The Outlaw was a Lady

Skies are grey over the Silver Pick spread in Northern California today. Conditions are right to remain in my office writing the next western book due. This one will be about female outlaws of the Midwest. Flora Mundis alias Tom King is the lady I’m focusing on. She was one of the most notorious female horse thieves in Oklahoma in 1893 and 1894. Disguised as a man she took rides from field and street and even was rumored to have been romantically involved with Bob Dalton, a bank robber and member of the Wild Bunch Gang. She escaped jail three times before she stood trial for her misdeeds. By that time she was clearly pregnant and no judge would sentence her to serving any real time. She was released on bail and left the Territory. Oklahoma lawman Heck Thomas reported that Tom was eventually shot and killed in a failed bank robbery attempt in Southern Arizona, but no one is really sure what happened to her or her child. What is not debatable is the hold she had over men. Tom was able to seduce her way out of jail and always had men around her. I think it’s because she knew what men wanted from women – starting with how they dress. Tom dressed in cowboy garb, complete with buckskin leggings and a vest. She knew that men don’t care about clothes – hers or their own. All they needed was one pair of boots and a clean shirt to wear to Sunday go-to-meeting church events. She knew that when she had the reins of her horse and wanted to get aggressive with a bad guy that was fine, but she didn’t instigate a fight and then expect the man she was with to defend her honor. I like what one of the outlaws she was involved with said about his relationship with Tom. “You have to love a woman to know her – even then, there’s a lot of guesswork involved.”