Today in Labor History May 30, 1899: Pearl Hart committed one of the last stage coach robberies in America, and one of the only committed by a woman. At a young age, she married a man who turned out to be abusive. After watching Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, she decided that the cowboy lifestyle was the life for her. So, she abandoned her husband and caught a train to Trinidad, Colorado (near the site of the future Ludlow Massacre). "I was only twenty-two years old. I was good-looking, desperate, discouraged, and ready for anything that might come." During this time, she may have worked as a prostitute and developed a morphine habit. However, she wasn’t earning much money and decided to rob a stagecoach, along with a companion, Joe Boot. She cut her hair short and dressed as a man. They robbed the stagecoach without incident. But the authorities caught up them and arrested them less than a week later. Hart escaped, but was recaptured after two weeks. During her trial, she pleaded that she needed the money for her sick mother. The jury acquitted her, which really pissed off the judge.
