December 11, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ralphie’s fantasy villain in A Christmas Story came from a dime novel that turned a real outlaw into a cartoon desperado. The actual Black Bart was nothing like the character on screen. In the 1870s, he robbed stagecoaches with a courtesy that puzzled sheriffs and captivated the public, leaving polite poems instead of violence. Roger McGrath looks back at the life of Charles Boles, a man whose quiet manners and curious habits made him one of the most successful and most unexpected bandits in Old West history.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. It's time for
another Old West story from our resident expert, Roger McGrath.
He's the author of Gunfighters, howieman in Vigilantes, Violence on
the Frontier, and you see and hear from him often
on the History Channel. He's a regular contributor here on
our American Stories. Here to introduce McGrath is our own
(00:34):
Greg Kengler. Take it away. Greg said it was smilfy.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I just know those bad guys would be coming for.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Us in the end.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Before dead, as long as they got old Blue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Ralphie's fantasy encounter with Black Bart in the nineteen eighty
three film A Christmas Story leads one to believe that
Black Bart was some desperado.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What folks, wow, we figure he's Black Bart.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ralph will chef theme Christio, red Rider, carbine action. You
want a shot range model A ralphen Lucky you got
a compass in the stock well?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I think I better have a.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Look here, boy Sea.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
In the eighteen seventies, there was a dime novel that
was loosely based on Black Bart's true story, A Christmas Story,
authored Gene Shephard. Read this novel as a kid and
included Ralphie's reincarnation of black Bart as a desperado older.
Speaker 6 (01:40):
You win this start, but we're over, ralph eighty minutes, Burt,
what if you come back, You'll be pushing up Dagy.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But black Bart's real story is far more fantastical than
Ralphie's imagination. To tell the story of America, his most
successful and eccentric stage coach, Robert is one of America's
greatest storytellers, an author of gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes. Let's
(02:11):
begin with doctor Roger McGrath in the story of Highwaymen
black Bart.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Black Bart was the most successful highwayman in American history
for more than eight years. This would be from eighteen
seventy five to eighteen eighty three. He prayed on stage coaches,
robbing twenty nine of them. No other road agent could
match black Bart's record. Moreover, black Bart was a gentleman.
(02:41):
He was treated everyone courteously and took only the express box.
He left the passengers untouched. Black Bart probably got away
with upwards of thirty thousand dollars That would be something
like two million in today's Matt Bart's real name was
(03:03):
Charles Bowles. He was born on a farm in upstate
New York in eighteen thirty one. His parents were recent
immigrants from England. Little is known about his early years,
other than he grew up as a typical farm boy.
At age eighteen, he and his older brother David left
the farm to join the Gold Rush of eighteen forty nine.
(03:28):
They first prospected on the American River and then throughout
the Mother Lode country life in the Digginser's rugged, and
many a prospector died from disease, accident, or gunplay. David
Bowles was one of those who met an early end.
He grew ill and died in July eighteen fifty two.
(03:49):
Here's black bart biographer gay Old Jenner.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
Charles was devastated. He had been the one to truly
want to come out to California.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
He felt gill.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
He was a restless soul that played very heavily into
the choices we made later on.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Charles continued to prospect, in fact for another two years,
and then he drifted back to the Middlewest. In Decatur, Illinois,
he met and married a girl named Mary and settled
down and began raising a family. When the Civil War erupted,
Charles enlisted in the Union Army for more than three years.
(04:32):
He served with distinction. He fought in several major battles
and was severely wounded in one of them, but returned
to fight again. He even served under General Sherman on
his brutal March to the Sea. Here Civil War historian
Harry Jones.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
To march with Sherman's army, you certainly are fit. He
was very demanding of his soldiers and being able to
understand what trails will get you where, what trails could
be easily ambushed, and therefore you set up defenses for
them at the proper places that would be a value
(05:14):
to someone who later becomes known as blackbar.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Charles rose to the rank of first sergeant before this
last battle, and then, just before the war ended, was
commissioned a second lieutenant. After the war, as gold Fever returned,
he left his wife, Mary and his daughters in Illinois
to go off to the minds of Montana and Idaho
on foot. Every so often he sent Mary a letter
(05:41):
saying that he'd be on his way home soon. The
last letter Mary received came from silver Beau, Montana, in
August eighteen seventy one. Why he stopped writing after that.
We don't know. As the months went by with no
fur the word, Mary grifranik and finally sold the family
(06:04):
home to raise money for her search for her husband. Meanwhile,
the missing husband continued prospecting, but his words. Montana's riches spread.
A competition for claims increased.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
What you thanks mister Wilds and mister Fargo. He just
bought me out.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Seems like they named to buy up the whole territory.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Large companies rushed to capitalize on local strikes in eliminate
the competition. They'd buy up businesses in all lands surrounding
successful claims. Here again is Gail Jenner.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
There was mining going on in various sections of Montana.
He did have a claim where he was in competition
with other people also setting up claim and there was
a lot of violence that was occurring around him.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Wells Fargo began consolidating its stage line for new mining
towns in Idaho, Utah, and Montana. Rumors of the company
going into the mining business make Bolls suspicious. Just days
after receiving offers for his claim, the water supply suddenly
dried up. His claim was now worthless. Bowles is convinced
(07:21):
it's no coincidence. Here's author of the American West W. C.
