The Wild, Wild West

studied Bible verses, and were groomed for marriage. After becoming a suitable bride, they were expected to give their husbands airs. Their duties included child rearing, going to church, and supporting their husband's career. In their later years, they might hope to grow old surrounded by children and grandchildren, before passing away with any luck as quietly and gently as they lived.

Pearl Heart wanted none of that. Born Pearl Taler in the Canadian village of Lindsay, Ontario, she originally moved within the strict guidelines expected of her, But at sixteen, when her parents sent her to boarding school, Pearl met Frederick Hart and decided her predetermined life wasn't for her. Her new beau wasn't exactly the kind of man her family approved of. He tended bar drank, heavily, gambled, and rarely

missed an opportunity to sleep with any woman willing. It's unclear what Pearl saw in Frederick, but the two soon eloped. Perhaps she aimed to live an exciting life void of stuffy upper class rules. She quickly discovered it wasn't the exhilarating lifestyle she'd expected. Despite his promises, Frederick didn't change his ways, and he drank most of what he earned, leaving little for her or their two children. He became physically abusive. Pearl left a couple of times, but Frederick

wooed her back. Eventually, To keep her children safe from their father, she sent them to live with relatives in Ohio. In she followed Frederick to Chicago, where he found work at the Chicago World's Fair as a sideshow barker. Pearl also took on a few jobs at the fair. One exhibit fascinated her, and so she spent her free time at the Wild West Exhibit, especially whenever Annie Oakley performed. She listened to speeches at the women's pavilion promoting equality

and women's rights. Through those speeches, Pearl found the courage to leave Frederick. She headed West on a train to Trinidad, Colorado to start a new life. Pearl found work as a singer at a saloon. Frederick trapped her down and begged her to come back. Disappointed that heroes didn't walk the streets of the real wild West, she relented For a short while. Frederick changed He even found steady job, but it wasn't long before he went back to his

old ways. One night in he knocked Pearl unconscious and left her alone again. Pearl drifted between her parents home and the West, taking on odd jobs to support herself. Later, she received a letter from her brother asking for money. Their mother was sick and needed medical attention. She asked the saloon patron by the name of Joe Boot for advice. She needed money and quick. Joe suggested they team up and rob a stagecoach, but to disguise her identity, Pearl

cut her hair and dressed in Joe's clothing. Their first heist netted four hundred and fifty dollars. They ran but were soon captured. Pearl played up the role of Lady bandit. Before long she was signing autographs. The court was less enamored and sentenced her to five years in prison, where she maintained her celebrity status a model inmate. She was

paroled in eighteen months. She faded into the sunset. Then, though there were rumors of Pearl resurfacing as a shop keep in Kansas or the wife of an Arizona rancher. Pearl became a ghost of the wild West, but some outlaws, like ghosts, hung around a while longer. I'm Lord Vogelbaum, Welcome to American Shadows. The Civil War decimated American life and livelihood, leaving many feeling lost. Financial hardships followed, and without the connections that once shared with their communities, people

headed west for better or worse. Most were young men who had served in the military. Former soldiers from both North and South realized there were no winning sides when it came to war. The untamed West offered something they could create of their very own, a fresh start and a place to forget. The government pressed American citizens to colonize the new territories. Plots of land offered at low

prices started a scramble to push Native Americans out. The rapid expansion left little time to establish anything but loose laws and enforcement. As you might imagine crime escalated. U s marshals and the army became the policing force when nothing else was available, But with so many colonists, the allotted law enforcement barely made a dent. So in the decades after the Civil War, the government focused on reducing what had essentially become a free for all. In Western settlements,

the territorial governors were appointed. Unfortunately, for most towns, the elected officials were as corrupt as the criminals they sought to arrest. Boom towns, especially ones with profitable minds, led to an increase in gambling, saloons, and the sex worker industry, which breaked in a small fortune for the pimps and madam's,

but never the workers. Mining towns grew the fastest and became highly prosperous, from pure gold nuggets to ores of all kinds, stories of striking it rich lord more people from the East Coast to places like Butte, Montana for the copper or the silver rich Virginia City, Nevada, and wherever there was money to be made. Con artists and thieves found plenty of opportunities to bandits, robbed stage coaches

and trains. Though easy money wasn't without risk. Thieves often found themselves looking down the barrel of a sawed off shotgun or two. And sure, we've all heard about train and coach robberies, but no one was necessarily safe. Solitary travelers and those on foot in town after dark made easy targets. Most outlaws took refuge in remote passes, the open range or the bad lands. Yet other towns welcomed the men. At first. Most were veterans from the war

and putting their violent training to use. But as dangerous as these outlawed towns where people living in cities back east romanticized them too. Urban dwellers people out west were rebels living in a free society. Poorer classes saw the towns as a united group of other less fortunates, taking what they deserved what was owed them from the wealthy. From their point of view, the rich were hoarding money

in resources. If a few outlaws robbed the rich, it sounded like fairy tale justice, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Despite the small technicality that few of these outlaws ever spread the wealth. The story of Robin Hood had made the jump across the pond, and thanks to American author and illustrator Howard Pyle captured the public's imagination. Pyle adapted the English tale for American children. In the original telling, Robin Hood was a thief who

was hardly a philanthropist. But in eighteen nineteen, Sir Walter Scott introduced the character as a kinder thief set on doing more good than harm, and Pile tweaked a few things to make the character more of a hero for the common folk. The reframing of the legend root and Americans thought of Robin Hood as the protector of the week, and since it wouldn't do for the American desperado to

wear tights. The idea of the character and reality of life out West morphed a bit, and tales of icons like Jesse James and Billy the Kid softened over the years. By the eight nineties, thanks to Piles version, plenty of Wild West outlaws also believed they were modern day Robin Hoods. They built on the public's love of the idea of the anti hero, when in reality they weren't particularly giving

or caring. More often than not, outlaws saw the persona as an opportunity to line their own pockets and across the bad lands. That was all the justification they needed to Outlaws were James and his brother Jesse, who had both served as bushwhackers During Civil War, both the Union and Confederate armies employed men to ambush the other side,

wearing them down by attrition and guerrilla warfare. Unlike their military counterparts, though, bushwhackers didn't wear uniforms, and while they conducted well organized raids, they mostly ambushed individuals and raided homes. The goal was to demoralize and to stabilize the opponent physically and mentally. Killing, hostage taking, arson, and torture were common. They were hired to be bands of terrorists, hardly the good Samaritans James and Jesse made themselves out to be.

When the war ended, Jesse and his brother continued these tactics for profit. Though the brothers didn't particularly hide the fact that the members of the James Gang were robbers and killers, they played up the romanticism of the wild West. Outlaw Jesse had on commonly good looks, and both he and his brother were polite to the townsfolk when they weren't robbing them. Together, they held up the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri. Making off was sixty thousand dollars.

The hold up was bold, the first daylight bank robbery in US history. The brothers killed one person in the heist. They robbed more banks and trains in stage coaches with increasing frequency. Finally, the local residents had enough. After a botched bank robbery, the townsfolks showed up with shotguns. The original gang disbanded after that. A new formation didn't last long either. The saying that there's no honor among thieves

proved true. Member after member turned on the other's wing, caught or to line their pockets with the reward money. In one Jesse moved his family away in an attempt to quit the life of crime, lured by a handsome reward. A member of the bob Ford Gangs because fully hunted Jessie down and killed him. Outlaws lived in a cutthroat world, and men weren't the only ones choosing the lifestyle. Bell Star came from a wealthy family, and she was well

educated and learned to play the piano. During the war, her family moved to Texas, where they encountered Jesse and James. Bell's brother Bud, had had something in common with the brothers. He was a Confederate bushwhacker, though he had been killed in the war. Groomed to be a proper lady, Bell soon married a family friend, Jim Reid, and the couple had three children. Living the life of the average wife

wasn't exactly in her cards. Though Bell excelled at riding side saddle and was a great shot with her pair of pistols. Jim didn't mind his wife's rough around the edge's attitude. He was involved in a few gangs, including the younger James Bunch. In eighteen seventy four, Jim was killed, leaving Bell's life in turmoil. She eventually married again with a Cherokee man named Sam Starr in eighteen eighty. Together the two orchestrated the stealing and selling of horses and cattle.

Bell also made and sold moonshine. All went well for three years until Bass Reeves, a Deputy marshal, arrested them for horse theft, and she served nine months in prison, remaining a model prisoner and earning her early release. Tragedy struck again when Frank West, Sam's cousin, shot and killed him. Widowed once more, Bell vowed never remarry and enjoyed the company of a variety of men. On February three, eight nine, someone ambushed Bell as she rode home one night. The

killer's first shot knocked her from her horse. The second shot, allegedly with her own shotgun, killed her, but Bell's legend and near hero status still lives on. Billy the Kid lost both his parents at a relatively young age, forcing him to find ways to support him elf. After stealing clothes as a prank, he found himself in jail. Being thin and agile, he escaped through a chimney, making him

a fugitive. He worked at ranches and logging camps for a while, a sporting a baby face, Billy was often bullied until one day he had had enough and he murdered one of his tormentors. A gang known as the Boys took him under their wing. After another stint in prison and another escape, he formed his own gang, called the Wrestlers. After a third prison escape that left two guards dead and placed a bounty on his head. Billy's life ended at just twenty one years of age in

one when a sheriff shot him. Ever, the escape artist, some legends state Billy didn't die that night, and his body isn't the one buried at Fort Sumter. Like Belle, Jesse and James, the legend of Billy the Kid lived on long after his death. Other outlaws also found fame, though it wasn't because of how they lived their life. No, their fame came after their death and for far less

glamorous reasons. Seventeen year old Sadie McCurdy refused to name the father of her newborn son, knowing the family, many speculated that her older, married cousin was the father. In eighteen eighty, children born out of Webbock, especially between a married man and a single woman, were a scandal. To save Sadie from the shame, her brother George and his wife Helen, offered to raise little Elmer, a tragedy struck in eighteen ninety though, when George died from tuberculosis, Helen, Sadie,

and Elmer moved to Bangor, Maine. Though Sadie was back in the picture, the two women agreed that Helen would raise him as her son. Elmer was none the wiser until Sadie couldn't keep the secret any longer. Now a teenager, Elmer didn't take to the news in the way Sadie had hoped. Saddened that his father had abandoned him and his mother hadn't been fully honest or present with him,

he took to heavy drinking and troublemaking. Within a couple of years, Elmer moved in with his grandfather, who hired him as an apprentice in his plumbing business. When the economy spiraled downward in eighteen ninety eight, he lost his job and returned home to his mother and aunt. Two years later, Sadie died from a bleeding ulcer. Now twenty, Elmer left Maine and wandered the East Coast, taking on odd jobs as a plumber or miner, though his alcoholism

made it hard to hold down steady employment. In nineteen o five, he moved to Kansas. After his arrest for public intoxication, he relocated to Missouri and joined the Army in nineteen o seven. With minimal training, He was assigned to Fort Leavenworth as part of a demolition team, and when his service ended, Elmer took a few souvenirs and returned to Kansas, where he reconnected with an old army buddy.

But the Army missed the chisels hack saws, funnels, nitroglycer in, gunpowder, and money sacks, and police were dispatched to arrest Elmer and his friend. The case went to court, where Elmer managed to convince the judge that it had all been a misunderstanding. He and his friend were still in the army and the supplies were needed to work on a new machine gun innovation. The lie worked and they were

found not guilty. In reality, Elmer and his buddy, along with a few other former enlisted, planned to use the nitro and the gunpowder to rob a Pacific Express train carrying four thousand dollars in March of nineteen eleven. The men hopped aboard the train and planted a nitroglycer in charge in front of the safe. As the men expected, the charge went off, though unexpectedly and spectacularly larger than

they had planned. The explosion blew shards of the safe into the train's walls and melted most of the silver that sought to steal. The men got away with just four hundred and fifty dollars in coins. Undeterred, Elmer set his sights on the next heist, a bank. The group broke into the bank in the middle of the night again, he used nitro. This time, the explosion blew the door

off but didn't dent the safe inside the vault. The explosion woke half the town and men fled, this time with a hundred and fifty dollars in coins that found in the change trays outside the safe. The group split up after that. Two men hopped to train to the Kansas border. Elmer went to a friend's ranch. He spent most of his days hiding in the haystacks and drinking heavily.

On October four, n Elmer tried robbing another train, This one's supposedly carrying four hundred thousand dollars in cash slated as a royalty payment to the O Sage Nation. Unfortunately for Elmer and his men, they robbed the wrong train, had stopped a passenger train instead. They got away with forty six dollars, some whiskey, a revolver, a coat, and the conductor's watch. A local paper reported that the men had the dubious honor of pulling off the smallest take

in the history of train robbery. Depressed, Elmer returned to his friend's ranch and drank the whiskey, and by now he wasn't doing so well. He had developed tuberculosis and had mild pneumonia and a case of roundworms. Feeling poorly, he stumbled off to sleep in a hay loft. Just before dawn. A posse of three sheriffs and bloodhounds tracked him to the barn. Around seven am. Elmer awoke to

the commotion outside. He and the sheriff's exchange shots until Elmer took a direct hit to the chest, cutting his life short. But it was also the moment where his true journey into fame began. Like most criminals of his day, Elmer's body wasn't claimed by family or friends. Normally, unclaimed cadavers were shipped off to medical schools. Yet some Embalmer's had other plans for bodies display. The practice was meant to market their services, and funeral director Joseph Johnson thought

Elmer would make a fine advertisement. He positioned the former outlaw in the funeral home with a gun at his side and a sign that read the bandit who Wouldn't give up. Crowds paid five cents to see Elmer's body. As each person passed, they deposited the coins into Elmer's mouth. Carnivals heard about the Embalmer's fortune and offered to buy the corpse. Johnson refused to sell. The two men claiming to be Elmer's brothers demanded the funeral home handover Elmer

so that they could properly bury him. In reality, they were Carney's looking to make a fast buck. Once in possession, they set Elmer up in sideshow tents. His body journeyed with the carnival from town to down. When he no longer brought in money, the brothers sold him to the Traveling Museum of Crime in nine two. For years, his body was sold from one gig to the next and

traveled around the country. By nine thirty three, his courts had deteriorated quite a bit, partially bummafying Hollywood crew bought him as promotional material for a film about narcotics and the effects they had on attics. From time to time, the studio loaned him out. At one point, Elmer was strapped to the top of a car like a Christmas tree. In nineteen sixty seven, he was a prop in a

horror movie. The following year, he was sold to the Hollywood Wax Museum, though they decided to store him instead of putting him on display. Two weeks before Christmas in nineteen seventy six, the crew of the hit television show The Six Million Dollar Man began filming an episode titled Carnival of Spies inside a fun house. Elmer, thought to be a wax mannequin, was spray painted glow in the

dark orange jin hung from a display gallows. But when Elmore's arms snapped off, the cast and crew realized with great horror that the body wasn't made of wax at all. The corner had difficulty determining whom body had belonged to. His only clues were a pair of tickets to the Museum of Crime and a penny from Finally, in nine investigators identified Elmer McCarty. He was laid to rest in Guthrie, Oklahoma, a spectacle to the last. Over three d people gathered

