Black Bart ( outlaw ) Charles Earl Bowles ( b . 1829 ; d . after 1888 ) , better known as Black Bart , was an English - born American Old West outlaw noted for the poetic messages he left behind after two of his robberies . Called Charley by his friends , he was also known as Charles Bolton , C . E . Bolton and Black Bart the Poet . Considered a gentleman bandit , he was one of the most notorious stagecoach robbers to operate in and around Northern California and southern Oregon during the 1870s and 1880s . Black Bart had a reputation for style and sophistication . Early life . Charles Bowles was born in Norfolk , England , to John and Maria Bowles , or Bolles . He was one of 10 children : seven boys and three girls . When Charles was two years old , his parents emigrated to Jefferson County , New York . His father , John Bowles , purchased a farm in the area , four miles north of Plessis Village in the direction of Alexandria Bay . Adult life prior to criminal career . California Gold Rush . In late 1849 , Bowles and two of his brothers , David and James , took part in the California Gold Rush . They began mining in the North Fork of the American River in California . Bowles mined for only a year before returning home in 1852 . He soon made a second trip to the California goldfields , accompanied once more by his brother David and this time by another brother , Robert . Both David and Robert were taken ill and died in California soon after their arrival . Bowles continued mining for two more years before leaving the goldfields . Marriage . In 1854 , Bowles ( who had by now adopted this spelling of his surname ) married Mary Elizabeth Johnson in Illinois . They had four children . By 1860 , the couple had made their home in Decatur , Illinois . Civil War . The American Civil War began in April 1861 . Bowles enlisted in Decatur as a private in Company B , 116th Illinois Regiment , on August 13 , 1862 . He proved to be a good soldier , rising to the rank of first sergeant within a year . He took part in numerous battles and campaigns , including the Battle of Vicksburg , where he was seriously wounded , and Sherman ' s March to the Sea . On June 7 , 1865 , he was discharged in Washington , D . C . , and returned home to Illinois . He had received brevet commissions as both second lieutenant and first lieutenant . Prospecting . After the long years of war , a quiet life of farming held little appeal to Bowles , and he yearned for adventure . By 1867 , he was prospecting again in Idaho and Montana . Little is known of him during this time , but in a letter to his wife in August 1871 he mentioned an unpleasant incident involving some Wells , Fargo & Company employees and vowed to extract revenge . He then stopped writing , and after a time his wife assumed he was dead . Criminal career . Bowles , as Black Bart , perpetrated 28 robberies of Wells Fargo stagecoaches across northern California between 1875 and 1883 , including a number of robberies along the historic Siskiyou Trail between California and Oregon . Although he only left two poems , at the fourth and fifth robbery sites , this came to be considered his signature and ensured his fame . Black Bart was very successful , making off with thousands of US $ a year . Bowles was terrified of horses and committed all of his robberies on foot . This , together with his poems , earned him notoriety . Through all his years as a highwayman , he never fired a gun . Bowles was always courteous and used no foul language in speech , although this aversion to profanity is not evident in his poems . . He wore a long linen duster coat and a bowler hat . He covered his head using a flour sack with holes cut for the eyes and he brandished a shotgun . These distinguishing features became his trademarks . First robbery . On 26 July 1875 , Bowles robbed his first stagecoach in Calaveras County , on the road between Copperopolis and Milton . What made the crime unusual was the politeness and good manners of the outlaw . He spoke with a deep and resonant tone and told John Shine , the stagecoach driver , " Please throw down the box . " As Shine handed the strongbox , Bowles shouted , " If he dares to shoot , give him a solid volley , boys " . Rifle barrels pointed at Shine from the nearby bushes , so he handed over the strongbox . Shine waited until Bowles vanished and then went back to get the plundered box . Upon returning to the scene , he found that the men with rifles in the bushes were actually carefully rigged sticks . This first robbery netted Bowles $ 160 . Last stagecoach robbery . The last holdup took place at the site , fittingly enough , of his first holdup , on Funk Hill , just southeast of the present town of Copperopolis . The stage had crossed the Reynolds Ferry on the old stage road from Sonora to Milton . The stage driver was Reason McConnell . At the ferry crossing , the driver picked up Jimmy Rolleri , the 19 - year - old son of the ferry owner . The stage had to travel up a steep road on the east side of Funk Hill . Jimmy Rolleri had brought his rifle and got off at the bottom of the hill , intending to hunt along the creek at the southern base of the hill and then meet the stage at the bottom of the western grade . However , on arriving at the western side of the hill , he found that the stage was not there . He began walking up the stage road and , on nearing the summit , he encountered the stage driver and his team of horses . Rolleri learned that as the stage had approached the summit , Bowles had stepped out from behind a rock with his shotgun . Bowles made McConnell unhitch the team and return with them over the crest again to the west side of the hill , where Rolleri encountered him . Bowles then tried to remove the strongbox from the stage . Wells Fargo had bolted the strongbox to the floor inside the stage ( which had no passengers that day ) . It took Bowles some time to remove the box . McConnell informed Rolleri that a holdup was in progress , and Rolleri came up to where McConnell and the horses were standing . He saw Bowles backing out of the stage with the box . McConnell