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Women Outlaws of the Midwest

Among the notorious bad guys who robbed, swindled, and murdered Midwesterners from 1824 to 1936 were a number of bad girls who could be just as dishonest and violent.  On September 23, 1895, a  woman with a handkerchief over her face and a revolver in her hand stepped into the Mountaineers Club in Independence, Missouri and robbed the faro game of $525 and made her escape.  She leveled her gun at the men and told them to keep still, and then helped herself to the winnings.  The men in the room were too dazed to give the alarm until the woman had escaped.  On that same date at 10:30 in the evening an attempt was by a woman to blow up a west bound Union Pacific train by placing a stick of dynamite in the tracks at a junction half a mile east of the city.  Nearly the whole train passed over the dynamite before it exploded.  The last coach, filled with passengers, was badly shattered, but no one was injured.  Authorities claim the crimes were committed by “women of easy virtue.”

 To learn more about these female criminals read

The Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Women Outlaws of the Midwest

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Women Outlaws of the Midwest

She began with a hymn book in her hand; she died clutching a gun.  That was “Ma” Barker, mother of four outlaw sons whom J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice described as the real “public enemy No. 1.”

Kate Barker – “Ma” as she was known to her criminal associates was the “brains” of the Barker-Karpis gang – kidnappers, bank robbers, and murderers.  And she died as most criminals wanted by the federal government do.  Ma Barker began her public career in Kansas City, Missouri.  In either an attitude or assumed or real piety she was the leader of a small band of religious zealots who used to hold meetings in the street near city hall.  Whenever one of her followers was arrested for picking pockets, vagrancy, or street walking or casual misdemeanor, she would go before the police judge, shed tears and claim that she alone was left in the world to befriend the poor defendant.  In most cases the defendant went back to more and bigger crimes and “Ma” Barker’s friendliness and a slight ability as a defense witness soon became a racket.

“Ma” and her boys were responsible for kidnapping two of the country’s wealthiest men and holding them ransom.  The Barker-Karpis gang murdered police officers and federal agents and any outlaw who double-crossed them.  Ma Barker’s life ended at a home she was renting in Florida on January 16, 1935.  To learn more about the life and violent death of Ma Barker and her sons read The Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Women Outlaws of the Midwest. 

The winner of a free copy of the book will be announced on April 30.

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Outlaw Women of the Midwest

Death, dealing from “a cold deck,” flipped the ace of spades for ‘ Poker Alice” Tubbs on February 27, 1930, it was her admission card to the big game that is eternity.  She was one of the last of a bizarre coterie of hard living, straight-shooting men and women who added the color—sometimes it was blood-red—to the old West. “Deadwood Dick,” “Wild Bill” Hickok end “Calamity Jane” were others.  Poker Alice wore a gun, smoked cigars and could swear like a trooper.  During a life as adventurous as any man’s, she gambled for high stakes without a single betraying quiver of the-hand as she dealt; without the twitch of a face muscle.  Old age and complications, following an operation for gall stones, were given by doctors as the cause of her death.  Poker Alice was English born but American bred, and always the gambler. She started as a faro dealer.  A woman at the box was a novelty that drew the black beards of the wild West, with their bags of gold, to the gambling table. So successful was she, that soon she was known, not just, as a woman gambler, but as a winning gambler, man or woman.  Colorado, Nevada, Montana, the Dakotas—wherever there was pay dirt and hombres with guts enough to lay it against the turn of a card—Poker Alice was. She took $6,000 in one night’s play in Silver City, N. M.  It seems rather strange, in retrospect, that Poker Alice, self-reliant, courageous and able to take care of herself anywhere—should have had time for love, yet she was three times married. Her first husband was a mining engineer, P. Duffield.  Then came W. G. Tubbs, a gambler who, despite a wide reputation of his own, never could equal Poker Alice at the card table. Her third husband was George Huckert, but when he died Poker Alice resumed the name of he- second husband.  She was in the rush of the ‘free lands’ of Oklahoma, and later skipped from place to place as the federal government warred on the gamblers. One by one commanding figures of the old, the lawless West, dropped away—many by bullets.  Poker Alice grew old. Times changed. Railroads brought civilization to the raw, elemental West.  Eventually there came prohibition.  Poker Alice retired to a little cabin in the Black Hills.  She was convicted for violating the prohibition law but never served the sentence.  Governor W. J. Bulow pardoned her, saying: “I can’t send a white-haired old woman to jail on a liquor charge.”  The days of big games, hard liquor and strong language are gone now. Only the wild glory of the Black Hills remains. Civilization could not take them away; and there today she lies dead—Poker Alice was seventy-seven when she died.

