The Wild West's Most Legendary Women

After spending two years on a whaling ship, Mary Ann Conklin moved to Seattle and ran the Felker House, a reputable hotel on the first floor with a brothel on the second. She came to be known as Mother Damnable because of her penchant for profanity, and is said to have known curse words in six languages. Legend has it that after her death, her body turned to stone in its coffin.

Owner of a Nevada City gambling parlor, the Vingt-et-un, Eleanor Dumont – whose birth name may have been Simone Jules – was a skilled card dealer and brothel madam known as Madam Moustache for the line of hair growing above her mouth. Her luck ran out when she fell in love with conman Jack McKnight, who stole her fortune and sold her ranch. After tracking him down and killing him, she returned to gambling but suffered a string of losses and was found dead of a suspected morphine overdose.

Mary Fields was contracted by the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail by stagecoach, as part of the so-called star route postal system, in the rugged territory of northern Montana. Known for her fearless and fiery temperament, she carried both a rifle and a revolver and successfully defended her parcels from bandits for years until her retirement.

Born Mary Welch in Ireland, Hensley renamed herself Josephine Airey at the age of 14 when she moved to New York City. Later, after working as a prоstitute in Chicago, she moved on to Helena, Montana, during the gold rush, where she married one James T. Hensley and acquired the nickname “Chicago Joe.” She set up a mining camp brothel in a log cabin, recruiting other women from Chicago to head West. She and Hensley built up multiple businesses in the red light district, including a variety show theater.

After learning cards from her father, an avid gambler, Deno – born Carlotta J. Thompkins – started her life of gambling, working riverboats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers before heading to San Antonio. There she fell in love with fellow gambler Frank Thurmond and the pair made a fortune playing poker and running gambling rooms before settling down in New Mexico.

An outlaw in Texas and Oklahoma Territory, Belle Starr, nee Myra Maybelle Shirley, was known as a criminal mastermind who committed bank robberies and horse thefts, and also harbored other known criminals, including Frank and Jesse James. She was murdered by an unknown assailant just shy of her 41st birthday.

English-born “Poker Alice” got her start in Leadville, Colorado, and earned a reputation for her poker and faro skills across the Southwest, where opponents would line up and attempt to best her. She was known to travel to New York city and splurge on fancy dresses with most of her winnings. Later in life she ran a gambling den and had trouble with the law for bootlegging and operating a brothel.

Born in Alabama, Mollie Johnson began working as a prostitute around age 14 or 15 and found her way to Deadwood, South Dakota, where she operated a brothel. She flaunted her blonde working girls in a carriage around town – she was known as “Queen of the Blondes” – and married a Black traveling minstrel and comedian, both of which made her popular headline fodder in the local paper, the Black Hills Daily Times. She left Deadwood in early 1883 and dropped out of sight. An obituary notice in Deadwood paper noted the death of a Mollie Johnson, described as “the most prominent member of the demi-monde in New Orleans,” in 1889, but it is unclear whether this was the same woman.

Mary Elizabeth Haley lived a hard childhood in Texas, which involved being held captive by Comanches for three years and having her first suitor shot dead by her father. She ran away at 14 and began working as a prostitute and dance hall girl in Kansas and Colorado. Libby finally settled down with her husband Billy Thompson and ran a successful brothel in Sweetwater, Texas, where she became known as Madam “Squirrel Tooth Alice” for a gap in her teeth.

A sharpshooter who dressed in men’s clothing, Martha Jane Cannary was a rough-edged carouser and associate of Wild Bill Hickock, as well as a humanitarian who nursed smallpox patients in Deadwood, South Dakota. There are several stories about how she acquired her nickname, one of which involves her rescuing an army captain from the calamity of an Indian ambush.

A brilliant businesswoman, Eliza Martin moved to Cripple Creek, Colorado, during the last Colorado gold rush, when the demand for prоstitutes was high. There, she changed her name and started a successful brothel. When that burned down, she built an even more lavish establishment, catering to only the wealthiest of clients, where reservations were obligatory and a stay was $250 a night.

