orig. Myra Belle Shirley
born Feb. 5, 1848, Washington county, Mo., U.S.
died Feb. 3, 1889, near Briartown, Okla.
U.S. outlaw.
She grew up in Missouri and later moved to a farm at Scyene, near Dallas, Texas. She bore a child by the outlaw Cole Younger (1844–1916) and another by Jim Reed, with whom she rustled cattle and horses in Texas in 1869. She fashioned herself the "bandit queen," dressing in velvet and feathers or buckskin and moccasins. In 1880 she became the common-law wife of Sam Starr, and their Oklahoma ranch became an outlaws' hideout. Sam was killed in a gunfight in 1886, and Belle herself was later shot down near her ranch.