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 Pearl
Hart was the last person ever to rob a stagecoach and the only woman ever
known to have robbed one. Pearl Taylor was born in Ontario, Canada to a
well to do family. Her family sent her to the finest schools available
during the early 1880's and in 1888 she met and fell in love with
Frederick Hart. Frederick Hart was a gambler, who lost more money then he
won, and Pearl's life with him was a tough one. The couple traveled to the
Columbian Exposition of 1893, in Chicago, where Pearl worked odd jobs. At
the Exposition, she saw various Wild West shows depicting the heroes and
myths of the Old West. She was so completely overwhelmed by these story's
and theatrics that she abruptly left her husband and moved to Colorado.
When she arrived in Colorado, she found out she was
pregnant with Frederick's child and decided to return home to her family
in Canada. After giving birth to a son, she left him with her mother and
headed out west again, this time she went to Phoenix, Arizona. Her husband
had contacted Pearl's family and found out where she was and arrived in
Phoenix in 1895. Frederick begged Pearl to come back with him so they
could start a new life together, he would even get a regular job. The
family united and Frederick took a job as a hotel manager. During the next
few years, everything was good between Frederick and Pearl and they gave
birth to a second child, this time a girl.
In 1898, Frederick told Pearl that he was tired of the
domestic life and left her and the children. He enlisted in the army and
went off to fight with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba. Pearl then
returned home to Canada with her daughter. In a couple of months, the
western adventure called out to her again, she left her family and headed
to the Arizona mining camps. Here, she took whatever jobs were available
to feed herself and then in 1899, Pearl received a letter from her brother
telling her that her mother was very ill and needed quite a bit of money
for medical bills. Not knowing what to do, she talked to a local miner,
Joe Boot, about her money problems. Joe had the idea of robbing the Globe
stagecoach. The stagecoach ran from Florence, Arizona to Globe, Arizona
and it always carried passengers. He figured that these passengers carried
traveling money and it would be easy pickings for Pearl and him.
With their guns drawn, Pearl and Joe jumped in front of
the Globe stage and ordered the driver to stop. Joe kept his gun on the
driver while Pearl ushered the passengers out of the coach and emptied
their pockets and wallets. Pearl collected about $450 from the passengers
and then ordered them back into the coach. Joe then told the driver to
move on and fired his gun into the air. Pearl and Joe mounted their horses
and rode off into the hills. Neither of the bandits were experienced
cowboys and they soon got lost in the hills of Arizona. A posse from Globe
caught up to them in a couple of days and captured the two bandits while
they were sleeping.
Taken to the Globe jail, Pearl Hart played up her part as
a lady bandit and drew large crowds. Many came to get autographs, others
just to get a glimpse of the "Bandit Queen". A couple of weeks
later, Pearl and another prisoner, Ed Hogan, escaped from the Globe jail.
The escape and subsequent manhunt for Pearl only strengthened her fast
spreading legend through the west. The posse quickly recaptured her and
returned her to jail.
The trial took place in Florence, and Pearl insisted that
no court had the right to place her on trial, saying "I shall not
consent to be tried under a law in which my sex had no voice in
making." Public opinion was on the side Pearl, and her lawyer pleaded
with the jury that this was Pearl's first offense and she had always
obeyed the law in the past. The jury deliberated and returned a short time
later with an acquittal. The Judge was furious and ordered this jury
replaced. He warned the second jury that they should not allow their
judgments to be swayed because of Pearl's sex. The new jury listened to
the case and found Pearl guilty. Judge Doan then sentenced Pearl to five
years imprisonment at the Territorial Prison in Yuma, Arizona. Joe Boot
was tried in a separate trial and found guilty, he received a thirty year
sentence.
The warden at Yuma Prison had to arrange a special cell
for Pearl, so she could be separated from the rest of the all-male
prisoners. She was paroled on December 19, 1902, after serving eighteen
months in jail.
Pearl moved to Kansas City, where she planned to profit on
her fame as the "Lady Bandit". For a few weeks, she played
herself in a play that her sister wrote about Pearl's western adventures.
The play and her fame was quickly over and she disappeared from public
view for a couple of years. She was then arrested under the name of Mrs.
L.P. Keele, in Kansas City for buying stolen canned goods. She again
completely disappeared and was not seen again until 1924 when she returned
to Arizona and took a tour of the old courthouse where she was tried and
convicted of the robbery of the Globe stagecoach. No one is really sure
what happened to her after that, one report has her dying in 1925 and
others have her living in San Francisco, where she died in 1952.
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