Belle Starr, known as the Bandit Queen, was one of the most infamous outlaws in the American Old West. She was born in Carthage, Missouri in 1848. She was brought up with the manners and customs of the social elite, played the piano well and was an accomplished horsewoman. She attended Carthage Female Academy where she received a good education in the womanly arts. Belle had a trim, attractive figure and dressed in high style including the latest fashions in dresses, broad-brimmed hats and modish boots. She often rounded out her ensemble with a quirt attached to her wrist and two six guns buckled on her waist. She fraternized with Jesse James and other members of the Quantrill gang where she probably learned her thieving skills. Her specialty was horse stealing along with a sprinkling of bank and post office robberies. Horse stealing got her jailed for a few months but she usually won acquittals at her trials. Belle became an American legend after her death in 1889. An unknown assassin waited in ambush and shot her in the back with a shotgun.
Photo: encyclopediaofarkansas
Belle Starr shouldn’t have messed with Jesse James. Just ask Sandra Bullock!
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By: Richard W Scott on June 15, 2010
at 11:16 am
She “messed” with one of the Younger gang members.
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By: nancycurteman on June 15, 2010
at 1:28 pm
Why do I find this such a romantic tale . . . when I would be horrified at a modern day woman who ran around stealing horses with guns in holsters on her hips???
: )
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By: nrhatch on June 15, 2010
at 11:44 am
Isn’t it amazing what we romanticize. A newspaper man made her a legend after he wrote an article about the a rotten coward shooting her in the back.
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By: nancycurteman on June 15, 2010
at 1:29 pm