Birth Locations – Page 116 – The Exasperated Historian

233) Arizona Barker

233: Arizona Barker

American Outlaw Known Better as “Ma Barker” or “Kate Barker”

Born: 8 October 1873, Ash Grove, Missouri, United States of America

Died: 16 January 1935, Ocklawaha, Florida, United States of America

She and her sons joined several other criminals to lead a life of crime.

Ma liked to live well and bought fine clothes and expensive jewels from her son’s takes. They traveled all over the US and even to Havana, Cuba for a time.

Their crimes ranged from kidnapping to murder and of course burglary.

One of her sons was killed and another sentenced to twenty-five years in prison. A third was arrested and they found a map on his person leading the police to his mother and her fourth son—instead of surrendering she and her son Fred decided to fight it out and were killed in the shootout.

The FBI claims she was found with a Tommy Gun in hand when they located her body.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers by Robert Barr Smith

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ma-Barker

https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/barker-karpis-gang

https://www.huntakillerwiththebau.com/ma-barker/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54/kate-barker

232) Lizzie Borden

232: Lizzie Borden

More Famous for the Children's Rhyme Lizzie Borden took an axe…Than Anything Else

Born: 19 July 1860, Fall River, Massachusetts, United States of America

Died: 1 June 1927, Fall River, Massachusetts, United States of America

Lizzie was alleged to have murdered her father and stepmother with an ax but was tried and acquitted of the charges.

Lizzie was suspected because she was often at odds with her father over finances, had tried to purchase poison in the days before the murders, and had supposedly burned a dress in the stove soon after.

Lizzie continued to live in town until her death despite being ostracized by the community who thought she was guilty.

The house where her father and stepmother were murdered is now a bed and breakfast.

An episode of the Travel Channel paranormal show Dead Files was filmed in the Lizzie Borden House. Amy Adams (the Psychic Medium featured on the show) saw Lizzie, her sister, and her father all still trapped in the home.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes by Michael Newton

Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers by Robert Barr Smith

National Geographic History Magazine Article "Trial of the Century: The Crimes of Lizzie Borden" by Erin Blakemore (September/October 2023 Edition)

Who Knew? Women in History: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lizzie-Borden-American-murder-suspect

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-19th-century-axe-murderer-lizzie-borden-was-found-not-guilty-180972707/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115/lizzie-borden

231) Calamity Jane

231: Calamity Jane

American Frontierswoman who Exaggerated Practically Every Story of Everything That Ever Happened to Her

Born: 1 May 1852, Princeton, Missouri, United States of America

Died: 1 August 1903, Terry, South Dakota, United States of America

Original Name: Martha Jane Canary

Calamity was known for dressing like a man, shooting like a man, and drinking like a man.

Both of her parents died in short succession after traveling by wagon train from Missouri westward; leaving Calamity in charge of her five younger siblings.

In 1870, she joined General George Armstrong Custer as a scout at Fort Russell in Wyoming—effectively beginning the rest of her life of dressing like a man.

Although Calamity often claimed she and Wild Bill Hickok were involved (or possibly even married) there is little to no evidence to support these claims.

She spent years traveling all over the Western United States and in 1885 she married and had a daughter two years later.

Calamity continued to travel and in 1895 she was hired as a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

She eventually died from effects of alcoholism and requested she be buried by Wild Bill Hickok.

In 1953, a Hollywood Film Entitled “Calamity Jane” was released. I’ve linked the trailer to the left.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins

The Book of Awesome Women: Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes, and Female Firsts by Becca Anderson

Cowgirls: Women of the American West by Teresa Jordan

Haunted West: Legendary Tales From the Frontier (Magazine Published by Centennial Today, Fall 2020)

Love Lessons From the Old West: Wisdom From Wild Women by Chris Enss

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Tales Behind the Tombstones: The Deaths and Burial's of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen by Chris Enss

Sources:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-calamityjane/

https://www.deadwood.com/history/infamous-deadwood/calamity-jane/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/166/martha-jane-canary

230) Belle Starr

230: Belle Starr

American Outlaw Given the Nickname “Bandit Queen”

Born: 5 February 1848, Carthage, Missouri, United States of America

Died: 3 February 1889, Briartown, Oklahoma, United States of America

Born Name: Myra Belle Shirley

(Don’t confuse her with the other Bandit Queen—Phoolan Devi, they are completely different women!)

Belle knew other famous outlaws like the James and Younger Brothers and was arrested several times herself. Her mother also happened to be related to the Hatfields of the famed Hatfield v McCoy Feud.

Her older brother taught her how to ride and shoot—and though not proven some believe she worked with him to combat Union troops in Missouri Territory at the start of the War Between the States (The Shirley Family was very Confederate).

