Charles E. Boles aka Black Bart was a nattily-dressed gentleman who lived quietly in San Francisco between his stagecoach holdups. He was unique because of his good manners, intelligence and style.
He robbed his first stagecoach in Calaveras County on July 26, 1875 wearing a long white linen duster, a flour sack with two eyeholes covered his head and cloth was wrapped around his boots. He was also wielding an empty double-barreled shotgun.
Black Bart outwitted Wells Fargo detectives for eight years before being caught when he made the mistake of returning to the scene of his first crime.
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Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian and the Wild West History Association’s vice president. His latest book is 2018’s Arizona Oddities: A Land of Anomalies and Tamales. Send your question, with your city/state of residence, to marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu or Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327.