Belle Starr

            My hip muscles still bothered me on Wednesday when I got up but it felt like the exercises I found online to tackle piriformis syndrome might be hitting the spot. I’m hopeful that if I do them regularly I’ll be able to strengthen my glutes enough to get back on my bike for some long rides.

            I had a burger for lunch with ketchup, mustard, relish, tomato, lettuce and a slice of pickle.

            I weighed 90.1 kilos in the afternoon.

            I started a project of making a video of me performing "Young Women and Older Men" from the morning of July 27, 2017. I also did a pretty good version of “Insisting on Angels” but for a split second the video kind of whites out for some reason. But it's the only good version I have so I might make a video from it anyway.

            I had an egg, a piece of toast and a beer for dinner while watching two episodes of Stories of the Century.

            The first one was about Belle Starr and begins with her arriving in a town to find her husband Sam having just gambled away all of the money she gave him to put in the bank. She knocks him around , robs all the gamblers and rides out of town. Her specialty is horse thievery and Matt Clark the fictional railroad detective is called in when Belle steals a herd of horses waiting to be shipped by rail. There’s always a female railroad detective collaborating with Clark and this one is Frankie Adams. Adams is working undercover as a dressmaker in the town near where Belle lives and she is making a dress for her. Adams is supposed to help arrest Starr in two days when they have rounded up the evidence and witnesses they need but Belle shows up two days early and so Adams pulls a gun on her. After a long fight Belle knocks Adams out and escapes with her husband. Her husband is later captured and at the jail the sheriff is having a drink. Matt suggests he offer a drink to Sam. The sheriff says, “What? Give a drink to that drunken …” He didn’t finish but he was obviously going to say “Indian”. Matt’s idea is to get Sam drunk so he can tell them Belle’s whereabouts. Later Belle busts Sam out of jail. They try to get away with the stolen herd but they are captured. They spend a year in prison. It is recounted that later Sam is killed in a gunfight and later still Belle was shot and killed while riding by an unknown assailant.

            Belle Starr was born Maybelle Shirley and her family called her May. Her father was fairly well off and sent Belle to receive a classical education at the Carthage Female Academy in Missouri. Belle grew up with the James boys and the Youngers in Missouri. Belle was a crack shot and she liked to dress up. She rode sidesaddle while wearing a black velvet riding habit, accessorized by two crossed holsters and pistols and a plumed hat. Historians agree that she was murdered but not by whom. Belle had a daughter named Pearl who became a prostitute and madame. Pearl had a daughter named Flossie who published an article about her family in 1933.

I know there were female detectives in the old west but I don’t know if there were that many. The first female detective was hired by Pinkerton in 1956.

This was the first episode of the series.

The second story I watched was episode 25 and it was about Ben Thompson, a gambler and a murderer. He did not seem to be a very good gambler in this depiction. It starts with a poker game on a train. Ben is losing and when he’s caught cheating he shoots his accuser and the conductor. He is hired by a man named Kane who wants Ben to scare away some settlers so he can take their land and sell it to the railroad. Matt Clark the fictional railroad detective, in hopes of tracking down Thompson gets hired as a blackjack dealer at the saloon belonging to Thompson’s sometimes girlfriend, Texas Bess. Thompson arrives in town on a stage, flirting with the female railroad detective Frankie Adams who is also working undercover. Ben loses his money at blackjack but when giving Matt a hard time Matt knocks him out. Ben spends a night in jail and Kane comes to pay his bail. Ben goes to work for Kane. Matt comes to stop Ben from scaring away the settlers. Since Ben has failed at his job Kane refuses to pay. There is a shootout and they kill each other.

Texas Bess was played in a low rent version of Mae West style by Claire Carleton, who did lots of feature films as a supporting actor, numerous TV shows and stage appearances.

As has been the case with all of the stories in this series, the real life story of Ben Thompson is far more compelling than the fictionalized one. Ben Thompson was a gambler and a gunman but he was also at several points of his life a lawman. Thompson was born in England and came with his family to Texas when he was eight years old. He fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War and after that fought for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico against the revolutionaries. While he was away from Texas he found out that his wife was being physically abused by her brother. When he returned he attacked him and spent two years in prison for attempted murder. 

Thompson opened a saloon in Abilene, Kansas where he became friends with John Wesley Hardin and enemies with the sheriff, Wild Bill Hickock. Thompson moved to Fort Elliot, Texas where he befriended and defended Bat Masterson. Thompson became a marshal in Austin, Texas until he got into a dispute with and shot and killed the owner of the Vaudeville Variety Theatre in San Antonio. He was charged with murder but was acquitted and resigned his position as marshal. He didn’t become a cop again but when he returned to Austin the people welcomed him. Three years later when he returned to the Vaudeville Theatre he was assassinated.