Belle Starr

[gerhard1]

Here is the wiki article on her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Starr

I noticed one oddity from the article.

According to Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton, her death was due to different circumstances. She had been attending a dance. Frank Eaton had been the last person to dance with Belle Starr when Edgar Watson, clearly intoxicated had asked to dance with her. When Belle Starr declined, he later followed her. When on the way home, she stopped to give her horse a drink at a creek, he shot and killed her. According to Frank Eaton, Watson was tried, convicted and executed by hanging for the murder.[6]

However, another story says there were no witnesses and no one was ever convicted of the murder. Suspects with apparent motive included her new husband and both of her children, as well as Edgar J. Watson, one of her sharecroppers, because he was afraid she was going to turn him in to the authorities as an escaped murderer from Florida with a price on his head. Watson, who was killed in 1910, was tried for her murder, but was acquitted, and the ambush has entered Western lore as "unsolved".

The problem with what Eaton says is there is no record of Watson's execution. I searched the Espy database, both by state (Oklahoma and Arkansas) and turned up nothing. I then searched by name and drew another blank.

It appears, then, that if either of these versions are true, it is the second one.

Admittedly, I've just scratched the surface here and more research is needed before any reasonable conclusions can be reached.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... It appears, then, that if either of these versions are true, it is the second one. ...

Perhaps the most efficient way of demonstrating it had to be the 2nd version would be to look for records on Edgar J. Watson after his association with Belle Starr.

This Wikipedia article on Chokoloskee, Florida:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokoloskee,_Florida

... includes an extensive account of Watson's life and crimes after he moved there from out west.

 

[escargot]

How about a little explanation of why Belle Starr is of interest, in your own words, rather than asking people to read a Wiki page?

 

[ramonmercado]

@EnolaGaia Perhaps this thread should be merged with Female Gunslingers.

 

[EnolaGaia]

@EnolaGaia Perhaps this thread should be merged with Female Gunslingers.

I thought about that, but decided against it. The Female Gunslinger thread (at least initially ...) addresses contemporary sport / competition shooters.

Belle Starr was a historical outlaw figure.

 

[gerhard1]

How about a little explanation of why Belle Starr is of interest, in your own words, rather than asking people to read a Wiki page?

Below is why I started this thread.

From the "Female Gunslinger" thread

On the actual subject - Belle Starr was a female shootist, and her death remains a bit of a mystery, does it not? I was thinking her worthy of Fortean interest - and it's in my mind that we may even have a thread dedicated to her somewhere.

 

[Spookdaddy]

Belle Starr was a well known female outlaw in the American Wild West - unusual in itself. (Female outlaws were probably not as unusual as one might expect, but her individual notoriety is).

The circumstances of her death are attended by some mystery.

Granted, not exactly the Nazca Lines - but we've had much less qualify as interesting.

(And I am sure that she's been the subject of discussion some time in the dim and distant past - but can't find any surviving evidence of that now.)

 

[gerhard1]

Belle Starr was a well known female outlaw in the American Wild West - unusual in itself. (Female outlaws were probably not as unusual as one might expect, but her individual notoriety is).

The circumstances of her death are attended by some mystery.

Granted, not exactly the Nazca Lines - but we've had much less qualify as interesting.

(And I am sure that she's been the subject of discussion some time in the dim and distant past - but can't find any surviving evidence of that now.)

Nor can I.

I think unsolved mysteries qualify as forteana. Look at Jack the Ripper.

 

[escargot]

Below is why I started this thread.

From the "Female Gunslinger" thread

I hadn't read that thread so didn't know why she was important.