Pearl Hart (born Pearl Taylor; 1871 – December 30, 1955) was a Canadian-born outlaw of the American Old West. She committed one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the United States, and her crime gained notoriety primarily because of her gender. Many details of Hart's life are uncertain, with available reports being varied and often contradictory.
Early life
Hart was born Pearl Taylor in the Canadian village of Lindsay, Ontario. Her parents were both religious and affluent, and these factors provided their daughter with the best available education. At the age of 16, she was enrolled in a boarding school where she became enamored with a young man, named Hart, who has been variously described as a rake, drunkard, and/or gambler.
thumb|upright|Pearl Hart in Cosmopolitan 1899
Hart left her husband and reconciled several times. During their time together they had two children, a boy and a girl, whom Hart sent to her mother who was then living in Ohio. In 1893, the couple attended the Chicago World's Fair, where he worked for a time as a midway barker. Pearl in turn developed a fascination with the cowboy lifestyle while watching Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
The true story
As documented in John Boessenecker's book Wildcat, and corroborated by family and the Lindsay historical society, Hart's early life as described in this entry is completely false and details of her later life are also incorrect. Her real name was Lillie Naomi Davy. Hart's father, Albert Davy, was a wandering laborer best known for his heavy drinking and frequent brawling. Albert met Hart's mother, Lindsay native Anna Duval, in 1846. Both were illiterate. Hart was the couple's third child, born in 1871. Her childhood was one of poverty, exacerbated by her father's alcoholism and abuse and, in 1877, his rape of a young woman named Alice Timms. Davy was given a flogging and a one-year jail sentence.
Hart had very little schooling and amidst the chaos of her family life drifted into her earliest acts of crime in 1881 in the Village of Orilia, 50 miles from Lindsay, just after the birth of Davys' eighth child. Hart, then 11, and her brother Willie, 13, were caught stealing a cow and then re-selling it. Lillie was released, but Willie was sentenced to three years in the Boys Reformatory of Upper Canada.
In 1884, after the family was abandoned by Albert Davy, Hart was witness to the horrific gang rape of her mother by four local men.
The family eventually ended up in Rochester NY where they were constant strains on the local systems. Hart had involvements with several abusive men over the years and worked her way west as a young woman largely through prostitution. Her sister Katy was her frequent collaborator over the years, as children in Rochester where they regularly committed crimes, as prostitutes, and later worked together in Katy's stage career.
Hart was never in the Wild West show. She finished her days in Los Angeles living with her daughter and granddaughter and died in 1935.
Life of crime
By early 1898, Hart was in the mining town of Mammoth, Arizona. Some reports indicate she was working as a cook in a boardinghouse.
The robbery occurred on May 30, 1899, at a watering point near Cane Springs Canyon, about 30 miles southwest of Globe. Regardless, a posse led by Sheriff Truman of Pinal County caught up with the pair on June 5, 1899. Finding both of them asleep, Sheriff Truman reported that Boot surrendered quietly while Hart fought to avoid capture.
In and out of jail
thumb|left|The trial of Pearl Hart was held in the Second Pinal County Courthouse located at 135 Pinal St. in Florence
Following their arrest, Boot was held in Florence while Hart was moved to Tucson, the jail lacking any facilities for a woman.
Hart and Boot came to trial for robbing the stagecoach passengers in October 1899. During the trial Hart made an impassioned plea to the jury, claiming she needed the money to be able to go to her ailing mother. Judge Fletcher M. Doan was shocked and angered when the jury found her not guilty and scolded the jurors for failure to perform their duties.
right|thumb|Hart while incarcerated at Yuma Territorial Prison
Both Hart and Boot were sent to Yuma Territorial Prison to serve their sentences. Boot became a prison trusty, driving supply wagons to chain gangs working outside the walls. One day while driving a wagon he escaped and was never seen again.
Pearl Hart was the main character, played by Anne Francis, in a Death Valley Days episode “The Last Stagecoach Robbery” aired March 17, 1964. The episode centered on the holdup committed with Joe Boot and their subsequent capture portraying her as adventurous but kindhearted in her search for notoriety.
The Danish rock band Volbeat has a song called "Pearl Hart" on the album Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, released in 2013.
In CBBC's Horrible Histories, Hart is played by Martha Howe-Douglas. Hart is portrayed as a "real Wild West legend" compared to the fictionalised antics of Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp.
Further reading
- Hart's account of events leading to the robbery.