She went "into business" in the area, she opened and ran a gambling room in small Ingalls, and kept a couple of girls. The outlaw element in the area liked to visit the small communities of Ripley, Ingalls, Cushing and elsewhere to drink, game, visit the ladies, and on more than one occasion they attended church fundraising suppers or community events.
Now along with the outlaw groups better known - the Daltons, the Doolin's and the Dunns - there was a constantly shifting association of small-town bad guys and their hangeron's. They were not above claiming the glory for some criminal activity to enhance their 'street cred' of that time period.
One bad guy was known as "Doc Stutzman" and he was often accompanied by his "wife." Now, this women seems to have changed names and appearance on more than one occasion. A local in the Cushing area was named Billy Johnson and he had a saloon with hardcore and wild regulars. One was "Doc" and it was alleged Doc's wife was named "Sadie McCloskey" (Young Cushing in Oklahoma Territory, pg. 37).
The time frame, the locales, and the descriptions of this woman at one point make her a likely candidate for the legend of the "Rose of the Cimarron" label that was slapped on to the most likely innocent young sister of the Dunn brothers.
She was probably also responsible for some of the things people laid at the feet of Flora Quick Mundis aka "Tom King" and possible other women of that day.
Some descriptions indicate she had a fine pair of pale horses pulling a fancy buggy.
She loved big hats with long feathers and trimmings. Sallie, Sadie Comley aka McCloskey, was "widow of a BAR X cowboy killed right after the Sac and Fox Land " opening September 22, 1891. It was said she had a "parlor" with 304 girls working in Ingalls. Early maps of Ingalls do indicate the location of such a house.
One year after the opening of the Sac and Fox lands, September 1, 1892, was the day of the Battle of Ingalls, according to Glenn Shirley's West of Hell's Fringe (pg.151,157), on that day outlaw Bittercreek left a card game and headed to the small building where "said Comley" was located - where she kept her "girls."
She ran two-three women from a gambling hall at Ingalls prior to 1893. She was later in the company of 'Doc Stutzman" and was called "Sadie McCloskey" but may have adopted several names including "Stella", "Daisy", and "Bertha."
In fading memories, confused accounts, and simple make believe - this woman was no doubt the source of the added layers of "information" related to the horse thief TOM KING aka Flora Quick Mundis, the more daring aspects of the "LITTLE BRITCHES" and "CATTLE ANNIE" escapades, and the relationships with members of the DOOLIN GANG aka Wild Bunch, and the DUNN group later.
There is evidence of confusion in the later memoirs and interviews of some famous ex-U.S. Deputy Marshalls operating in the areas for the time period. They confused dates, places, and accounts but their words were accepted as gospel and used by writers - and even historians - without regard to validating the information.
Charles Colcord, in his biography, reports accompanying a woman to a Massachusetts Reformatory. The person and the dates do not match his known legal duties at the time.
Reporters hot and hungry for a good story are revealed to have made up, added on, and strongly embellished accounts of all events. These included accounts of female outlaws where the added layer of sexual innuendo was strongly added to the whole account. Unfortunately, all of these elements combined to produce several decades of incorrect accounts and false representations of everyone.
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