To learn more about Poker Alice read The Bedside Book of Bad Girls:

Women Outlaws of the Midwest

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Women Outlaws of the Midwest

On August 21, 1894, Governor Lowe of Oklahoma issued requisition papers to the Governor of Kansas for Mrs. Flora Mundis, alias ‘Tom King’ the notorious horse thief who has been captured at Fredonia, Kansas.  There were scores of charges against her, and she had broken out of jail in the Territory more than a half a dozen times.  ‘Tom King’ was a handsome and fascinating young woman of about twenty-two years.  She was a quarter-blood Cherokee Indian and many of her relatives and her people lived near Springfield, Missouri from where her ancestors emigrated to the Cherokee country.  Her operations in the Territory had been extensive and notorious and her captures frequent, but she had never yet been brought to trial.  About a year and a half prior to the requisition being ordered she was arrested for complicity in the Wharton train robberies, and, after being held in the Guthrie jail for some time, escaped.  A while later she was held in the Oklahoma City jail and escaped in the same explicable way.  For the last three months of last year she had been in the new jail of Canadian county and her trial was to have taken place in the district court in December.  A few nights before her trial, however, she walked out the open doors of the jail dressed in a full suit of men’s clothing.

To learn more about Flora Mundis read The Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Women Outlaws of the Midwest.

Hearts West on the Publisher’s Weekly, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Sellers List

TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press, is proud to announce that the book Hearts West: True Stories of Mail Order Brides on the Frontier has been listed as a best seller for Publisher’s Weekly and USA Today. Hearts West brings to life true stories of mail-order brides of the Gold Rush era. Some found soul mates; others found themselves in desperate situations. Complete with the actual hearts-and-hands personal advertisements that began some of the long-distance courtships, this book provides an up-close look at the leap of faith these men and women were willing to take.

Enss has written more than two dozen books on the subject of women of the Old West. Some of the books Chris Enss has written are Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West, Object Matrimony: The Risky Business of Mail Order Matchmaking on the Frontier, and Gilded Girls: Women Entertainers of the Old West. Her latest title is Love Lessons from the Old West: Wisdom from Wild Women. You can visit the author online at: www.chrisenss.com.

Publishers Weekly Best-Sellers

Best-Selling Books Week Ended March 22nd.
Nonfiction E Books

1. “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup (HarperCollins)

2. “The Nazi Officer’s Wife” by Edith Hahn Beer (Harper Collins)

3. “Unbroken” by Lauren Hillenbrand (Random House)

4. “Jesus Feminist” by Sarah Bessey (Howard Books)

5.  “Hearts West” by Chris Enss (TwoDot)

6. “Not Cool” by Greg Gutfield (Crown Forum)

7. “10% Happier” by Dan Harris (It Books)

8. “Uganda Be Kidding Me” by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central Publishing)

9. “Killing Jesus: A History” by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard (Macmillan)

10. “Call the Midwife” by Jennifer Worth (Ecco Press)

USA Today Best-Sellers

March 28, 2014 (AP)
By The Associated Press
NONFICTION E BOOKS

1. “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup (HarperCollins)

2. “The Nazi Officer’s Wife” by Edith Hahn Beer (Harper Collins)

3. “Unbroken” by Lauren Hillenbrand (Random House)

4. “Jesus Feminist” by Sarah Bessey (Howard Books)

5. “Hearts West” by Chris Enss (TwoDot)

6. “Not Cool” by Greg Gutfield (Crown Forum)

7. “10% Happier” by Dan Harris (It Books)

8. “Uganda Be Kidding Me” by Chelsea Handler (Grand Central Publishing)

9. “Killing Jesus: A History” by Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard (Macmillan)

10. “Call the Midwife” by Jennifer Worth (Ecco Press)