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Born in 1848 to a prosperous family in Missouri, Myra Maybelle Shirley should have become a proper young lady, married a rich man, and never done anything interesting in her life. But, as luck would have it, Starr preferred to be outdoors learning to shoot a gun with her older brother, Bud, than stay inside the all-girl’s school she attended.
Fate changed the stars for Starr when her family moved to Texas in 1864. It was here that she would met members of Jesse James’ crew, the James-Younger Gang. In 1866, Starr married a horse thief named Jim Reed, who, in 1869, murdered a man who was said to have killed his brother. After the murder, the couple fled to California together. Jim was shot to death in 1874. Left as a widow, Belle joined the Starr Clan and married Samuel Starr. It was then that she submerged herself in outlawry. She became the mastermind behind the gang. Starr was arrested several times, but it seemed she was just as good at eluding sheriffs as she was at stealing horses, they never had enough evidence to put her away. In 1889, Starr was shot in the back while riding home from the general store. Her murderer is still unknown.
J. Frank Dalton claimed that Belle survived the shotgun assassination attempt and lived on under an alias. However, her daughter allegedly financed her upscale Sporting House in Wichita with the money Belle had on her at the time of her death. This version too has a problem in that the killer would have surely found the $2,500.00 in gold she was carrying.
her daughter Flossy moved to Wichita and opened the finest brothel in town. Family descendants of Belle Starr still live in the area today.
