After Cora Hubbard helped a couple of male sidekicks hold up the Pineville Bank in the summer of 1897, one area newspaper compared her to Belle Starr, the so-called "Bandit Queen." In actuality, of course, Cora's notoriety never approached that of Belle Starr, but Ms. Hubbard did cause quite a stir in the southwest Missouri region for a brief time, not only for the audacity of her bold act but also for her unrepentant atttitude about the deed she had committed. In fact, she seemed quite proud of having committed the crime and, after being captured, even posed for pictures wearing the men's clothes she had donned for the robbery and holding the rifle she had wielded. A pistol that was recovered from the crooks when they were caught had the initials of one of the Dalton gang carved on its handle, and Cora claimed the weapon belonged to her and that she had been with the Daltons several years earlier. Cora seemed to like the idea of shocking people, but in the end the only thing her unabashed attitude got her was a good long stretch in the Missouri state pen. She was let out after serving about seven years, but what happened to her after that is not known.
I've had articles about Cora Hubbard published in Wild West and The Ozarks Mountaineer, and a version of her story also appears as a chapter in my Ozarks Gunfights book.
No comments:
Post a Comment