Later he was sent to the penitentiary in Arkansas for horse stealing and was killed by guards while trying to escape from the coal mines. The body of Belle Starr, into which more than sixty shots had been fired, was dressed for burial by women in the neighborhood , many of whom she had befriended. She had much sympathy for persons in want, and there was scarcely a home within miles of where she lived into which she had not gone and remained night and day doing all that was possible to alleviate sickness and suffering.
She liked to tell stores to children,a nd would sit hour after hour singing old fashioned religious songs to the accompaniment of her guitar. Her grave was dug int he dooryard and the clods heaped over her without a prayer. Not long ago a man with an Indian driver that knew the county, who as a boy had sat on Belle Starr's knee, drove tot he old Belle Starr home.
The country is still thinly settled. There are dim outlines of the almost forgotten Briartown-Eufaula trail to be seen at intervals in the timber. Belle Starr followed this trail in going to and from her outlaw den.
This traveler had long pictured to himself the appearance of this region, after listening to descriptions of it by deputy United States marshals. He found that his imagination had fallen short of the reality. The country was savage and forbidding; the silence, oppressive. At the stream crossings the Indian driver shifted his automatic further in front on his belt and looked inquisitively at places where men could have been in hiding. The entrance is up the creek a short distance.
Once inside you will find meadow land where there is good grazing. In that canyon was once a grapevine corral, in which stolen horses were kept. These trees were planted by Belle Starr. Inside stood the old home of the woman who had stolen away with her Cherokee husband, "Sam" Starr, thirty years ago, to this solitude. The house was of cedar logs built by an Indian named Dempsey Hannell shortly after the war.
It faced south, with a porch its entire length. The log room was about 14 feet square, with a big stone fireplace on the west side. Two small windows, scareely larger than a cowboy's hat, did not let in enough light to drive out the shadows.
This room had witnessed many an outlaw revel. The grimy rafters were nearly within reach of a man's hand. At the rear was a "leanto", divided into two rooms and beneath them was a cellar. In later years a box house had been built on the east side of the old cedar fortress.
View from Doorway The view from the doorway was forlorn. Thickets of wild plums and patches of briars and brambles had pushed out of the timber and crawled closer and closer to the cedar house, struggling to cover the few remaining feet of bare hard earth that lay crinkling in the hot sunshine.
Down across a ragged field was a sluggish, yellow river, and still further was a "deadening" the branches of the tall, dead trees making a picture of desolation. Beyond the Canadian, rising sheer to the sky, were precipices, with caverns, where in the old days lay securely hidden the men for whose necks the hangman's noose dangled at Fort Smith. About twenty feet from the doorway was the grave of Belle Starr, with the edges of the marble headstone chipped and broken by relic hunters.
At one corner grew a hollyhock, with crimson flowers. The stone had been cut and inscribed by Joseph Dalley, a rural stone cutter. First, was a picture of Belle Starr's horse. Above its head was a star; beneath a bell, and on its flank, a BE brand. At the bottom of stone was a clasped hand filled with flowers. The farmer that lived in the cedar house said that a human skull had been plowed up in the garden. However, their time behind bars did nothing to change their lawless ways.
Upon release, they immediately returned to a life of rustling and bootlegging. In Belle and Sam were again arrested by United States marshals, who brought them to Fort Smith on charges of robbery and horse-stealing.
The Starrs were arraigned the following day before Judge Parker, but the hanging judge was forced to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence. By this time, Belle had become a celebrity. Both men hit their marks and died of their wounds. But Belle did not remain alone for long.
In Belle entered into her third marriage, with a much younger bandit by the name of Jim July. This marriage, however, would be the death of her. The relationship was particularly stormy. She was 41 years of age. An investigation was made into her death and several suspects were questioned including a neighbor she had quarreled with named Watson, her husband July, her son Ed, and even her daughter Pearl. Apparently, Belle had caught July fooling around with a young Cherokee girl, which had led to much discord in the marriage.
Belle was estranged from her son Ed and rumors speculated she may have had an incestuous relationship with him and that she routinely beat him with a bullwhip. From to , Belle was the undisputed leader of a band of cattle and horse thieves who made their headquarters in the Oklahoma Territory.
James-Younger Gang — Terror in the Heartland. Outlaws of the American West. Women in American History. Kansas-Missouri Border War. Old West Photo Print Galleries. Primary Menu Skip to content. The Starrs managed to elude capture for nearly a decade, but in they were arrested for horse theft and both served five months in the Detroit federal prison.
Freed from prison, the couple immediately resumed their criminal careers. In , Belle again lost a husband to violent death when Sam Starr was killed in a gunfight with an old enemy.
Belle wasted no time in finding a third companion, a Creek Indian named Jim July, an outlaw who was 15 years her junior. In , July was arrested for robbery and summoned to Fort Smith, Arkansas , to face charges. Belle accompanied her young lover for part of the journey but turned back before reaching Fort Smith. On her way home, someone ambushed and fatally wounded her with two shotgun blasts to her back.
Jim July believed the murderer was a neighbor with whom the couple had been feuding, but no one was ever convicted of the crime.
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