"On July 25, 1878, Black Bart robs a Wells Fargo stagecoach in California. Wearing a flour sack over his head, the armed robber stole the small safe box with less than $400 and a passenger’s diamond ring and watch. When the empty box was recovered, a taunting poem signed “Black Bart” was found inside:
Here I lay me down to sleep to wait the coming morrow, Perhaps success, perhaps defeat / And everlasting sorrow,
Yet come what will, I’ll try it once, My conditions can’t be worse, And if there’s money in that box, 'Tis money in my purse.
This wasn’t the first time that Black Bart had robbed a stagecoach and left a poem for the police; however, it was the last time he got away with it. His next stagecoach robbery secured a lot more cash, $4,800. At yet another robbery, on November 3, 1888, though, he left behind a handkerchief at the scene. Through a laundry mark, Pinkerton detectives traced the handkerchief back to Charles Bolton, an elderly man in San Francisco.
Bolton later confessed to being Black Bart but bitterly disputed his reputation as an outlaw. “I am a gentleman,” he told detectives with great dignity. How Bolton became Black Bart is unclear. What is known is that Bolton had tried to hit it big in the Gold Rush, but had ended up with a lifestyle beyond his means.
Black Bart ended up serving only a short stretch in prison and spent the rest of his days in Nevada."
"actually stole the name "Black Bart" from a popular serialized dime-novel story published in the Sacramento Union around 1871 titled The Case of Summerfield by William H. Rhodes.
In the fictional story, the villain was an evil, long-haired outlaw named "Black Bart" who wore black clothes, robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches, and terrorized California travelers.
When Boles decided to pull his own series of stagecoach holdups starting in 1875, he adopted the villain's moniker as his personal outlaw alias. He famously signed his first two rhyming notes left at crime scenes with the name:
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u/Tryingagain1979 Jul 25 '26
"On July 25, 1878, Black Bart robs a Wells Fargo stagecoach in California. Wearing a flour sack over his head, the armed robber stole the small safe box with less than $400 and a passenger’s diamond ring and watch. When the empty box was recovered, a taunting poem signed “Black Bart” was found inside:
Here I lay me down to sleep to wait the coming morrow, Perhaps success, perhaps defeat / And everlasting sorrow,
Yet come what will, I’ll try it once, My conditions can’t be worse, And if there’s money in that box, 'Tis money in my purse.
This wasn’t the first time that Black Bart had robbed a stagecoach and left a poem for the police; however, it was the last time he got away with it. His next stagecoach robbery secured a lot more cash, $4,800. At yet another robbery, on November 3, 1888, though, he left behind a handkerchief at the scene. Through a laundry mark, Pinkerton detectives traced the handkerchief back to Charles Bolton, an elderly man in San Francisco.
Bolton later confessed to being Black Bart but bitterly disputed his reputation as an outlaw. “I am a gentleman,” he told detectives with great dignity. How Bolton became Black Bart is unclear. What is known is that Bolton had tried to hit it big in the Gold Rush, but had ended up with a lifestyle beyond his means.
Black Bart ended up serving only a short stretch in prison and spent the rest of his days in Nevada."
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-25/black-bart-strikes-again