School of Humans. Woo wie, Wow, what a week? Did anything happen? What a time to be alive? Everyone, Welcome to the show. And if you're an alarmist liberal like me, you might think that society is on the brink of collapse, especially when it comes to women's rights. You know, the new regime, if we can call it that, we'll probably try to strip away a lot of reproductive rights and protections for gender discrimination, and all of us meek females will have to be in heterosexual marriages where our life purpose will be to be trad wives, sire a gaggle of babies, and find the best home decor from hobby lobby. See I'm a bit of an alarmist, or unfortunately, maybe I'm being rational. I don't know. But we got a few more months under lame duck President Joe Biden, remember that guy, and we can just live in a fiction where everything is all right. And living in a fantasy world is what I love, which kind of inspired the episode for today. Because it is about a woman whose life is that of myth of legend, it's kind of hard to tell what actually happened and what was just made up. And also She's an inspiration because before we all have to be housewives. This is a woman who got married five times, but they never became a trad wife, not once. She's like, I'm gonna marry these dudes and then I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want. And that's kind of inspiring. You know. The thing that's uninspiring about it, though, is that the last of those marriages did lead to her death. Yay men. Cue the theme song. This is American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. And this week's episode, Kitty Larroy and her many husbands do de de Look, I just did it down an octave? Was that fun? Well? Whomstas Kitty Leroy, Well, if you don't know about her, she was one of the legendary fixtures of the wild West. She was known for dancing, gambling, shooting guns, and hooking up with people like wild Bill Hickock. She was a wild woman in the wild West. That was the lame thing to say, but I'm going to keep it in And as I was saying in the intro, like many people of this era in this region, it's hard to separate the facts from the fiction of her life. So where is she from? When was she born? We're not exactly sure, but most people agree that she was born sometime in eighteen fifty, probably a Michigan And they think Michigan because when she was quite young she married this guy named Captain E. H. Lewis who lived in Bay City, Michigan. And even though she had several husbands throughout her life, this one might have been the only fully legal one. How she married this guy is one of the many legends of her life. Kitty started dancing for money when she was very young, probably like ten years old. She was very talented. She was also really good at shooting guns. She was a sharp shooter and because of that, the dancing and the guns, she had many suitors. But she was totally uninterested in them because they were a bunch of pussies. Not a single one of those dudes was willing to let her shoot an apple off of the top of their heads. She's like, I'm the Midwestern William, tell let me shoot at you. But that's when Captain E. H. Lewis showed up, and he apparently was like, I don't fear ye, young broad. I believe in your guns slinging skills so much so that I will allow you to place that apple upon my head and you can shoot at me. And it appears that she you did shoot at him and struck the apple. He did not die, as clearly they were wet. But alas, a life of being a good, dutiful wife was not for Kitty Leroy. And when she was about twenty, she was like, boo, hiss to this, I'm bored of being a gun wielding trad wife. So I'm gonna skid daddle from Michigan. And so she left Captain Lewis and pursued a career of jig dancing. That's when you dance to a jig. And when she left her husband, some people said that she was pregnant with their child. She did have a kid at some point. Was it his maybe, was it a girl? Was it a boy? No one can confirm, but I'm assuming the kid went on the road with her, But the kid is rarely mentioned in any stories about her, and so yes, she started touring as a jig dancer. She also did some clogging. And not only was she a jig dancer, she was considered the best jig dancer in America. That's how a lot of newspapers were billing her. Imagine that what an honor. The premier jig dancer of the time. In the early eighteen seventies, she was touring all around the country. She's with variety shows, performing with other singers and dancers in this one guy who'd get shot out of a cannon. She was in Detroit, she was in Indianapolis, she was in Boston, New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, d C. In DC, they said in the newspaper that she was unequalled in the jig. In Kansas City, they said, a champion jig in song and dance. Lady Wow, a triple threat jig song and dance, also lady. In Ellsworth, Kansas, a review said, a crowded house greeted Miss Kitty Leroy. Miss Leroy made a great sensation, her dancing excellent in her appearance without a fault. At some point during her extensive touring in the nineteen