Female Outlaw Pearl Hart By: Julie Lence

Pearl Hart was born in 1871 in Canada, with the birth name of Pearl Taylor. One of several children, and her parents of French descent, she was raised in a middle class home and sent to boarding school when she was 16. While at school, she met smooth talker Frank Hart, who filled her head with romantic tales of an exciting life in the wild west. In reality, he was nothing more than an abusive drunk, but Pearl fell in love with him and married him. The two left Canada and eventually landed in Chicago.

Women's Bldg at the Fair, Pinterest

Chicago was a changing point for Pearl. She attended the 1893 World’s Fair, featuring a Women’s Pavilion. A large array of females spoke on the Women’s Suffrage topic and Pearl took to heart that she could be more than just a wife, as her upbringing taught her. She also attended a Wild West show featuring Annie Oakley. Pearl was in awe of Annie’s shooting skills, and accompanied with the what she learned at the fair, she got up the gumption and left her abusive, unable-to-hold-a-job husband. She landed in Trinidad, Colorado, but soon found out she was pregnant and went back to Canada. After giving birth, she realized the lure of the west still beckoned and lit out for the states, leaving her son with her parents.

Pearl met up with her husband again and took him back on his promise that he was a changed man and capable of holding a job. For a while he held a maintained the positions of bartender and manager at a hotel, but all too soon, he and Pearl began partying, with Pearl learning to drink and smoke and use drugs. Problems arose between them again, and Frank left shortly after she gave birth to their daughter and joined Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, stating home life wasn’t for him. Pearl traveled back to Canada again and left her second child with her parents.

Courtesy of American Cowboy 

She found her way to Arizona and worked the mining camps as a cook, taking up drinking and opium use and not finding the romance and excitement of the west she longed for. Rumors suggested she tried to commit suicide several times, but was always saved by the miners, one of whom she formed a partnership with. Joe Boot was from German descent and he and Pearl began working their own claim when Pearl received a letter that her mother was gravely ill and needed money for the doctor’s bills. To acquire the money, Pearl and Joe thought to rob a train but decided to rob a stagecoach instead. Pearl cut her hair, dressed in Joe’s clothes, and together, they held up a stage. They came away with over $400 and the guard’s revolver and took off on their horses. But not knowing the land, they rode for two days then made camp and fell asleep, and woke to a posse surrounding them.

Courtesy of Pinterest

In Jail, Pearl became an instant celebrity. A lady bandit was rare. Remembering everything she learned from the Women’s Suffragette talks in Chicago, she began spouting she wouldn’t be tried in a court of law under rules men made and not women. Signing autographs and posing for pictures from her cell, the press loved her, and so did civilians. Ed Hogan was so smitten with her, he helped break her out of jail. She was found and brought back, and eventually went to trail. The jury found her innocent, especially after her defense lawyer brought into play she’d never been in trouble in the past and the only reason she robbed the stage was because of her mother’s health. The judge was furious with the decision and tried her on charges of stealing the guard’s gun and unlawfully carrying of a weapon. She was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in Yuma. Joe received a 30 year sentence to Yuma.

Pearl became an even bigger celebrity and legend while in Yuma, earning the nickname Lady Bandit. The warden liked her and gave her a larger cell, and she again posed for pictures and signed autographs. She was released after serving 18 months and moved to Kansas City. Her sister wrote a production based on Pearl’s ‘Lady Bandit’ persona of which Pearl was to star in, but it never really caught on and Pearl disappeared from the public eye. A few years later, she was arrested for purchasing a stolen can of food. After that, she disappeared again and surfaced in 1924 at the Arizona courthouse she was tried in. She remarked to the attendant that nothing had changed since her last visit. He asked who she was and she replied, Pearl Hart, the lady bandit.

Rumors have abounded as to what happened to Pearl after this. Some say she died in Kansas City after operating a cigar shop. Others hint she lived in San Francisco until her death in 1952. A third suggests she married a rancher in Arizona and died under the name Pearl Bywater in 1956. She is wrongly credited with being the last person to rob a stage. The last stagecoach robbery was in 1916 in Jarbridge, Nevada. She is also not the only woman to ever rob a stage. Jane Kirkham was killed robbing a stage between Leadville and Buena Vista, Colorado in March 1879.

Such and interesting woman, and such a hard life Pearl led. 

