The Joplin History and Mineral Museum hosted renowned author Michael Wallis on Thursday.
He’s published a new book: “Belle Starr: The Truth Behind the Wild West Legend.” The biography is about the Carthage, Missouri, outlaw legend Myra Maibelle Shirley, better known by her pseudonym Belle Starr. Wallis wants to reframe the myth about Starr, saying her story was embellished.
“This is a story that has never been properly told, and I've done the best I could tell it in an honest, straightforward manner,” said Wallis.
Thursday's event was a reading from his book with a Q&A from the audience and a book signing.
The Pulitzer Prize nominee is best known for his seventeen books about the famous Route 66. His book “Route 66: The Mother Road” inspired the storyline for the Pixar Film, Cars.
Wallis believes the outlaw shouldn’t be known as Belle Starr, because she was only known by the pseudonym for a few years of her life. During Thursday’s event, he referred to the outlaw by her legal last name, Shirley.
It's been rumored that she was a violent outlaw, but the only recorded crime was stealing a horse. In an opening statement during Thursday’s event, Wallis read an excerpt from the book, saying how Starr was known as a ‘sex crazed Hellion with the morals of an alley cat, harbor and consort of horse and cattle thieves.’
But she wasn’t that at all. Wallis said she was a modern woman in old-fashioned times. She was educated, studied Latin and Greek, and was a skilled pianist.
“She did all kinds of things, and that alone, somewhat disturbed a lot of people, but it was her mindset: 'I want to do things this way,” Wallis explained.
Starr grew up in a violent time during the Civil War in Carthage in the 1800s. Her brother was part of the Bushwackers - a form of guerrilla warfare during the Civil War. When he was killed by union soldiers, ‘a switch went off in her head.’
Wallis said after her brother died, Starr made it her mission to “give succor or sanctuary or any man who stood up to the establishment.”
Starr was fatally shot in the back on February 3, 1889. Her murder is still unsolved.
Shortly after her death, the book “Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, Or, The Female Jesse James” romanticised her life and labeled her a villain. The reputation created by the book stuck and hasn’t been disproved - until Wallis decided to write this book.
Wallis has gained a reputation for writing about stories like Starrs, who have been “wound up so tightly in myth and legend and outright lie.”
“What I do in my research, which is not easy, is hypothetically go in and surgically cut and remove all of that matter. And what do I end up with? The true story, as true as it can be told, invariably the better story,” explained Wallis.
He believes he struck gold whenever he found the Shirley Family Association - an organization dedicated to preserving the heritage of the Shirley family. One distant relative was in attendance for the event.
Starr’s story was on Wallis’s short list for a long time - telling stories like hers are his niche. He’s written stories of Davy Crocket, Billy the Kid and the Donner party. Research for this book took longer than expected. When the book was finished, he had 62 pages of endnotes citing his research.
"I'm so pleased that I wish she could read it,” Wallis added.
This is Wallis' twentieth book. He visited Joplin as part of his book tour. He plans to visit Jasper County and towns that were part of Starr’s story, like parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and northern Texas.
Copyright 2025 Four States Public Radio. To see more, visit Four States Public Radio.