Belle had two children with her first husband. Her second husband was a Cherokee man and they lived in the Cherokee Territory together.

In 1883 they were convicted of stealing horses and each spent nine months in jail. After her second husband was killed, she married for a third time, but the marriage was anything but happy.

Belle was murdered two days before her forty-first birthday with the killer never being brought to justice. However, days before, her husband had evidently been shopping around for someone willing to pay his wife for money. When his offers were rejected, he was reported to have said he’d kill her himself.

In 1941, a Hollywood film entitled “Belle Starr” was released. From the IMDb description of the film, it doesn’t sound too terribly accurate, but the film is available on YouTube. I’ve linked it here in this article (but you should know the image is reversed, evidently the person who uploaded it is trying to avoid copyright infringement). I have also included a short biographical video on Belle as an added bonus.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Who Knew? Women in History: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman

The Book of Awesome Women: Boundary Breakers, Freedom Fighters, Sheroes, and Female Firsts by Becca Anderson

Cowgirls: Women of the American West by Teresa Jordan

Haunted West: Legendary Tales From the Frontier (Magazine Published by Centennial Today, Fall 2020)

The Old West by Stephen G Hyslop

Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers by Robert Barr Smith

Sources:

https://www.biography.com/personality/belle-starr

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-bellestarr/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/975/belle-starr

229) Carry Nation

"Men, I have come to save you from a drunkard's fate!"

229: Carry Nation

Professional Vandalizer

Born: 25 November 1846, Garrard County, Kentucky, United States of America

Died: 9 June 1911, Leavenworth, Kentucky, United States of America

Alternate Name: Carrie Nation

Carry was a temperance advocate famous for using a hatchet to smash up saloons and bars, and she wasn’t alone. Carry was actually the leader in a group of women who traveled all over Kansas, asking saloon owners to close shop. If they refused, Carry and her fellows destroyed their saloons.

She gained a teaching degree before marrying twice—divorcing the first for being an alcoholic and the second after he claimed abandonment on her part.

Carry was jailed several times for her work and always paid fines to free herself with the money raised from speaking lecture engagements and selling souvenir hatchets.

Carry herself was physically assaulted several times because of her work.

She also advocated against tobacco, corsets, foreign foods, “skirts of improper length”, and the slightly pornographic artwork found in some bars at the time.

Carry was even a women’s suffrage advocate.

Her autobiography was published in 1904 and in 1976 her home became a National Historic Landmark. Her epitaph reads, “She Hath Done What She Could.”

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West by Chris Enss

Uppity Women Speak Their Minds by Vicki Leon

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Tales Behind the Tombstones: The Deaths and Burial's of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen by Chris Enss

They Came to Jerome by Herbert V Young

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carry-Nation

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/carry-a-nation/15502

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/756/carry-amelia-nation

228) Lola Montez

228: Lola Montez

Professional Liar

Born: 17 February 1821, Grange, County Sligo, Ireland (Present-day Republic of Ireland)

Died: 17 January 1861, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America

Original Name: Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert

She pretended to be Spanish so she would be a more “exotic” dancer (she was from Ireland).

Lola is most known for her liaison with Ludwig I the King of Bavaria.

When she was nineteen, she eloped but left that husband five years later after launching her dancing career. It was while she was performing onstage that she ensnared the king’s attention.

Lola quickly became Baroness Rosenthal and Countess of Lansfield—with the king offering her a castle. He brought her in as his mistress (you can imagine how his wife felt about this) and was so infatuated with her his people got a little miffed and he lost his crown in 1848.

In 1849 she married again despite the fact she’d never been divorced from the first husband.

Lola married and got divorced for a third time after moving to California.

She then went to New York and taught classes for a while before returning to California and keeping a bear as a pet.

She passed away from a stroke.

Lola's story is featured on an episode of Monumental Mysteries entitled "The King and the Spanish Dancer, A Communist Comes to America, Filth Party."

The band Volbeat released a song entitled “Lola Montez” and the lyrics are all about a girl tricking various men into falling in love with her, so someone did their research! I’ve linked the song to the left.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins

History’s Naughty Bits by Karen Dolby

Royal Love Stories by Gill Paul

Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

Tales Behind the Tombstones: The Deaths and Burial's of the Old West's Most Nefarious Outlaws, Notorious Women, and Celebrated Lawmen by Chris Enss

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lola-Montez

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/726/lola-montez

227) Lavinia Fisher

227: Lavinia Fisher

Reportedly the First Female Serial Killer in the United States

Born: 1793, South Carolina, United States of America

Died: 18 February 1820, Charleston, South Carolina, United States of America

Lavinia may have been from Charleston, South Carolina but that remains unclear.

