Belle of the Starr Hollow
(Friday, September 17, 2004
Pete Kendall

Bandit queen Belle Starr

(Editor’s Note: This is Part One of a two-part series.)

Gracious living still appeals to Belle Starr. The old gal is alive and well, along with son Pistol, at Starr Hollow Ranch and Golf Club, a little bit of paradise between Tolar and Lipan.
Belle has mellowed considerably since a scandalous stint as America’s queen of chaos in the 19th century. Her bark these days is worse than her bite. She’ll lick your hand if you call her a dog … perhaps because she is one.
The four-legged Belle is a current resident of the sprawling estate.

The original Belle is nowhere to be found, though many believe she passed through on more than one occasion.
It’s part of the rich folklore surrounding Starr Hollow and among a number of weighty research issues for Fort Worth advertising magnate Scott Dally, who hopes to publish a literary and photographic history of the place.
Myra Maybelle Shirley Starr was born Feb. 5, 1848 to John and Elizabeth Shirley on a farm near Carthage, Mo. Belle, as she was known, was educated in private schools.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, which exhausted her family’s fortunes, Belle took a walk on the wild side. She gave birth to daughter Rosie Lee out of wedlock. She married rapscallion Jim Reed.
Reed took up with the Cole Younger, Jesse James and Tom Starr gangs, which defied authority in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma Indian Territory. You name it, they stole it.
After Reed was killed by a deputy sheriff east of Dallas, Belle cohabitated with Bruce Younger of the sociopathic Younger clan. That didn’t last. Belle then married Native American horse thief Sam Starr in 1880. Sam taught her the tricks of his trade, and Belle instructed him in hers.
Both did time in the Detroit, Mich., House of Corrections. She was all accounts a model prisoner. He was not.
Belle accumulated a lengthy list of professional and personal enemies, some of them kin. On Feb. 3, 1889, an anonymous gunman ambushed and killed her in old Choctaw Nation on the present Oklahoma border. There were, it seems, numerous suspects. Authorities never got around to arresting one.
Belle was reportedly buried in the front yard of her cabin at Younger’s Bend on the Canadian River.
There are those who question such factoids.
Some believe she was buried at Starr Hollow … or at least nearby. In Evergreen Cemetery at Lipan rests someone named “B. Star.” Maybe she wanted to rest in anonymity. It’s one of life’s little mysteries. Death’s, too.
“At this point in my research, I don’t believe she’s buried around here, but I would add that I don’t think my opinion matters very much,” Dally said with a grin. “There are people who know a great deal more about it than I do.”
Belle and numerous others of her ilk traveled widely throughout North Texas. Many hid from pursuers in the Palo Pinto Mountains. Sam Bass Canyon, near Mineral Wells, attracted desperados and coyotes in equal numbers. The coyotes had more scruples.
“There seems to be evidence that Belle had family in the North Texas area,” Dally said. “There is some evidence that she had a brother living in the Palo Pinto Mountains, a hangout for bandits. The land was so rough that lawmen wouldn’t go in after them.
“I’m extremely confident that she was very active on a number of occasions in this area. I’m extremely confident that she was one very rough female who knew how to use her femininity to get whatever she wanted.
“I’m fairly confident she owned and knew how to use firearms. I’m fairly confident there was a great deal of larceny in her heart. I’m very confident that she associated with people who were wanted by the law and who were guilty of all kinds of crimes in this area.
“Having said that, how many banks did she personally rob? How many horses did she personally steal? I don’t know. I don’t have a feel for that. I do feel strongly that she operated livery stables and sold horses and that her last husband did not acquire horses by legitimate means.
“He was like all the other men with whom she associated, a noted criminal.”
He did have a catchy last name.
“That’s where her name Starr came from,” Dally said.

If Belle possessed redeeming traits, researchers such as Dally have yet to unearth them.
“She was very much a female but not so much a lady,” Dally said. “There’s no doubt she hung out with a lot of bandits. The question is how much stuff she did herself.”
Her murder may have been unrelated to any supposed crime.
It may have been a payback for a personal transgression. She committed a few of those.
History states she met her demise while riding down a dusty road on a horse. There were no witnesses.
She was not forgotten.
“Her daughter (Pearl) ended up running a couple of brothels,” Dally said. “With the money she made from that, she was able to pay for Belle’s tombstone … or so the story goes.”
The tombstone inscription reads, reverentially:

Shed not for her the bitter tear,
Nor give the heart to vain regret;
’Tis but the casket that lies here,
The gem that filled it sparkles yet.

As it turned out, Belle was a legend after her time. Her exploits, or supposed exploits, were chronicled by Richard K. Fox in his 1889 novella “Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James.”
It was Marvin Leonard, a Fort Worth business mogul and golf course builder, who bought Star Hollow Ranch in 1965-66 and added an “r” to the name in remembrance of Belle. The late Mr. Marvin, as he was known, had an eye for history shared by daughters Marty Leonard and Madelon L. Bradshaw. They oversee the golfing and ranching operations now.
The four-legged Belle Starr is highly public. She feels right at home on Starr Hollow’s 3,000-plus acres.
The two-legged Belle Starr might favor seclusion in a Starr Hollow sand trap.
“I don’t think she had any problems with luxury surroundings,” Dally, a Starr Hollow member, said, “but this place might be a little too accessible to the law for her comfort.”
Starr Hollow’s 9-hole golf course might be her greatest comfort zone.
“If Belle put her mind to it, she could probably beat you fair and square at golf,” Dally said. “She was apparently a pretty persistent woman.”

Part Two, Tuesday

Scott Dally wants to hear from anyone with historical information, maps and photographs related to the history of Starr Hollow Ranch. He can be reached at (817) 332-5299 or e-mail sdally@dally.com

Pete Kendall can be reached at (817) 573-7066, ext. 248, or e-mail pkendall@hcnews.com