Henry Starr

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Henry Starr (December 2, 1873 – February 22, 1921) was an American outlaw from the frontier era who later acted in silent films. He was born in Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), and grew up around gangs and crime. After his father died in 1886, his mother raised three children, and Starr eventually left home to become a cowboy.

He was first arrested for bootlegging and was jailed many times for crimes he did not commit. Frustrated, he decided to rob banks to make real money. In 1893 he was tried for the murder of Deputy U.S. Marshal Floyd Wilson. Judge Isaac C. Parker sentenced him to hang, but after appeals and a prison escape confrontation with Cherokee Bill, his sentence was reduced to manslaughter. He later received a presidential pardon and was released.

Starr then led a feared gang that robbed across northwest Arkansas in the early 1900s, with a $5,000 reward offered for his capture. He was imprisoned again in 1915 in Arizona. While in prison he wrote an autobiography, Thrilling Events, Life of Henry Starr, and was released on parole.

In 1919 he joined the Pan American Motion Picture Corporation and starred in the silent film A Debtor to the Law, playing a version of himself. On February 18, 1921, during a bank robbery attempt in Harrison, Arkansas, he was shot by bank president W. J. Myers with a .38 caliber rifle and died from his wounds a few days later. He is buried at Dewey Cemetery in Dewey, Oklahoma.