Tainted Ladies:
Female Outlaws, Renegade Women and Soiled Doves of the Wild West
By Vickie Britton
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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PUBLISHED BY:
Vickie Britton on Smashwords
Tainted Ladies: Female Outlaws, Renegade Women and Soiled Doves of the Wild West
Copyright © 2012 by Vickie Britton
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CONTENTS:
The California Gold Rush was the major event that triggered the desire to go West. During this time, 80,000 joined the drive Westward. Most of the participants of the gold rush were single men hoping to strike it rich in the gold fields. These men formed rough mining camps made of tents and makeshift buildings. In many of the earlier camps there were no women, which posed a hardship on the men who in addition to missing female companionship were unused to doing domestic chores, such as laundry. The first women to arrive on the scene at the mining camps were the prostitutes, who followed as soon as a town of sorts was established. These women were welcomed with open arms by the lonely miners. In many early frontier towns the only women were prostitutes. For a time, the ratio of men to women was ten to one.
Another event that led to Western expansion was the 1862 Homestead Act. The Homestead Act drew families to the West by promising settlers 160 acres of free land if they stayed for five years. The people who took advantage of this offer came to settle, and were more interested in farming, ranching, and making a living off the land than in seeking quick riches. The homesteaders included women, who by that time were journeying West with their families. Women were, however, still in the minority. The women who came West later were more community and family-oriented than the prostitutes who had earlier followed the mining camps. These "respectable" women began to build up churches and other social establishments patterned after the ones they had left behind.
For a time, two distinct cultures existed in the United States, the established New England colonies in the East, and the wild and unchartered territory of the West. The East was already well-established and cultured while the West was new land, for the most part wild and unpopulated. Women in the East had grown up to adhere to the mores of genteel society. In the West these rules were relaxed, especially in the earlier days of settlement. Gradually, as stagecoach and railroad made transportation easier, larger towns and cities began to spring up, and the gap between the East and the West narrowed.
In the West, women were, for the most part, still expected to marry, stay at home and raise babies. While men had the traditional job of seeking work, hunting, and providing for their families, a married woman's lot consisted of running a household, establishing schools and churches, caring for the sick and sometimes acting as midwife. For the frontier wife, who was usually up at dawn, work such as child-rearing, cooking, soap making and clothes making ran in an endless cycle. All of this work was done under harsh conditions and with none of the amenities of home. The unsettled land was filled with hardships such as drought, prairie fires, and epidemics. An atmosphere of lawlessness pervaded. On the frontier, Indian attacks were an ever-present danger.
As the West gradually became more settled, many young single women other than prostitutes began to venture forth by stagecoach or train. Some were simply seeking employment and new opportunities; others went west to escape bad family situations or a scandal such as pregnancy before marriage and to start a new life. In the unsettled west, there was no way of tracking identity, and a name change was easy enough to accomplish. Few decent jobs for single women existed in the western towns. Women were offered low-paying job opportunities as teachers, laundresses, shopkeepers, seamstresses, or maids. Women had no right to vote and in many places could not own property. Sometimes, dire circumstances made women turn to crime or prostitution in order to survive. By the mid 1850's "respectable" women had begun establishing communities for their families and supporting churches. Prostitution had been tolerated if not accepted in the days of the early mining camps, but it was not as readily accepted by the new settlers and their wives, who brought with them the standards of the East. Women who turned to prostitution were looked down upon and became scorned and outcast.
Women shunned from society ran gaming houses, became prostitutes or madams, and often fell in with robbers and cattle rustlers. It is interesting to note that few women bandits worked on their own but were influenced by the male company they kept. It is also interesting to note that few of them actually killed anyone. Even in the outlaw world, it was still very much a male-dominated society. Women usually played supporting roles in the crimes, held horses, scouted, fenced stolen goods, cooked and kept house for the outlaw gang.
Dime novels made the life and image of both the male and female outlaw seem larger than life. Few lived up to that image. Many women who turned to crime were either forced into the situation by dire necessity such as extreme poverty or sudden widowhood. or in ignorance chose the path most available to them. Some of them were victims of circumstance, others would have been considered criminals in any day and age.
So why study outlaw and renegade women? Because they are unique, these ladies who chose not to follow tradition. Some were leaders, others followers, some were truly bad, some just odd characters. Many were happy with their lot, others were guilt-ridden and made miserable by circumstances and the choices they made. Whatever the case, the bad girls always have the most interesting tales to tell.
Pearl Hart -Stagecoach Robber
Stagecoach robbery was usually a male endeavor. Pearl Hart has the dubious honor of being the only known female to rob a stage. While there is no doubt that she committed the crime in question, one might make the argument that poverty and desperation led her to this drastic measure. Getting rich the quick and easy way did not seem to be her motivation in the robbery, but simply survival. While reading her story, it is interesting to bear in mind her desperate situation—that of trying to make a living in the male-dominated world of the gold fields. Hart, abandoned by her husband, did try to eke out a living. Desperation turned her to crime when she was unable to support herself.
Pearl Hart was an attractive, petite woman who stood only five foot one. She was born around 1870 in Ontario, Canada, where she lived until the age of 17 when she eloped with her young sweetheart, Sam Hart. The marriage was rocky from the very beginning. Sam Hart had a weakness for gambling and was unable to support them. The two sometimes acted as petty thieves. Pearl would pose as a prostitute, lure a man into a room, where her husband would rob them of their cash. Pearl had two children by Hart, a boy and a girl, which she sent back to her mother because she was unable to take care of them.
