Bandit queen, born at or near Carthage, Missouri, USA. Her brothers were killed while fighting with Quantrill's Raiders in the Civil War and in gunfights. She was romantically linked with Thomas Coleman Younger, James H Reed, Sam Starr, a Cherokee, and Jim July, also a Cherokee. Said to be the leader of a band of horse thieves. She usually wore either velvet and feathers or buckskin and moccasins. She was convicted once in 1883 by Hanging Judge Parker. On other ocassions, she defended herself and her companions with great legal skill. She was shot down by an unknown assassin, and immortalized in popular literature. A neighbour named Wilson and her own son Edward were suspected of her murder.
Myra Maybelle Shirley better known as Belle Starr (February 5, 1848 – February 3, 1889) was famous as an American female outlaw.
Early life
She was born Myra Maybelle Shirley near Carthage, Missouri, into a farming family. See .}
After the Civil War
After the war the Reed family, too, moved to Scyene and she married Jim in 1866, giving birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (nicknamed Pearl) in 1868.
Marriage to Sam Starr
According to the fiction that grew up around her after her death she was briefly married to Bruce Younger in 1878, but again, this was entirely unsubstantiated by any primary evidence. But she did marry a Cherokee Indian in 1880 named Sam Starr and settled on Starr family land in Indian Territory. In 1886, she escaped conviction on another theft charge, but Sam Starr was shot and killed in December, possibly in a drunken brawl. {Officer West shot Starr}
Belle Starr's unsolved murder
After Sam died, the legend has her associated with several men (almost all of whom died violently and some on Judge Parker's gallows at Fort Smith), but again, without foundation. In fact, in order to hang on to her interests in her residence on Indian land she very quickly married a member of Sam's extended family, Jim July Starr.
Belle Starr's story becomes popularized
Although an obscure, quiet figure throughout most of her life, her story was picked up by the dime novel publisher, Richard K. Fox made her name famous with the novel Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, published in 1889 (the year of her unsolved murder).
Belle Starr's children
Her son Eddie was convicted of horse theft and receiving stolen property in July 1889 and Judge Parker sent him to prison in Columbus, Ohio. Belle's daughter, Rosie Reed, also known as Pearl Starr, went into prostitution to raise funds for his release resulting in a presidential pardon in 1893.
Historical Fiction
One of the more unique adaptations of the legend of Belle Starr was made by the Japanese mangaka Akihiro Itou - perhaps best known to Western audiences as the creator of Geobreeders - who, in 1993, created a manga known as Belle Starr Bandits. Freely inspired by her life and exploits, the two volume series takes several liberties with historical figures, facts, and events, and, in spite of its heavily comedic and action-orented overtones, portrays Belle Starr as something of a tragic figure.
The framing sequence of the story takes place in Canada in 1932 and chronicles the efforts of a female author and Belle Starr afficianado to write the definitive work on the female outlaw by uncovering the truth about her life and times.
Originally serialized in Fujima Fantasia and later in Dragon Comics, the only known foreign translation was made by the French publisher Pika Edition as part of their Manga Player Collection series in 1997, though, for unknown reasons, translation work ceased following the release of Volume 1.
In addition, a 1941 film with little historical connection and a 1980 television movie were made with the title Belle Starr.
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