The Remarkable Desperado Henry Starr
He Was "King of the Bandits" and Author, Actor and Movie Maker
Apr 25, 2009
Suggesting DNA explained his attraction to crime, three close relatives--two of them blood kin-- were also notorious outlaws. Indian police suspected Tom Starr, Henry’s grandfather, of committing 20 murders but never convicted him. Sam Starr, his uncle, rode with the James gang and was married to the bandista, Belle Starr. She was romantically connected with outlaw Cole Younger, and frequently rode with his gang.
Henry Starr Was a Cherokee Born in Indian Territory
Henry Starr was born in 1873 near Fort Gibson, I.T., in the rugged Cherokee Badlands of the northeastern quadrant of Indian Territory--now the state of Oklahoma. His father died when he was 13. With three children and a farm to manage, his mother quickly remarried a man Henry despised. For young Starr, that was an unfortunate expediency on her part.
In his autobiography, Thrilling Events: Life of Henry Starr, he described his stepfather as “a sallow, malarial, green-eyed reprobate,” and added, "We were secret, if not avowed enemies." This animosity led to his stepfather becoming abusive, forcing Henry to leave home in his mid-teens to become a wrangler.
His First Experience in Jail Shapes His Life
In 1891, police arrested him in Indian Territory and charged him in Fort Smith, AR with stealing a horse. He was released on bond, a disillusioned youth who had never been in jail before, facing a white man's trial . On the long ride back to Fort Gibson, he went through an Epiphany of sorts. In his words, his respect for law had “taken an awful tumble” and his brain “surged and throbbed with thoughts and desire for revenge.”
After he jumped bail, a deputy marshal caught up with him and a gunfight ensued. Starr shot and killed the lawman and headed for California, foolishly getting off the train in Colorado Springs, CO, so a lady companion could shop for clothes and sightsee. He was arrested there and sent to Fort Smith for trial.
Supreme Court Saves Him from the Gallows
In the court of Judge Isaac C. Parker (the “Hanging Judge”), he was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang; however, the Supreme Court censured certain procedures by the judge, leading to three retrials. Eventually, in 1898 Henry was convicted of manslaughter and other counts and sent to the federal prison in Columbus, OH for 15 years.
His mother went to Washington and was able to convince President Theodore Roosevelt to intercede. The President admired Henry's heroism in disarming another prisoner on a rampage, and commuted his sentence to expire in January 1903.
Henry Starr Reforms But His Good Behavior Lasts Only Five Years
There followed a period of tranquility for the restless bandit, during which he married Ollie Griffin and fathered a son. However, in early 1908 he began hitting banks again. Arrested in Arizona and extradited to Colorado, he plead guilty to robbery of a bank in Amity, CO and received a sentence of 7 to 25 years. In the Colorado state prison prison he wrote Thrilling Lives.
By 1913, he was paroled and was in action the following year. During one six-month period, he robbed 14 banks in Oklahoma. Authorities put a bounty of $1,000 on his head, dead or alive. The FBI named him public enemy number one.
Double Bank Robbery Leads to New Book and Movie
In the famous double bank robbery of 1915 in Stroud, OK, a hiding teenager shot Henry, during the gang’s getaway. This enabled the police to arrest him. Indian Territory had become the state of Oklahoma in 1907 so he was tried there and sentenced to 25 years in the state penitentiary.The parole board set him free in four years.
In 1919, he produced and acted in the silent movie, “A Debtor to the Law.” Based on his new book, it was a big hit. Using the bank’s employees and townspeople as actors, the film company shot the movie in Stroud. Afterward, he turned down invitations to come to Hollywood to make more movies, declining from fear of extradition to Arkansas to be tried for an earlier bank robbery, if he left Oklahoma.
He Becomes First to Use Automatic Weapons and an Automobile
Henry Starr elevated robbing banks to a craft. He could rob a bank in minutes, using advance intelligence, a minimum of partners and striking in broad daylight for surprise. During a holdup, he never shot anyone, and he never revealed the name of a partner.
On his final job in Harrison, AR in 1921, where he died of gunshot wounds, he added new wrinkles to his vocation. His gang used automatic weapons and made their getaway, in a high-powered automobile, without Henry. These innovations had never before been used in a bank robbery.
A final tally shows the “King of Bandits” robbed 22 banks of $60,000 or $1.5 million, in today’s dollar—more than the Dalton-Doolin and James-Younger gangs put together--according to Legends of America.
The President of the United States granted him a chance to reform; but, in Henry Starr’s own words, robbing was too “wild with adventure” to quit. However, in gratitude, he named his only son Theodore Roosevelt Starr.
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