Lesson 2: Stage Coach Robbers and Cattle Rustlers
Pearl Hart and Cattle Kate were two women who broke new ground. But neither feat is anything to boast about. Pearl Hart is the only known female to hold up a stagecoach. And Cattle Kate, suspected of cattle rustling, was the only woman ever hanged in Wyoming. In this lesson, we will learn more about Pearl Hart and Cattle Kate, as well as Cattle Annie and Little Britches, two young women accused of cattle rustling.
Female Stage Coach Robbers and Cattle Rustlers
In this lesson we will study the story of Pearl Hart, the only known woman stagecoach robber. We will also take an in-depth look at the legend of Cattle Kate, a woman hanged for cattle rustling. The lives of two teenage cattle rustlers, Cattle Annie and Little Britches, will also be explored. This lesson will be devoted to the study of these outlaw women and what motivated them to turn to crime.
Stagecoach robbery was usually a male endeavor. Pearl Hart has the dubious honor of being the only known female to rob a stage. While there is no doubt that she committed the crime in question, one might make the argument that poverty and desperation led her to this drastic measure. Getting rich the quick and easy way did not seem to be her motivation in the robbery, but simply survival. While reading her story, it is interesting to bear in mind her desperate situation--that of trying to make a living in the male-dominated world of the gold fields. Hart, abandoned by her husband, did try to eke out a living. Desperation turned her to crime when she was unable to support herself.
Much controversy still surrounds the story of Ella Watson, better known as Cattle Kate, the only woman ever hanged in Wyoming. There is some question as to whether she committed any crime at all besides settling on land that her neighbors wanted for their own. In the case of Ella Watson, the fact that she was a divorced woman who refused to back down and who was bold enough to claim land and try to keep it may have contributed to her hasty demise at the hands of a lynch mob. If she was a cattle thief who traded cattle for sexual favors, she paid full price for her crimes.
Cattle Annie and Little Britches were two poor, uneducated teenagers who fell under the influence of dashing outlaw Bill Doolin and were happy to do his bidding and act as lookouts for the gang, as well as rustling a few cattle.
In this lesson, we will address the social issues that came to play in the very different crimes committed by each of these women. In the case of Pearl Hart, her youth and notoriety led to a reduced sentence. Not so with Cattle Kate, who paid the maximum penalty at the hands of a vigilante lynch mob. Cattle Annie and Little Britches, also cattle rustlers, enjoyed reduced sentences and a certain amount of fame for their participation in crime. Society's reaction to female criminals was much different than it was for their male counterparts, and included a tendency toward sympathy for the "weaker sex." Many women outlaws were also given reduced sentences because it was more difficult to house them in prisons made primarily for male inmates.
The primary sources for this lesson will be:
With Badges & Bullets Lawmen & Outlaws in the Old West Richard W. Etulain, and Glenda Riley, Editors. Fulcrum Publishing, Golden, CO. 1999.
Women of the Western Frontier in Fact, Fiction and Film.Lackmann, Ron. McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina, 1997.
