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True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other.” Charles Lamb, 1823

The New World gambling parlor in Marysville, California, in 1851 was filled with prospectors and sojourners eager to lay their money down on a game of chance. Patrons could choose from a variety of amusements, including roulette, dice, faro, and poker.

An elaborate bar lined an entire wall and brass mountings accentuated the gleaming countertops of the grand and ornate saloon. Imposing mirrors clung to all sides of the enormous entryway, and paintings of nude women relaxed in prostrate beauty loomed over the patrons from the walls above.

Madame Belle Ryan, a voluptuous creature with dark hair, hazel eyes, and a fair complexion, sauntered down the stairs surveying the guests who had gathered. Men scrambled for a place at the tables, their gold dust and gold nuggets exchanged for the chips they tossed onto the green felt-bets for the lucky cards in their hands.

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The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

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True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Spirits of the good, the fair and the beautiful, guard us through the dreamy hours. Kinder ones, but, perhaps less dutiful, keep the places that once were ours.” Poetic editorial in memory of the slain Kitty LeRoy from the Black Hills Daily Times – 1883

A grim-faced bartender led a pair of sheriff’s deputies up the stairs of Deadwood’s Lone Star Saloon to the two lifeless bodies sprawled on the floor. One of the deceased individuals was a gambler named Kitty LeRoy and the other was her estranged husband, Sam Curley.

The quiet expression on Kitty’s face gave no indication that her death had been a violent one. She was lying on her back with her eyes closed and, if not for the bullet hole in her chest, would simply had looked as though she were sleeping. Sam’s dead form was a mass of blood and broken tissue. He was lying face first on the floor, and pieces of his skull protruded from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In his right hand he still held the pistol that brought about the tragic scene.

For those townspeople who knew the flamboyant twenty-eight-year-old Kitty LeRoy, her violent demise did not come as a surprise. She was a voluptuous beauty who used her remarkable good looks to take advantage of infatuated men who believed her charm and talent surpassed any they’d ever known.

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The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

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True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“In one corner, a coarse-looking female might preside over a roulette-table, and, perhaps, in the central and crowded part of the room a Spanish or Mexican woman would be sitting at Monte, with a cigarette in her lips, which she replaced every few moments by a fresh one.” Author, lecturer, and feminist Eliza Farnham – 1854

Blood spattered across the front of the dark-eyed, brunette gambler Belle Siddon’s dress as she peered into the open wound of a bandit stretched out in front of her. Biting down hard on a rag, the man winced in pain as she gently probed his abdomen with a wire loop. Pausing a moment, she mopped up a stream of blood inching its way across the crude wooden table where he was lying. Two men on either side of the injured patient struggled to keep his arms and legs still as the stern-faced Belle then plunged the loop back into his entrails. “How do you know about gunshots?” one of the rough looking assistants asked. “My late husband was a doctor and I worked with him,” Belle replied. “Is he going to die?” the other man inquired. “Not if I can help it,” Belle said as she removed the wire loop.

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The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

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True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

“Luck never gives; it only lends.” Anonymous

A tall, hump-shouldered man with gray, bushy hair and a hangdog look on his long, lumpy face pulled a stack of chips from the middle of the poker table toward him. Minnie Smith, the gambler who had dealt the winning hand, scowled at the player as he collected his earnings. “You’re sure packin’ a heavy load of luck, friend,” Minnie said in a low, clipped tone. “Luck had nothing to do with it,” the man replied. “You may be right at that,” Minnie snapped back. She pushed back from the table a bit and eyed the bullwhip curled in her lap. The man gave her a sly grin. “You’re not sore about losing?” he asked. “No,” Minnie responded calmly. “I get mighty sore about cheating though.”

A tense silence filled the air as Minnie and the gambler stared each other down. In the split second it took the man to jump up and reach for his gun. Minnie had snapped her whip and disarmed him. In the process of having the weapon jerked out of his hand, a breastplate holdout that had been tucked inside his jacket sleeve dropped onto the floor.

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The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West

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Myra Maybelle Shirley also known as Belle Starr

“Shed not for her the bitter tear, nor give the heart in vain regret. Tis but the casket that lies here, the gem that filled it sparkles yet.” Inscription on Belle Starr’s tombstone, 1889

Belle Starr checked to make sure the pair of six-guns she was carrying was loaded before she proceeded across a dusty road toward a saloon just outside of Fort Dodge, Kansas. When she reached the tavern she peered over the top of the swinging doors of the establishment and carefully studied the room and its seedy inhabitants. Her thin face with his hawk-like nose was illuminated by a kerosene lantern hanging by the entrance.

She stepped inside the long, narrow, dimly lit room and slowly made her way to the gambling tables in the back. A battery of eyes turned to watch her walk by. Four men engrossed in a game of five-card draw barely noticed the woman approaching them. A tall man with an air of foreign gentility sat at the head of the table with his back to Belle, dealing cards. She removed one of the guns from her dress pocket and rested the barrel of the weapon on the gambler’s cheek.

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The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West