Black Bart made his last stagecoach robbery, 4 miles outside of Copperopolis, Calif.
Authorities almost caught the bandit and infamous stagecoach robber before he made a daring escape. But he dropped an incriminating clue — a travel-worn leather bag — that eventually landed him in prison.
Black Bart was born Charles E. Boles, probably in the state of New York around 1830. As a young man, he abandoned his family for the gold fields of California, but he failed to strike it rich as a miner and turned to a life of crime.
It is believed that Boles committed his first stagecoach robbery in July 1875. When guards spotted gun barrels sticking out of nearby bushes, they handed over their strongbox to Boles. When the guards returned to pick up the box, they discovered that the “rifle barrels” were just sticks tied to branches.
During the course of his criminal career he never shot anyone nor robbed a single stage passenger; he gained fame for his daring style and the occasional short poems he left behind, signed by “Black Bart, the Po-8.”
