California Gold Country historian George Hoeper reveals what promises to
be the final piece to the 100-year-old puzzle of the infamous stagecoach
robber Black Bart. For over eight years the mysterious and very polite
Charles Boles (alias Black Bart) plagued Wells Fargo & Co. with a string
of at least 28 stagecoach robberies. During theis time, Bart, who
operated on foot with an unloaded shotgun and never robbed stagecoach
passengers or drivers, soon became something of a folk legend. Between
robberies Bart would live the life of a boulevardier in San Francisco,
hobnobbing with the city's best. In 1888 he disappeared from the Palace
Hotel in Visalia, CA, never to be heard from again. Speculation has
placed Bart in many places, including the Eastern Seaboard, Mexico and
Japan, but according to information Hoeper has uncovered, it is more
likely the legendary Black Bart met his demise in the dry Nevada
wasteland and today rests in a sandy, unmarked grave.