Winnipeg Public Library Catalogue

Between July 1875 and November 1883, a single outlaw robbed the stagecoaches of Wells Fargo in California's Mother Lode country a record of twenty-eight times. Armed with an unloaded shotgun, walking to and from the scenes of the robberies, often for hundreds of miles, and leaving poems behind, the infamous Black Bart was fiercely hunted. Between robberies, Black Bart was known as Charles E. Bolton, a distinguished, middle-aged man who enjoyed San Franciscos entertainments in the company of socialites drawn to his quiet, temperate good nature and upper-class tastes. Meanwhile, James B. Hume, Wells Fargos legendary chief of detectives, made Barts apprehension a matter of personal as well as professional interest.