Calamity Jane
“Calamity Jane” was born as Martha Jane Cannary. When she published her diary, it shocked the public, and it continued to do so for ages – until a large part of it was debunked.
Although it’s no secret that Martha led a troubled life, there’s also no question that she stretched the truth of that life for her stories.
Their Story Became a Movie
In 1967, Hollywood would be responsible for raising the dead, in the form of the Bonnie and Clyde film directed by Arthur Penn. The film starred a young Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who also helped behind-the-scenes as a producer.
It has been widely regarded as one of the best gangster films of all time.
Other Women Criminals
"Bonnie and Clyde" was hailed as being revolutionary. There hadn’t been too many films about real gangster women, much less couples, at that point in time. But before this young couple took Texas by storm, there were other tough women who stirred things up in their towns, too.
Perhaps you’ve heard of a woman known as Calamity Jane. She published an autobiography in 1896 that detailed her exploits, which were definitely not something common of women in her time.
She Documented Everything
Cannary detailed her life in her tell-all account, starting with the year of her birth. But researchers would later lay claim to the fact it was proven she was indeed born several years after what she originally said.
And that was far from the only truth she seemed to stretch in the book, "The Autobiography of Calamity Jane."
Living Off of Gold
Everyone had to scramble for ways to survive in Cannary’s days. That meant that a lot of the women wound up in brothels. But there was something that existed that could save Jane’s family from a life in poverty and despair: gold.
And there was plenty of it in Montana. The family loaded up and headed west.