seventies, Kitty moved down to Texas. She kept dancing, but she knew she didn't need to prove anything to anyone. She knew she was the best, and why do I say that while she wrote a very confident letter to the editor at the Dallas Daily Herald. What seems to have happened is that someone challenged her to a dance competition, and they published that challenge in the newspaper. Well, Kitty saw this and was basically like fuck you. She was like, first of all, these challengers are quote unknown to me, but if they can give a reference from any of the leading legitimate theaters in the US or Europe, I am willing to notice the challenge, basically just being like, I don't know who the heck these people are, and it doesn't sound like they have any legitimate connections. And then she continued and she was like, yeah, I'll do the challenge, but quote, I would not think of dancing for anything under three or five hundred dollars because here's the thing. They were only offering her one hundred dollars to dance. She's like, that's literally insane. I am worth so much. But she was also being generous because she was like, I don't really care about the competition. I don't need to compete for a championship because I'm already a freaking jig dancing champion. But if you're really desperate, I'll do it for two hundred dollars as long as you prove again that you're a legit group of people who have good connections. I don't know if this challenge happened, but the whole interaction showed that she's a very fiery sort of person, very secure, and she wanted to do things her way, which, yeah, you should, and sometimes that attitude got her into trouble, like the time that it ended one of her relationships with a dance partner. She kept touring into the mid eighteen seventies, and in eighteen seventy six she was touring with a dance partner named Maggie Kelly, and they made a stop in Eureka, Nevada. Eureka, It's Nevada. The two hadn't been dancing together for very long. It seems as they were a bit incompatible, and in October eighteen seventy six, the tension between them snapped and no what happened, well, they got into a bit of a physical altercation, and what the newspaper article said about this was that it was a fight about petty jealousy. The newspaper said, both girls are dancers, and appear upon the stage together in a double clog performance in which the somewhat voluptuous Maggie appeared at a disadvantage when contrasted with the more delicate and light limbed Kitty, who can kick several inches higher than any woman in the theater. Hence the trouble. I agree that is often the trouble with women is we can't help but be jealous of each other's ability to kick. I in fact have several enemies because I am more voluptuous and can't kick as high. But the article also mentions that the issue might have come about because of the sale of wine and the commissions from those sales. Like I'm imagining, Kitty was like, hey, I'm less voluptuous, I can kick higher, ergo I deserve more of the wine commission, and Maggie is maybe like, you're a dumbass, why would you get more wine commissions. I'm more voluptuous, so I need more wine? You selfish wench. So yeah, the tension spilled over and they quote in indulged in a lively fight in the green room after the performance and used each other up so badly that they will probably not make an appearance for some time. But you're like, Gabby, you titled this episode Kitty Leroy and her Many Husbands or whatever I titled it. We haven't heard about nary a husband since that first one in Michigan. Well, when Kitty was touring around the country, and then when she moved down to Texas, not only was she dancing, she also picked up some other talents. She started gambling, and while she was there amongst the rabble of the gambling table in Texas, she met her second husband, a dude who was allegedly named Raymond. Maybe that might have been his name, we don't know for sure. But they were together for six years, and it seemed like they got hitched soon after she had left Michigan. Really, these dates don't make any sense. What is the truth? We don't know. But they were together for a while and then around eighteen seventy seven, they decided to head out west for fame and fortune. This was the time of the gold rush. But unfortunately they were a little late to the gold rush because where they went in California there was no gold to be had. They're like, we already got all the gold, you guys should go somewhere else and the place to go in the eighteen seventies wasn't California. It was Deadwood. Deadwood was not just an HBO show. It was a real place. It was a boomtown in the American Old West, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and people started settling there after eighteen seventy four, when gold was found in the surrounding streams and hills. It was becoming a famous place. It was renowned for being relatively lawless, filled with all sorts of vices like gambling, guns, prostitution. It was just filled to the brim with general chaos and merriment, and Kitty Leroy, the chaos queen herself, was like poof, we gotta go there. But at some point along the road to Deadwood, she and the man allegedly named Raymond seem to have had a fight and decided to part ways. So by the time they got there, Kitty was a single kitty cat on the prow, and legend says that she engaged with many gentlemen, found herself several more husbands, and one of those marriages led to her death. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements. Technically, Kitty Leroy was in Deadwood for a few months, and while she was there, she made quite an impression and seemed to be flying through the men like I kind of wonder if she was in like a rebounding phase after being with the man allegedly named Raymond for so long six years. So they arrived in like early eighteen seventy seven, and she did a lot. She opened and ran a dance hall called the Mint Gambling Saloon, which was a gambling parlor, a bar, and a venue for her dance performances. And some people even thought she was dipping her toe into prostitution. She might have been a madame, but she also might have just been banging all these dudes for free. And in her short time there, Kitty developed a reputation as a winning card player. She was a great gambler and also a great shot. In those first few months of being there. The myth is that she got married twice. One of those marriages might have happened before Deadwood, if it happened at all. But apparently there is this dude who was super thirsty for her. He was bothered the shit out of her trying to win her affections, and she was really annoyed by this. Maybe he was an uggo, maybe he was too desperate. And at this time, apparently Kitty was quick to challenge people to a duel. She carried guns with her everywhere, and if you insulted her, she was like, we should duel. So after this dude kept bothering her about how much he loved her, she was like, hey, you're being so annoying, I challenge you to a fricking duel. And then that guy was like, no, I don't want to shoot a woman. I'm a real gentleman. I don't do things like that. So Kitty put on some of her manliest clothing and in a low voice, was like, hey, I want to duel you. And he was like, wow, I can't tell that you're Kitty, who I am allegedly obsessed with, so obsessed that I don't know what she looks like when she puts on pants. So anyway, they met up, they dueled, and Kitty shot him in the chest, and as he lay there dying on the ground, she felt bad about it, and she was like, someone, go get a preacher so I can marry this dude before he dies. So there you go, boys, if you really want to get a goal, let her shoot and kill you. So that's one of her brief marriages. The other one was with this guy she met at her saloon. He was a rich prospector from Prussia and he had found some gold in the hills of Deadwood and Kitty was like, meow, a rich man, that's so hot. They got married again, allegedly, but then he gambled and drank away all of his money and Kitty was like, wow, that's crazy. You're so much less attractive now, and she kicked him out after hitting him in the head with a bottle. So let's assess at this point, Kitty's had four husbands according to legend of you know, various legal and non legal standing, because again she had four husbands and zero divorces. But as I've been saying, Kitty's fifth and final marriage led to her death. This guy that she married in Deadwood was named Samuel Curly. He was a well known card dealer in Deadwood and they got married in June eighteen seventy seven. This was in the newspaper, so this one is for real. According to the Deadwood Pioneer Times, Curly was about thirty five years old, at the time. Kitty would have been about twenty seven when they got married, and Curly apparently was well known throughout the West and had the reputation of a peaceful individual. That's what the paper said, but it seems very unlikely that that was true given what happened next. So they got married in June, and Curly became very jealous and violent. It seems like he still flirted with dudes. But even worse than that is that Kitty was also a gambler and Curly felt overshadowed by her skill and charisma. They had a lot of arguments. Their relationship was volatile, so much so that almost immediately after they got married, Samuel Curley left Deadwood and went to Cheyenne. Well boohoo for Kitty. She liked having a man around, so when Samuel Curley left, she went back to her second husband, the man allegedly named Raymond. Remember he's the guy that Kitty had been married to for like six years. So the man allegedly named Raymond and Kitty started their relationship back up, started anew. But as we established, Samuel Curley, he's a little violent, he's a little jealous. When he was in Cheyenne, he heard from someone in Deadwood that his wife, Kitty Leroy, was cavorting with the man allegedly named His source was also like, she's also messing around with some other men like wild Bill Hickock, and Curly went into a rage. He was like, oh, my wife has betrayed me, even though I left her immediately after we got married. So he has to plan, and the plan was to