to watch the internment. While he wasn't a great outlaw, McCarty was laid to rest alongside the corpse of someone who was Bill doolan founder of the Wild Bunch Gang who had also once been put on display in that funeral director's parlor. There's the lord of this story stick around after this brief sponsor break to are all about it. Everyone knows Robin Hood and his rob from the rich end give to the poor routine. But on the other end of the hero spectrum there are some truly legendary

law enforcement officers. Born in Crawford County, Arkansas, in eighteen thirty eight, Bass Reeves and his parents were enslaved by state Legislator William Steele Reeves. In eighteen forty six, the family was given to the legislator's son, George, a colonel living in Texas. When the Civil War started in eighteen sixty one, George sided with the Confederate Army and took twenty three year old Base with him. During a fight over a card game one night, the two got into

a brawl. Base fled, knowing that as an enslaved black man, would pay with his life. He found shelter with local Native Americans who had been forced off their homeland into what was known as Indian Territory and Corporated Independent Lands. Bass was a fast learner, and they taught him their languages and customs quickly. After the war, he returned to Arkansas. A freeman. Bass took to farming, but after a decade he grew restless. Then U S. Marshal James Fagin made

him an offer to return to the territories. The Marshal had heard about the intimidating man with a loud, burly voice who carried a Winchester forty four. He had been an incredible sharpshooter, and Fagin thought Bass would excel in law enforcement. He was the first black deputy west of the Mississippi and had reigned hunt down any outlaw, regardless of race. Of controversial appointment for a black man at

the time. He had also worked alongside the famous hanging judge Isaac Parker, who presided over the largest criminal court in the country. The job description was simple, bring back outlaws, debt or alive. Bass accepted the badge on his chest and two Colt pistols at his side. His already imposing figure caught everyone's attention when he rode through a town

on his huge white stallion. Bass was creative, frequently wearing disguises and creating new identities, and sometimes he portrayed himself as a farmer, a gun slinger, or even an outlaw. His time with the Native Americans had also taught him patience and tracking. Those skills came in a handy While hunting down a notorious horse thief, Bass deduced which trail the man had used and then hid along the river bank. Four days later, the wrestler walked right into Bass's path.

He reached for his gun, but Bass fired a warning shop before the man could even draw. During another pursuit, Base and a posse tracked two brothers into the Red River Valley along the Texas border. Thinking that the men had hold themselves up in their mother's cabin, Bass came up with a plan. He disguised himself as a beggar, all the while hiding his hand ups and gun. He knocked on the door and pleaded with the woman who answered for food. Pitying the stranger, she let him in

as he ate. Bass told her he was an outlaw down on his luck. Feeling a connection, she told him about her sons and suggested they banded together. He agreed. The woman stepped outside and whistled sharply. The two brothers arrived shortly after, and the three men made plans to team up. They offered him room for the night, and Bass accepted. Once the men fell asleep, he quietly cuffed

the brothers together without waking them. At dawn, Bass marched them at gunpoint to the awaiting posse for three miles. The mother followed her son's cursing the man on the white Horse the entire time. Later in his career, Bass tracked Bill Dozer, jack of all trades and dangerous man. Even when it came to outlaws. He was also elusive, having escaped eleven other lawments. Those are sent Basse a message stopped tracking him, or he'd kill him. Basse sent

a response. The outlaw was welcomed surrender anytime he was ready. Bass and another lawman tracked Dozer to the Cherokee Hills. When a storm broke out, the two men sought shelter. Before they found a dry place, gunfire sent them for cover. Bass clocked movement in the nearby trees and fired twice. The shots were returned, followed by laughter. Bass ordered Dozer to drop his weapon. Those are answered by raising his rifle before he could aim, Bass shot him to the neck,

killing him. Throughout his thirty two year career, Bass arrested over three thousand people and killed fourteen outlaws, all without ever sustaining a single gunshot wound. Nearly a hundred years later, his heroic actions became the inspiration for a legendary character, the Lone Ranger. Yeah. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive

producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit Grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.