Belle Starr: Gunslinger With a Bad Rap

Belle Starr, born Myra Belle Shirley in Missouri, grew up to become a cattle rustler and bandit.

But her bad rap was partly the fault of an unfair situation.  Belle was originally a guerrilla fighter in the Civil War.

But after the war, guerrilla troops on the Rebel side were posted as outlaws and not allowed to surrender as soldiers of a defeated army.  So, on the lam and already unrespectable, she took to a life of crime:  stealing horses and participating in hold-ups.

In 1880, she married Sam Starr, a Cherokee renegade, and their Arkansas farm, which was on an Indian reservation, became a hideout for Jesse James and other fugitives.

In 1889, she was shot in the back.  Some say the killer was her own son.

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