Speaker 9 (07:26):
Jamison. What Wells Fargo did is divert the stream from
which Bulls was panning the gold to where he was
forced to abandon his gold mine.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Many historians believe that this was the moment he set
his sight on one of the most powerful companies in
the West, Wells Fargo, making the company out to be
responsible for his misfortune. Hard working miner and for reunion
soldier with dreams of striking it rich, made a bold
(08:00):
decision to extract revenge. In eighteen seventy four, Bulls left
his claim and moved to the cosmopolitan hub of northern California.
Consumed by revenge, Bulls completely broke ties with his family,
cut himself off from the past, and reinvented himself.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
He moved to San Francisco, all the while nursing this anger,
this hatred toward Wells Fargo.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
In preparation for his revenge, Bulls did his homework.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I watched the stage use from a second cap far
from my home cap to ascertain the exact time they passed.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I found them to be at the.
Speaker 9 (08:46):
Same spot every morning at seven am.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
All over northern California. They were shipping lots of gold
from one place to another. They had over three thousand
miles of stagecoach roads. It was a big target for.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Black Bart, and what a story it is. Indeed,
we learn in the end what motivated Black Bart to
do what he did. He'd been a part of the
gold rush in eighteen forty nine when out there with
his brother who died, and so many people did, and
not just from violence, but just disease, medical conditions not
(09:24):
being what they are today. And of course what happens
after well, his life starts to unravel and then comes
well what he believes is Wells Fargo playing with his claim,
diverting water from his land, thus rendering it worthless, him
moving to San Francisco and starting to become or at
least lay out the plans to become one of the
(09:46):
most notorious stagecoach robbers in American history. When we come
back more of the story of Black Bart here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(10:12):
and with the story of Black Bart with Roger McGrath.
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
In July eighteen seventy five, a stagecoach with a Wells
Fargo express box was working its way up a steep
grade on the way from Sonorida Copperopolis in the mother
Load Country. Just a few miles short of Copperopolis, a
hoodred figures suddenly jumped from behind a boulder forgot that fox,
(10:45):
please well. The demand from this hooded figure was reinforced
by a double barreled shotgun aimed at the stagecoach driver.
The roberts head was covered by a flower sack with
two holes cut for the eyes, and even his boots
couldn't be seen. They were covered by thick socks to
(11:06):
avoid leaving tracks. As the driver grabbed the express box,
ie women yelled in order over his shoulder if.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
He dares give him a solid bolly boys.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
The driver glanced up at the hillside behind the highwaymen
and thought he saw at least a half dozen rifle
barrels aimed his way. It's called a Quaker gun trick,
using the revolutionary in civil wars. It's name for the Quakers, who,
like bulls, opposed violence. The trick uses sticks to look
(11:40):
like guns and logs to look like cannons, to fool
the enemy into believing they're facing a force much larger
than they actually are. With a real sense of urgency,
the driver threw the express box onto the road ie
women quickly removed several bags of gold coins. A frightened
(12:01):
woman passenger tossed her purse out of the stagecoaching into
the road. I went then picked it up, bowed, and
returned it to her, saying in a deep and resonant voice, not.
Speaker 8 (12:15):
A mile, No desire of your money, and that respect,
I honor only the good office of Wells Fargo.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
And he's got his mask on, he's he's got a
duster on, he's got his gun pointed. He was an enigma.
He was a very hard man to figure out.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Good day to you, sir, Thank you.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
Guy and his spirit into the brush and escaped on
foot over one hundred and twenty miles through rugged terrain,
through the mountains and back to San Francisco. He returned
to high society in plain Sight, where he developed an
alter ego he called himself Girls Bolton. Bolton's reputation grew
(13:03):
as it became known as a successful gold prospector in socialite.
Here's Old West's historian Chris z.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Charles Bowles went by Charles Bolten because it sounds very sophisticated.
It has a certain dignity associated with it. He is
as comfortable living in the wilderness as he is in
the city.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Yes, Sir, circumstances compelled me.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I yielded to the temptation of crime only after enduring severe.
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Struggles from which I had no control.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Following his first robbery, bulls took god jobs and pulled
them away from the city and gave him access to
new targets.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
He was trying just a little bit of everything. He
tried school teaching for a while, which would have been
a natural for him, because he was intelligent, he was sharp.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
He's incredibly well read. In addition to Shakespeare that kind
of thing, he also reads a Sacramento Union and in
the Union paper is a story written by an attorney
who does make up this character, named Bartholomew Graham or
black Bart.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Charles Bowles adopted the name and transformed into Highwayman black Bart.
Following black Bart's first robbery, Wills Fargo detective James Hume
was put on the case. Here again is Gail Jenner
and historian Marshall.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
Trimble, James Hume chose to become the kind of person
who would never quit. He has an obsessive, compulsive kind
of desire to make things right.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
This is the beginning of this detective period.
