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 Born
in 1848 in the town of Carthage, Missouri, Myra Belle Shirley (later to
become the notorious Belle Starr) was one of three children. After her
older brother was killed, the family moved to Scyene, Texas, just outside
of Dallas.
In the 1860s, Belle became involved
with bank robber Cole Younger. Cole had was hiding out from the law after
robbing several banks. At the time, Belle was seventeen and Cole spent the
next few months with her in a remote cabin (until the coast was clear). A
few months after Cole left, Belle gave birth to a baby girl, who she named
Pearl Younger.
Myra Belle developed a new heart
throb. He was a bank and train robber named Jim Reed. He joined an outlaw
gang and invited Myra Belle into it. Her father tried to stop her, but she
ran away with the gang. One of the gang members performed a marriage
ceremony for her and Jim Reed. Reed and Belle bought a small farm in
Missouri and set up housekeeping for awhile, but the law was after Reed.
He hastily moved Myra Belle and little Pearl to California, where they
found old friends, Frank and Jesse James and the Youngers. During the two
years that the Reeds lived there, Belle had another baby, Edward Reed.
Along with Reed and two other criminals in 1869, Starr robbed a California
prospector. The prospector had hidden about $30,000 of gold nearby and the
gang knew it. They tortured the prospector for hours until he told them
where his gold was hidden, and they got away with all of it.
In August of 1874, Deputy Sheriff
John T. Morris of Collin County, Texas, shot and killed Reed.
Belle left her two children with
relatives and began a rustling ring with Sam Star. Belle and Sam Starr
were arrested a jury found them guilty. Judge Isaac Parker, known as
"the hanging judge" because his sentences were usually severe,
was lenient with the notorious Belle and Sam. They got a year apiece in
the Federal penitentiary in Detroit, and they earned three months off that
time by good behavior. arrested again in 1886. Although they appeared
before "hanging" Judge Isaac Parker at Fort Smith, they were
released for lack of evidence.
Belle became less fond of Sam and
more fond of a cousin of the late Jim Reed, named John Middleton, who was
wanted in two states on such charges as arson, larceny, and murder. While
Sam Starr was hiding out from the law away from home, Belle decided to run
off with Middleton. They traveled separately after arranging to meet in
Arkansas. Somewhere along the way, John Middleton was killed by an unknown
person (some believe it might have been Sam Starr, but no one was ever
arrested for this crime). Sam Starr was shot and killed in a barroom brawl
by Frank West in December 1886.
Starr's next romance was with a
Creek Indian outlaw named Jim July. In 1887, Belle became a grandmother,
but Pearl Younger refused to identify the baby's father, and Belle refused
to have the child around. On Feb. 3, 1889, after riding part of the way to
Fort Smith with July, Starr turned back toward home, but she never made
it. The next day Pearl found Belle's saddle horse in the yard without her
mom. A little later a neighbor found Belle lying face down on the muddy
road, dead. She had been shot in the back with a shotgun. A gunman
apparently lying in wait shot her off her horse.
While a group of men were shoveling
dirt on the grave, Jim July took his rifle and pointed it at a neighbor,
Edgar Watson, and yelled, "throw up your hands! You murdered my
wife!". Watson, proclaimed his innocence and agreed to go along to
Fort Smith and let the law take over. At a hearing to determine whether
Watson should be held for murder, Jim July Starr was the only person who
thought Watson was guilty. With no real evidence, Watson went free.
Pearl had Belle's tombstone engraved with the following
inscription:
"Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret,
'Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that fills it sparkles yet."
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