The Search for Belle's Killer

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas! Well if you've been reading my series on the famous female outlaw Belle Starr you know that she got blown away by some scumbag a couple of posts ago.

I finally get to answer this question!

When I was finishing my last series about Cole Younger, who is the father of Belle's daughter Pearl, people asked me why didn't Cole go see Belle when he got out of prison.

Well, I didn't want to tell them it was because Belle was already dead by the time he got out. I didn't want to spoil her story by revealing that fact.

Anyway, the main suspect was a man named Watson and everyone knew the two didn't get along with each other and Belle's husband July knew they had arguments. Watson actually showed up at the funeral.

As soon as the casket was lowered into the ground July and Eddie approached Watson with July pointing a rifle at his chest and threatening to kill him. I guess Watson grabbed someone and shoved him between himself and July's rifle to keep July from pulling the trigger.

Watson taken into custody

After some discussion it was agreed that July and Eddie would escort Watson to town and the Sheriff. A couple of more partial men rode with them to make sure Watson actually arrived there.

If this would have been a few years ago justice would have been served quickly and Watson would have been dead and gone. Even if Belle's Father-in-law, Tom Starr had been there justice might have been dealt out immediately.. but he was in federal prison.

But the territory was no longer the Wild West what with infrastructure and laws and law enforcement in place coupled with a legitimate court system. So Watson was escorted to town and charges were filed against him and he was arrested.

The investigation

An investigation was begun but no hard evidence was found against Watson and there were no eye witnesses. The only evidence against Watson is that he lived just a few hundred yards from where Belle was shot and people knew that they had disagreements.

After a number of days and no evidence found, his attorney moved to have his client's case dismissed and the D.A. agreed and Watson was discharged. Knowing how July felt and figuring his time on earth was short...he went home, packed up and he and his wife left that same night, never to return.

An unsolved murder

Some investigating into other people brought no answers. Eddie was interviewed and cleared, so was everyone else.
I think it was Watson and he got away with murder.

The strange thing about this case is this: remember when Belle had the argument with Watson at her cabin and threatened to tell the Florida authorities on him and Pearl chided her for doing that?

Well, Pearl never told the investigators about that argument and that Belle had threatened to turn him in. No one knows why but with nothing indicating motivation, the case was dismissed.

Of course back then they didn't have a team of detectives to assign the case to who would spend weeks tracking down any leads or evidence.

So that was that. July was furious, jumped his bond for the horse theft trial he was waiting on and joined an outlaw gang. Shortly afterwards he was shot to death by a posse that was tracking the gang.

The kids

Here's a photo with Eddie in it, he's on the right end, should be close to the time of Belle's death:

source

He was a nice looking young man. My guess is there was a shortage of nice photography props in that studio?

Pearl was about 19 years old at the time and I think this photo is the closest to her age that we have:

source

Pearl looks sad in all of her younger age photos.
Also, I'm assuming there was a shortage of hair stylists back then? I don't want to sound mean but my god..

I'll have one more post about Belle including some interesting incidents and what happened to her kids.

Thanks for reading folks.
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck

ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:

Truckers tell your wife to watch her language!