Ellen Liddy Watson, also known as Cattle Kate, was a cook and homesteader from Ontario, Canada. After moving to Wyoming and acquiring 160 acres of land through the Homestead Act, she ran afoul of a wealthy local rancher over water rights, and she and her husband were subsequently accused of cattle rustling and hanged by vigilantes. Whether the two were actually cattle thieves is debatable.

An actor who traveled with a theater group, Josephine Marcus fell in love with Sheriff Johnny Behan while performing in Tombstone, Arizona. She decided to stay in the town, but things got complicated when Wyatt Earp showed up, and she left Behan for Earp. This may have helped fuel the tensions that led to the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After the fight, Marcus and Earp stayed together for 46 years until his death.

The leading competitor to Deadwood’s Madam Mollie Johnson was Madam Dora DuFran. She ran numerous brothels in South Dakota and Montana, the most famous of which was Diddlin’ Dora’s in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. She famously kept an assemblage of cats in one of her houses of ill repute, and was known to take in and care for the sick and needy.

A Canadian-born outlaw, Pearl Hart wore men’s clothing and a short haircut while robbing a stagecoach in Arizona with her partner Joe Boot. The two were caught and jailed but Hart managed to gain an adoring fanbase, who came bearing gifts for the “Bandit Queen.” She reportedly told the court, “I will not consent to be tried under a law which my sex has had no voice in making.” According to some sources, she later ran a cigar store in Kansas City, while others say she married an Arizona rancher.

After working her way up from a prostitute to a madam, Fannie Porter opened a high end brothel in San Antonio’s famous Sporting District. Her establishment served champagne, had plush carpets and silk sheets, and was known for being very protective of her “girls.” In addition to welcoming famous outlaws into her establishment, she reportedly once entertained William Pinkerton of the famed Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

The older of two Bassett sisters, Josie grew up on a ranch frequented by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch gang. After her father’s death, she and her sister defended the ranch from hired thugs meant to scare them into selling the land. Josie was romantically involved with Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay, made a living brewing moonshine, was accused of cattle rustling, and lived to be 90.

Also known as Della Rose, Laura Bullion became a prostitute at 15, eventually falling in with Ben Kilpatrick, an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch. She began dressing as a man and going on heists with the Bunch, participating in the Great Northern train robbery, after which she and Kilpatrick fled to Knoxville and were eventually arrested. She later moved to Memphis under an assumed name and made a living as a dressmaker and interior designer.

Although the origins and later life of Etta Place are rather mysterious, she rose to fame as the primary companion of the outlaw Harry Longabaugh, also known as the Sundance Kid. She may also have been a paramour of Butch Cassidy, and she fled with the two men to Argentina to escape capture by the Pinkertons after a string of robberies.

After learning how to ride, rope, and shoot from her older brothers, Rose Dunn – known as the Rose of Cimarron – became involved with outlaw George Newcomb of the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Fiercely loyal to Newcomb, Dunn reportedly once risked her life during a shootout to bring him a gun and extra ammo. Unfortunately, Dunn’s brothers killed Newcomb one day as he came to visit her, and collected the $5,000 bounty on his head.

The younger of the two Bassett sisters, Ann became involved with Butch Cassidy when he and other Wild Bunch members frequented her father’s farm in Brown’s Hole on the Colorado/Utah border. She took over her parents’ ranch, defended it from hired men who attempted to intimidate her into selling, and was once arrested for cattle rustling. According to one theory, she and Etta Place were the same person, but this possibility has been widely discounted.

Also known as Annie Rogers and Maude Williams, Della Moore began working in a brothel at the age of 15. There, she met outlaw Harvey Logan – Kid Curry of the Wild Bunch. The two were involved for years, with Moore hiding Logan and resupplying him after robberies. She was once arrested for passing stolen bank notes. After Curry was killed by a posse in 1904, she may have gone back to work at a brothel, but later disappeared.

The daughter of a medicine show hawker, Goldie Griffith became a rodeo rider and performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. She is said to have once been arrested for opening fire on her husband in public after a fight, and yelling that she wanted him dead as the police carted her to the station. She later worked as a stunt rider in Western films and as a rancher and dog trainer.