Belle Starr: "The Bandit Queen"

Burton Rascoe

• Publisher: Bonhopai Books
• eBook ISBN:
  9781779792365
• Year: 2025

 In  Belle Starr: "The Bandit Queen" , celebrated critic and journalist Burton Rascoe delivers a vivid portrait of one of the American West's most notorious—and misunderstood—outlaws. Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, known as Belle Starr, was a symbol of rebellion, intrigue, and scandal in post–Civil War America. Rascoe separates legend from fact as he traces Starr's life from her Southern roots in Missouri to her associations with Confederate sympathizers, cattle rustlers, and outlaw gangs, including the infamous James and Younger brothers. With literary flair and journalistic rigor, Rascoe explores the socio-political chaos of Reconstruction-era frontier life that gave rise to women like Belle—independent, defiant, and ultimately tragic. Through meticulous research and a sharp sense of narrative, the book paints a compelling picture of a woman caught between myth and reality.  Belle Starr  is both a historical biography and a cultural study of how America creates and consumes its own legends. 

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ILLUSTRATIONS
• PART ONE — FOLKLORE AND HISTORY
• PART TWO — “QUEEN OF THE BANDITS”
• APPENDIX
• THREE — CHRONOLOGY AND NECROLOGY
• GLOSSARY
• BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW