Henry Starr
had taken place. He ignored the condition, and went back to Tulsa in just a few weeks. On March 27, 1915, Starr recruited some men to rob two banks at Stroud, Oklahoma. They got $5,000 in cash. But while they were running away, a 15-year-old boy named Paul Curry saw them. He ran into a nearby butcher shop and grabbed a rifle and fired at them. His shot caught Starr in the leg. Curry threatened to shoot him again if he didn’t throw down his gun. Starr did as he requested. Louis Estes was also apprehended with Starr but the others escaped.
This time he received a 25 year sentence in an Oklahoma prison. But just like every other time, he was a model prisoner and won early release. In 1919, he was paroled by the governor. He figured Starr’s ruined leg would prevent him from trying anything new. Supposedly the prospector had remarked that there was more money in the movie business than there is in bank robbery. Starr put it to the test. He formed a movie company and made a film of the famous Stroud robbery. He made a lot of money from it.
On February 18, 1921, Starr tried to rob the Peoples National Bank at Harrison, Arkansas. When he and his friends walked into the bank, everyone complied with their demand to put up their hands except the bank president W. J. Meyers. Meyers quickly grabbed a shotgun he had in the bank of the vault. He shot Starr in the gut. The other robbers fled.
On February 22, Starr died from his wounds. His funeral was fully paid for as he had left money with a Tulsa undertaker years before. He was buried in Dewey, Oklahoma. Starr had always bragged that he had robbed more banks than any man in America.
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