November 8, 2024 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Ralphie’s fantasy encounter with Black Bart in A Christmas Story leads one to believe that Black Bart was some desperado. In the 1870′s there was a dime novel that was loosely based on the true story. A Christmas Story author Jean Shepherd read this novel as a kid and included Ralphie’s reincarnation of Black Bart as a desperado. But Black Bart’s real story is far more fantastical than Ralphie’s imagination. Here to tell the story of America’s most successful and eccentric stagecoach robber is one of America’s greatest Old West storytellers, Roger McGrath.
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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, How he'd been 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
(00:33):
our own Greg Kengler. Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Greg said it was Ralphy.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I just know those bad guys would be coming.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
For us from the the boar Dead as long as
I got old Blue.
Speaker 2 (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 5 (01:05):
What we got here, folks, Wow, we figure it's black
part Ralph will chef theme, Christio, red rider, carbine action.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
You want a shot range model? Are ralpham lucky?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
You got a compass in the stock well?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I think I better have a.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Look here, bore you shot.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
In the eighteen seventies, there was a dime novel that
was loosely based on Black Bart's true story. A Christmas Story.
Author Gene Shephard read this novel as a kid, and
included Ralphie's reincarnation of black Bart as a desperado.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Join this start, but we're over ral eighty, O Bart,
what if you do come back?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
You'll be pushing off Dagy.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
But black Bart's real story is far more fantastical than
Ralphie's imagination could tell the story of a Maria because
most successful and eccentric stage coach Robert is one of
America's greatest storytellers, an author of gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes.
(02:11):
Let's begin with doctor Roger McGrath in the story of
Highwaymen black Bart.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
What.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Bart's real name was 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
(03:25):
Rush of eighteen forty nine. 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
(03:47):
eighteen fifty two. Here's Black bart Biographer gay Old Jenner.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Charles was devastated. He had been the one to truly
want to come out to California. He felt ill. He
was a restless soul that played very heavily into the
choices we need later on.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Charles continued to prospect, in fact for another two years,
and then he drifted back to the Middle West. 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 7 (04:51):
To march with Sherman's arm 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 Blackbarn.
Speaker 5 (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 mines 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.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
We don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
As the months went by with no fur the word,
Mary Grifrannik and finally sold the family home to raise
money for her search for her husband. Meanwhile, the missing
husband continued prospecting, but his words. Montana's riches spread, the
competition for claims increased.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
What you go, thanks mister Wilds and mister Fargo.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
He just bought me out.
Speaker 9 (06:22):
Seems like they named buy up the whole territory.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Large companies rushed to capitalize in local strikes and eliminate
the competition. They'd buy up businesses in all lands surrounding
successful claims. Here again is Gail Jenner.
Speaker 6 (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 5 (06:56):
Falls Fargo began consolidating its stage lines for new mining
towns in Idaho, Utah, and Montana. Rumors of the company
going into the mining business make Bowles 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. Jamison.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
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 5 (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 10 (08:23):
He moved to San Francisco, all the while nursing this anger,
this hatred toward Wells Fargo.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
In preparation for his revenge, Bulls did his homework.
Speaker 9 (08:38):
I watched the stages from a second cap far from
my home cap to ascertain the exact time they passed.
I found them to be at the same spot every
morning at seven am.
Speaker 6 (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 Pool.
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 5 (10:21):
In July eighteen seventy five, a stagecoach with the 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
hooded figure suddenly jumped from behind a boulder, fred on
(10:43):
that box, please well. The demand from this hooded figure
was reinforced by a double barreled shotgun aimed at the
stagecoach driver. The robberts head was covered by a flower
sack with two hole cut for the eyes, and even
his boots couldn't be seen. They were covered by thick
(11:06):
socks to avoid leaving tracks. As the driver grabbed the
express box, ie women yelled in order over his shoulder if.
