Josephine Sarah Marcus, b. 1861. "The Belle of the Honkytonks."

Top Five Ways She Made the West Wilder

1. Ran away from her home in New York at age 18 to join a burlesque troupe that led her to Tombstone, Arizona (there's more than one way to get cross-country.)

2. Married the infamous outlaw Wyatt Earp--whom she met while living with the Cochise County Sheriff. (It's so hard to resist the bad boys.)

3. The lady had clout: her affair with Earp is rumored to have triggered the shootout at the O.K. Corral. Those pesky cattle rustlers were a minor detail.

4. The Jane of all trades: she was a dancer, actress, gambler, and saloon-keeper. "Respectable" ladies dubbed her a prostitute, but she called it being "independent."

5. She knew the importance of mystery: she published a memoir called "I Married Wyatt Earp"--but ran into difficulty when the editors wanted her to tell the truth and come clean about her activities in Tombstone. Her solution? Burn the manuscript.

Eliza Gilbert, a.k.a. Lola Montez, b. 1818. "La Grande Horizontale."

Top Five Reasons She's Our Favorite Tiny Dancer:

1. This Irish native and "Spanish dancer" sometimes claimed to be the illegitimate daughter of Lord Byron...and sometimes claimed her father was a matador. (Dream big, darlin'.)

2. Was rumored to have stabbed and shot at her lovers when they disappointed her in the bedroom. (And you thought your temper was bad.)

3. Seduced King Ludwig of Bavaria by slitting her dress open with a knife. After he made her a countess, she caused a revolt that eventually forced him to abdicate. She left the next night for California. (If only they'd been making movies back then...)

4. Declared her intentions to "capture" California during the gold rush and name herself queen of her newly annexed "Lolaland." (Where I come from, we call that "entrepreneurial spirit.")

5. The lady was persistent--after failing as an actress, she moved on to dancing. When an editor gave her infamous "spider dance" a bad review, she challenged him to a duel.

Luisa Casati Stampa di Soncino, b. 1881. "Futurism's Dark Lady."

Top Five Reasons She's Our Favorite Fashionista:

1. She was famous for walking her two pet cheetahs through the streets of Venice while wearing nothing but a fur coat. Toy dogs are so last season.

2. Once the wealthiest woman in Italy, and a huge patron of the arts, she was $25 million in debt by the 1920s. Gotta love a woman who spends her fortune on art.

3. The lady knew how to set goals. A muse to a host of artists, writers, and designers--including Jack Kerouac and Umberto Boccioni--she once proclaimed, "I want to be a living work of art."

4. Fashionable to the end, she was buried wearing a leopard print cape and false eyelashes. She probably never went to the grocery store without make-up.

5. And then there was the movie! The inspiration for countless plays, novels, and fashion lines, she was later immortalized in film by Vivien Leigh and Ingrid Bergman.

Marie Laveau, "Voodoo Queen of New Orleans," b. 1801.

Top Five Ways She Had Her Mojo Workin'

1. She owned a giant snake named Zombi, who she used in certain mysterious ritual dances on the shores of Lake Ponchartrain. Nothing keeps tongues wagging like a lady dancing with a snake.

2. Put a legendary curse on the city of New Orleans: Anyone who visits is destined to return. (Magnetism in its most wily form.)

3. Good Hair = Good Fortune. By working as a hairdresser who made house calls, she knew everybody's business--and everybody's weakness. She made a fortune selling gris-gris.

4. Famous for her spells and hexes, she supposedly saved men from the gallows, mended thousands of broken hearts, healed the sick, and caused the death of a least one governor and lieutenant governor. The lady knew how to multi-task.

5. Over 100 years after her death, folks still flock to her grave in St Louis Cemetery No.1, where they scratch X's into the side of the tomb and leave offerings in the hopes that she'll grant their lovelorn wishes and lay a hex on their honey. (And yes, I'll admit it...I did it, too.)

Anna "Artoria" Gibbons, b. 1893

Top Five Ways She Made Her (Permanent) Mark

1. Let her husband tattoo her entire body. That's serious commitment, folks--both to art and man.

2. Beat the Depression by making her living as the "Tattooed Lady" at a number of sideshows and circuses. (FYI: In the early 1900s, teachers made $7 a week. Anna made up to $200 per week.) Genius!

3. Spent over 50 years working these gigs because she loved it--she retired when she was 87. Will I ever love my job this much?

4. No shrinking violet, she chewed out the circus owner who called her a "monstrosity" in front of the crowds. She knew she was no stranger than anybody else inside those gates.

5. Knew how to give the crowd what they wanted: when folks asked "Were you born that way?" (bless their hearts) she said, "Yes, and the doctors figure it was on account of my mother going to too many movies."

Etta Place (if that's your real name), b. 1878.

Top Five Reasons She's the "Queen of the Outlaws":

1. Quit teaching to work in a brothel. Left the brothel to join Butch Cassidy and "The Wild Bunch." The lady knew how to climb a ladder.

2. Married "The Sundance Kid." Everybody knows the best bad boys are on wanted posters.

3. More elusive than the snow leopard, she was only captured in photographs twice. Would love to see her dodge the Paparazzi.

4. Fled to South America with her outlaw friends, where she avoided capture and arrest. Pulled a Keyser Soze and vanished from all public record in 1909.

5. To this day, baffles history buffs with her numerous aliases and dopplegangers. Did she return to teaching? Go back to the brothel? Assume a new life as a cattle rustler? She always knew how to leave 'em wanting more.

Anne Bonny, b. 1697-ish. Even the birth of a pirate is disputed.

Top Five Reasons She's Our Favorite Pistol-Packing Mama:

1. The lady had standards: she ditched her first pirate husband for being lily-livered and yellow-bellied, then married a real pirate, Calico Jack.

2. A tomboy from the start, she left the plantation life behind and hit the high seas of the Caribbean to pillage and loot with her newfound bad-boy husband. Why wear hoop skirts when you could have killer boots and a sword?

3. Had a mean Irish temper--legend says when she first boarded Jack's ship, one of the crew spoke against her. She reportedly stabbed him in the heart.

4. Pulled the ultimate disappearing act just before her execution: though there is a grave for her in South Carolina, some stories say she returned to England and some say she returned to piracy under a new name. Can't keep a good woman down.

5. On the day of Calico Jack's execution, she reportedly told him: "If you'd have fought like a man, you wouldn't be hang'd like a dog." Got to love a gal who shoots from the hip.