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Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Midwest
On August 2, 1895, two women bandits, Mrs. Belle Black and Mrs. Jennie Freeman, were captured in the Glass Mountains, in the western part of the Cherokee Strip, and were place in the Unites States jail in Guthrie, Oklahoma. They belonged to the notorious gang of desperados led by Zip Wyatt, an outlaw guilty of at least a dozen murders. So skillful was his performance and that of his two female deputies that they defied the vigilance of the Sheriff for more than a year.
According to the arresting officers neither of the women was “appealing in any way.” “Mrs. Black was small and heavy with dark hair and blue eyes and an expression that was not only criminal, but very unpleasant. Her husband was one of the outlaw members of the gang. Mrs. Freeman was tall, thin and malignant. She left her husband in 1894 to elope with Zip Wyatt. The women dressed as ordinary farmers’ wives and their appearance and manner enabled them to get away with a good deal of plunder unsuspected. They sit in their cells chatting with the other prisoners or playing a game of cards with those who have been allowed the freedom of the corridors with them.”
For more information about the women highway robbers who eluded law enforcement read the Bedside Book of Bad Girls