Speaker 9 (11:15):
He dares soon give him a solid bolly boys.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
The road.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Ie women quickly removed several bags of gold coins. A
frightened 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.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And resonant voice, madam, I have no desire of your money,
and out of respect, I honor only the good office
of Wells Fargo.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
And he's got his mask on, 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 kay.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
He his speared 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 Earls Bolton. Bolton's reputation grew as he
became known as a successful gold prospector in socialite Here's
(13:08):
Old West's historian Chris z.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (13:26):
Yes, circumstances compelled me. I yielded to the temptation of
crime only after enduring severe.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
Struggles from which I had no control.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Following his first robbery, Bulls took ad jobs and pulled
them away from the city and gave him access to
new targets.
Speaker 6 (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 3 (13:56):
He's incredibly well read. In addition to Shakespeare or 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 5 (14:15):
Charles Bowles adopted the name and transformed into Highwayman black Bart.
Following black Bart's first robbery, Wells Fargo detective James Hume
was put on the case here again as Gale Jenner
and historian Marshall.
Speaker 6 (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 11 (14:45):
This is the beginning of this detective period. When there's
a robbery, you don't just get out there and look
for horse tracks. It gets much more sophisticated technology such
as starting to change as to how to track these
guys down. And this is what Hume is really adapt at.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Hume was one of the great detectives of the Old West.
But this black Bart character Adams stumped.
Speaker 6 (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. This is
a lone man.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 8 (15:32):
As the band himself read it, 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.
Speaker 10 (15:58):
He's mocking, he's working me.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Hume didn't know what to do with witness testimonies.
Speaker 9 (16:08):
What was the behavior?
Speaker 8 (16:09):
Is his demeanor? Did he threaten you or take any
of your personal belongings? Nelsir?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
He was polite, said please and thank you. NASA's left
in the cash box over there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
The public had doubts about Detective Hume and Wells Fargo.
Hume took it personally.
Speaker 6 (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 Blackbart, And
people are ridiculing both James Hume and Wells Fargo. They
are becoming a joke. And so they're determined now to
(16:46):
try and figure this out. And lots of pressure is
coming from lots of different directions.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Here's a quote from Hume in the San Francisco Examiner
in eighteen eighty four.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
I refused to buy a romanticized the image of Black
Bart as fabricated by the press. He is a fraud
who is Robin hoodwinking a gullible public.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Jim Hume began to piece together a physical description of
Black Bart.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Bart was armed, but he didn't shoot back, though.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
Nope, not a style, no horse track, and he escaped
on foot.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
As black Bart's stage robberies continued, the price and his
had increased. Wills 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
(17:44):
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 sure.
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 with 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 for 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 state coach Robert Let's
(20:01):
return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Black 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 its path.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
Would you be so kind? I had to throw down
that box.
Speaker 11 (20:25):
I'll get it right now for you.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (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 in trajectory 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. Earlier that morning, a stage
coach pulled out a snora bell for Milton. The driver
of the stage is a veteran of the run whereising
McConnell at Reynolds Ferry on the Stanislaus River. McConnell picked
up a passenger, nineteen year old Jimmy or Larry. Or
(21:13):
Larry operated the ferry. But it was still early in
the morning. He thought he might go up the hillways
and do a little honey on the stage began the
long climb. Or Larry jumped off with a Winchester rifle
in hand. Stage had nearly reached the summit when the
hood and highwaymen leaped from the brush.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
He trained a shotgun on McConnell forgotten that box.
Speaker 9 (21:36):
All right, okay, please.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Bolted to the flow.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, it's lucky for you.
Speaker 9 (21:46):
I brought my tools.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
McConnell tried to signal Or Larry, who was casually walking
up the road. Finally McConnell got his attention. Just then
the highwaymen straightened up with a sack full of gold.
Or Larry fired. I women stumbled, but 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.
Speaker 7 (22:22):
Of the crime.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
He found a number of things I Women had left
behind in his hasty departure. There was a black derby
at two paper bags containing 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
(22:47):
turned the handkerchief over to Wells father Detective Jim Hume,
who in turn gave the handkerchief to Harry Morris. Hume
had hired Morris six months earlier to do nothing but
work on the robberies of black Bart. Morris had recently
retired as sheriff of Alameda County and now he had
his own private detective agency. He was one of the
(23:09):
great lama of the Old West.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
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 laundry mark.
