Myra Maybelle Belle Shirley, AKA Belle Starr was reinvented by the media, as were many others. She was from an affluent Southern family, raised in...
Belle Starr
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wild women
Don’t Bet Against a Sporting Girl
How soiled doves tried to beat the odds against hypocrisy and politicians For several decades, Hollywood has had a fine time portraying...
Swinging Doors, Dance Hall Girls and Whiskey
For seven decades, True West has celebrated the historic saloon in fact and fiction. When True West’s founder Joe Small published his first issue of...
Opening Shot
Wanton Women of Montana In the 1890s, prostitution and red-light district brothels were common across the Big Sky State. In this unknown Montana...
A Diary of a Monumental Trip
Susan Magoffin recorded what happened on the Santa Fe Trail. Susan Shelby Magoffin was a remarkable woman for her time—for any time, when it comes...
Women Peace Officers in the West
Were there any women peace officers in the Old West? Holly Dew (Ahwatukee, AZ) I haven't run across any from the Old West and I believe if there was...
Whole Lotta Love
Giving our mothers and grandmothers their due is more than satisfying. Back in 1994 I had it on my schedule to do one of my timeline books on “The...
Arizona’s Most Colorful Ladies of the Evening
Several come to mind including Miss Edith, who had a business near the railroad tracks in my hometown. I delivered her newspaper and ran small...
A Real Woman Bandit
Pearl Hart was a wildcat on and off the outlaw trail. Few Old West outlaws have had so many myths written about them as Pearl Hart, the Arizona...
Pearl Hart: “The Girl Bandit”
For most of her life Pearl Hart lived in dismal obscurity. She got her chance for fifteen minutes of fame following a bungled stagecoach robbery on...
The Last Ride of Bonnie McCarroll
An on-the-scene account you’ve likely never heard until now. Perhaps the best known photo of a woman bronc riding is the 1915 image of Bonnie...
Kate Warne, Detective Extraordinaire
The Union Pacific Railroad took a dim view of outlaws blowing up one of their express cars and they failed to see the humor in money falling from...