What is known is that she lived six miles from Charleston with her husband and operated a bed and breakfast—called the Six Mile Wayfarer House.

Authorities began to notice a string of men disappearing and they had all been last seen at Six Mile.

It is believed she drugged the guests with tea and then she and her husband killed those same guests. Several bodies were found on the property, but she and her husband could not be definitely proven to be the killers and instead they were hung for robbing the guests which was still a capital offense.

Many argue and disagree over whether she was the first female serial killer in the United States or not for these reasons.

Today, her ghost reportedly haunts the old prison where she was kept before being put to death.

Her story was recounted in an episode of Travel Channel’s Monumental Mysteries entitled "Grand Central Occult; Superhero Surfer; Charleston Jail."

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Outlaw Women: America's Most Notorious Daughters, Wives, and Mothers by Robert Barr Smith

Sources:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/sc-laviniafisher/

https://ghostcitytours.com/charleston/lavinia-fisher/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119735321/lavinia-fisher

226) Mary Peck Butterworth

226: Mary Peck Butterworth

Possibly the First Counterfeiter in What Would Become the United States

Born: 27 July 1686, Rehobeth, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Rehobeth, Massachusetts, United States of America)

Died: 7 February 1775, Rehobeth, Massachusetts Bay Colony (Present-day Rehobeth, Massachusetts, United States of America)

(This Mary is not to be confused with the band of the same name).

Mary might be also responsible for the term money laundering because of how she made her fake bills—using a damp starched cotton cloth to lift the ink from an actual bill, she would then use a hot iron to copy the image over and hand paint in the missing details. The original cotton piece was easily burned to dispose of any evidence.

She supposedly got the entire family involved and was selling the bills at half their face value.

Mary was tried in the 1720’s but was never convicted for lack of evidence and she reportedly gave up the practice soon after. Very little else is known of her life.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

Stealing Lincoln’s Body by Thomas J Craughwell

Sources:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Peck-3762

http://pluckywomen.blogspot.com/2010/01/mary-peck-butterworth-colonial.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Butterworth

225) Audrey Hepburn

225: Audrey Hepburn

Actress Remembered for Roles Like That of Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Born: 4 May 1929, Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium

Died: 20 January 1993, Tolochenaz, Vaud, Switzerland

Audrey started on Broadway before launching herself into Hollywood.

She lived in the Netherlands during World War II and reportedly helped deliver messages as a courier in the resistance against the Nazis (and yes, she was still a child). Audrey and her mother struggled to survive during this time.

In the later years of her life she stopped acting and instead began working for charities like UNICEF to raise awareness for children in need around the world. Audrey made fifty trips to different countries around the world and was honored with a special Academy Award for her humanitarian work in 1993—unfortunately she died from colon cancer before being able to accept the award in person.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

The Hollywood Book of Death by James Robert Parish

The Rough Guide to Film Musicals by David Parkinson

Sources:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000030/bio

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Audrey-Hepburn

https://www.biography.com/actor/audrey-hepburn

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/475/audrey-hepburn

224) Violette Szabo

224: Violette Szabo

Allied Spy During World War II

Born: 26 June 1921, Paris, France

Died: 5 February 1945, Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Brandenburg, Germany

Violette worked for the Special Operations Executive and was parachuted into France before being captured and executed by the Nazi Regime.

She met her husband and married him very quickly—Etienne was thirty-one and she nineteen when they got hitched.

Etienne returned to the front lines and was killed in 1942. Violette learned after Etienne had left to return to the front that she was pregnant, and their daughter was born in 1942—Tania (Etienne died three months after Tania was born and never got to see her or meet her in person).

Violette joined the SOE because of Etienne’s death.

She and several others were parachuted into France the day after the D-Day landings (it was her second landing in France, with the first mission being a success).

After her capture she was taken to Ravensbruck and then to Torgau Concentration Camp.

After toiling for months at Torgau she was returned to Ravensbruck. Violette and two other captured spies (Denise Bloch and Lilian Rolfe) were executed by being shot in the back of the head.

She was posthumously awarded the George Cross for her bravery—the second woman to be awarded that medal. Violette was also awarded the Croix du Guerre and La Medaille de la Resistance by the French.

She and Etienne are the most decorated married couple from World War II.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Women Wartime Spies by Ann Kramer

Secret Heroes of World War II by Eric Chalene

World War II Love Stories by Gill Paul

Sources:

http://www.violette-szabo-museum.co.uk/violette.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/behind-enemy-lines-with-violette-szabo-1896571/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13127738/violette-reine_elizabeth-szabo