Gentleman Bandit: The True Story of Black Bart, the Old West's Most Infamous Stagecoach Robber

A new biography of Black Bart, the Wild West's most mysterious gentleman bandit, separating fact from fiction and revealing new details of his story

Black Bart is widely regarded today as not only the most notorious stage robber of the Old West but also the best behaved. Over his lifetime, Black Bart robbed at least twenty-nine stagecoaches on the Northern California coast with mild, polite commands, each time brandishing a sawed-off shotgun that is widely believed to never have been loaded. Such behavior earned him the title of a true "gentleman bandit."

His real name was Charles E. Boles, and in the public eye, Charles lived quietly as a boulevardier in San Francisco, the wealthiest and most exciting city in the American West. Boles was an educated man who traveled among respectable crowds. Because he did not drink, fight or consort with prostitutes, his true calling as America's greatest stage robber was never suspected. Sheriffs searched and struggled for years to find him, and newspaper editors had a field day reporting his exploits. Legends and rumors trailed his name until his mysterious death, and his ultimate fate remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Old West.

Now historian John Boessenecker sheds new light on Black Bart's life, reputation and exploits, bringing to life the glittering story of the mysterious stage robber who doubled as a rich, genteel socialite in the golden era of of the Wild West.