Speaker 10 (14:48):
When there's a robbery, you don't just get out there
and look for horse tracks.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
It gets much more sophisticated technology such as starting to
change as to how to track these guys down.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
And this is what Hume is really adapt at.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
Hume was one of the great detectives of the Old West.
But this black Bart character Adams stumped.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
Hume begins to put together that this man is quite
capable of covering long distances in between the robberies. He
knows that it's not a multiple person jobs, that this
is a lone man.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Beginning with a second stagecoach robbery. Black Bart would lead
behind a verse or to a poetry. Hume, a man
is cunning in restless. As the band himself read it.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I've labored long and hard for bread, for honor, and
for ursues, But on my corns too long. You've tread
you fine haired sonsy black book poet poor. He's mocking,
(16:00):
he's working me.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Jume didn't know what to do with witness testimonies.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
What was the behavior? Is his demeanor? Did he threaten
you or take any of your personal belongings? Nelsir?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
He was polite, said please and thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
NASA's left in the cash box over there.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
The public had doubts about Protector Hume and Wells Fargo.
Hume took it personally.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Wells Fargo is putting more and more pressure on James Hume.
The newspapers are having a field day. There were lots
and lots of articles about who is this black part
And people are ridiculing both James Hume and Wells Fargo.
They are becoming a joke. And so they're determined now
(16:46):
to try and figure this out. And lots of pressure
is coming from lots of different directions.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Here's a quote from Hume in the San Francisco Examiner
in eighteen eighty four.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I refuse to buy a romanticized image of Black Bart
fabricated by the press. He is a fraud who is
Robin hoodwinking a gullible public.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Jim Hume began a piece together a physical description of
Black Bart.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Bart was armed, but he didn't shoot back, though.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Nope, not a style, no horse track, and he escaped
on foot.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
As Matt Bart's stage robberies continued, the price on his
head increased. Wells Fargo offered a three hundred dollar reward,
State of California chipped in another three hundred, and the
US government two hundred. The eight hundred dollars total was
really quite a sum back in the eighteen seventies, something
(17:43):
like eighty thousand dollars today.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath. He's the author
of Gunfighters, Howiman and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier. And
if you recognize that voice, you'd recognize his face, for
he's a frequent contributor to the History Channel and a
regular contributor here on our American Stories. And what a
story he's telling here, Clearly, clearly, this stage coach robber
(18:13):
has a beef with Wells Fargo. If he didn't, he
would have collected well, he would have collected the passenger's
money too, and would have gone about things in a
completely different way. And that one particular story that we heard,
just that one where a woman throughout the purse and
he returned it. He had almost a literary response to
(18:34):
it too, and it was clear that this was, well,
this wasn't an ordinary robber. An enigma is what he
was called. He wore a mask, a duster, and a gun,
but yet left poetry versus behind after each robbery, and
it seemed to bring delight to him to taunt Wells Fargo,
(18:54):
this mighty company, and they're ace detective poor James Hume.
Hume of course trying to well just battle it out
in the press, trying to create an awful portrait of
black Bart as a well, a grifter and a fraud
and a fake Robin Hood type. When we come back
(19:14):
more of this remarkable story of black Bart here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(19:40):
and the story of black Bart. And what was most
fascinating also was that he was as comfortable in the
wilderness as he was in the city. And having adopted
that well that alias Charles Bolton as a sort of
a socialite opposite of this renegade stage coach Robert Let's
(20:01):
return to Roger McGrath, Black.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
Bart's luck nearly ran out on his twenty third stagecoach robbery.
The stage was on its way from Laporte to Oreville
when black Bart blocked.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Its path, Would you be so kind? I had to
throw down that box.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I'll get it right now for you, sir.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Instead, the Wells Fargo guards swung his rifle around and fired.
Black Bart leaped into the brush and ran for it.
They didn't know it, but the bullet fired at black
Bart increased the outlaw's head. A fraction of an inch
change into jectory would have spelled the end for black Bart.
(20:51):
On a Sunday in November eighteen eighty three, black Bart's
luck finally did run out. Early that morning, a stage
coach pulled out a snore a bound from Milton. The
driver of the stage is a veteran of the run.
Where he's in McConnell at Reynolds Ferry on the Stanislaus River.
McConnell picked up a passenger, nineteen year old Jimmy or Larry.
(21:13):
Or Larry operated the ferry, but it was still early
in the morning. They thought he might go up the
Hilloways and do a little honey on the stage began
the long climb, where Larry jumped off with a Winchester
rifle in hand. Stage had nearly reached the summit when
a hooded high women the leap from the brush.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
He trained a shotgun on McConnell forgotten that box.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
All right, okay, please.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Both of the flow.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, it's lucky for you.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I brought my tools.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
McConnell tried to signal or Larry, who was casually walking
up the road. Finally McConnell got his attention. Just then
the highwaymen's straightened up with a sack full of gold.
Or Larry fired. I women stumbled, the managed to spring
(22:11):
into the brush and disappear. McConnell reported the hold up.
The local county Sheriff Ben Thorn and his deputies were
soon at the scene of the crime. He found a
number of things iraymen had left behind in his hasty departure.