Speaker 8 (23:28):
This man must be found.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Hume decides we're going to have to track this laundry mark.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Take your men and leave no stone unturned.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So they go to ninety three different laundries in the
San Francisco area.
Speaker 10 (23:43):
Yes, sir, can I help you?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Is that your mark?
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Yes, that's our mark from one of our customers, Ce Bolton.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
He's a local gold prospector.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Since ju 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. Moulton
looked every inch to the mine owner he purported to be.
He was dressed in an expensive tailored wool suit and
(24:22):
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 5 (24:57):
Minutes later, a captain 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 you
(25:20):
are black Bard.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Me and from his highwaymen.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
And poet.
Speaker 9 (25:36):
I had a premonition, but that's what happened today.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
Why aren't you the lucky.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
When 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 5 (26:05):
Buck Bert pleaded guilty to the last of his robberies,
whereas the said ce Bolden is convicted of robbery by
his own admission.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
He is therefore ordered a judge and sentenced to San Quentin,
the state prison, for the period of seven years.
Speaker 5 (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 4 (26:41):
Black Art.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Are you going back to your life of Robin stage coaches?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Oh, I'm giving up my life with cras.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Are you going to go back to writing poetry?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Jamie song I said, I'm done committing crimes.
Speaker 5 (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 10 (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 5 (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. Back Mert, 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, Highwaymen 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 he
(28:33):
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, 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 I mad about, But.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
For Els Fogo, what's ong?
Speaker 9 (29:41):
Stakes?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Double man.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Worrying a long while, learning a lot, and looked as
I set.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Tble heres here the tub.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
The bad part p away, the highway band been poetry man.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Leav Angus pot.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
This appeared like a toast on his sword, all on
his own.
Speaker 11 (30:04):
Who lod he owns
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, How he'd been 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
(00:33):
our own Greg Kengler. Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Greg said it was Ralphy.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I just know those bad guys would be coming.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
For us from the the boar Dead as long as
I got old Blue.
Speaker 2 (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 5 (01:05):
What we got here, folks, Wow, we figure it's black
part Ralph will chef theme, Christio, red rider, carbine action.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
You want a shot range model? Are ralpham lucky?
Speaker 5 (01:17):
You got a compass in the stock well?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
I think I better have a.
Speaker 5 (01:21):
Look here, bore you shot.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
In the eighteen seventies, there was a dime novel that
was loosely based on Black Bart's true story. A Christmas Story.
Author Gene Shephard read this novel as a kid, and
included Ralphie's reincarnation of black Bart as a desperado.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Join this start, but we're over ral eighty, O Bart,
what if you do come back?
Speaker 5 (01:48):
You'll be pushing off Dagy.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
But black Bart's real story is far more fantastical than
Ralphie's imagination could tell the story of a Maria because
most successful and eccentric stage coach Robert is one of
America's greatest storytellers, an author of gunfighters, highwaymen, and vigilantes.
(02:11):
Let's begin with doctor Roger McGrath in the story of
Highwaymen black Bart.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
What.
Speaker 5 (03:02):
Bart's real name was 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
(03:25):
Rush of eighteen forty nine. 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
(03:47):
eighteen fifty two. Here's Black bart Biographer gay Old Jenner.
Speaker 6 (03:53):
Charles was devastated. He had been the one to truly
want to come out to California. He felt ill. He
was a restless soul that played very heavily into the
choices we need later on.
Speaker 5 (04:10):
Charles continued to prospect, in fact for another two years,
and then he drifted back to the Middle West. 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 7 (04:51):
To march with Sherman's arm 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 Blackbarn.
Speaker 5 (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 mines 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.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
We don't know.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
As the months went by with no fur the word,
Mary Grifrannik and finally sold the family home to raise
money for her search for her husband. Meanwhile, the missing
husband continued prospecting, but his words. Montana's riches spread, the
competition for claims increased.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
What you go, thanks mister Wilds and mister Fargo.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
He just bought me out.