Pearl eventually left Hart because he could not support her, and got work on a mining claim. There, in 1889, she picked up with Joe Boot. When the claim closed the two of them were left destitute and jobless. In addition to this bad stroke of luck, Pearl had also received word her mother was dying and Pearl was anxious to get home.
Along with Boot, Pearl planned to rob a stage leaving from Globe, Arizona. The two inept bandits took in around $400 dollars in cash from the robbery. Pearl, in an act of charity, returned a dollar to each passenger they robbed so they could pay for a night's food and board. After the hold-up, the two bandits headed south and got lost. The Pinal County Sheriff found them fast asleep beneath a tree and arrested them.
Pearl Hart was actually a ground-breaker on many counts. She was not only the first female to rob a coach, but the first female prisoner in Yuma Prison. Her boyfriend got a stiffer sentence, and Pearl did not serve all of hers. Boot was sentenced to thirty years and Pearl got only five. She gained sympathy from the jury because of her mother's illness and her need for money to get home.
The newsworthy story of a woman stagecoach robber caused reporters to hang about her cell, anxious for an interview. Taking advantage of her notoriety, Pearl managed to get pregnant. Since the governor of Arizona and a minister were just about her only visitors, fear of a scandal led to an early release. The governor pardoned her on the grounds that the prison "lacked accommodations for women prisoners."
There is some question as to whether or not Pearl ever was pregnant, or if she faked this condition to avoid serving prison time. Pearl was a manipulator, but did not appear to be too hard-boiled of an outlaw. With the exception of petty theft, holding up the stage was virtually her only criminal act. After leaving prison, for a time she enjoyed her notoriety by reenacting her adventure as a stage robber in a wild west show.
She gradually drifted out of history and by some accounts after she left prison she continued to wander the streets as a vagrant and commit a string of petty crimes. By other accounts she settled down and became a respectable member of society. In any case, after that one big event, she appeared to have retired from hard crime and the robbing of stages.
Belle Starr—Queen of the Bandits
The woman known in history as "Queen of the Bandits" was born Myra Belle Shirley in Carthage,Missouri on Feb. 3, 1846. The only daughter of a Southern family, this brown-eyed, dark-haired girl was raised to be a lady. Instead she became a rebel who drank and swore and toted two guns.
Belle's older brother Edwin was a Southern sympathizer. He joined up with a band of renegades headed by William C. Quantrill who raided towns in Missouri and Kansas who supported the Northern cause. It was through this connection that, while in her teens, she became acquainted with Jesse and Frank James, and the Younger brothers, who were a part of Quantrill's group.
After the war Myra went to Texas and bought a ranch where outlaw friends hid out. Some say the ranch was paid for by some of her unsavory companions so they would have a place to evade the law. It was about this time she started calling herself Belle instead of Myra.
Belle's downfall was troubled men. She had a knack for choosing men she couldn't rehabilitate and couldn't bear to live without them. Cole Younger hid out at the ranch and it is believed the two had a love affair. Though Cole denied ever being romantically involved with Belle, when she was about twenty, she gave birth to a baby girl which she named Pearl and which Cole is believed to be the father. Shortly after, another outlaw, Jim Reed, hid out at the ranch and he and Belle were married in 1866. Reed was an ex Confederate soldier and a friend of the James brothers. Fearing his arrest for a bank robbery gone wrong, Belle and Jim left the ranch and she moved back to Texas. Another child, Ed, which belonged to Jim, was born. Belle and Jim were married eight years, until Jim was killed by the law in 1874.
In 1878 Belle found herself facing arrest for horse theft. Shortly after, she sold the ranch and left Texas. She spent some time riding the ranges of Oklahoma and Texas with her bandit friends. By some accounts she participated in the crimes, others she simply rode along. On at least one occasion Belle was spotted, dressed as a man, aiding in a robbery.
In 1880, Belle married a second husband, a three-quarter Cherokee man by the name of Sam Starr. Starr was a member of the Cherokee Nation, and the couple settled on 1,000 acres of tribal land in Oklahoma. From this point on she would be known as Belle Starr.
Judge Isaac Parker, known as "The Hanging Judge", had been after Belle and her gang for a long time, but was unable to incarcerate them for lack of evidence. Finally, their outlaw ways caught up with them and Parker sentenced both Belle and her husband to prison for horse stealing. While in prison, Belle was a model prisoner and for a time after her release appeared to make an effort go straight. But soon she and Sam returned to their criminal pursuits. Belle was also warned to quit harboring fugitives from the law. She proved to have an unrepentant attitude. She was quoted in a Dallas newspaper as saying
"I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw."
A lawman by the name of John West tracked down Sam Starr and during a shootout in a saloon. They both drew at the same time and wound up killing each other. After Sam Starr's death, in order to hold on to her claim, which was on tribal land, Belle married a 24 years old Cherokee named Jim July. July would be Belle's last husband.
Belle's life was soon fraught with domestic problems. Her son Ed, now nearly seventeen, sorely resented her marriage to Jim. Belle was also having difficulties with her daughter, Pearl, who became pregnant. Ironically, Belle kicked her out for a time. They reconciled after the birth of the baby.
Much to Judge Parker's consternation, Belle continued to harbor and aid outlaws, despite severe warnings that she must quit this practice or risk losing her land. Belle provided legal counsel for Bluford "Blue Duck", a Cherokee Indian believed to have been one of her lovers, when he was arrested on a murder charge. Because of Belle's intervention, Blue Duck's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.