kill that guy named Raymond and his wife. So he snuck back into Deadwood. He traveled from Cheyenne under a fake name, and then when he arrived, he lingered in the coach and he was like, hey, coach driver, don't tell anyone I am here. And the coach driver's like, fine, I love drama. That sounds cool. When the coast was clear, Curly left the coach and went to the Lone Star, which was a saloon and boarding house where Kitty was staying. And Curly waited there all day. I imagine he was drinking, which you know, always puts you in the right headspace when you're jealous and already in a rage. Then that evening he was like, I guess it's killed my wife's boyfriend slash second husband, o'clock, so he sent a message to Raymond, but Raymond was like, fuck that, I'm not going to get killed by a loser like Samuel Curley over Kitty le Roy. That's stupid. I deny your request to meet. And I'm sure that didn't make Samuel Curley feel like a big, powerful man. So at that time he resolved himself to be like, well, I guess I'll just have to kill my wife. So around seven o'clock, Curly crept up the dark, narrow staircase to the room where Kitty was staying. Witnesses later said that when he entered the room, they heard sounds of them having an argument. It seemed that Kitty le Roy had talked him out of killing her, and she left the room and asked her landlord if she could borrow some money for Curly to travel back to Cheyenne. So, according to the witnesses, it sounded like she returned to the room, gave the money, and they continued speaking for a few more minutes, but then suddenly Kitty started screaming, which was quickly followed by two gunshots. A newspaper reporter from the Deadwood Pioneer Times happened to be at the Lone Star, and after the police quickly arrived, they headed to the room, and this reporter had a really great time describing the scene where two bodies lay dead. He wrote, the murderer and his victim lying feet to feet, not a yard apart. The woman rested upon her back with a quiet facial expression that indicated not of the bloody deed that had been enacted, but a moment before close examination revealed a small bullet hole in the wat of her dress, which, upon being opened, disclosed the fatal wound in the center of her chest. In an opposite corner of the room lay the murderer upon his face and a sickening pool of blood, his brains oozing, and pieces of skull protruding from a ghastly wound. His right arm was doubled up behind him, the hand grasping a forty four caliber pistol, while a stream of blood poured out of his head, horsed down the arm and fell into the pool and coagulated. See he was having a nice time describing it, but it appears that curly after saying he had given up his bloodthirsty quest, changed his mind. Kitty screamed, he shot her and then shot himself. Kitty's estate of six hundred and fifty dollars was passed to her child. Remember she had that kid allegedly, and the kid was apparently in someone else's custody in Los Angeles. It's all very unclear. So Kitty Learroy, who was a legendary figure in Deadwood, her life passed into myth when it's difficult to paris what was real and what wasn't. But I think what we can gather of what is real is that men fucking suck. Is that too dramatic? Shut up? But here's one of the sad things that in one of the newspapers where her death was reported. Right below, it was another article about a different murder suicide where a man killed his girlfriend with a knife and then killed himself. Isn't that fun? And as always on every episode of American filth, we learn a lesson. And while I want to encourage women to live freely, I also want to encourage y'all to live safely. And I'm just saying, if you happen to move to Deadwood, South Dakota, might I suggest to maybe not get married to three different dudes over the course of like five to six months, you know, maybe check them out, maybe meet their family, maybe get to know them a little bit, because you'd ever know when a dude might fly into a rage and do some funny business. Yes, murder suicide is what I'm calling funny business right now, because I was trying to soften the blow. Wow, another episode of American Filth. Let's cue the credits, why don't we? But I'm gonna keep this music going because it's pretty soothing after all the talk of murder, suicide and violence and all that jazz. American Felt is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This episode was written and hosted by me Gabby Watts. Our theme song is by Jesse Niswanger. Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Else Prole, and Brandon Barr. You can follow along with the show on Instagram at American Filth pod and as always, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your lover, tell your haters to listen to the show and leave a review and some stars on Apple Podcasts so that we can get that algorithm going and continue the show. Okay, is this still really soothing to you? Guys? I feel quite soothed, But you guys know what's going on. I'll talk at you guys next time. Farewell School of Humans.

