Later Life
After leaving prison, Hart largely disappeared from public view. She had a short lived show where she reenacted her crime and then spoke about the horrors of Yuma Territorial Prison. Following this she worked, under an alias, as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1904, Hart was running a cigar store in Kansas City where she was arrested for receiving stolen property. She was acquitted of the charge.
Accounts of Hart's later life are sketchy and contradictory. One common story has her returning to the jail in Tucson 25 years after her imprisonment to visit the jail cell that once held her. Likewise, a census taker in 1940 claimed to have discovered Hart living in Arizona under a different name. Folklore from Gila County claims that Hart returned to Globe and lived there peacefully until her death on December 30, 1955. Competing claims place her death as late as 1960.
In addition to being a staple of pulp Western fiction, Hart's exploits have been featured in other venues. Her adventures are in the early 1900s film Yuma City. The play Lady With a Gun and the musical The Legend of Pearl Hart are also based upon Hart's story. Additionally, Jane Candia Coleman's book I, Pearl Hart is a historical fiction based upon the life of Hart.
Read more about this topic: Pearl Hart
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