There was a black derby at two paper bags containing
(22:32):
crackers and sugar, bare binoculars, and a handkerchief. Once back
in his office, Sheriff Thorn inspected the items left behind
at the scene of the robbery. He noticed some badly
faded lettering on the handkerchief. He turned the handkerchief over
to wells farther detective Jim Hume, who in turn gave
(22:52):
the handkerchief to Harry Morris. Hume had hired Morris six
months earlier to do nothing but work on the robberies
of black Bart. Morrison recently retired as sheriff of Alameda County,
and now he had his own private detective agency. He
was one of the great lama of the Old West.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
When James discovers the handkerchief, he was delighted, and as
he examines it, he sees the mark FX seven and
he knows this was, in fact a laundrymark.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
This man must be found.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Hume decides, we're going to have to track this laundry mark.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Take your men and leave no stone unturned.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
So they go to ninety three different laundries in the
San Francisco area.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, sir, can I help you?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (23:48):
Is that your mark?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yes, that's our mark from one of our customers.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Ce Bolton.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
He's a local gold prospector.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Since Jume thought that black Bart lived in San Francisco,
Morris began his investigation there. Now under the guise of
a business proposition, Morris was introduced to Charles Bolton. Bolton
looked every inch to the mine owner he purported to be.
He was dressed in an expensive tailored wool suit, and
(24:21):
a bowler hat. He carried a walking stick, A diamond
ring was on one finger, and a heavy gold watch
was suspended from a gold chain. He was handsome with
deep set blue eyes. He stood about five foot eight
and was Ramrod Street. He looked anything but a robber.
Morris managed to get Bolton to an office where Jim
(24:44):
Hume waited.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Mister Bolton, I'd like you to meet Detective James Hume.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Minutes later, a captain from the San Francisco Police Department
arrived took Bolton into custody. At the police station, Bolton
was placed under arrest. He feigned astonishment and asked for
what possible cause was he being arrested. Hume answered, because
(25:19):
you are black.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Barred me and from his highwayman.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
A poet.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I had a premonition, but that's what happened today. Why
aren't you the lucky one?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Charles Bulls wanted them to know that it was him
and to be able to tease and to play with
the people that have been chasing him and trying to
get at this. It gave him pleasure. You do want
somebody to know.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
Bluck Bert pleaded guilty to the last of his robberies.
Speaker 10 (26:09):
Whereas the said ce Bolden is convicted of robbery by
his own admission. He is therefore ordered a judge and
sentenced to San Quentin, the state prison, for the period
of seven years.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
He became a model prisoner, Take him Away, and was
released in January eighteen eighty eight after serving a little
more than four years. He was then fifty seven years old.
Reporters waited outside for his release.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Black Art, Are you going back to your life of
Robin stage coaches?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Oh, I'm giving up my life with craw.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Are you going to go back to writing poetry? Jeami's son,
I said, I'm done committing crimes.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
After being released from San Quentin, black Bart returned to
San Francisco, and there he was offered the opportunity of
appearing on stage in a theatrical production. Somebody wanted to
take advantage of his notoriety, but he refused. Jim Hume
had his men shadowed black Bart, but suddenly, one day
(27:30):
early in March eighteen eighty eight, black Bart gave him
a slip.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Bowles was a pretty smart guy. It is likely that
he knew that Hume was following him. Hume perhaps had
a hunch that maybe Bulls might return to his nefarious ways.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Reports had black Bart in several different Western states, then
in Mexico, candidate Japan, China, and finally Australia. None of
their reports, though, was ever confirmed. Black Merd, America's most
successful highwayman has simply disappeared.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath, the author of Gunfighters, High Women and Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier and Roger is a regular on
the History Channel. And what a story we just heard
that first robbery in July of eighteen seventy five where
(28:33):
he said to the woman who threw the purse at him,
he gave it back to and said, madame, I have
no desire for your money. But boy, did he have
a desire for Wells Fargo's money. And ultimately a slip
up led to his discovery a detective. Several detectives on
the hunt found that faded handkerchief, traced it back old Gumshoe,
(28:57):
visiting all those laundries until they finally stumbled on the
one and then stumbled on Charles Bolton aka Charles Bowles
aka Black Bart, and he pled guilty. He had had
his fun and did his time four years at San Quentin.
And of course the media was waiting for a response,
(29:18):
and he said he had given up his life of crime.
But he gave the detectives the slip and went off
to Well. Who knows, but one can only imagine he
was still trying to torture Wells Fargo, the story of
Black Bart. Here on our American stories.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mad about befo els fogra, what's on a steaks?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Tutle man, worrying.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
A long while, learning a lot and looked set can over.
Here is here the cove, the Black Bart.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
P Oway, the Highway Band.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Been poetry man.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Leaving us pop there it appeared like a toast on
his sound hold, on his own lone he owns
Speaker 6 (30:11):
M
And we continue with our American Stories. It's time for
another Old West story from our resident expert, Roger McGrath.