School of Humans. Woo wie, Wow, what a week? Did anything happen? What a time to be alive? Everyone, Welcome to the show. And if you're an alarmist liberal like me, you might think that society is on the brink of collapse, especially when it comes to women's rights. You know, the new regime, if we can call it that, we'll probably try to strip away a lot of reproductive rights and protections for gender discrimination, and all of us meek females will have to be in heterosexual marriages where our life purpose will be to be trad wives, sire a gaggle of babies, and find the best home decor from hobby lobby. See I'm a bit of an alarmist, or unfortunately, maybe I'm being rational. I don't know. But we got a few more months under lame duck President Joe Biden, remember that guy, and we can just live in a fiction where everything is all right. And living in a fantasy world is what I love, which kind of inspired the episode for today. Because it is about a woman whose life is that of myth of legend, it's kind of hard to tell what actually happened and what was just made up. And also She's an inspiration because before we all have to be housewives. This is a woman who got married five times, but they never became a trad wife, not once. She's like, I'm gonna marry these dudes and then I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want. And that's kind of inspiring. You know. The thing that's uninspiring about it, though, is that the last of those marriages did lead to her death. Yay men. Cue the theme song. This is American Filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week I tell you a filthy story from American history. And this week's episode, Kitty Larroy and her many husbands do de de Look, I just did it down an octave? Was that fun? Well? Whomstas Kitty Leroy, Well, if you don't know about her, she was one of the legendary fixtures of the wild West. She was known for dancing, gambling, shooting guns, and hooking up with people like wild Bill Hickock. She was a wild woman in the wild West. That was the lame thing to say, but I'm going to keep it in And as I was saying in the intro, like many people of this era in this region, it's hard to separate the facts from the fiction of her life. So where is she from? When was she born? We're not exactly sure, but most people agree that she was born sometime in eighteen fifty, probably a Michigan And they think Michigan because when she was quite young she married this guy named Captain E. H. Lewis who lived in Bay City, Michigan. And even though she had several husbands throughout her life, this one might have been the only fully legal one. How she married this guy is one of the many legends of her life. Kitty started dancing for money when she was very young, probably like ten years old. She was very talented. She was also really good at shooting guns. She was a sharp shooter and because of that, the dancing and the guns, she had many suitors. But she was totally uninterested in them because they were a bunch of pussies. Not a single one of those dudes was willing to let her shoot an apple off of the top of their heads. She's like, I'm the Midwestern William, tell let me shoot at you. But that's when Captain E. H. Lewis showed up, and he apparently was like, I don't fear ye, young broad. I believe in your guns slinging skills so much so that I will allow you to place that apple upon my head and you can shoot at me. And it appears that she you did shoot at him and struck the apple. He did not die, as clearly they were wet. But alas, a life of being a good, dutiful wife was not for Kitty Leroy. And when she was about twenty, she was like, boo, hiss to this, I'm bored of being a gun wielding trad wife. So I'm gonna skid daddle from Michigan. And so she left Captain Lewis and pursued a career of jig dancing. That's when you dance to a jig. And when she left her husband, some people said that she was pregnant with their child. She did have a kid at some point. Was it his maybe, was it a girl? Was it a boy? No one can confirm, but I'm assuming the kid went on the road with her, But the kid is rarely mentioned in any stories about her, and so yes, she started touring as a jig dancer. She also did some clogging. And not only was she a jig dancer, she was considered the best jig dancer in America. That's how a lot of newspapers were billing her. Imagine that what an honor. The premier jig dancer of the time. In the early eighteen seventies, she was touring all around the country. She's with variety shows, performing with other singers and dancers in this one guy who'd get shot out of a cannon. She was in Detroit, she was in Indianapolis, she was in Boston, New York, Cleveland, Baltimore, Washington, d C. In DC, they said in the newspaper that she was unequalled in the jig. In Kansas City, they said, a champion jig in song and dance. Lady Wow, a triple threat jig song and dance, also lady. In Ellsworth, Kansas, a review said, a crowded house greeted Miss Kitty Leroy. Miss Leroy made a great sensation, her dancing excellent in her appearance without a fault. At some point during her extensive touring