Pearl Hart

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Pearl Hart (ca.1900)

Pearl Hart (* 1871 ; † probably December 30, 1955 , maiden name Pearl Taylor ) was a Canadian bandit of the so-called Wild West . She also achieved popularity because she was the only known female outlaw to ambush a stagecoach , as well as the fact that this robbery was probably the last one on a stagecoach.

Life

Early years

Pearl Taylor was born in the village of Lindsay, Ontario, Canada to wealthy, religious parents. At the age of 16, she met the professional player and drinker Frederick Hart at a boarding school, whom she eventually married. Due to the violent tendencies of Hart, she left him again and again, moved to her mother, but always returned to her husband. In 1893 they both attended the World's Columbian Exposition , where Pearl Hart worked as a commander in chief . The western shows by Buffalo Bill aroused in her a fascination for this time, which had already largely disappeared. Once again she left her husband and moved to Colorado . She later commented: “I was only twenty-two years old. I was good-looking, desperate, discouraged, and ready for whatever might come. I don't want to go into this time of my life. Suffice it to say that I went from one city to the other until I arrived in Phoenix some time later . ”During those years she worked as a singer and cook and moved in the demimonde .

Criminal demi-world and assault

Frederick Hart learned of her whereabouts through her family. When he found Pearl in Phoenix, he persuaded her to come back to him. He promised her to lead a regular life. They lived together in Tucson , where they gave birth to Frederick a second child, this time a girl. Presumably out of boredom, Frederick left his family in 1898 to volunteer for the Spanish-American War . Pearl then returned to her family in Canada. There she did not last long, however, and again she went to Arizona, this time to the city of Mammoth, to work as a cook in a miners' camp, according to other sources a guest house. In 1899, the news reached her that her mother was seriously ill. She spoke to the miner Joe Boot (possibly a pseudonym) about her family and financial problems. This made her the proposal to attack the Globe stagecoach, which commuted between Globe and Florence .

Pearl Hart in her prison cell (from Cosmopolitan, 1899)

On May 30, 1899, the two of them put this plan into action and robbed this carriage near Cane Springs Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Globe. Hart dressed in men's clothes and was armed with a revolver. The line has not been ambushed for years, so there was no “Shotgun Messenger” (armed security guard) on the carriage. Hart and Boot looted $ 431.20 (around $ 12,986 in 2018), as well as several weapons that they took from passengers and the driver. However, they gave each passenger a dollar so that they could afford a meal. They both fled into the mountains while the driver unhitched a horse to quickly alert the sheriff. According to Hart, both bandits had deliberately covered meandering lines to shake off their pursuers, according to other sources, both got lost and moved in circles. On June 5, 1899, both were surprised by Sheriff Truman from Pinal County and his posse in their sleep. Boot is said to have surrendered immediately while Hart was still resisting.

Both were kept in separate prisons and Hart quickly attracted media attention. As a “bandit queen” she gave interviews and posed for photographs. The Cosmopolitan described them as "the opposite of how one would imagine a female predator". However, "if she was angry or determined, she would show hard lines around her eyes and mouth". Pearl Hart enjoyed her popularity. An admirer even gave her a bobcat as a pet and cell mate. Her cell was not massive, but consisted of plaster beams , so that on October 12, 1899, together with fellow inmate Ed Hogen, she managed to escape through a hole 46 cm in diameter. A $ 500 bounty was placed on her, and the profile described her as a "Bandit Queen" and a "petite, pretty woman." Two weeks after the outbreak, she was caught near Deming , New Mexico , with the outbreak and escape only increasing her fame.

Trial and conviction

The lawsuit against Hart and Boot began in October 1899. Hart enjoyed the sympathy of the population, because of her gender, her attractiveness and because she justified the attack by being able to buy medicine for her sick mother. Pearl's attorney also asked for a mild verdict. Judge Fletcher M. Doan was shocked and upset that the jury actually found her innocent. Since the jury appeared to be neglecting their duties, he had the trial repeated with other jurors, who he warned to disregard the sex of the accused in reaching a verdict. Hart has now been sentenced to five years in prison, which she was to serve in the Yuma Territorial Prison . Joe Boot was sentenced to 30 years in prison on another trial for the same offense. On February 6, 1901, however, he managed to escape and was never seen again.

Pearl Hart's revolver in the Yuma Territorial Prison Museum, left Joe Boot, right another shot of the Cosmopolitan from 1899

As the only female inmate, Hart enjoyed certain privileges, such as a larger prison cell and permission to continue receiving guests and giving interviews. She had no contact with male inmates.

Further life

In December 1902 she was surprisingly pardoned by Alexander Oswald Brodie , the governor of Arizona. The reasons for this pardon, with the requirement to leave the Arizona Territory , are unclear. Rumors that she was impregnated by a guard could never be confirmed. Upon her release, Pearl Hart moved to Kansas City , where she continued to enjoy her popularity and starred in a play written by her sister. The fame was now quickly fading. Under a pseudonym, she worked temporarily on the Wild West Show by Buffalo Bill and ran a tobacco shop from 1904. She was arrested for stolen goods, but acquitted of the charges.

There are contradicting statements about her later life. According to some sources, she should have died as early as 1925 or 1928. But she probably lived in Arizona under a different name until 1955.

Pop culture reception

Also because of her gender and the fact that she is the only known woman who has ever attacked a stagecoach in the Wild West, Pearl Hart has a certain nimbus that is reflected in comics and westerns. The Danish metal band Volbeat dedicated a song to her on their 2013 album Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies .

Web links

Commons : Pearl Hart  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090502121138/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4536
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090502121138/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4536
  3. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qB8LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sFIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6910,4192837
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090502121138/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4536
  5. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WKoKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=G00DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4866,165169
  6. ↑ Schreiber & readers magazine, issue 43, February 2019, page 5
  7. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=WKoKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=G00DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4866,165169
  8. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qB8LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sFIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6910,4192837
  9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090502121138/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=4536
  10. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qB8LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sFIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6910,4192837
  11. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qB8LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sFIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6910,4192837
personal data
SURNAME Hard, Pearl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taylor, Pearl (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian bandit
DATE OF BIRTH 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Lindsay, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1955
Place of death Arizona, United States