Belle Starr: The Truth Behind the Wild West Legend

In the annals of legendary Wild West desperadoes, Belle Starr is remembered to this day as the Bandit Queen. Shortly after her murder in 1889, a highly romanticized, sensational book titled Bella Starr ... The Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James was published--the first in a series of high-profile portraits to brand Starr as a villain. Now, celebrated author Michael Wallis parses over a century of mythmaking to reveal the woman behind the renegade legend.

Wielding compelling research, including correspondence, official records, and contemporary newspaper accounts, Wallis traces Starr's beginnings to Carthage, Missouri, where she was born Myra Maibelle Shirley in 1848 and was classically educated to be a Southern belle. Myra's early years were characterized by the chaotic violence of the Civil War--she was traumatized by the death of her brother, who was killed riding with "bushwhackers," one of the many insurgent guerilla groups supporting the Confederate Army. From then on, she swore revenge against all Yankees and became a willing "friend to any brave and gallant outlaw."

The crimes committed by Starr's innermost circle--stagecoach stickups, bank robbery, horse theft--would take her from war-torn Carthage to rollicking Scyene, Texas, until she finally settled in Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). And although Starr indeed ran in the same circles as notorious outlaws Jesse James and the Younger brothers, the crimes ascribed to her were greatly embellished--including the fact that the allegedly bloodthirsty Starr more than likely never killed a single person.

Turning a redemptive eye to Belle Starr's tarnished legacy, Wallis crafts an illuminating portrait of a woman demonized for refusing to accept the genteel Victorian ideals expected of her, a woman who chose instead to live her life outside the law, riding sidesaddle with a pearl-handled Colt .45 strapped to her hip.



Author: Michael Wallis
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Published: 06/24/2025
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.50lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.40w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9781631494772


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 04/18/2025 pg. 9
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2025
Booklist 05/01/2025 pg. 18
Publishers Weekly 07/14/2025

About the Author
Wallis, Michael: - Michael Wallis, author of The Best Land Under Heaven and the best-selling Route 66 and Billy the Kid, has published nineteen books and won numerous awards and honors. He is a popular public speaker and voice actor and lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.