He's the author of Gunfighters, howieman in Vigilantes, Violence on
the Frontier, and you see and hear from him often
on the History Channel. He's a regular contributor here on
our American Stories. Here to introduce McGrath is our own
(00:34):
Greg Kengler. Take it away. Greg said it was smilfy.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I just know those bad guys would be coming for.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Us in the end.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Before dead, as long as they got old Blue.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Ralphie's fantasy encounter with Black Bart in the nineteen eighty
three film A Christmas Story leads one to believe that
Black Bart was some desperado.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
What folks, wow, we figure he's Black Bart.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ralph will chef theme Christio, red Rider, carbine action. You
want a shot range model A ralphen Lucky you got
a compass in the stock well?
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I think I better have a.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Look here, boy Sea.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
In the eighteen seventies, there was a dime novel that
was loosely based on Black Bart's true story, A Christmas Story,
authored Gene Shephard. Read this novel as a kid and
included Ralphie's reincarnation of black Bart as a desperado older.
Speaker 6 (01:40):
You win this start, but we're over, ralph eighty minutes, Burt,
what if you come back, You'll be pushing up Dagy.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But black Bart's real story is far more fantastical than
Ralphie's imagination. To tell the story of America, his most
successful and eccentric stage coach, Robert is one of America's
greatest storytellers, an author of gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes. Let's
(02:11):
begin with doctor Roger McGrath in the story of Highwaymen
black Bart.
Speaker 6 (02:18):
Black Bart was the most successful highwayman in American history
for more than eight years. This would be from eighteen
seventy five to eighteen eighty three. He prayed on stage coaches,
robbing twenty nine of them. No other road agent could
match black Bart's record. Moreover, black Bart was a gentleman.
(02:41):
He was treated everyone courteously and took only the express box.
He left the passengers untouched. Black Bart probably got away
with upwards of thirty thousand dollars That would be something
like two million in today's Matt Bart's real name was
(03:03):
Charles Bowles. He was born on a farm in upstate
New York in eighteen thirty one. His parents were recent
immigrants from England. Little is known about his early years,
other than he grew up as a typical farm boy.
At age eighteen, he and his older brother David left
the farm to join the Gold Rush of eighteen forty nine.
(03:28):
They first prospected on the American River and then throughout
the Mother Lode country life in the Digginser's rugged, and
many a prospector died from disease, accident, or gunplay. David
Bowles was one of those who met an early end.
He grew ill and died in July eighteen fifty two.
(03:49):
Here's black bart biographer gay Old Jenner.
Speaker 7 (03:53):
Charles was devastated. He had been the one to truly
want to come out to California.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
He felt gill.
Speaker 7 (04:01):
He was a restless soul that played very heavily into
the choices we made later on.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
Charles continued to prospect, in fact for another two years,
and then he drifted back to the Middlewest. In Decatur, Illinois,
he met and married a girl named Mary and settled
down and began raising a family. When the Civil War erupted,
Charles enlisted in the Union Army for more than three years.
(04:32):
He served with distinction. He fought in several major battles
and was severely wounded in one of them, but returned
to fight again. He even served under General Sherman on
his brutal March to the Sea. Here Civil War historian
Harry Jones.
Speaker 8 (04:51):
To march with Sherman's army, you certainly are fit. He
was very demanding of his soldiers and being able to
understand what trails will get you where, what trails could
be easily ambushed, and therefore you set up defenses for
them at the proper places that would be a value
(05:14):
to someone who later becomes known as blackbar.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Charles rose to the rank of first sergeant before this
last battle, and then, just before the war ended, was
commissioned a second lieutenant. After the war, as gold Fever returned,
he left his wife, Mary and his daughters in Illinois
to go off to the minds of Montana and Idaho
on foot. Every so often he sent Mary a letter
(05:41):
saying that he'd be on his way home soon. The
last letter Mary received came from silver Beau, Montana, in
August eighteen seventy one. Why he stopped writing after that.
We don't know. As the months went by with no
fur the word, Mary grifranik and finally sold the family
(06:04):
home to raise money for her search for her husband. Meanwhile,
the missing husband continued prospecting, but his words. Montana's riches spread.
A competition for claims increased.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
What you thanks mister Wilds and mister Fargo. He just
bought me out.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Seems like they named to buy up the whole territory.
Speaker 6 (06:26):
Large companies rushed to capitalize on local strikes in eliminate
the competition. They'd buy up businesses in all lands surrounding
successful claims. Here again is Gail Jenner.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
There was mining going on in various sections of Montana.
He did have a claim where he was in competition
with other people also setting up claim and there was
a lot of violence that was occurring around him.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
Wells Fargo began consolidating its stage line for new mining
towns in Idaho, Utah, and Montana. Rumors of the company
going into the mining business make Bolls suspicious. Just days
after receiving offers for his claim, the water supply suddenly
dried up. His claim was now worthless. Bowles is convinced
(07:21):
it's no coincidence. Here's author of the American West W. C.
Speaker 9 (07:26):
Jamison. What Wells Fargo did is divert the stream from
which Bulls was panning the gold to where he was
forced to abandon his gold mine.
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Many historians believe that this was the moment he set
his sight on one of the most powerful companies in
the West, Wells Fargo, making the company out to be
responsible for his misfortune. Hard working miner and for reunion
soldier with dreams of striking it rich, made a bold
(08:00):
decision to extract revenge. In eighteen seventy four, Bulls left
his claim and moved to the cosmopolitan hub of northern California.
