6. An Outlaw’s Origin Story
Belle Starr’s father married and divorced twice, before he wed Belle’s mother Elizabeth Hatfield, a relative of the Hatfields of the Hatfield and McCoy feud. Growing up in Missouri, Belle became acquainted with future outlaws Frank and Jesse James, and the Younger brothers Cole, Jim, John and Bob, who went on to form the infamous James-Younger Gang. In the Civil War, Belle’s family were Southern sympathizers, and her brother rode with Confederate guerrillas until he was killed in 1864. Between that and dangerous war conditions as both sides’ forces crisscrossed Missouri, Belle’s family upped stakes and moved to Texas. In 1866, her childhood acquaintances the James and Younger brothers, now joined together in the James-Younger Gang, robbed a Missouri bank and fled to Texas, where Belle’s father often sheltered such fugitives in his house.
Such fugitives included a former pro-Confederate guerrilla turned horse thief named Jim Reed. An associate of the James and Younger brothers, Reed had been Belle’s crush ever since she was a teenager in Missouri. Soon after they renewed their acquaintance in Texas, the duo got married, and eventually had two children. The family eventually fled to California to avoid an arrest warrant for Reed because of an Arkansas murder. Not long after, Belle graduated from criminal groupie to Wild West outlaw in her own right. In 1869 Belle, her husband, and two other outlaws kidnapped and tortured an elderly Creek Indian until he told them where he had hidden about $30,000 in gold. She and her husband then returned to Texas, where Belle relished playing up the role of dangerous bandit queen to the hilt.