Speaker 9 (06:22):
Seems like they named buy up the whole territory.
Speaker 5 (06:26):
Large companies rushed to capitalize in local strikes and eliminate
the competition. They'd buy up businesses in all lands surrounding
successful claims. Here again is Gail Jenner.
Speaker 6 (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 5 (06:56):
Falls Fargo began consolidating its stage lines for new mining
towns in Idaho, Utah, and Montana. Rumors of the company
going into the mining business make Bowles 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. Jamison.
Speaker 10 (07:28):
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 5 (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 10 (08:23):
He moved to San Francisco, all the while nursing this anger,
this hatred toward Wells Fargo.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
In preparation for his revenge, Bulls did his homework.
Speaker 9 (08:38):
I watched the stages from a second cap far from
my home cap to ascertain the exact time they passed.
I found them to be at the same spot every
morning at seven am.
Speaker 6 (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 Pool.
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 5 (10:21):
In July eighteen seventy five, a stagecoach with the 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
hooded figure suddenly jumped from behind a boulder, fred on
(10:43):
that box, please well. The demand from this hooded figure
was reinforced by a double barreled shotgun aimed at the
stagecoach driver. The robberts head was covered by a flower
sack with two hole cut for the eyes, and even
his boots couldn't be seen. They were covered by thick
(11:06):
socks to avoid leaving tracks. As the driver grabbed the
express box, ie women yelled in order over his shoulder if.
Speaker 9 (11:15):
He dares soon give him a solid bolly boys.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
The road.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Ie women quickly removed several bags of gold coins. A
frightened 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.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And resonant voice, madam, I have no desire of your money,
and out of respect, I honor only the good office
of Wells Fargo.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
And he's got his mask on, 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 kay.
Speaker 5 (12:43):
He his speared 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 Earls Bolton. Bolton's reputation grew as he
became known as a successful gold prospector in socialite Here's
(13:08):
Old West's historian Chris z.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (13:26):
Yes, circumstances compelled me. I yielded to the temptation of
crime only after enduring severe.
Speaker 10 (13:35):
Struggles from which I had no control.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Following his first robbery, Bulls took ad jobs and pulled
them away from the city and gave him access to
new targets.
Speaker 6 (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 3 (13:56):
He's incredibly well read. In addition to Shakespeare or 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 5 (14:15):
Charles Bowles adopted the name and transformed into Highwayman black Bart.
Following black Bart's first robbery, Wells Fargo detective James Hume
was put on the case here again as Gale Jenner
and historian Marshall.
Speaker 6 (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 11 (14:45):
This is the beginning of this detective period. When there's
a robbery, you don't just get out there and look
for horse tracks. It gets much more sophisticated technology such
as starting to change as to how to track these
guys down. And this is what Hume is really adapt at.
Speaker 5 (15:02):
Hume was one of the great detectives of the Old West.
But this black Bart character Adams stumped.
Speaker 6 (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. This is
a lone man.
Speaker 5 (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.
Speaker 8 (15:32):
As the band himself read it, 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.
Speaker 10 (15:58):
He's mocking, he's working me.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Hume didn't know what to do with witness testimonies.
Speaker 9 (16:08):
What was the behavior?
Speaker 8 (16:09):
Is his demeanor? Did he threaten you or take any
of your personal belongings? Nelsir?
Speaker 4 (16:14):
He was polite, said please and thank you. NASA's left
in the cash box over there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
The public had doubts about Detective Hume and Wells Fargo.
Hume took it personally.
Speaker 6 (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 Blackbart, And
people are ridiculing both James Hume and Wells Fargo. They
are becoming a joke. And so they're determined now to
(16:46):
try and figure this out. And lots of pressure is
coming from lots of different directions.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Here's a quote from Hume in the San Francisco Examiner
in eighteen eighty four.
Speaker 8 (16:56):
I refused to buy a romanticized the image of Black
Bart as fabricated by the press. He is a fraud
who is Robin hoodwinking a gullible public.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
Jim Hume began to piece together a physical description of
Black Bart.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Bart was armed, but he didn't shoot back, though.
