Belle Starr Was A Sure Shot And A Murderess

 

Belle Starr carried messages for the Confederates during the Civil War

Belle Starr was “a sure shot and murderess, who never forgot an injury nor forgave a foe.” She said she never killed a man she didn’t have to, adding, “Wouldn’t you kill rather than to be killed?”

Belle Starr was born in Carthage, Missouri, on February 3, 1846. Her father was a Southern sympathizer, and her brother rode with Quantrill’s Raiders. As a young girl, Belle carried messages for her brother and met up with Jesse James and the Younger brothers.

Rumors persist about an affair with Cole Younger, but the chances that it happened are exceedingly slim. She married his cousin, Bruce Younger, in 1880, but that union lasted only a few weeks. In 1866, Belle married James Reed, another outlaw who rode with Quantrill during the Civil War. In 1868, she gave birth to her first child, Rosie Lee (better known as Pearl). In 1870, Reed was on the run for killing the man who murdered his brother.

On November 19, 1873, Jim Reed and Belle Starr robbed a Creek Indian, Watt Greyson, of $30,000 in gold and paper currency. Belle said, “Mrs. Greyson began to cry as soon as she saw us, screaming loudly for help. I approached her bed, placed my revolver on her forehead, and said: ‘One word more and I will blow your brains out.’”

When Watt refused to tell them where he hid the money, Belle tied his legs and fashioned a noose. “We hoisted him to the branch of an oak,” she said, “he began to strangle and signed to us to take him down. Thereupon he showed us his hiding place.”

Belle Starr robbing a bank

Upon returning to Texas, Belle held up a stage with her husband, James Reed. They made off with $3,000 of the stage line’s money and another $2150 they collected from the passengers. They were discovered later that day as they ate supper at an Inn, and had to shoot their way out.

Jim Reed rode off with a friend, John Morris, in August 1874. The two men stopped at a farmhouse for supper, and Morris somehow convinced Reed to leave his guns outside with the horses. Morris made an excuse to go outside while they were eating. He grabbed his Winchester from his saddle and shot Reed dead at the supper table.

The story is that Morris did it to collect the reward money on Jim Reed’s head. Because nobody in the area knew Reed, the officials dragged Belle out to the farmhouse to identify her husband. Belle didn’t want Morris to get the reward, so when the sheriff lifted the sheet covering her husband’s body, she shook her head and said it wasn’t him. Belle Starr repeated, “John Morris shot the wrong man.”

Belle buried Jim Reed in a pauper’s field. No reward was ever paid out.

In 1877, Blue Duck, an outlaw said to be Belle’s common-law husband, borrowed $2,000 and dropped it all on the gambling tables in Fort Dodge, Kansas. When he told Belle, she was furious. She wasn’t having any of that. Belle strapped on her pistols and headed for Fort Dodge. She crept upstairs at the “gambling hell” and took $7,000 at gunpoint from a private poker game.

Not long after this, Belle found herself running low on money. So she prettied herself up and pretended to be a fashionable member of Texas society, attending church and Sunday school. Within a short time, she was wooed by a middle-aged bank cashier. She visited him one day when he was alone at the bank. When she was sure no one else was around, Belle whipped out her revolver and a bag—and demanded he fill it with cash, or else.

Belle Starr robbing a poker game at a gambling hell

After he handed her the money, Belle warned the cashier to keep quiet until she made her getaway, or she’d fill him full of lead. Belle jumped on a horse she had waiting at a nearby livery stable and rode off into Indian Territory.

Belle married Sam Starr, a Cherokee half-breed, in 1880 and set up house in a backwoods area of Indian Territory. Unfortunately, they had a run-in with the law for stealing horses. In 1882, Belle and Sam were sentenced to a year in the Detroit House of Correction by Hanging Judge Isaac C. Parker.

Belle was arrested again for horse theft in the midsummer of 1886. She was taken to Fort Smith and acquitted in September of the same year. An article published in The Dallas Morning News on June 7, 1886, described Belle as she awaited trial. “Belle attracts considerable attention where she goes, being a dashing horse-woman and exceedingly graceful in the saddle. She dresses plainly...is of medium size, well-formed, a dark brunette, with bright and intelligent black eyes.”

The same article said, “When at home, her companions are her daughter, Pearl...her horse and her two trusty revolvers, which she calls her babies.”

In 1886, Sam Starr got caught in the crossfire while being chased and was shot in the head. Fortunately, it was only a scratch. He grabbed a rifle and shot his way out. On Belle’s advice, he turned himself in. The trial was held on March 7, 1887. Sam argued with a posse member about who shot the horse he was riding, and the next thing you know, the argument erupted into a gunfight. Sam was shot and killed.

Two years later, on February 3, 1889, Belle was killed in an ambush as she rode home from a neighbor’s house. She took four buckshot in the back, three in the head, and one in the neck. The blast knocked her off her horse. When she was down, the attacker came in for the kill and blasted her in the face and neck with turkey shot.

Belle Starr died in an ambush on the way home

Edgar Watson was the primary suspect. They had recently argued over some farm property he rented from Belle. He was arrested, tried, and released. However, he received fifteen years in prison for horse theft not long after that.

Before you go ...

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “I remember that,” you’re in the right place.

I dig up stories about Old West lawmen, outlaws, gunfighters, robberies, murders, forgotten towns, and all the strange, fascinating pieces of history that somehow slipped through the cracks. No clickbait. No fluff. Just authentic stories and actual history.

If you enjoy what you read and would like to help keep the lights on, consider buying me a Big Gulp.

Every little bit helps pay for books, newspaper archives, research trips, and the countless hours spent tracking down stories most people forgot decades ago.

Buy Me a Big Gulp / NickVulich.com

If the Old West is your thing, you may enjoy these books...

Shot All To Hell

Shot All To Pieces