in the nineteen seventies, Kitty moved down to Texas. She kept dancing, but she knew she didn't need to prove anything to anyone. She knew she was the best, and why do I say that while she wrote a very confident letter to the editor at the Dallas Daily Herald. What seems to have happened is that someone challenged her to a dance competition, and they published that challenge in the newspaper. Well, Kitty saw this and was basically like fuck you. She was like, first of all, these challengers are quote unknown to me, but if they can give a reference from any of the leading legitimate theaters in the US or Europe, I am willing to notice the challenge, basically just being like, I don't know who the heck these people are, and it doesn't sound like they have any legitimate connections. And then she continued and she was like, yeah, I'll do the challenge, but quote, I would not think of dancing for anything under three or five hundred dollars because here's the thing. They were only offering her one hundred dollars to dance. She's like, that's literally insane. I am worth so much. But she was also being generous because she was like, I don't really care about the competition. I don't need to compete for a championship because I'm already a freaking jig dancing champion. But if you're really desperate, I'll do it for two hundred dollars as long as you prove again that you're a legit group of people who have good connections. I don't know if this challenge happened, but the whole interaction showed that she's a very fiery sort of person, very secure, and she wanted to do things her way, which, yeah, you should, and sometimes that attitude got her into trouble, like the time that it ended one of her relationships with a dance partner. She kept touring into the mid eighteen seventies, and in eighteen seventy six she was touring with a dance partner named Maggie Kelly, and they made a stop in Eureka, Nevada. Eureka, It's Nevada. The two hadn't been dancing together for very long. It seems as they were a bit incompatible, and in October eighteen seventy six, the tension between them snapped and no what happened, well, they got into a bit of a physical altercation, and what the newspaper article said about this was that it was a fight about petty jealousy. The newspaper said, both girls are dancers, and appear upon the stage together in a double clog performance in which the somewhat voluptuous Maggie appeared at a disadvantage when contrasted with the more delicate and light limbed Kitty, who can kick several inches higher than any woman in the theater. Hence the trouble. I agree that is often the trouble with women is we can't help but be jealous of each other's ability to kick. I in fact have several enemies because I am more voluptuous and can't kick as high. But the article also mentions that the issue might have come about because of the sale of wine and the commissions from those sales. Like I'm imagining, Kitty was like, hey, I'm less voluptuous, I can kick higher, ergo I deserve more of the wine commission, and Maggie is maybe like, you're a dumbass, why would you get more wine commissions. I'm more voluptuous, so I need more wine? You selfish wench. So yeah, the tension spilled over and they quote in indulged in a lively fight in the green room after the performance and used each other up so badly that they will probably not make an appearance for some time. But you're like, Gabby, you titled this episode Kitty Leroy and her Many Husbands or whatever I titled it. We haven't heard about nary a husband since that first one in Michigan. Well, when Kitty was touring around the country, and then when she moved down to Texas, not only was she dancing, she also picked up some other talents. She started gambling, and while she was there amongst the rabble of the gambling table in Texas, she met her second husband, a dude who was allegedly named Raymond. Maybe that might have been his name, we don't know for sure. But they were together for six years, and it seemed like they got hitched soon after she had left Michigan. Really, these dates don't make any sense. What is the truth? We don't know. But they were together for a while and then around eighteen seventy seven, they decided to head out west for fame and fortune. This was the time of the gold rush. But unfortunately they were a little late to the gold rush because where they went in California there was no gold to be had. They're like, we already got all the gold, you guys should go somewhere else and the place to go in the eighteen seventies wasn't California. It was Deadwood. Deadwood was not just an HBO show. It was a real place. It was a boomtown in the American Old West, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and people started settling there after eighteen seventy four, when gold was found in the surrounding streams and hills. It was becoming a famous place. It was renowned for being relatively lawless, filled with all sorts of vices like gambling, guns, prostitution. It was just filled to the brim with general chaos and merriment, and Kitty Leroy, the chaos queen herself, was like poof, we gotta go there. But at some point along the road to Deadwood, she and the man allegedly named Raymond seem to have had a fight and decided to part ways. So by the time they got there, Kitty was a single kitty cat on the prow, and legend says that she engaged with many gentlemen, found herself several more husbands, and one of those marriages led to her death. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements. Technically, Kitty Leroy was in Deadwood for a few months, and while she was there, she made quite an impression and seemed to be flying through the men like I kind of wonder if she was in like a rebounding phase after being with the man allegedly named Raymond for so long six years. So they arrived in like early eighteen seventy seven, and she did a lot. She opened and ran a dance hall called the Mint Gambling Saloon, which was a gambling parlor, a bar, and a venue for her dance performances. And some people even thought she was dipping her toe into prostitution. She might have been a madame, but she also might have just been banging all these dudes for free. And in her short time there, Kitty developed a reputation as a winning card player. She was a great gambler and also a great shot. In those first few months of being there. The myth is that she got married twice. One of those marriages might have happened before Deadwood, if it happened at all. But apparently there is this dude who was super thirsty for her. He was bothered the shit out of her trying to win her affections, and she was really annoyed by this. Maybe he was an uggo, maybe he was too desperate. And at this time, apparently Kitty was quick to challenge people to a duel. She carried guns with her everywhere, and if you insulted her, she was like, we should duel. So after this dude kept bothering her about how much he loved her, she was like, hey, you're being so annoying, I challenge you to a fricking duel. And then that guy was like, no, I don't want to shoot a woman. I'm a real gentleman. I don't do things like that. So Kitty put on some of her manliest clothing and in a low voice, was like, hey, I want to duel you. And he was like, wow, I can't tell that you're Kitty, who I am allegedly obsessed with, so obsessed that I don't know what she looks like when she puts on pants. So anyway, they met up, they dueled, and Kitty shot him in the chest, and as he lay there dying on the ground, she felt bad about it, and she was like, someone, go get a preacher so I can marry this dude before he dies. So there you go, boys, if you really want to get a goal, let her shoot and kill you. So that's one of her brief marriages. The other one was with this guy she met at her saloon. He was a rich prospector from Prussia and he had found some gold in the hills of Deadwood and Kitty was like, meow, a rich man, that's so hot. They got married again, allegedly, but then he gambled and drank away all of his money and Kitty was like, wow, that's crazy. You're so much less attractive now, and she kicked him out after hitting him in the head with a bottle. So let's assess at this point, Kitty's had four husbands according to legend of you know, various legal and non legal standing, because again she had four husbands and zero divorces. But as I've been saying, Kitty's fifth and final marriage led to her death. This guy that she married in Deadwood was named Samuel Curly. He was a well known card dealer in Deadwood and they got married in June eighteen seventy seven. This was in the newspaper, so this one is for real. According to the Deadwood Pioneer Times, Curly was about thirty five years old, at the time. Kitty would have been about twenty seven when they got married, and Curly apparently was well known throughout the West and had the reputation of a peaceful individual. That's what the paper said, but it seems very unlikely that that was true given what happened next. So they got married in June, and Curly became very jealous and violent. It seems like he still flirted with dudes. But even worse than that is that Kitty was also a gambler and Curly felt overshadowed by her skill and charisma. They had a lot of arguments. Their relationship was volatile, so much so that almost immediately after they got married, Samuel Curley left Deadwood and went to Cheyenne. Well boohoo for Kitty. She liked having a man around, so when Samuel Curley left, she went back to her second husband, the man allegedly named Raymond. Remember he's the guy that Kitty had been married to for like six years. So the man allegedly named Raymond and Kitty started their relationship back up, started anew. But as we established, Samuel Curley, he's a little violent, he's a little jealous. When he was in Cheyenne, he heard from someone in Deadwood that his wife, Kitty Leroy, was cavorting with the man allegedly named His source was also like, she's also messing around with some other men like wild Bill Hickock, and Curly went into a rage. He was like, oh, my wife has betrayed me, even though I left her immediately after we got married. So he has to plan, and