Speaker 8 (17:15):
Nope, not a style, no horse track, and he escaped
on foot.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
As black Bart's stage robberies continued, the price and his
had increased. Wills 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
(17:44):
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 sure.
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 with 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 for 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 state coach Robert Let's
(20:01):
return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Black 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 its path.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
Would you be so kind? I had to throw down
that box.
Speaker 11 (20:25):
I'll get it right now for you.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (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 in trajectory 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. Earlier that morning, a stage
coach pulled out a snora bell for Milton. The driver
of the stage is a veteran of the run whereising
McConnell at Reynolds Ferry on the Stanislaus River. McConnell picked
up a passenger, nineteen year old Jimmy or Larry. Or
(21:13):
Larry operated the ferry. But it was still early in
the morning. He thought he might go up the hillways
and do a little honey on the stage began the
long climb. Or Larry jumped off with a Winchester rifle
in hand. Stage had nearly reached the summit when the
hood and highwaymen leaped from the brush.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
He trained a shotgun on McConnell forgotten that box.
Speaker 9 (21:36):
All right, okay, please.
Speaker 8 (21:43):
Bolted to the flow.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, it's lucky for you.
Speaker 9 (21:46):
I brought my tools.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
McConnell tried to signal Or Larry, who was casually walking
up the road. Finally McConnell got his attention. Just then
the highwaymen straightened up with a sack full of gold.
Or Larry fired. I women stumbled, but 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.
Speaker 7 (22:22):
Of the crime.
Speaker 5 (22:23):
He found a number of things I Women had left
behind in his hasty departure. There was a black derby
at two paper bags containing 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
(22:47):
turned the handkerchief over to Wells father Detective Jim Hume,
who in turn gave the handkerchief to Harry Morris. Hume
had hired Morris six months earlier to do nothing but
work on the robberies of black Bart. Morris had recently
retired as sheriff of Alameda County and now he had
his own private detective agency. He was one of the
(23:09):
great lama of the Old West.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
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 laundry mark.
Speaker 8 (23:28):
This man must be found.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Hume decides we're going to have to track this laundry mark.
Speaker 8 (23:34):
Take your men and leave no stone unturned.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
So they go to ninety three different laundries in the
San Francisco area.
Speaker 10 (23:43):
Yes, sir, can I help you?
Speaker 7 (23:45):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (23:48):
Is that your mark?
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Yes, that's our mark from one of our customers, Ce Bolton.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
He's a local gold prospector.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Since ju 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. Moulton
looked every inch to the mine owner he purported to be.
He was dressed in an expensive tailored wool suit and
(24:22):
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 5 (24:57):
Minutes later, a captain 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 you
(25:20):
are black Bard.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Me and from his highwaymen.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
And poet.
Speaker 9 (25:36):
I had a premonition, but that's what happened today.
Speaker 8 (25:43):
Why aren't you the lucky.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
When 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 5 (26:05):
Buck Bert pleaded guilty to the last of his robberies,
whereas the said ce Bolden is convicted of robbery by
his own admission.
Speaker 10 (26:15):
He is therefore ordered a judge and sentenced to San Quentin,
the state prison, for the period of seven years.
Speaker 5 (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 4 (26:41):
Black Art.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Are you going back to your life of Robin stage coaches?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Oh, I'm giving up my life with cras.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Are you going to go back to writing poetry?
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Jamie song I said, I'm done committing crimes.
Speaker 5 (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 10 (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 5 (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. Back Mert, 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, Highwaymen 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 he
(28:33):
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, 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 I mad about, But.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
For Els Fogo, what's ong?
Speaker 9 (29:41):
Stakes?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Double man.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Worrying a long while, learning a lot, and looked as
I set.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Tble heres here the tub.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
The bad part p away, the highway band been poetry man.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Leav Angus pot.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
This appeared like a toast on his sword, all on
his own.
Speaker 11 (30:04):
Who lod he owns
Host
Lee Habeeb
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