Belle Starr

In the annals of legendary Wild West desperadoes, Belle Starr is remembered to this day as the Bandit Queen. Shortly after her murder in 1889, a highly romanticized, sensational book titled Bella Starr ... The Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James was publishedthe first in a series of high-profile portraits to brand Starr as a villain. Now, celebrated author Michael Wallis parses over a century of mythmaking to reveal the woman behind the renegade legend. Wielding compelling research, including correspondence, official records, and contemporary newspaper accounts, Wallis traces Starrs beginnings to Carthage, Missouri, where she was born Myra Maibelle Shirley in 1848 and was classically educated to be a Southern belle. Myras early years were characterized by the chaotic violence of the Civil Warshe was traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed riding with bushwhackers, one of the many insurgent guerilla groups supporting the Confederate Army. From then on, she swore revenge against all Yankees and became a willing friend to any brave and gallant outlaw. The crimes committed by Starrs innermost circlestagecoach stickups, bank robbery, horse theftwould take her from war-torn Carthage to rollicking Scyene, Texas, until she finally settled in Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). And although Starr indeed ran in the same circles as notorious outlaws Jesse James and the Younger brothers, the crimes ascribed to her were greatly embellishedincluding the fact that the allegedly bloodthirsty Starr more than likely never killed a single person. Turning a redemptive eye to Belle Starrs tarnished legacy, Wallis crafts an illuminating portrait of a woman demonized for refusing to accept the genteel Victorian ideals expected of her, a woman who chose instead to live her life outside the law, riding sidesaddle with a pearl-handled Colt .45 strapped to her hip.