Consumed by revenge, Bulls completely broke ties with his family,
cut himself off from the past, and reinvented himself.
Speaker 9 (08:23):
He moved to San Francisco, all the while nursing this anger,
this hatred toward Wells Fargo.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
In preparation for his revenge, Bulls did his homework.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
I watched the stage use from a second cap far
from my home cap to ascertain the exact time they passed.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I found them to be at the.
Speaker 9 (08:46):
Same spot every morning at seven am.
Speaker 7 (08:50):
All over northern California. They were shipping lots of gold
from one place to another. They had over three thousand
miles of stagecoach roads. It was a big target for.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Black Bart, and what a story it is. Indeed,
we learn in the end what motivated Black Bart to
do what he did. He'd been a part of the
gold rush in eighteen forty nine when out there with
his brother who died, and so many people did, and
not just from violence, but just disease, medical conditions not
(09:24):
being what they are today. And of course what happens
after well, his life starts to unravel and then comes
well what he believes is Wells Fargo playing with his claim,
diverting water from his land, thus rendering it worthless, him
moving to San Francisco and starting to become or at
least lay out the plans to become one of the
(09:46):
most notorious stagecoach robbers in American history. When we come
back more of the story of Black Bart here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(10:12):
and with the story of Black Bart with Roger McGrath.
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 6 (10:21):
In July eighteen seventy five, a stagecoach with a Wells
Fargo express box was working its way up a steep
grade on the way from Sonorida Copperopolis in the mother
Load Country. Just a few miles short of Copperopolis, a
hoodred figures suddenly jumped from behind a boulder forgot that fox,
(10:45):
please well. The demand from this hooded figure was reinforced
by a double barreled shotgun aimed at the stagecoach driver.
The roberts head was covered by a flower sack with
two holes cut for the eyes, and even his boots
couldn't be seen. They were covered by thick socks to
(11:06):
avoid leaving tracks. As the driver grabbed the express box,
ie women yelled in order over his shoulder if.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
He dares give him a solid bolly boys.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
The driver glanced up at the hillside behind the highwaymen
and thought he saw at least a half dozen rifle
barrels aimed his way. It's called a Quaker gun trick,
using the revolutionary in civil wars. It's name for the Quakers, who,
like bulls, opposed violence. The trick uses sticks to look
(11:40):
like guns and logs to look like cannons, to fool
the enemy into believing they're facing a force much larger
than they actually are. With a real sense of urgency,
the driver threw the express box onto the road ie
women quickly removed several bags of gold coins. A frightened
(12:01):
woman passenger tossed her purse out of the stagecoaching into
the road. I went then picked it up, bowed, and
returned it to her, saying in a deep and resonant voice, not.
Speaker 8 (12:15):
A mile, No desire of your money, and that respect,
I honor only the good office of Wells Fargo.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
And he's got his mask on, he's he's got a
duster on, he's got his gun pointed. He was an enigma.
He was a very hard man to figure out.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Good day to you, sir, Thank you.
Speaker 6 (12:41):
Guy and his spirit into the brush and escaped on
foot over one hundred and twenty miles through rugged terrain,
through the mountains and back to San Francisco. He returned
to high society in plain Sight, where he developed an
alter ego he called himself Girls Bolton. Bolton's reputation grew
(13:03):
as it became known as a successful gold prospector in socialite.
Here's Old West's historian Chris z.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Charles Bowles went by Charles Bolten because it sounds very sophisticated.
It has a certain dignity associated with it. He is
as comfortable living in the wilderness as he is in
the city.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
Yes, Sir, circumstances compelled me.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I yielded to the temptation of crime only after enduring severe.
Speaker 9 (13:35):
Struggles from which I had no control.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
Following his first robbery, bulls took god jobs and pulled
them away from the city and gave him access to
new targets.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
He was trying just a little bit of everything. He
tried school teaching for a while, which would have been
a natural for him, because he was intelligent, he was sharp.
Speaker 5 (13:56):
He's incredibly well read. In addition to Shakespeare that kind
of thing, he also reads a Sacramento Union and in
the Union paper is a story written by an attorney
who does make up this character, named Bartholomew Graham or
black Bart.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
Charles Bowles adopted the name and transformed into Highwayman black Bart.
Following black Bart's first robbery, Wills Fargo detective James Hume
was put on the case. Here again is Gail Jenner
and historian Marshall.
Speaker 7 (14:29):
Trimble, James Hume chose to become the kind of person
who would never quit. He has an obsessive, compulsive kind
of desire to make things right.
Speaker 9 (14:45):
This is the beginning of this detective period.
Speaker 10 (14:48):
When there's a robbery, you don't just get out there
and look for horse tracks.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
It gets much more sophisticated technology such as starting to
change as to how to track these guys down.
Speaker 9 (14:58):
And this is what Hume is really adapt at.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
Hume was one of the great detectives of the Old West.
But this black Bart character Adams stumped.
