ArizonaRealCountry.com 37 June 2018 in his mother’s restaurant. He met and married Miss Ollie Griffin and they had a son they named, what else, Theodore Roosevelt Starr. Three Years Trouble Free Events were catching up with Henry despite his job and family life. Oklahoma became a state in 1908. Henry feared he would be extradited to Arkansas by his new state to face some unanswered charges still against him there. He took to the Osage Hills and hunted up his old partners. March 13, 1908, Henry and his gang crossed the Kansas border and robbed the bank at Tyro, Kansas. The gang then fled west from Oklahoma to Colorado and hit the bank in Amity. Henry then fled into Arizona Territory, where he was spotted by the law and captured. Arizona returned him to Colorado to stand trial for the Amity bank holdup. Henry pleaded guilty to robbing the bank at Amity and was sentenced to from seven to 25 years in the Canon City Prison. There, Henry became a trustee and studied law in the prison library. He also had time to write his autobiography, Thrilling Events, Life of Henry Starr. The governor must have like the book. Henry had served but five years of his sentence when the governor pardoned him and he was set free on Sept. 13, 1913. Thrilling It Was! After walking out of the Tyro Arkansas State Bank on the Friday afternoon of March 13, 1908, and riding off with $2,500 of the bank's money, Henry Starr’s life did, indeed, get thrilling. The bandits started due south out of Tyro. Within hours, Deputy Sheriff Amik and a Mr. Dabney took up the trail. Others from Tyro caught up with the pair as they rode hard on the trail of the bandits. By the time the posse reached the town of Wann, 20 men were in the chase. Other posses started out from the towns of Dearing and Caney. Before nightfall, the roads were blanketed with hard riding men looking for Starr and his partner. Early the Tyro posse was riding hard along a creek bottom a couple of miles outside of Wann. Deputy Amik figured he had the outlaws surrounded, what with posses riding in from Wann and more coming from the east. The Tyro posse rode straight ahead, along the creek bottom and towards the woods. Suddenly, the two bandits opened fire from the edge of the woods, bringing down the horses under Deputy Amik and Dabney. That stopped the posse cold in its tracks. The bandits put their hats on the business end of their rifles, waved them high over their heads, and let out a resounding war whoop. They were the last seen by the horseless Amik riding off to the southwest. Other Lawmen Slow Coming The organization of a posse at Wann failed. City Marshal Leonard Lee and Lee Doncaricon ended up as the Wann posse. The pair headed northwest in an effort to head off Starr and his pal. Lee was armed only with a six-shooter and Doncaricon had only a few shells for his gun. From the top of the hill, they spotted the bandits riding out towards them. In all, twenty shots were fired, most of them by the bandits. Marshal Lee took a bullet in his gun hand, knocking his pistol from his hand and ripping away the flesh under the bone. The Marshall ran to a nearby house. The bandits rode up to the house. Lee had taken refuge upstairs and warned the women in the house that if the bandits entered and came upstairs, he would kill them. Star and Wilson rode up to the house, sized up the situation after talking to the women, and rode on. As the bandits rode off, the Tyro posse was approaching Wann. Marshal Lee had lost his wallet on the hill where he and Doncaricon had fought with the bandits. He sent a man to retrieve it. As he looked for the wallet the Tyros posse approached. They opened up on the man Lee had sent to get his wallet. The man waved his arms and tried to show he was a friend but the Tyros posse was thirsting for blood. The posse increased its fire in the direction of Lee’s man. The man forgot about Lee’s wallet, turned his horse and raced back to Wann. Out to Kill Someone A little closer to Wann, the Tyros posse came across an elderly Wann gentleman heading for home in his buggy. As they rode upon him from the rear they opened fire on the man. He had no idea who was shooting at him and did not stop to find out. He whipped his horse and pulled away from the posse, beating it for home. The bandits were now southwest of Ochelata. This was country Starr knew, and where he was known. As the bandits rode, women on rural telephone lines along the way informed the authorities in Ochelata of their progress. Ochelata Constable Daniels formed a four-man posse and rode out to meet the bandits. Daniels knew Starr and guessed his partner was most likely Kid Wilson but nobody knew at this point for sure. The posse rode towards a tent on one side of an oil lease. Suddenly a man stepped out of the tent and motioned at them to get back. Confused, the posse halted for a minute, wondering what the man was motioning them away for. Starr suddenly appeared from the brush at the side of the road where the posse stood, some 100 yards from the tent, with his rifle leveled at the lawmen. Starr had them cold. He ordered his partner to collect the guns from the posse, which the lawmen gladly gave up. The guns were then smashed against some rocks and shattered beyond use. Starr then gave the guns back to the posse, ordered one of the lawmen to dismount and take the saddle from his horse. The lawman did what he was told. “I’ve robbed more banks than any man in America.” He didn’t mention to his doctors that he had published a book and had made several movies based on his career. continued on page 39