The legendary silhouette is unforgettable: a woman in black velvet with an ostrich-feather hat and twin cartridge belts of pistols. But the gun-toting Bandit Queen of the Wild West began as a classically educated academy graduate who played piano. This deep dive strips away the dime-novel myth to trace the real life of Myra Maybelle Shirley.

We follow how a privileged but socially marginalized Missouri girl was transformed by the Civil War, her brother's death, and family ruin into a frontier fugitive and, ultimately, the organizational brain of an outlaw network in Indian Territory.

• Her comfortable but socially shut-out upbringing in pre-war Missouri
• The Civil War trauma and refugee journey that shattered her world
• Her flamboyant dress as calculated branding in a violent world
• Acting as fence, strategist, ...