Little Britches

Jennie Stevenson , known as Little Britches (* 1879 in Barton County , Missouri , † after 1896) was a young American outlaw in the Wild West , mostly together with Anna Emmaline McDoulet (known as Cattle Annie ). Little Britches became known through the feature film Two Girls and the Doolin Gang (original title: Cattle Annie and Little Britches ) from 1981 , in which Amanda Plummer made her debut as Cattle Annie . Directed by Lamont Johnson , Diane Lane played the role of Little Britches . Cattle Annie and Little Britches were snipers and gunslingers with pistols and rifles, but today they are largely unknown outside of the film, although they were among the most mentioned names in Oklahoma and Indian territory in their time and were known for their criminal activities.

Life

Jennie Stevens was born in Barton County , southwest Missouri, on a ranch owned by Daniel and Lucy Stevenson. Victoria Estella Stevenson was known as her sister. Jennie Stevens apparently shortened her maiden name "Stevenson" to "Stevens" by deleting the "Son = son". After she got married for the second time, she was called Jennie Stevenson Stephens for a while, as her husband was called "Stephens". The Stevenson family lived in Seneca, Newton County , also in southwest Missouri near the eastern Oklahoma border , during the 1880s . The Stevensons then moved to the Creek Reservation near Sinnett in Pawnee County in northern Indian Territory .

Life as an outlaw

Annie and Little Britches followed the tales of the Bill Doolin gang after reading dime novels such as those by Ned Buntline , who is famous for his mostly fictional stories about Buffalo Bill Cody (eg "Buffalo Bill Cody - King of the Border Guards") as West Frontier hero and show star.

Little Britches joined the Doolin gang (Wild Bunch) but lost her horse and returned home and was reprimanded by her father, Daniel Stevenson. Still, she was determined to live an outlaw life . In March 1895, Little Britches married a deaf and dumb horse dealer, Benjamin Midkiff. She works as a maid in a hotel in Perry , Noble County , northern Oklahoma. Midkiff found out Little Britches had been unfaithful to him, and he sent the teenage Jennie Stevens back to her father after the two had been together for just six weeks. Just a day after Little Britches returned home, she rode the Arkansas River in search of the outlaw adventure .

She soon married Robert Stephens, apparently, but the marriage lasted only six months. At a community ball, Little Britches and the three-year-old Cattle Annie met the Doolin gang (later called Wild Bunch - not to be confused with Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang). This gang, which violently killed 11 members, found shelter by the Creek on the Cimarron River in Payne County near Ingalls , east of Stillwater , Oklahoma. In 1893, three US marshals were killed in a shooting in Ingalls .

Little Britches and Cattle Annie were excellent horsemen and snipers, wearing men's clothes and guns in belt holsters. The two women, often together but temporarily alone, stealing horses, sold whiskey and other spirits to Osage - and Pawnee - Indians and warned outlaws when law enforcement agencies were nearby. They repeatedly managed to evade law enforcement and were known throughout the region for their daring actions.

Little Britches was captured in mid-August 1895, but she was soon able to escape from a restaurant in Pawnee, Oklahoma Territory while in the care of Sheriff Frank Lake. According to reports from journalists of the time, Little Britches managed to leave the bar through the back door, outsmart the guard, leaving their clothes behind, grabbed the horse of a deputy marshal and galloped off into the night.

The US Marshals Bill Tilghman ( Uncle Billy ) (1854-1924) and his deputy Steve Burke tracked Little Britches and Cattle Annie a little later. Burke caught 13-year-old cattle Annie as she climbed out a window. His colleague, US Marshal Uncle Billy Tilghman, had a more difficult task in the capture of Little Britches, who first fired a Winchester at the two law enforcement officers. Tilghman shot Little Britches' horse and she and the animal fell to the ground. Little Britches continued firing a pistol at the marshal and then had a physical altercation with the famous law enforcement officer before he could take her into custody.

Imprisonment

The two young women were convicted of horse theft and the sale of alcohol to the Indians by US District Judge Andrew Gregg Curtin Bierer, Sr. (1862-1951) in his court in Guthrie , the then capital of Oklahoma.

Little Britches was locked up in Guthrie's jail for two months (under the name Jennie Midkiff, after her husband from their first six-week marriage) for testifying as a witness in a murder trial. She had seen a shooting while working as a housemaid. She was then taken to the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Framingham . In October 1896, she was released from the remainder of her two-year sentence for good conduct and returned to live with her parents. Nothing is known about her subsequent years in life, although some stories have been circulated that she was third married, raised a family, and lived an exemplary life in Tulsa , Oklahoma.

Little Britches and Cattle Annie roamed Oklahoma and Indian Territory for barely two years, but their antics proved to be a challenge to law enforcement and the judiciary. It is not known whether Little Britches was "rehabilitated" because of her confinement in Framingham, one of the few prisons available for female inmates.

Alternative reports

The Oklahoma Journal of History and Culture stated that Tilghman had nothing to do with the arrest of Little Britches. The newspapers reported that the arrests were made by Deputy Marshals Frank Burke and Frank Canton. The publications also state that neither woman has had any contact with the Doolin gang or any other outlaw.

media

Movie

Much is historically inaccurate in Johnson's 1981 film Two Girls and the Doolin Gang . Such was Burt Lancaster much older at the time of filming as Bill Doolin at the time of the action.

Rod Steiger plays Marshal Bill Tilghman , Scott Glenn is in the role of Bill Dalton to see.

watch TV

The actress Gloria Winters (known from aviator-adventure television series Sky King ) plays Little Britches 1954 in an episode of the Stories of the Century, a Western - anthology by and starring Jim Davis . The story goes how Little Britches was beaten by an outlaw named Dave Ridley (played by James Best ). In the end, Little Britches is shown exiting Framingham prison and doing an anonymous work in a soup kitchen in a New York City slum .

literature

The novelist Robert Ward, born in Baltimore , Maryland , published Cattle Annie and Little Britches in 1977, his personal interpretation of the romanticizing legends of the Dalton-Doolin gang .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Cattle Annie & Little Britches, taken from Lee Paul [http://www.theoutlaws.com ] . ranchdivaoutfitters.com. Archived from the original on March 25, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 27, 2012. 
2. ^ Cattle Annie's page . angelfire.com. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
3. ↑ Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, p. 325 . University of Oklahoma Press at Norman , Oklahoma (1979); ISBN = 978-0-8061-2335-6, (Accessed December 27, 2012).
4. ^ Obituary of Andrew Gregg Curtin, Jr. (1899-1956), with reference to his father as a federal judge . usgennet.org. Retrieved August 18, 2013. (English)
5. ↑ Cattle Annie . Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture . Archived from the original on February 8, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 18, 2013. 
6. ^ Cattle Annie and Little Britches . Internet Movie Database. Accessed August 16, 2013. (English)
7. ^ Stories of the Century : "Little Britches," June 17, 1954 . Internet Movie Database . Retrieved September 16, 2012. (English)
8. ^ Cattle Annie and Little Britches . William Morrow and Company, 1977, ISBN 978-0688032524 (Retrieved August 16, 2013). (English)