Pearl Hart, A Feminine Road Agent
Arizona The Youngest State
McClintock, 1913, page 474

In 1889 Arizona rejoiced in the possession of a female bandit, 
Pearl Hart, who carried shooting irons and who robbed stages.  
She was a woman of the half-world with an insatiable craving for 
morphine, cigarettes and notoriety.  According to Sheriff Bill 
Truman of Pinal County, she was a very tiger-cat for nerve and 
endurance and would have killed him if she could.  When the 
Sheriff came upon the woman and her male companion, Joe Boot, 
as they were sleeping on the ground in camp in the San Pedro 
Valley, a couple of days after they had robbed a stage in Kane 
Springs Canyon, she was attired for the road in rough shirt and 
blue overalls.  Pearl for a while was held in the county jail 
in Tucson where in October she succeeded in escaping by cutting 
through a light partition.  She was recaptured in Deming New 
Mexico with a hobo companion about the time, it is understood 
she was preparing to depart with a bandit gang, wherein she 
was to rank as queen.  She was tried in Florence in November 
1898.  A sympathetic jury found her not guilty of stage 
robbery.  Judge Doan thereupon "roasted" the jurors and 
dismissed them from the panel for the balance of the term.  
The woman was then again tried on the charge of robbing the 
stage driver of a revolver.  She was promptly convicted and 
was sentenced for a term of five years to the penitentiary of 
Yuma where she was the sole female prisoner.  Her companion, 
Boot, was given a sentence of three years.  The woman was 
paroled by Governor Brodie in December 1902 upon the condition 
that she at once establish her residence at some point outside 
Arizona.  Her real name was Taylor and her home had been in 
Toledo, Ohio.


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