WEBVTT - Black Bart: the Outlaw Folk Hero Poet 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.720 Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.520 --> 0:00:08.720 Do you Elizabeth scoutla dous? Not much? How you don't 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:10.440 look forward to see you are? 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:11.200 And here I am. 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:13.640 I got a question for you. You'll never guess what it is? 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.880 What size are my shoes? That's not the question. Three 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.200 good guess by The question actually is do you know 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:22.040 it's ridiculous? 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.840 I do? I you know I'm a name connoisseur. Yes, 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.440 we both thought we share that like funny names. I 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:36.040 respect names, except for all those like tragedies as they 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.720 say that and then you know, but and apologies if 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:40.919 you have one of those, you didn't pick the name. 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.760 So I was the other day I was listening to 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:51.000 Amy Poehler's podcast, and she had Michael shore On who 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.960 created Parks and Rec and was like worked on the 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.080 Office and all, and he was talking about creating names 0:00:57.080 --> 0:01:01.160 for characters and some of like the hilarious names that 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:06.120 they've had on like Parks and Rec. Elissa, Sapristine. You 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.000 have to make sure no one else has the name. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.360 There was one. I think it was like Sue Gretzky 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:11.800 Mantlebon I can't. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:14.720 Dash. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.119 Yeah, Sue, I've been I think that's. 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:17.319 What it was. 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.400 Anyway. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Live with it anyway. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.559 So knowing this, like I thought it was really funny. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.080 The interns forwarded me a message that we got on 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:33.000 Instagram from Mark mccobbin, and it's a post on Instagram 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:37.000 from Elite College Football with the craziest names in college 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.920 Football twenty five seasons. Because that's another thing I love 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.560 is the Key and Peel skit with like the names 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:46.840 they made up. These are real And I double checked 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:48.400 it because I thought, oh, there's no way, Oh yeah, 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:49.160 they're real. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.760 This is like the first one. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.640 I don't want to say it out loud. Noah is 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:57.320 his first name, but his last name is k n 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.960 I G g A. He is okay. Yeah. Then there's 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.880 General Booty and he kind of looks like a weird 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:10.160 Kendall Nitro Tuggle Wow, Nitro Tuggle King Large. 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.399 Yes, his family had fun. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:17.040 And his picture is pretty up. Yeah, he's all about 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:25.400 that mobility. No, he's real too, mo m O h ability. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:31.520 Then dude person to get out, dude person different like Wyoming. 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:37.280 He's from whatever the bears are. No, no, no, it's 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.480 like a purple thing going on. I don't know blazon 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:49.840 Loo Wong. Yes, there's sur sur Bible s I r R. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:53.960 He's got another epic. Yeah what else? 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:59.640 Demon clowney, demon clowny, demon clown dad just went for broke. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.760 They're like, you know what, Yeah, that's got to be's 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.040 uh brother or cousin Javeon Clowney. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.360 Okay, yeah that's news to me. Sure there's a guy 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:14.160 who is on Notre Dame fighting Irish Charles Do d U, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.000 but he uses the Chinese characters for his name on 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.000 his uniform. Yeah, so it just looks like that. 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:22.040 Oh I love that. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.200 And then Rocky Beers, Rocky Beers, Rocky Beers, and he 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:31.040 has a mustache. He's like teletransported from the seventies Deuce 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:39.120 Night Legend Journey. That's beautiful, Pooky Arterberry. And then we 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:44.560 wrap it up tell is Grant beer Man, Grant beer 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.800 but he's Grant beer Man. So Pooky Arterberry. The names 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.559 are just so good, dude persons. Yeah, so they're ridiculous, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:55.880 but like in a beautiful way. 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.360 Yes, yes, in a very like celebratory of life way. 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.440 Exactly. We have to celebrate every aspect of life. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.160 I love your spirit, thank you so much. Do you 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.320 know what is also it's ridiculous. Elizabeth, tell me I 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.000 have a story for you. I picked this one out 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.600 extra special for you. It's kind of like thank you 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:14.000 for like how you hooked me up with the Arnstein episode. 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.520 It made me my man Arnold the brain Rothstain, like 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.400 I gotta do Elizabeth's solid for you today. I have 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.520 a nor Cow story. I know you enjoy those. It's 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.599 the tale of a gentleman thief, which I know you 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.320 also love that. He's a wild West outlaw that parts 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:30.560 for me, but he's a folk hero that parts for you. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:35.000 He's also a poet, love love love this. He would 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.440 rob stage coaches and leave poetry for the law. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:38.120 Stop it. 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.720 Yes, he was a rare wild West outlaw who was 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.680 also afraid of horses okay, which means he fled every 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.000 stage coach robbery on foot or. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:46.800 On a penny farthing. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.200 He was also notoriously polite, well mannered. He never cussed, never, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.440 he's violence, never been mistreated. A lady, I just want 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:54.520 to tell you all this up tops. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:55.720 You don't have to Work's incredible. 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.279 Yeah, and he only wanted to get his revenge against 0:04:58.320 --> 0:04:59.120 Wells Fargo. 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:00.720 I love this. 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.320 He was a hero of the people, Elizabeth. Elizabeth's name 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:05.640 was Black Bart. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:07.239 Get out of town. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:08.880 Yeah, buckle up, Buttercup. 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:34.360 This is ridiculous crame podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:39.800 heistand cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:46.080 one hundred percent ridiculous. Oh, Elizabeth, Now I know you 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.520 have a soft spot for nonviolent gentlemen or gentlewomen, also 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:50.479 especially thieves. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.599 Now you've covered a few thieves who operate with style 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.680 pinas oh make their way through the world, sailing on 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.440 that wind of criminality. Now who is this Black Bart? 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.880 He doesn't sound like me. He would up front be 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.160 one of your people. Know. He was, as I said, 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.440 an outlaw folk hero poet okay, operating in norcl in 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.359 the eighteen seventies and eighteen eighties. 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:13.559 He's like an early like Peter Coyote. 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.560 The high Time of the Old West, right for starters. 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:19.640 He's deaf my kind of guy, because, for instance, Black 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.000 Bart was a self applied nickname, like how I dubbed 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.279 myself Dizzy. He never told you that anyway, My man 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.840 black Bart didn't trust the nineteenth century press to give 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:30.600 him a good nickname. So he's like calling me black bar. 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:32.800 I believe it because we know how the papers were right, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:34.400 they did you dirty shirt. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.040 Hey, Now he was born. 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.280 Like you know, Pickle knows Johnson, Like wait, what. 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.800 No blue tooth Gregory he was This dude was born 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.600 in Norfolk, England, eighteen twenty nine. Okay, right, But his 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:51.039 parents named him Charles Bowles, third to ten children. He 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.400 was not going to inherit the family spread. That was clear. 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.320 So he had to make his way in the world. 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.000 And true to this show, he chose crime. But not 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.520 at first, Elizabeth. At first he tried to go legit, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.919 like when he was a toddler. His family picked up 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.240 sticks and jolly old and they left England and moved 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.960 to New York. Not New York City. The immigrant family 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.120 settled in Jefferson County. I had to look this up. 0:07:11.120 --> 0:07:13.720 It's near a spot called Alexandria Bay, which is right 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.560 there at the Canadian border. Okay, right, So the settlement 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.080 at the time was new. If the family showed up, 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.000 the area was settled in like eighteen seventeen. The Bolls 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.560 family shows up in eighteen thirty one, so the buildings 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:26.600 still have their first code of paint yeah, yeah, right. 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:29.520 So anyway, if everything's going along nice, they make their 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.760 way in America and then boom, eighteen forty nine comes along. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.320 The news washes across the continent that gold has been 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:40.480 discovered this place called Sutter's Fort in California. News kicks 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.560 off Gold Rush of eighteen forty nine. As you well know, 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.120 just twenty years old at the time, young Charlie Bowles 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:48.240 and two of his brothers head west to go and 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.320 find their fortune in the gold Hills of California. Exciting 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.000 now they were about it, Elizabeth. They didn't even hesitate. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.280 They just saw the headlines and started walking west. I mean, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.280 that's how I pictured it. I don't know anyway, they 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:02.240 arrived in eighteen forty nine. They made they were forty nine, 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:04.760 That's what I'm saying. Like they saw the first headliner 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.200 like good for me, I'm good. 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:06.480 Yeah. 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.800 The wagons, yeah, I assume what are. 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.320 These blue jeans we've heard about? 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.480 Who's this Levi Strauss fellow? I heard he makes a 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.640 good product. Now, crossing country in eighteen forty nine was 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.760 no joke. There was no trans continental railroad at this time. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.520 But they make it out to California. I assume you're right. 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:25.720 They took a wagon. I don't know. They ran up 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.320 to Gold Country stake their claim as gold miners. They 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.440 mine along the North Fork of the American River. They're 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.920 above some Sacramento. Apparently they found jack squat because after 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.840 three years mucking about in the cold water streams, digging 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.320 in the earth, you know, panning for gold, they came 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.320 away with little to show for their efforts. Of the 0:08:44.320 --> 0:08:47.560 three Bulls brothers head back to New York. Oh really, yeah, yeah, 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.679 that's eighteen fifty two. Okay, the Bulls Brothers still had 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.040 gold fever though, if we could just get back to California. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.320 So they managed to get some scratched together and the 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.040 three turn right back around and they go back to California. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.880 The gold rush is still kicking on at this point, right, So. 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.520 Well, and the thing is is everything was so expensive. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.280 Oh yes, in California. It's like how now where if 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.520 people are? You know, it's like a twenty five dollars sandwich. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.040 Well that's how it was then, and the gold rushes. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.760 Everything was outsized price wise. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.880 Everyone's paying for gold dust. They're like, yeah, they're paying 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:19.360 with gold dust. 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.840 So if you're going and you're not successful, and then 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.720 you're not turning around and selling shovels. Totally good point, 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:31.440 you know, or doing people's laundries, or making crime my people, 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:33.679 making saddles. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.079 Yeah, that's a good answer. Everybody needs a place to sit. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:37.840 And so yeah, exactly. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.240 So, like I said, crossing continent before the Transcontinental Railroad 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.400 was no joke, right, So, and I don't just mean like, oh, 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.200 there's a threat of dispossessed natives or like the attack 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.439 by horse, the all the violent men rattling around in 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.400 the wild attack. But there's yeah, there's disease illness. When 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.480 the three Bulls brothers returned to Gold Country, both of 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.240 Charlie Bulls's brothers are severely sick from the trip. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:09:59.720 Yeah. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:02.679 Shortly thereafter both die. Oh no, now. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.080 He's alone dysentery just like an Oregon pretty much exactly. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.640 So, now he's alone in the world, young, grieving, still 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:11.840 got gold fever. So he tries to make it a 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.040 goal of it as a gold miner all by himself. Right, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:18.880 He stuck it up for another two years. Luck still pitiful, Elizabeth. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.440 So he packs it back up, heads back to east 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.679 and we head in his hands, Like I. 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.680 Get salty because it's like a five hour flight, you 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.439 know what I mean. They're just like. 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:35.880 Weeks and weeks off, not months. 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:37.920 That takes a lot. You got a lot of metal. 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.520 So it was good that he returned home to New York, though, 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.000 because that's where he met a young woman and they 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.680 fell in love. Elizabeth. Her name was Mary Elizabeth Johnson, 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.120 just like the most nineteenth century Nativist American name you 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:52.120 could come up with, Mary Elizabeth Johnson. 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.680 She would not do well in the NFL. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.480 He would not the pair Mary, right, and they had 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.200 to make a go of it. After a few years, 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.000 he convinceds her, we need to move west. Yeah, but 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:06.560 she's like, I don't know about it. He's like, no, 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.000 not all the way to got to California. You don't 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.880 worry about that. I've shaken the gold fever. Let's move 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.560 to Decatur, Illinois. So they moved to Decatur, Illinois. They 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.760 make a life for themselves, or Charlie Bowles tries to 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:20.600 make a life for himself. They have four kids, nice family, right, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.200 good nineteenth century Americans. Charlie Bowles tries his hand at farming, 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.640 does some teaching. This is around eighteen sixty and if 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.080 you know American history, you know what's blowing around in 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.760 the breeze. But it's yet to come to bloody fruition. Yeah, 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.920 the American Civil War. The war breaks out, Charlie Bowles 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:38.199 is they're in Decatur, Illinois. Does He's not under threat 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.320 of what's happening, but he still is like, I don't know, 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:42.440 this is not right. Takes him a little while, but 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.600 by the end of eighteen sixty two, middle of eighteen 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.679 six I think spt. August, he signs up to fight. Oh, 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:52.160 he joins the Union. So, like I said, out lawful Curry, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:53.760 he knows to be on the right side of the 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.320 Civil War. Now he joins Company B of the one 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.160 hundred and sixteenth Illinois Regiment, signs up to fight under 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.559 General WILLI to come to Sherman, not yet a general, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.080 but comes to Sherman. He stays with this general for 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.000 the duration of the war. Oh, he is there, rifle 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.400 in hand for every battle Sherman fought. 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:10.400 Oh wait he goes. 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.880 Yeah, he made the march. He was in the big fights, 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.880 the little fights. He was in seventeen major Civil War battles, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.360 major ones. He was also all the major ones. Right, 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.439 So his luck holds up. He's no good at gold mining, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.360 but he was a hell of a Civil War soldier. 