The Infamous - Edward 'Ned' Kelly by Susan Horsnell

In the United States there are a number of infamous outlaws, Billy The Kid, Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, just to name a few. In Britain, John Clavell, Gubbins Band and Friar Tuck.

In Australia, our most infamous and well known outlaw – known as a Bushranger - would have to be Edward 'Ned' Kelly.  This month, I will touch on some of his escapades which led to his eventual capture and hanging.

"SUCH IS LIFE" – Ned Kelly's words when, Mr. Castieau, the governor of the gaol, informed the condemned man that the hour of execution had been fixed at ten o'clock. It is one of the most famous sayings to this day used by thousands of Australians.

Ned Kelly's father, John Kelly (known as "Red"), was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and was transported in 1841, at the age of 22, from Tipperary to Tasmania for pig stealing. After his release in 1848, Red Kelly moved to Victoria and found work at James Quinn's farm at Wallan Wallan as a bush carpenter. He subsequently turned his attention to gold-digging, at which he was successful and which enabled him to purchase a small freehold in Beveridge, just north of Melbourne.

Kelly was born in the town of Beveridge in the British colony of Victoria to an Irish convict father and an Irish-Australian mother. The exact date of his birth is unknown but thought to be anytime from December 1854 – June 1855. His father died after a six-month stint in prison for unlawful possession of a bullock hide, when Kelly was about 12.

Kelly's first documented brush with the law was on 15 October 1869 at the age of 14 when he was charged with the assault and robbery of Ah Fook, a pig and fowl trader from a Chinese camp near Bright. According to Fook, as he was passing Kelly's house, Kelly approached him with a long bamboo stick, announcing that he was a bushranger and would kill him if he did not hand over his money. Kelly then allegedly took him into the bush, beat him with the stick and stole 10 shillings. 

Following an incident at his family's home in 1878, police parties searched for Kelly in the bush. After he, his brother and two colleagues killed three policemen, the colonial government proclaimed Kelly and his gang wanted outlaws.

A final violent confrontation with police took place at Glenrowan on 28 June 1880. Kelly, dressed in homemade plate metal armor and a helmet, was captured and sent to jail. He was convicted of three counts of willful murder and hanged at Old Melbourne Gaol in November 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folklore, literature, art and film.

In August 2011, anthropologists announced that a skeleton found in a mass grave in Pentridge Prison had been confirmed as Kelly's. His skull, however, remains missing.

Bushranging was said to have ended with the shooting of the Kelly Gang in 1880 at Glenrowan, Victoria, made possible by the introduction of the Felons Apprehension Act 1865 (NSW) which allowed outlawed bushrangers to be shot, rather than arrested and sent to trial.

The stories, myths and facts surrounding Ned Kelly are numerous and varied. There is far too much information on the bushranger and his gang to cover it all here but I have touched on some of the more interesting aspects. 

The following is a rough timeline of his life:

1854/1855: Born Edward Kelly in Beveridge, north of Melbourne. 
1869: A 14-year-old Kelly assaults a Chinese pig farmer and spends close to two weeks in police custody. 
October 1870: Arrested again for assault. 1871: Arrested for riding a stolen horse and fighting with police. Sentenced to three years' jail. 
April 1878: Ned Kelly goes into hiding after being accused of assaulting a police officer. 
October 1878: Ned Kelly and his gang kill three police from a group sent to track him down at Stringy Bark Creek in bushland near Mansfield. 
December 1878: Ned Kelly and his gang hold up a bank in Euroa. 
February 1879: Ned Kelly and his gang dress as cops and rob a bank in Jerilderie. 
June 1880: Shootout between police and the Kelly gang at Glenrowan Inn. Ned Kelly is arrested, the three members of his gang die in the shootout. 
October 1880: Ned Kelly faces trial and is sentenced to death. 

11 November 1880: Ned Kelly is hanged. Two Melbourne newspapers report his last words to the Governor of the Goal as, "Such is life". 
1929: The remains of prisoners, including Ned Kelly's remains, transferred from Old Melbourne Gaol to Pentridge Prison. 
November 2009: A skull believed to belong to Ned Kelly is given to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification. The skull was proven not to be that of Ned Kelly but efforts to identify his remains among those exhumed from Pentridge Prison begin. 
1 September 2011: Victorian government announces the remains are those of Edward 'Ned' Kelly   18 January 2013: Ned Kelly's remains are buried

Susan Horsnell - Western Romance Author 

http://horsnells.wix.com/susan--1