Speaker 7 (15:08):
Hume begins to put together that this man is quite
capable of covering long distances in between the robberies. He
knows that it's not a multiple person jobs, that this
is a lone man.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
Beginning with a second stagecoach robbery. Black Bart would lead
behind a verse or to a poetry. Hume, a man
is cunning in restless. As the band himself read it.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
I've labored long and hard for bread, for honor, and
for ursues, But on my corns too long. You've tread
you fine haired sonsy black book poet poor. He's mocking,
(16:00):
he's working me.
Speaker 6 (16:03):
Jume didn't know what to do with witness testimonies.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
What was the behavior? Is his demeanor? Did he threaten
you or take any of your personal belongings? Nelsir?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
He was polite, said please and thank you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
NASA's left in the cash box over there.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
The public had doubts about Protector Hume and Wells Fargo.
Hume took it personally.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
Wells Fargo is putting more and more pressure on James Hume.
The newspapers are having a field day. There were lots
and lots of articles about who is this black part
And people are ridiculing both James Hume and Wells Fargo.
They are becoming a joke. And so they're determined now
(16:46):
to try and figure this out. And lots of pressure
is coming from lots of different directions.
Speaker 6 (16:50):
Here's a quote from Hume in the San Francisco Examiner
in eighteen eighty four.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I refuse to buy a romanticized image of Black Bart
fabricated by the press. He is a fraud who is
Robin hoodwinking a gullible public.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
Jim Hume began a piece together a physical description of
Black Bart.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Bart was armed, but he didn't shoot back, though.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Nope, not a style, no horse track, and he escaped
on foot.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
As Matt Bart's stage robberies continued, the price on his
head increased. Wells Fargo offered a three hundred dollar reward,
State of California chipped in another three hundred, and the
US government two hundred. The eight hundred dollars total was
really quite a sum back in the eighteen seventies, something
(17:43):
like eighty thousand dollars today.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath. He's the author
of Gunfighters, Howiman and Vigilantes Violence on the Frontier. And
if you recognize that voice, you'd recognize his face, for
he's a frequent contributor to the History Channel and a
regular contributor here on our American Stories. And what a
story he's telling here, Clearly, clearly, this stage coach robber
(18:13):
has a beef with Wells Fargo. If he didn't, he
would have collected well, he would have collected the passenger's
money too, and would have gone about things in a
completely different way. And that one particular story that we heard,
just that one where a woman throughout the purse and
he returned it. He had almost a literary response to
(18:34):
it too, and it was clear that this was, well,
this wasn't an ordinary robber. An enigma is what he
was called. He wore a mask, a duster, and a gun,
but yet left poetry versus behind after each robbery, and
it seemed to bring delight to him to taunt Wells Fargo,
(18:54):
this mighty company, and they're ace detective poor James Hume.
Hume of course trying to well just battle it out
in the press, trying to create an awful portrait of
black Bart as a well, a grifter and a fraud
and a fake Robin Hood type. When we come back
(19:14):
more of this remarkable story of black Bart here on
our American stories, and we continue with our American stories
(19:40):
and the story of black Bart. And what was most
fascinating also was that he was as comfortable in the
wilderness as he was in the city. And having adopted
that well that alias Charles Bolton as a sort of
a socialite opposite of this renegade stage coach Robert Let's
(20:01):
return to Roger McGrath, Black.
Speaker 6 (20:07):
Bart's luck nearly ran out on his twenty third stagecoach robbery.
The stage was on its way from Laporte to Oreville
when black Bart blocked.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Its path, Would you be so kind? I had to
throw down that box.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I'll get it right now for you, sir.
Speaker 6 (20:28):
Instead, the Wells Fargo guards swung his rifle around and fired.
Black Bart leaped into the brush and ran for it.
They didn't know it, but the bullet fired at black
Bart increased the outlaw's head. A fraction of an inch
change into jectory would have spelled the end for black Bart.
(20:51):
On a Sunday in November eighteen eighty three, black Bart's
luck finally did run out. Early that morning, a stage
coach pulled out a snore a bound from Milton. The
driver of the stage is a veteran of the run.
Where he's in McConnell at Reynolds Ferry on the Stanislaus River.
McConnell picked up a passenger, nineteen year old Jimmy or Larry.
(21:13):
Or Larry operated the ferry, but it was still early
in the morning. They thought he might go up the
Hilloways and do a little honey on the stage began
the long climb, where Larry jumped off with a Winchester
rifle in hand. Stage had nearly reached the summit when
a hooded high women the leap from the brush.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
He trained a shotgun on McConnell forgotten that box.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
All right, okay, please.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Both of the flow.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, it's lucky for you.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I brought my tools.
Speaker 6 (21:50):
McConnell tried to signal or Larry, who was casually walking
up the road. Finally McConnell got his attention. Just then
the highwaymen's straightened up with a sack full of gold.
Or Larry fired. I women stumbled, the managed to spring
(22:11):
into the brush and disappear. McConnell reported the hold up.
The local county Sheriff Ben Thorn and his deputies were
soon at the scene of the crime. He found a
number of things iraymen had left behind in his hasty departure.