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.440 He does get wounded, not once, not twice, three times. 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.200 He gets seriously hit at Vicksburg, and that's like rhea. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.559 Is like post up like in the military hospital for 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.360 a while. But he survived to the end of the war. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.520 There he is, as you asked with General Sherman when 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.560 he makes his fiery march to the to the seas 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:46.880 were burning down half of Georgia. Yes, yes, Queen. June seventh, 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.120 eighteen sixty five. Civil Wars won the nation, stitching itself 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:52.800 back together no longer a young man, Charlie Bowles goes 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.120 back to Illinois, back to his wife and family. Now, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:56.760 I don't know if the war changed. Okay, I do 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:58.600 know the war because war changes everybody. So I mean, 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:00.199 I know it changed him, but I don't know how 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.479 it changed him. And they don't have language like PTSD 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.600 back then. Sure, they don't even have shell shock. That's 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.160 like a World War one time exactly so. But he's 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.000 walking around in Decatur, Illinois, and he cannot get back 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:11.199 to the quiet life of farming. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:11.760 Yeah. 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:13.840 So in eighteen sixty seventy he's like, I'm going west, 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.400 but the gold rush at this point has passed in California, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:19.440 so he can't go back to the Gold Hills. Instead, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:22.960 he goes to Montana where they've recently discovered gold. Idaho. Yeah, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:24.400 so they're finding smaller. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.520 Pockets here on the silver, a bunch of silver as well. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.080 Yeah, it's exactly the silver comstock load. And so he 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.520 starts mine for precious medals in Montana and Idaho. At 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.199 this point, he's still in contact with his wife and 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:39.319 his family, sending regular letters, sending money back home. One 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.160 of his letters, dated eighteen seventy seven, he writes to 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.080 his wife complains he had some real bad business with 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.880 the road agents from the Wells Fargo company did him dirty, right, 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.000 So in the letter he promises his wife that he 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.319 will get his revenge against Henry Wells and William Fargo 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.120 and Elizabeth. My man was good to his work to 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.440 do that, though Charlie bowls. He picks up state again 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.280 and he goes truly wes. This time, he returns to California. 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.120 He's like, where are them? Wells Fargo is located, So 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.120 gold rush may be over, but there's still plenty of 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.760 loose wealth, rocking and rolling around the gold country and 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.960 lock boxes loaded onto stage coaches operated by who well 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:18.760 Wells Fargo and Company. And that's who Charlie Bowles makes 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.120 the sole target of his outlaw ways. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:22.480 You're kidding them. 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:25.360 Just fixates on stage coaches if it's red and says 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.360 in yellow Wells Fargo, he's hitting it unlike gold mining. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.560 When it comes to being an outlaw ful hero, Charlie 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.240 Bowles is as lucky as he was in war. He 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:37.240 finds he's good at being a bandit. Yeah, he holds 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.320 the record for rob stage coaches as my man black Bart. 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.640 He pulled off twenty more stage coach robberies than any 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:46.360 other highwayman wild Way. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:47.560 And I've not heard of this. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:49.720 I know I had not heard about him either, ntil 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.400 I read about them to do this story for you. Yeah, 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.480 he holds the record at twenty nine successful stage coach 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.640 robberies twenty nine and his thirtieth was his fateful last 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.520 ride years black Bart frustrated the hell out of law 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.960 and all the road agents from the Wells Fargo Company. 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:08.880 He just reeks his earthly revenge against the bankers. So 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:10.840 now that we've met our anti hero. Let's take a 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:31.520 little break and after these messages we'll get to the criming. Yes, 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.560 we're back, Elizabeth. Oh you ready to get to know 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:39.080 my man Black Bart. Yes. 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.320 Every time you say his name, I think of a 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.520 Christmas story. Oh right, he wants the red writer bb 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:47.880 gun And it's all because I'll get you black Bart. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:50.680 That's the thing. The name his name sticks around. He 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.320 has such a compelling name, but becomes like this moniker 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.120 for villains, and yet we as you hear, he's really 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.280 not that guy, like yeah tough. Anyway, First of all, 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:00.880 don't let his name you I just want to let 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:02.880 you know Black Bart is not a black cowboy, Am 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:03.320 i am? 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:04.640 I correct that it's black Bard. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:08.080 Yeah, okay, he's in tunes too, Yeah exactly. It's a 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.560 very common stand in name for like the cowboy villain. 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:13.760 Total yeah. 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.000 And it also has that dime store novel quality. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.000 Or dial Yes, I'm sorry. 