European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 17, 1968, Darmstadt, Hesse Ill t by John Reese staff writer he american West of the last half of the f Ali Century was a rough place Man s country for the most part where How Long you lived depended pretty much on How fast an accurate you were with a Colt. But he wild West did produce some colourful female desperado who bade fail1 to outdo their male counterparts inv a. Perhaps the worst of these was belie Starr who was born Myra Belle Shirley in Missouri in 1846, just one Yea before the worst Missouri bad Man Jesse James. Some say that Bellac quire her taste for violence during the civil War when she would lure Yankees to their death at the hands of Southern guerrillas. A couple of years after the War Belle eloped with a horse thief named Jim Reed who was shot by a posse. Belle turned up a Little later in Dallas where she ran a livery stable which served As a front for a Lively Trade in stolen horses. Flu a things got too hot for Belle i Dallas she skipped up into Indian territory which later became 1877 she was leading a gang of Cut throats Gim slingers and rustlers base Din Indian territory. This gang Belle often Riding along with them Robbe Banks trains and stages when they were not Busy rustling cattle or stealing horses. Belle managed to keep most of the Money realized by the gang. During part of this period of her life. Belle lived with a half Breed with the improbable name of Blue Duck. Tiring of Duck she took on As her second Legal husband another half Breed named Sam Starr who gave her the name under which she was Best known. A records Are blurred in spots Belle is known to have had healthy need for male companionship and it is reasonable to speculate thai she shared her Suga is with a number of hard Riding hard shooting Hombres of the period. Belle has been described As a Strong willed Hatchet faced woman with the disposition of a tantalized scorned male attire and wore Long velvet gowns a plumed hat and shiny Black boots. She Rode a spectacular Lack Mare named Venus and was Sel Dom seen abroad without her six guns trapped around her Waist and a Riding crop dangling from her wrist. She met Cole younger one of the notorious Brothers who Rode with Jesse James in Texas. Although there is no positive evidence some historians claim that Cole fathered Belle s firstborn a daughter named Pearl. Later she gave the name younger s Bend to the place on the North Bank of the Canadian i Ive where she and Sam Starr lived. Kelle was no Beauty but her Active live kept her figure slender and supple Long alter she had lost the Bloom of youth. Her dark colouring and Jet Blackhair and eyes suggested that she too probably had some Indian blood in he veins. She could certainly ride like a omani clip and handled a six shooter Ora Winchester with equal deadlines. An obscure outlaw named Watson wanted in Florida for a shooting drilled into her Camp in in set. Lie was t in he gang Long before Helle fou id out about u Alson being a fugitive. Hard up Between the lady outlaw Boss and the Fugi Liu and on Belle s 4. Re birthday a ambushed her and deadlier the with a Rifle As she it "8 her Oft a her " killed Heron a Job. Belle s daughter Pear Mother was dying Rode Lay the girl Flung hers Saddle and Knelt at Hei Belle whispered a few died but Pearl never disclose they were. L �. A Belle was buried at younger the epitaph on her Tombstone re shed not for her the hitter Ternor give the heart to vain is. Us but the casket but Lis orc the Gem that fill s it sparkles just As Clor Ful but not nearly Soba was another woman of the West calamity Jane. Like Belle and Jesse calamity came from m Stoj i having been born near princeto1848. Her name was Martha Jane c Narry. In time this family name a corrupted to calamity. When the civil War ended in 1865, Jane s parents motto Montana. Sickness claimed Hod her parents in one year so the Len a Edca Lamity Learned to ride Hunt and Stool As Well As most men in Montana Terri Lory. For a while she scouted for the army serving for a time with the ill starred George Armstrong Custer she moved about the West t Akin work punching cattle where she could find it. She became an expert mule Skinner and had the sulphurous Vocab ulary to go with the Job. She Seldom uttered a sentence which was no spiked with the coarsest cuss words. She was a hell Raiser whose reputation spread through the cow and Minin towns. She was a hard Drinker chewed tobacco wore men s clothes and was no slow poke with her records show no accounts of her having shot it out with gunmen in the Dusty streets or Smoky saloons which she frequented but there is Little doubt that she killed a number of hostile indians while working for he Anne. And Hays City kan., knew her and she also spent some time i Livingston and Alder Gulch Mont. But it was while she was roaming the Black Hills of the Dakotas that her fam burgeoned. She got to know wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood and Many roman tic writers of the Day hinted that Illey were , More realistic recorders of the West have suggested that the hand some revered Hickok who was quite a ladies Man would have been unlikely to have wasted much time in Dalliance with anyone so in feminine As is More Likely that Hickok was amused by this hard drinking Freak who looked and acted like a Man and Toler ated her for enjoyed the Light of build Bill s reflected glory and they were often seen together around Deadwood. When Hickok was killed calamity Slid downhill and lurched from Saloon to Saloon crying bitter tears in her Heer. About that time calamity Rose above herself As a sympathetic and devoted nurse when a smallpox epidemic swept became the heroine of Ninny a dime novel of the period Bein p01jtrayed As a glamorous winsome Tiivi of the Golden West who could Snoop and ride with the Best of a pitiful attempt to Cash in on nil shabby Fame Jane joined in Minneapolis and poured Belle Starr and Blue Duck. 1 Alae the stars and Sti ipes Sun Kiy me 1963 cattle Annie Little britches Rode with Doolin mob. Big nose Kate Fisher Consort of deadly Doc hol Lidcay. Calamity Jane far left As Cutler scout and Etta place left who Rode with the wild Bunch. A Century spoken it to Chicago St. Louis and Kansas City. But she got drunk one time too Many and was thrown out of the troupe. In if 03 she turned up in Terry s.d., where she was slaying in the Calloway hotel. She was Ding. On aug. 2, she opened her eyes and whispered what s the Date 1 when told she nodded and replied it s the Twenty seventh anniversary of Bill s death. Bury me next to and they did she lies by with wild Bill Hickok in the Deadwood cemetery. Fie of the most Beautiful and mysterious of the Shady ladies of Hie old West was Etta place Consort of Minteh Cassidy Leader of the wild lunch and the Sundance kid who Ler Rori de Wyoming near the turn of the she was tall slender and Solt and could handle a horse a pistol or a Rifle. Some said she was a soiled Dove from Fanny Porter s sporting House in fort Worth but Pinkerton Man who spent years trailing the wild Bunch claimed she was ayoung Denver school teacher. Jer file in the Pinkerton Agency lists her As an associate of outlaws if was known that she Rode with the gang but there is no record that she Ever shot anybody or stole anything. Etta went with Yasskiy and Long Baugh to South America and what be came of her remained a mystery until recently. It turned out that Etta was stricken with appendicitis in 1907 and it was decided that she should return tothe United states for an operation. Longbaugh accompanied her to Den ver where he brought her to a Hospital. Neither outlaw Ever saw her again be cause Longbaugh got into a Drunken Jam and fled Denver. Both men were killed in South America later. There were a number of lesser lights among the bad girls of the Annie and Little britches were teen aged delinquents of their Day who Rode for a Short time with the Doolin gang in Oklahoma. Their real name were Annie Mcdougal and Jennie Stevens. They ended up in the Penitentiary and dropped from sight. Attle Kate was an unsavoury character who ran a lucrative one woman House out on the Plain near Sweetwater Wyo. She took her pay i cattle most of which had been stolen. This proved to be her undoing for the cattle of wikis found stolen calves in her Corral and Strung her up from the Gate. Even less detail is know of anotherkate1. She was big nose Kate Fisher a sidekick of deadly Doc a Holliday i Tombstone an. Kate was a frequent Saloon and boudoir companion of the tubercular dentist and was reputed to have rescued him from the Law some where in Texas by burning Down a hold where a Holliday was being held. Then there was 1 Eurl Hart an adventurous College girl from the East who came West and stuck up tin last Slage coach Ever to be robbed under the Job and got caught. Like Callie Annie and Bri ent to prison Ami disappeared the scene. So it Wasin the wild in to she she Ches Lilu a sunday. March \7, 1968 the stars and stripes pure 1
