(horse neighs)
(hooves clopping)
(dramatic music)
(soft upbeat music)
(horse neighs)
- Easy boys.
Easy does it.
Throw down that box.
Please, we wouldn't wanna spook the horses.
Let me take that lockbox off your hands
and you can be on your merry way.
(box thuds) (dramatic music)
(Bart whistles)
- [Man] Black Bart.
(gun bangs)
(Bart yells and grunts)
- I won't miss.
(gun bangs)
(Bart yells) (dramatic music)
(dramatic music)
(soft upbeat music)
- [William] Looking dapper as usual today.
- Thank you, William. (hands smack)
- Thank you, sir, business must be good.
- Yes it is, William, yes, it is.
(dramatic music)
♪ My country 'tis of thee
♪ Sweet land of liberty
♪ Land where my fathers died
♪ Land of the pilgrim's pride
♪ From every mountain side
♪ Let freedom ring
(whistling wind)
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] On the North American plains,
opportunity calls men of courage
to chase the sun west into a new frontier.
They would shape a nation,
(multiple gun shots)
lay hold of their destiny,
and birth a new mythology.
(gun shot)
But with the passing of time, every myth has it's reckoning.
Black Bart, the name conjures images
of a surly stagecoach robber.
- [Bart] Throw down that box.
- [Narrator] And notorious bandit.
A violent outlaw, ready to kill.
But behind every bandit stands a man,
and behind every legend lies the truth.
- Charles Boles, also known as Black Bart,
is the most eccentric stagecoach bandit
in the history of the West,
and yet his story is unfamiliar to most of us.
Unlike the brazen outlaw killers of his day,
this gentleman bandit never fires a single shot.
Boles is a man driven by revenge, who masks his identity.
Instead of leaving trails of blood,
he leaves behind verses of poetry.
- Keep a weather eye on those rocks, Charles.
- Stay warm and take care of Robert,
and I'll tend to this.
- [Narrator] In 1848, gold is discovered
in the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
By 1849, tens of thousands of men, known as the 49ers,
are swarming into Northern California.
One of those 49ers is an ambitious young man
named Charles Boles, who convinces his brothers
to join him on the Gold Rush.
- [Charles] I think there's probably more up this way.
- Charles and his brothers,
they had been barn raisers in New York,
and none of them liked farming life.
And they couldn't wait to get out
to the gold fields in California.
(man coughs)
- Can I get some help? Help, anybody!
- [Narrator] For many fortune seekers,
like the Boles brothers,
the hope of striking it rich moves them
to endure incredible hardships and sacrifice.
(ominous music)
They camp along the riverbeds in squalid conditions,
giving rise to waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid,
which often result in death.
(man coughing)
- Johnny boy, come take a gander at this!
- Are you kidding me?
- [Man] We got it! (Johnny screams)
We got it!
- [Narrator] Some strike it rich,
(men screaming)
but Charles Boles is not as lucky.
(dramatic music)
After months of mining, he not only fails to find gold,
he loses both of his brothers
to illness they contract in the camps.
- Charles was devastated.
He had been the one to truly want to come out to California.
He felt guilty.
He was a restless soul.
That played very heavily into the choices he made later on.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Boles heads back east a broken man,
eventually stopping in Illinois,
where he takes a job on a farm and soon marries.
(hog snorting)
- [Jameson] On the one hand,
you have the adventure of searching for gold
and perhaps making a fortune, versus working on a farm,
the tedium of tilling and harvesting and seeding
that, to him, was not quite as attractive.
- [Narrator] Frustrated with his farming lifestyle,
Boles is haunted by his failure as a miner
and dreams of striking it rich.
(dramatic music)
(water splashing)
When word of a Montana gold rush reaches Charles,
his gold fever returns.
Boles leaves his family and sets out for Montana
on foot.
- There's an interesting aspect to Boles's life.
It is said that he had an aversion to horses.
When he enlisted in the military,
he volunteered for the infantry,
presumably so he wouldn't have to ride a horse.
- [Narrator] It's likely Boles's fear of horses
is triggered by a fall.
Still, he doesn't let his fear hamper his service
to the union.
- What you might not expect is that Charles Boles
is a respected Civil War soldier.
Wounded while fighting for the Federal Army,
he returns to battle and is even with General Sherman
on his brutal march to the sea.
- To March with Sherman's army, you certainly are fit.
He was very demanding of his soldiers.
And being able to understand what trails will get you where,
what trails could be easily ambushed
and therefore you set up defenses for them
at the proper places.
That would be a value to someone
who later becomes known as Black Bart.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] After two years of panning for other miners,
Boles is finally able to stake his own claim
to a riverside plot he's sure
will make his sacrifice worth it.
(soothing music)
But as word of Montana riches spreads,
the competition for claims increases.
- Pardon me. Pardon me, gentlemen.
Good day to you, sir.
The usual, please.
Oh, and this.
- Why that'll be three cents,
or 10 cents for express service.
- What's that?
- Well, you can thank Mr. Wells and Mr. Fargo.
They just bought me out.
- [Charles] Seems like they aim
to buy up the whole territory.
- [Narrator] Large companies rush to capitalize
on local strikes and eliminate the competition,
buying up businesses and all the lands
surrounding successful claims.
- There was mining going on in various sections of Montana.
He did have a claim
where he was in competition with other people
also setting up claims,
and there was a lot of violence
that was occurring around him.
- [Man] Mr. Boles.
(dramatic music)
- Welcome, gentlemen.
What can I do for you?
- We'd like to make you an offer.
- We wanna buy your claim.
(Charles chuckles)
- No thank you.
No thank you.
Good day.
- It doesn't look like much is coming.
- There'll be plenty just as soon as the water comes up.
Good day.
(ominous music)
- It'd be a shame if it didn't.
(ominous music)
- [Narrator] Wells Fargo is already consolidating
its stage lines through new mining towns
in Idaho, Utah, and Montana.
Now, rumors the company has plans
to go into the mining business make Boles suspicious.
Just days after he receives an offer for his claim,
the water supply dries up.
(Charles screams)
Boles is convinced it's no coincidence.
- What Wells Fargo did is divert the stream
from which Boles was panning the gold,
to where he was forced to abandon his gold mine.
- For Charles Boles, the Montana claim
is likely his best chance for success.
But when the water slows, his claim becomes worthless.
Many historians believe that this is the moment
he sets his sights on Wells Fargo,
making the company out to be responsible for his misfortune.
- [Narrator] The hardworking miner
and former Union soldier with dreams of striking it rich
has just made a bold decision,
to exact revenge
on one of the most powerful forces in the West.
(dramatic music)
(gun shot)