to pull him into a scheme,

and he told Crane that he would be damned if he was going to be a part of it. It sounded like Crane and West were in agreement, but for whatever reason, Crane left without the horses. A day or two later, the Starrs went to John West's ranch. West told the pair that they had to take the horses off his property and give them back to their rightful owners. At the same time, Crane's father went to see Sam's father and asked the family to return his son's horse. He hoped that one old-timer talking to another might prod Tom to ask his son and his daughter-in-law to do the right thing. It didn't work, but by this time, everyone in this little corner of Indian territory knew that the stars had something to do with at least two missing horses.

There must have been some kind of pressure brought to bear on the couple, because another neighbor asked Bell about it in July. Bell told the man that Crane was a damned old Arkansas Hoosier and that if he had just kept his mouth shut, he would have his horses back already. Unfortunately, it isn't clear what happened to the animals, but Bell's star was about to experience a series of firsts that included arrests, court appearances in front of the famous judge Isaac Parker, prison sentences, crime sprees, and more. Next time on Legends of the Old West, Bellstar helps her husband's terrorize Indian territory and becomes a frequent target of U.S. Marshals

before her adventurous life comes to a mysterious conclusion that remains unsolved to this day. That's next time on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials and exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This episode was researched and written by Julia Bricklin.

Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details. And join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcasts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more.

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