If you try to bring up a mental picture of an Old West outlaw named Black Bart, you'd probably envision someone like B Western character actor Charles King or perhaps Glenn Strange who was taller and meaner looking when he needed to be. But the real Black Bart was an English gentleman named Charles Earl Boles, who took his nickname from a fictional pulp story and proceeded to taunt authorities with it throughout his short career on the wrong side of the law.
Apparently Boles took up a life of crime after he and two brothers failed to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush of 1849. His brothers died, and the distraught Boles headed back East to Illinois for a short time, but the lure of gold riches inspired him once again to head for Montana. After working a semi-successful claim in Silver Bow for a spell, Boles became dispirited when the Wells Fargo company began buying up surrounding mining claims and the flowing water he needed to work his own claim was diverted by the company.
Boles became determined to punish Wells Fargo by robbing their stagecoaches, but in this pursuit he became one of the most unique outlaws in American history. For one, Boles only worked alone, and even though he carried a shotgun, he never once used the weapon over an eight year span and twenty eight robberies. But even odder than that, Boles committed all of his robberies on foot! Though he fought in the Civil War and marched with Sherman's Army, Boles had a profound aversion to horses. Boles carefully planned out his robberies, and went to the trouble of placing tree branches crafted to resemble rifles along a stage route to make it appear that he had a gang of outlaws working with him.
The Wells Fargo company, coming under public pressure because they were constantly outwitted by Boles, became determined to capture the thief. A senior detective named James Hume took on the Boles case and for a number of years remained unsuccessful until a lucky break occurred following a robbery at Funk Hill, California in 1883. Boles was shot in the hand during the robbery, and during his escape he discarded some personal effects. One of them was a handkerchief with a laundry mark that Hume and his men traced back to the Ferguson and Biggs laundry company in San Francisco. With this clue, Hume and Wells Fargo finally captured Boles and put an end to his crime career.
The prior episodes of 'Legends and Lies' all took a well known historical figure of the Old West to examine in detail, so what makes this one interesting is the fact that most viewers probably never heard of Charles Earl Boles, even though the name Black Bart pops up in a handful of TV and movie Westerns. I think however, that the episode leaves the viewer with a wrong impression about Black Bart when it cites his tendency to leave a poem behind at the scene of his robberies to taunt authorities. In reality, Bart/Boles only left poems at two of his crime scenes, but as the title of the series suggests, sometimes the legend is embellished over time.
Just recently I completed watching an old TV Western series from the mid-Fifties called 'Stories of the Century'. That show would feature a famous, and sometimes not so famous character from Western history and build a mostly fictionalized story around the character. There was an episode on Black Bart during it's two season run, and it actually wound up being one of the more accurate stories they wound up airing. Actor Arthur Space portrayed Black Bart, and the story included many of the points that appeared in this entry of 'Legends and Lies'.
Apparently Boles took up a life of crime after he and two brothers failed to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush of 1849. His brothers died, and the distraught Boles headed back East to Illinois for a short time, but the lure of gold riches inspired him once again to head for Montana. After working a semi-successful claim in Silver Bow for a spell, Boles became dispirited when the Wells Fargo company began buying up surrounding mining claims and the flowing water he needed to work his own claim was diverted by the company.
Boles became determined to punish Wells Fargo by robbing their stagecoaches, but in this pursuit he became one of the most unique outlaws in American history. For one, Boles only worked alone, and even though he carried a shotgun, he never once used the weapon over an eight year span and twenty eight robberies. But even odder than that, Boles committed all of his robberies on foot! Though he fought in the Civil War and marched with Sherman's Army, Boles had a profound aversion to horses. Boles carefully planned out his robberies, and went to the trouble of placing tree branches crafted to resemble rifles along a stage route to make it appear that he had a gang of outlaws working with him.
The Wells Fargo company, coming under public pressure because they were constantly outwitted by Boles, became determined to capture the thief. A senior detective named James Hume took on the Boles case and for a number of years remained unsuccessful until a lucky break occurred following a robbery at Funk Hill, California in 1883. Boles was shot in the hand during the robbery, and during his escape he discarded some personal effects. One of them was a handkerchief with a laundry mark that Hume and his men traced back to the Ferguson and Biggs laundry company in San Francisco. With this clue, Hume and Wells Fargo finally captured Boles and put an end to his crime career.
The prior episodes of 'Legends and Lies' all took a well known historical figure of the Old West to examine in detail, so what makes this one interesting is the fact that most viewers probably never heard of Charles Earl Boles, even though the name Black Bart pops up in a handful of TV and movie Westerns. I think however, that the episode leaves the viewer with a wrong impression about Black Bart when it cites his tendency to leave a poem behind at the scene of his robberies to taunt authorities. In reality, Bart/Boles only left poems at two of his crime scenes, but as the title of the series suggests, sometimes the legend is embellished over time.
Just recently I completed watching an old TV Western series from the mid-Fifties called 'Stories of the Century'. That show would feature a famous, and sometimes not so famous character from Western history and build a mostly fictionalized story around the character. There was an episode on Black Bart during it's two season run, and it actually wound up being one of the more accurate stories they wound up airing. Actor Arthur Space portrayed Black Bart, and the story included many of the points that appeared in this entry of 'Legends and Lies'.