What should have been a life of modesty and respect, instead
turned into a life of crime and legend.
Pearl Taylor, the daughter of
middle-class parents in Ontario, Canada, met and fell in love at the age of seventeen
with a Nar ‘do well gambler and drinker, Fred Hart and eloped.
Five years later, in 1893, the couple made their way to the
Colombian Exposition in Chicago where Fred found a job as a sideshow
barker. Pearl worked a number of odd
jobs and escaped her dreary life by spending the afternoons watching Buffalo
Bill’s Wild West show and dreaming of the romantic West.
Finally tiring of her hard-drinking, abusive husband, Pearl
packed up and headed West for the start of a new life. Unfortunately, it was a short-lived
dream when she discovered she was pregnant. She returned to Canada and her
family for the support they could give her.
After giving birth to a son, Pearl left the baby in her mother’s care
and moved to Arizona. She worked odd
jobs to support herself in a less than glamorous and heroic West than she had
envisioned.
Fred followed her trail and when he caught up with her, he
begged forgiveness and promised changes.
For a while, the couple lived a happier domestic life, however, after
the arrival of a daughter Fred abandoned his family, allegedly to join Teddy
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.
Pearl once again returned to her parents for support. She didn’t stay long and soon returned to
Arizona, leaving both her children behind.
Once back in the West, she worked odd jobs and as a cook in the various
mining towns. In 1899, she took up with
a miner by the name of Joe Boot. After she received word that her mother was
ill and needed money for medical care, she and Joe devised several schemes to
raise the money. When none of them
proved lucrative enough, they decided to rob the Globe-to-Florence stagecoach.
With her hair cut and wearing Joe’s clothing, Pearl helped
rob the three passengers of over $400 and a gun. Feeling sorry for the passengers, Pearl is
said to have returned a dollar to each for food. The bandits high-tailed it into the
unfamiliar desert foothills, where they promptly got lost. After wandering around aimlessly for several
days, they awoke one morning to find themselves surrounded by a sheriff and his
posse.
While being held for trial, the “Queen Bandit” milked her
fame for all its worth. Allowed access
to visitors and reports, she posed for pictures and signed autographs. In a
surprise verdict and despite pleading guilty, the jury acquitted her, perhaps
finding sympathy in her claim that she was trying to raise money for her dear,
sick mother. The judge, however, was
furious. He had Pearl tried again for
“unlawfully carrying a gun,” the gun being the one stolen in the robbery. This time, she was found guilty and sentenced
to five years in the Yuma Territorial Prison.
Her fame grew as she served her time. Reporters visited her often, posing her for
pictures with unloaded guns. By the time
she was paroled 18 months into her sentence, she was a legend. She also claimed she was pregnant and may
have been paroled early to avoid a scandal, as she would have conceived while
in custody. The claim seems to have been
a ruse, though. There’s no record of a third child being born.
The Two Pearl Harts:
After her release from prison, Pearl moved to Kansas City
and starred in a theater production (written by her sister) of her life. The play was short-lived though and Pearl’s
fame faded.
In 1924, she’s alleged to have visited the courthouse where
she was tried. Upon leaving, she told the attendant, “Nothing’s changed.” He
asked who she was and, rather dramatically she replied, “Pearl Hart, the lady
bandit.”
What happened to Pearl after that is unclear. There is a claim she died in 1925 in Kansas
City, another she lived in California until 1952. The most knocked about story, however, is
that she married an Arizona rancher, Calvin Bywater, and lived until the
mid-1950’s as a hard-working, cigar-smoking, blue-streak-cussing law abiding
citizen. Whatever happened to Pearl in
her later years, her younger ones were certainly bigger than life and she
appears to be the only woman tried for robbing a stagecoach.
References:
Ladies First:
History’s greatest female trailblazers, winners and mavericks by Lynn Santa
Lucia
This lecture first appeared on Faith V. Smith’s blog on May
18, 2011. http://faithvsmith.blogspot.com/2011/05/make-welcome-anna-kathryn-lanier.html
Learn more about Pioneering Women in my online workshop, November 4-29, 2013. Learn more about it HERE.
Anna Kathryn Lanier
Romance Author, A GIFT BEYOND ALL MEASURE
Romance Author, A GIFT BEYOND ALL MEASURE