took Rolleri ' s rifle and fired at Bowles twice as he started to run away . He missed . Jimmy took the rifle and fired just as Bowles was entering a thicket . They saw him stumble as the bullet found its mark . Running to where they had last seen the robber , they found a bundle of mail he had dropped , and scattered further on was more mail , which had blood on it . Bowles had been shot in the hand . After running about a quarter of a mile Bowles stopped , too tired to run any farther . He wrapped a handkerchief around the wound to help stop the bleeding . Bowles found a rotten log and stuffed the sack with the gold amalgam into it . He kept the $ 500 in gold coins . Bowles buried the shotgun in a hollow tree but threw away everything else , except what he needed to get by , and escaped . It should be noted that there is a manuscript written some 20 years after the robbery by stage driver Reason McConnell in which McConnell says that he fired all four shots at Bowles . The first was a misfire , he thought the second or third shot hit Bowles , and he knew that the fourth one hit him . Bowles only had the wound to his hand , and if the other shots hit his clothing , Bart was unaware of it . Investigation and arrest . During his last robbery in 1883 , when Bowles was wounded and forced to flee the scene , he left behind several personal items , including a pair of eyeglasses , food , and a handkerchief with a laundry mark F . X . O . 7 . Wells Fargo Detective James B . Hume ( who allegedly looked enough like Bowles to be a twin brother , moustache included ) found these several personal items at the scene . He and Wells Fargo detective Henry Nicholson Morse contacted every laundry in San Francisco , seeking the one that used the mark . After visiting nearly 90 laundry operators , they finally traced the mark to Ferguson & Bigg ' s California Laundry on Bush Street . They were able to identify the handkerchief as belonging to Bowles , who lived in a modest boarding house . Bowles described himself as a " mining engineer " and made frequent " business trips " that happened to coincide with the Wells Fargo robberies . After initially denying he was Black Bart , Bowles eventually admitted that he had robbed several Wells Fargo stages but confessed only to the crimes committed before 1879 . It is widely believed that Bowles mistakenly believed that the statute of limitations had expired on these robberies . When booked , he gave his name as T . Z . Spalding . When the police examined his possessions they found a Bible , a gift from his wife , inscribed with his real name . The police report following his arrest stated that Bowles was " a person of great endurance . Exhibited genuine wit under most trying circumstances , and was extremely proper and polite in behavior . Eschews profanity . " Conviction and imprisonment . Wells Fargo pressed charges only on the final robbery . Bowles was convicted and sentenced to six years in San Quentin Prison , but his stay was shortened to four years for good behavior . When he was released in January 1888 , his health had clearly deteriorated owing to his time in prison . He had visibly aged , his eyesight was failing , and he had gone deaf in one ear . Reporters swarmed around him when he was released and asked if he was going to rob any more stagecoaches . " No , gentlemen , " he replied , smiling , " I ' m through with crime . " Another reporter asked if he would write more poetry . Bowles laughed and said , " Now , didn ' t you hear me say that I am through with crime ? " Final days . Black Bart ' s end is in keeping with the way the romantics of his day would have had it . Bowles never returned to his wife , Mary , in Hannibal , Missouri , after his release from prison . However , he did write to her after his release . In one of the letters he said he was tired of being shadowed by Wells Fargo , felt demoralized , and wanted to get away from everybody . In February 1888 Bowles left the Nevada House and vanished . Hume said Wells Fargo tracked him to the Palace Hotel in Visalia . The hotel owner said a man answering the description of Bart checked in and then disappeared . The last time the outlaw was seen was February 28 , 1888 . Copycat robber . On November 14 , 1888 , another Wells Fargo stage was robbed by a masked highwayman . The lone bandit left a verse that read : Detective Hume was called to examine the note . After comparing it with the handwriting of genuine Black Bart poetry from the past , he declared the new holdup was the work of a copycat criminal . Rumors and theories . There were rumors that Wells Fargo had paid off the aging bandit and sent him away to keep him from robbing their stages . However , Wells Fargo denied this . Some believe that Bowles moved to New York City and lived quietly for the rest of his life , dying there in 1917 , though this was never confirmed . Others believe the unlikely tale that the former poet bandit with failing eyesight had gone to the wilds of Montana or perhaps Nevada for another try at making a fortune . Verses . Bowles , like many of his contemporaries , read " dime novel " – style serial adventure stories which appeared in local newspapers . In the early 1870s , the " Sacramento Union " ran a story called " The Case of Summerfield " by Caxton ( a pseudonym of William Henry Rhodes ) . In the story , the villain dressed in black and had long unruly black hair , a large black beard , and wild grey eyes . The villain robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches and brought great fear into those who were unlucky enough to cross him . The character ' s name was Black Bart . Bowles may have read the " Sacramento Union " story . He told a Wells Fargo detective that the name popped into his head when he was writing the first poem and he used it . Bowles left only two authenticated verses . The first was at the scene of the August 3 , 1877 , holdup on a stage traveling from Point Arena to Duncan ' s Mills : The second verse was left at the site of his July 25 , 1878 , holdup of a stage traveling from Quincy to Oroville . It read :