Volume 11 , Issue 2

Legendary Belle Starr (1848-1889)

The legendary American outlaw Belle Starr (1848 - 1889) developed a reputation as a "Bandit Queen" of the Old West.

Though she was an expert rider who could handle a gun, and who was associated with famous outlaws such as Frank and Jesse James, many accounts of her life contain more legend than fact.

She has been credited with a long list of spectacular crimes, but it appears she did little more than steal some horses and harbor some fugitive friends.

Starr was born as Myra Maybelle Shirley on February 5, 1848, in Jasper County, Missouri, near Carthage. Her parents were John Shirley and Eliza (Pennington) Shirley, who called their daughter Belle. John Shirley, married three times, was the black sheep of an affluent Virginia family. Pennington, his third wife, came from the Hatfield family of the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud. In 1839, Shirley moved his family to southwest Missouri, where he became wealthy raising wheat, corn, horses, and livestock. -- Belle Starr @ Answers.com
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