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Soon after the attack, her family moved to Texas black velvet riding habit and a plumed hat, carrying two
where Belle married her first husband, James C. Reed, pistols, with cartridge belts across her hips. Ultimately,
and had two children. It was Reed who got involved her felonious lifestyle led to the loss of her husband
with criminal gangs and associated with the Starr clan, a in a gunfight.
Cherokee family known to commit crimes involving On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st
whiskey, cattle, and horse thievery. They also got birthday, Belle was ambushed and killed while riding
involved with the James and Younger gangs. James Reed home from a neighbor’s house. Her death resulted from
was killed in 1874 in Paris, Texas and Myra moved on shotgun wounds to the back and neck and in the
after returning to the Starr gang. shoulder and face. Legend says she was shot with her
In 1880, she married a Cherokee man named Sam own double-barrel shotgun.
Starr and settled in the Indian Territory. There, Belle Although she was an obscure figure outside Texas
learned ways of organizing, planning, and fencing for throughout most of her life, Belle’s story was picked up
the rustlers, horse thieves, and bootleggers, as well as by the dime store novel and National Police Gazette
harboring them from the law. Belle’s illegal enterprises publisher Richard K. Fox, who made her name famous
proved lucrative enough for her to employ bribery to free with his fictional novel Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or
her colleagues from the law whenever they were caught. The Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of
Among other things, Belle was arrested for horse her murder). This novel is still cited as a historical r
theft twice but convicted only once. She always harbored eference despite its artistic license and lack of historical
a strong sense of style, which fed into her later legend. A accuracy. It was the first of many popular stories that
crack shot, she used to ride sidesaddle while dressed in a used her name.

e——————f
PEARL HART (1871 – 1955)
GOLDIE GRIFFITH
Another of the infamous ladies of the Wild West was a cowgirl
named Pearl Hart, who liked to dress as a man, with hair shorn, (1893 – 1976)
and arm herself with a .38 revolver.
Born Pearl Taylor on Canadian land in 1871, this nineteenth- One of the toughest,
century outlaw, the so-called “Bandit Queen,” is most well-known albeit lesser-known
for committing some of the last stagecoach robberies in the cowgirls of the Wild
United States. West was GOLDIE
Together with her accomplice “Joe Boot,” Hart committed GRIFFITH. Goldie
crimes like there was no tomorrow. On one occasion, Hart and joined a small group
of showgirls working
Boot were on the run when the sheriff caught them sleeping by the with Buffalo Bill
posse and took them into custody. According to eyewitness Hired without
accounts, Hart fought like a cat but to no avail. Hart was eventually knowing how to ride
convicted of interference with the U.S. mail and served a five-year a horse, Goldie soon
sentence for her infamous crime. learned to bust broncos for the show. Fuelled
Hart was sent to Tucson to a facility for women, where she by her newfound skills, she also began working
escaped on October 12, 1899, taking advantage of the relatively as an actress and stunt rider in Western movies.
weak building material, and possibly with the aid of an assistant, On one particular Wild West Show, an
leaving an 18-inch (46 cm) hole in the wall. astonishing crowd of 8,000 witnessed her tie the
The novelty of a female stagecoach robber quickly spawned a media frenzy and national reporters knot with HIRAM JOSEPH STERLING.
soon joined the local press clamoring to interview and photograph Hart. One article in Cosmopolitan The couple had one child, although their
said Hart was “just the opposite of what would be expected of a woman stage robber,” though, “when marriage found a gruesome end.
angry or determined, hard lines show about her eyes and mouth” When Goldie’s husband crossed her one
Hart later joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show under an alias. In addition to being a staple of pulp day, she opened fire on him with her shotgun
western fiction, Hart’s exploits have been featured in other venues, including the play Lady with a Gun in public.
and the musical The Legend of Pearl Hart, both based upon Hart’s story. Throughout her life, she was constantly
breaking barriers. She even made history by
becoming the first female applicant for the San
Laura Bullion (1876 – 1961) Francisco Police Department!

Born in Knickerbocker, Texas around 1876, loosely organized group of bank
Laura Bullion was a notoriously wicked woman and train robbers based in Great Northern Train
of the Wild West. Her rather feminine aliases Wyoming. Members of the Robbery. According to a New
made a sharp contrast with her masculine face Wild Bunch nicknamed Laura York Times article, she was
and tendency to wear men’s attire. Bullion “Della Rose,” a name “masquerading as ‘Mrs. Nellie
Bullion’s father had been a bank robber, so it she came by after meeting Kid Rose’” at the time of her arrest.
came as no surprise when Laura followed a life of Curry’s girlfriend Della Moore. For her crime, Laura served
crime. His acquaintance with outlaws William Often, Bullion was referred to as three years in prison.
“News” Carver and Ben Kilpatrick (“The Tall the “Rose of the Wild Bunch.” Upon her release, Bullion
Texan”), introduced his young daughter to men Bullion took part in several lived the last years of her life in
she would go on to have romantic relationships train robberies with the Wild Memphis, Tennessee, under
with; first William Carver when she was just Bunch and helped the gang the name of Freda Lincoln,
15 years old, and, following his death by by fencing goods and money. making her way as a seamstress
lawmen in 1901, transferring her affections to Eventually, the law caught and dressmaker.
Ben Kilpatrick. up with her in Saint Louis,
Bullion was also a member of Butch Cassidy’s Missouri, where she was
Wild Bunch gang. The Wild Bunch was a convicted of playing a part in the
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