the plan was to kill that guy named Raymond and his wife. So he snuck back into Deadwood. He traveled from Cheyenne under a fake name, and then when he arrived, he lingered in the coach and he was like, hey, coach driver, don't tell anyone I am here. And the coach driver's like, fine, I love drama. That sounds cool. When the coast was clear, Curly left the coach and went to the Lone Star, which was a saloon and boarding house where Kitty was staying. And Curly waited there all day. I imagine he was drinking, which you know, always puts you in the right headspace when you're jealous and already in a rage. Then that evening he was like, I guess it's killed my wife's boyfriend slash second husband, o'clock, so he sent a message to Raymond, but Raymond was like, fuck that, I'm not going to get killed by a loser like Samuel Curley over Kitty le Roy. That's stupid. I deny your request to meet. And I'm sure that didn't make Samuel Curley feel like a big, powerful man. So at that time he resolved himself to be like, well, I guess I'll just have to kill my wife. So around seven o'clock, Curly crept up the dark, narrow staircase to the room where Kitty was staying. Witnesses later said that when he entered the room, they heard sounds of them having an argument. It seemed that Kitty le Roy had talked him out of killing her, and she left the room and asked her landlord if she could borrow some money for Curly to travel back to Cheyenne. So, according to the witnesses, it sounded like she returned to the room, gave the money, and they continued speaking for a few more minutes, but then suddenly Kitty started screaming, which was quickly followed by two gunshots. A newspaper reporter from the Deadwood Pioneer Times happened to be at the Lone Star, and after the police quickly arrived, they headed to the room, and this reporter had a really great time describing the scene where two bodies lay dead. He wrote, the murderer and his victim lying feet to feet, not a yard apart. The woman rested upon her back with a quiet facial expression that indicated not of the bloody deed that had been enacted, but a moment before close examination revealed a small bullet hole in the wat of her dress, which, upon being opened, disclosed the fatal wound in the center of her chest. In an opposite corner of the room lay the murderer upon his face and a sickening pool of blood, his brains oozing, and pieces of skull protruding from a ghastly wound. His right arm was doubled up behind him, the hand grasping a forty four caliber pistol, while a stream of blood poured out of his head, horsed down the arm and fell into the pool and coagulated. See he was having a nice time describing it, but it appears that curly after saying he had given up his bloodthirsty quest, changed his mind. Kitty screamed, he shot her and then shot himself. Kitty's estate of six hundred and fifty dollars was passed to her child. Remember she had that kid allegedly, and the kid was apparently in someone else's custody in Los Angeles. It's all very unclear. So Kitty Learroy, who was a legendary figure in Deadwood, her life passed into myth when it's difficult to paris what was real and what wasn't. But I think what we can gather of what is real is that men fucking suck. Is that too dramatic? Shut up? But here's one of the sad things that in one of the newspapers where her death was reported. Right below, it was another article about a different murder suicide where a man killed his girlfriend with a knife and then killed himself. Isn't that fun? And as always on every episode of American filth, we learn a lesson. And while I want to encourage women to live freely, I also want to encourage y'all to live safely. And I'm just saying, if you happen to move to Deadwood, South Dakota, might I suggest to maybe not get married to three different dudes over the course of like five to six months, you know, maybe check them out, maybe meet their family, maybe get to know them a little bit, because you'd ever know when a dude might fly into a rage and do some funny business. Yes, murder suicide is what I'm calling funny business right now, because I was trying to soften the blow. Wow, another episode of American Filth. Let's cue the credits, why don't we? But I'm gonna keep this music going because it's pretty soothing after all the talk of murder, suicide and violence and all that jazz. American Felt is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. This episode was written and hosted by me Gabby Watts. Our theme song is by Jesse Niswanger. Our executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Else Prole, and Brandon Barr. You can follow along with the show on Instagram at American Filth pod and as always, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your lover, tell your haters to listen to the show and leave a review and some stars on Apple Podcasts so that we can get that algorithm going and continue the show. Okay, is this still really soothing to you? Guys? I feel quite soothed, But you guys know what's going on. I'll talk at you guys next time. Farewell School of Humans.