Question: What Texan was known as the “Bandit Queen”?
Answer: Belle Starr. Born Myra Maybelle Shirley in 1848 in Missouri, she moved to Texas with her family in 1864, where outlaws Jesse James and the Younger brother used their home as a hideout. She married horse thief and cattle rustler Jim Reed in 1866, and she is believed to have supported his criminal activity by selling the animals he stole. Reed was killed by a deputy sheriff in 1874, and a few years later, Belle married Sam Starr, with whom she was charged with horse theft. She was sentenced to two six-month terms in a Detroit prison, where she became known as the “Bandit Queen.”
