Charlie belle starr biography

She was a well-known figure during the late nineteenth century and is rumored to have been involved with a number of famous criminals during her day, including Cole Younger and Jesse James. As her life passed from reality into fiction, she was depicted as something of a tragic figure, as a young girl who just happened to be a crack shot, who, as time progressed, was forced to become an outlaw due to misunderstandings and circumstances beyond her control.

The process by which outlaws such as the James brothers, Billy the Kid and Starr among others, acquired iconic status in a country that claims law and order as its very basis, may nonetheless reflect the suspicion that the law does not always favor the poor or disadvantaged, so the actions of some who set themselves over and against the law and those who make and enforce it, who are usually rich, has an aura of romance.

Charlie belle starr biography: Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr,

Her father was John Shirley. In the s her father sold the acre farm and moved the family to Carthage buying an inn and livery stable on the town square. May Shirley received a classical education and learned piano. She was bright, yet strong-willed. Myra was reared in a family were multiple marriages and half relatives were the norm and this pattern was reflected in her later life.

According to legend, it was at Scyene that the Shirleys became associated with a number of Missouri-born criminals, including Jesse James and the Youngers. In fact, she knew the Younger brothers and the James boys because she grew up with them in Missouri, and her brother John Alexander Shirley known as Bud served with them in Quantrill's Raiders, alongside a neighbor boy, James C.

Her brother served as one of Quantrill's Scouts. Bud Shirley was killed in in Sarcoxie, Missouri, while he and another scout were being fed at the home of a Confederate sympathizer.