Here's A Female Outlaw You've Never Heard Of
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! Today I have a story about a little-known outlaw that I think you'll find interesting. Her name is Pearl Hart and she was a small time thief out West in the late 1800's.
She was born in Canada and came from a good, middle class family but she fell for a dirt-bag gambler named Fred and they eloped, she was 17 at the time. They went to Chicago where Fred worked as a barker for the Columbian Exposition and she worked side jobs.
There were two major influences in her life that hit her at that time. One was when she attended one of Wild West shows and saw Annie Oakley perform. The other was at the Chicago World Fair and listened to some women speakers who were activists talking about feminism.
She loved the idea of being out in the Old West, which by this time was disappearing, and she saw herself as a strong, independant woman. Which she wasn't but wanted to be.
Pearl married a real loser
Fred was a lousy husband. He was drinking heavily, he gambled all their money away and he was abusive so she left him and traveled West to Colorado and became a popular saloon singer. She also found out she was pregnant with Fred's baby so she went back home to Canada and had the child there.
She didn't stay there though, she liked her lifestyle in the West so she left the baby with her mom and went South again, this time to Arizona. She worked as a cook in a restaurant and Fred found her and convinced her to give him another shot at marriage. He promised to be more stable and get a steady job, which he did.
More bad choices
The problem is they started going to all the gambling halls and Pearl started smoking and drinking and even started smoking marijuana and taking morphine which was the drug of choice at the time.
They had a second baby but their marriage deteriorated. Fred was bored with married life and was tired of supporting a family. He knocked her unconscious in a big argument and ran off to join the army. Wow what a worthless pile of crap. Good riddance scumbag!
Pearl then goes back home to Canada but she couldn't stand it, the call of the West was still on her so she left to go South again, leaving her two kids behind!
This lady made more bad decisions than I can keep track of! She almost reminds me of a female Elmer from a couple of posts ago! lol. It's sad really, not funny, so I shouldn't be laughing.
Pearl chooses another idiot
Ok, so she goes back to Arizona and hooks up with a cat named Boot, he was a real winner also, trying to be a miner. It wasn't long before she got a letter from her brother in Canada saying that their mom was sick and they needed money for medical bills.
Well shoot, Pearl needs to come up with some money fast because that's not just her mom we're talking about but her babysitter! Pearl sure as heck doesn't want to have to go back to Cananda again and get stuck taking care of her own kids! Heaven forbid.
Well Boot comes to the rescue because see, he's been thinking about robbing a stagecoach! lol. There are very few left in the whole nation what with the proliferation of railroads everywhere but there is one that he knows about.
This is like Pearl's dream come true. She'll get to take part in a real Wild West event, ride a horse and carry a gun..just like she's fantasized for years.
The big heist
The day of the robbery came. Pearl had cut her hair short and dressed in men's clothes to diguise herself. The stage hadn't been robbed in so many years that they didn't have a shotgun guard, just the driver.
Pearl and Boot jumped out in front of the stage and stopped the driver. Boot held up the drive while Pearl had all the passengers get out and empty their pockets, purses and wallets. She collected a little over $450 which in today's money is about $14,000. She felt a little compassion however, and gaveback $1 to each of them. lol.
So far so good. They rode off into the desert. The problem is, they didn't know the lay of the land and didn't know the desert. That means they got lost and basically rode around in circles.
The third night they were camped in a grove of trees with a nice fire going at night. When they woke up the next morning they were surrounded by the Sheriff's posse.
The trial
The trial went very well for Pearl. She was charming, it was her first offense, the jury felt compassion after hearing that she was just trying to get money for her mom's medical bills. She was very convincing on the stand and they acquitted her.
The judge was highly upset though and said that she had "flirted" with the jury. He put together a new jury and tried her for the illegal possession of a firearm.
This jury didn't buy her story and she was sentenced to 5 years in the Yuma, Arizona Territorial Prison.
The girl had spunk though. While she was waiting in jail to be transported to prison she dug through a wall and escaped. She was caught soon after but she was already getting lots of press coverage so this event only added to her fame as a "lady bandit."
Once she got to prison she was given some special treatment like and extra large cell and access to reporters who kept coming around for interviews. Of course the warden loved the press coverage so he was delighted so the perks continued.
This prison photo looks awful rough, I think it was staged by the press for dramatic affect:
The press built her up saying that she was the only female bandit to ever hold up a stage, which wasn't true. Belle Starr held up a stage and there was one other female who held one up. They also said that this was the last stage coach robbery in the Old West and that wasn't true either but what can you say, does the press ever fail to exaggerate?
Pearl didn't serve her 5 years because she got pregnant again! The warden said she was paroled for good behavior but everyone knows that he didn't want to explain how she got pregnant while in his prison. lol.
She did give up on her criminal behavior though. She married an Arizona rancher and lived a quiet life until she passed in the 1950's.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
PS- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:
You keep a fly swatter in the car so you can reach the kids in the back seat!
Howddyyy @janton sir a great read ...though these are never been familiar to me...pretty odd stuff untill I came across your post
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howdy sir steemflow! yes sir there are some strange stories that I tell but they are all true which makes them even more strange! lol. Thanks so much for reading and commenting! I'm so far behind on steemit that I haven't made it over to the League results yet but I bet you did well!