There was a black derby at two paper bags containing
(22:32):
crackers and sugar, bare binoculars, and a handkerchief. Once back
in his office, Sheriff Thorn inspected the items left behind
at the scene of the robbery. He noticed some badly
faded lettering on the handkerchief. He turned the handkerchief over
to wells farther detective Jim Hume, who in turn gave
(22:52):
the handkerchief to Harry Morris. Hume had hired Morris six
months earlier to do nothing but work on the robberies
of black Bart. Morrison recently retired as sheriff of Alameda County,
and now he had his own private detective agency. He
was one of the great lama of the Old West.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
When James discovers the handkerchief, he was delighted, and as
he examines it, he sees the mark FX seven and
he knows this was, in fact a laundrymark.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
This man must be found.
Speaker 5 (23:31):
Hume decides, we're going to have to track this laundry mark.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Take your men and leave no stone unturned.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
So they go to ninety three different laundries in the
San Francisco area.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yes, sir, can I help you?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
Yes?
Speaker 10 (23:48):
Is that your mark?
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yes, that's our mark from one of our customers.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Ce Bolton.
Speaker 10 (23:56):
He's a local gold prospector.
Speaker 6 (24:01):
Since Jume thought that black Bart lived in San Francisco,
Morris began his investigation there. Now under the guise of
a business proposition, Morris was introduced to Charles Bolton. Bolton
looked every inch to the mine owner he purported to be.
He was dressed in an expensive tailored wool suit, and
(24:21):
a bowler hat. He carried a walking stick, A diamond
ring was on one finger, and a heavy gold watch
was suspended from a gold chain. He was handsome with
deep set blue eyes. He stood about five foot eight
and was Ramrod Street. He looked anything but a robber.
Morris managed to get Bolton to an office where Jim
(24:44):
Hume waited.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Mister Bolton, I'd like you to meet Detective James Hume.
Speaker 6 (24:57):
Minutes later, a captain from the San Francisco Police Department
arrived took Bolton into custody. At the police station, Bolton
was placed under arrest. He feigned astonishment and asked for
what possible cause was he being arrested. Hume answered, because
(25:19):
you are black.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Barred me and from his highwayman.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
A poet.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
I had a premonition, but that's what happened today. Why
aren't you the lucky one?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Charles Bulls wanted them to know that it was him
and to be able to tease and to play with
the people that have been chasing him and trying to
get at this. It gave him pleasure. You do want
somebody to know.
Speaker 6 (26:05):
Bluck Bert pleaded guilty to the last of his robberies.
Speaker 10 (26:09):
Whereas the said ce Bolden is convicted of robbery by
his own admission. He is therefore ordered a judge and
sentenced to San Quentin, the state prison, for the period
of seven years.
Speaker 6 (26:24):
He became a model prisoner, Take him Away, and was
released in January eighteen eighty eight after serving a little
more than four years. He was then fifty seven years old.
Reporters waited outside for his release.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Black Art, Are you going back to your life of
Robin stage coaches?
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Oh, I'm giving up my life with craw.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Are you going to go back to writing poetry? Jeami's son,
I said, I'm done committing crimes.
Speaker 6 (27:09):
After being released from San Quentin, black Bart returned to
San Francisco, and there he was offered the opportunity of
appearing on stage in a theatrical production. Somebody wanted to
take advantage of his notoriety, but he refused. Jim Hume
had his men shadowed black Bart, but suddenly, one day
(27:30):
early in March eighteen eighty eight, black Bart gave him
a slip.
Speaker 9 (27:35):
Bowles was a pretty smart guy. It is likely that
he knew that Hume was following him. Hume perhaps had
a hunch that maybe Bulls might return to his nefarious ways.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Reports had black Bart in several different Western states, then
in Mexico, candidate Japan, China, and finally Australia. None of
their reports, though, was ever confirmed. Black Merd, America's most
successful highwayman has simply disappeared.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath, the author of Gunfighters, High Women and Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier and Roger is a regular on
the History Channel. And what a story we just heard
that first robbery in July of eighteen seventy five where
(28:33):
he said to the woman who threw the purse at him,
he gave it back to and said, madame, I have
no desire for your money. But boy, did he have
a desire for Wells Fargo's money. And ultimately a slip
up led to his discovery a detective. Several detectives on
the hunt found that faded handkerchief, traced it back old Gumshoe,
(28:57):
visiting all those laundries until they finally stumbled on the
one and then stumbled on Charles Bolton aka Charles Bowles
aka Black Bart, and he pled guilty. He had had
his fun and did his time four years at San Quentin.
And of course the media was waiting for a response,
(29:18):
and he said he had given up his life of crime.
But he gave the detectives the slip and went off
to Well. Who knows, but one can only imagine he
was still trying to torture Wells Fargo, the story of
Black Bart. Here on our American stories.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mad about befo els fogra, what's on a steaks?
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Tutle man, worrying.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
A long while, learning a lot and looked set can over.
Here is here the cove, the Black Bart.
Speaker 6 (29:52):
P Oway, the Highway Band.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
Been poetry man.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Leaving us pop there it appeared like a toast on
his sound hold, on his own lone he owns
Speaker 6 (30:11):
M
Host
Lee Habeeb
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