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.040 So fine, He's not this notorious bad Man's my point right. 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.040 Black Bard doesn't have a surly demeanor, doesn't have noxious vibes. 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.520 He's not a big gruff villain, but he gives himself 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.520 this gnom to crime. So it was, as I said, 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.840 based on his literary leanings. Yeah, he is. He's a 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:36.320 different kind of folk caro outlaw. 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:36.520 Right. 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.160 He was known like for instance, he was known to 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.840 read the Bible regularly. He was partial to the words 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:43.680 of Shakespeare, would quote him. He black Bart, he has 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.920 as I said, didn't didn't smoke, didn't drink. He also 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.720 didn't smoke opium or hashish. As the newspapers would point out, 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.360 they he doesn't smoke opium. It's like, I guess it 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.880 was common enough you had to point this out. So 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:55.960 he also he didn't swear. And if if it weren't 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.080 for the you know, all the stage coach robberies. Really 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.600 an exemplary life for a golden sure. 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:00.920 Yeah. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.600 But as I told you up top, as Billy Bob 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.639 Thorton put it in Tombstone, black Bart was pretty brave 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.399 for a man who didn't go healed in the Old West. 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.439 Maybe he didn't carry shooting irons either, Yeah, neither out 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.200 in the open or secreted on his person. Really, Yeah, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.800 but he did. Black Bart did carry a double barrel 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.040 shotgun that he saw it off and he used that 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.000 when he was working as an outlaw stage coach Bandit okay, 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.040 but a lot of people out of historians think it 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:30.560 was never loaded headed off shot, but I found in 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.480 interviews he said it wasn't as an emergency precaution. He 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:35.520 just never had to use it. Yeah, I don't think 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.960 anybody would go out there with an unloaded weapon and 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:39.600 being like, I'm going to point this this somebody who 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:40.639 may have a loaded weapon. 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.320 Exactly see how this plays, because when you when you 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.920 start to draw it out from something, if he's pulling 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.480 it from under a jacket, that's when you get shot. Yeah, 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:50.600 before you even have it fully exactly what. 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:52.920 It's a gun. It's a gun. Someone else sees it, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:53.399 they're gonna be. 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:57.240 Like, oh gun, gun stop persisting. 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.800 In his record twenty nine, stage coach rob as I said, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.120 not once does he ever fire his double barrel sot 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.000 off shotgun. The street sweepers there for show, but the 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.160 stage coach drivers are known. This is where we get 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:10.680 the term shotgun. They have a guy riding next day, 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:15.080 he carries a shotgun. That's the shotgun seat. So he's 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.800 going mano a mano with them in terms of like, oh, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.240 I've got what they've got now. When he would rob 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.760 a stage coach, he never bothered the passengers because he 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:24.480 was he was very was known to be kind to 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:26.760 the ladies. He used his best manners. He would always 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.600 say ma'am, please and thank you, and they could let 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:31.640 him know. And he was also that he wasn't gonna 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.000 hurt anybody. And he was also very compliant with stage 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.760 coach drivers about like oh me, hold your horses, you 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.040 get down, you know, like seriously, he was just like 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.600 incredibly considerate. And I mentioned in my intro, but by 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.280 far this is my favorite detail is that he's terrified 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.520 of horses. So he's an outlaw who does not ride 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:50.920 a horse, cannot escape on a horse. He rides a 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.960 stage coach and then he just walks away into the woods. 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:56.600 Just trying to picture that. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:18:58.800 He's like Homer Simpson drifting. 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.760 Back in the exactly just put into like valley oaks. 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.119 So at this point for his outlaw look, he was 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.040 also a partial to long dusters, like those coats if 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.360 you know, like they're they're made interestingly for riding horses 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:13.520 to protect you from like the choya and the cactus, 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:15.720 and they supposed to cover your legs. I guess he 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.159 just liked the look, so he would wear those. He 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.119 also liked a bowler. He was a bowler man, a 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.240 professional bowler, I mean like the rounded top hats. So 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:25.960 when he was not working, when he's not doing his 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.520 outlaw business, he would have on it was common to 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.320 have a bowler. Sometimes he would have like a gold 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.280 tip cane, stylish rakish gentleman. Right, But when he was 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.080 working as an outlaw, he'd pull a flower sack over 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.359 his head, cut out two eye holes and then it 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.920 he's like basically something Stooby Dudes, yeah, villain or the Zodiac. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:45.360