Haha...do not say that sir. You have set a bar and it's getting impossible for anyone to breach through it. ...not even me. I was almost out last couple of weeks due to some festival and homely stuff. the best surprising thing, even though you are not considering yourself in still no one is dare to get closer to you......steem on...you got those robotic hands to comment so fastly and rapidly..
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Howdy there steem-ua! Thank you for the upvote and for helping so many of us, God bless you!
There is PEARL again you know I love her snd want to be like her 😉😉💪
lol! But she was an outlaw brittandjosie! We wouldn't want you to get thrown in prison! lol. I know what you mean though as far as her having spirit and spunk! And she did finally make a good decision as far as marrying a good man. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Except for the jail part I feel her in me 😉
I agree brittandjosie, you would have been a force to be reckoned with in the Wild West!
Am I allowed a sabal and say MAY THIS FORCE BE WITH YOU I would love to do that like in the movies 😉😉
haha! Howdy brittandjosie! And you would be excellent at that, movies or real life! lol.
These stories never seam to have a very happy ending do they @janton?
😂
/FF
Howdy there friendly-fenix! Well most of them don't but this one did because she got married, settled down and apparently lived by the law the rest of her life. I guess that makes it boring compared to alot of the people I write about though!
Oh, oops I just missed that last part after prison, I guess that was probably happy...
/FF
howdy back sir friendly-fenix! Well, for one of my stories it's surprisingly happy! lol.
I guess I skimmed through it too fast, stopped at the warden being happy with all the media attention at the prison, and then missed that part about her being happy ever after on a ranch somewhere... =)
Well sir friendly-fenix people tell me that I need to make my posts shorter and most of them are but I wanted to fit the whole story in this one because it wasn't that long of a story but it did make the post longer so I assume that most people skim through. But I appreciate your reading and commenting!
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Thank you so much c-squared and thank you for helping so many people!
Another fun story. You really have a nack for taking us there.
This gal has spunk!
Howdy tonight rebeccabe! Thanks for the kind words, yeah I admired her spunky spirit too! She should have come to Texas and she would have fit right in!
@janton,
Great story, great write!
Lousy subject, though. Call me judgmental, but I've never been impressed by the adventures of shitty people, male or female. Someone had to pay the price for her excitements ... her children and her mother for starters. She's lucky I wasn't on the jury ... I'm a very convincing fellow and I possess a healthy respect for karma. :-)
Quill
Howdy sir quillfire! haha! I know what you mean, about half of my stories have been about criminals because people like action stories so that's good and bad. They usually get what's coming to them but their adventures are about them being bad and causing trouble! But they do have some entertaining tales.thanks so much for reading and commenting!
She looks really tough I those pictures. It's kind of remarkable how she just settled down after all that! I wonder whatever became of her kids. Great post, and very informative! :)
Howdy snowpea! Thanks for the kind words. Yes I think she finally picked the right man who wasn't a thief, that helps!
A happy enough ending. :-)
haha! yes sir Vincent, for a story of mine it's a "lived happily ever after" story! lol. But I keep asking people what kind of stories they want to hear and they say the want action! But most action stories of the Wild West involve death. lol. But hopefully they're not boring.
So far, all your stories are interesting. :-)
thanks, I'll try to keep them that way but no guarantees! lol it's hard to hit a good one every single day.
Wow, interesting lady. She must have been charismatic. I'm glad this one has a good ending.
Howdy ginnyannette! what, you're saying my stories don't have good endings? lol. I know, well I ask people what kind of stories they want and they say ACTION! But most action stories from the Old West involve people getting killed! But at least they aren't boring, hopefully. This is a good story for a Sunday. She lived happily ever after. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
Ha, I meant "happy" ending, not "good" ending. Your stories are good even when they aren't happy.
I like your stories. When I have free time in the evening I like to stop and read them. A good bit of history that I am not familiar with.
Thank you so much ginnyannette! I should write about Florida's history when there were still Indians and how all that went down but I wonder what people refer to that as? I mean over here we had the Old West but over in your part we had the Old East I guess but I've never heard it called that before have you? Or do you know what they called it when it was being settled? Or are they still trying to settle it? lol.
Hmm...that's a good question. I don't think we have a name. I don't believe much was going on in south Florida until much later. St. Augustine was the only happening place for a long time. The Florida crackers were trotting around here, cracking their whips and so forth, for quite a while though :)
My immediate area has a lot of historical landmarks involving the Seminole Wars and Osceola. Interesting stuff.
So the Seminole wars were to drive those tribes out of Florida? What are the Florida crackers? The only crackers I've heard of are the slave drivers or foremen who would crack their whips.
It's been a while, but from what I remember there were treaties set up that were not in the favor of the Indians, but they had little choice. I believe it was the Treaty of Moutrie that agreed the Indians would take land west of the Mississippi and hit the road. Osceola didn't like this, and skirmishes began. By that time the natives from my region, the Timucuans, had long since died out. The Seminoles had become one squished together group of many different native cultures.
I don't know much about the Florida crackers. I think they are mysterious figures in history. The "cracker" comes from them cracking their whips on their cattle I believe. They were outcast white people that kept their own company. They existed on cornmeal, which I think has something to do with another theory as to how they got their name "cracker", but I don't recall that story.
Oh, very interesting. I'm sure there is some rich history lessons to dig up on the way the Indians were treated and moved out of Florida. I've never found one tribe that was dealt with fairly. I wonder if there are any Seminoles left? I don't even know if Florida has any reservations, I think most states to do though.