California's Infamous Stage Robber

Black Bart was one of the most unusual stagecoach robbers in American history. There is no record of Bart every firing a shot in any of his robberies. Bart, however, was not so lucky. During one robbery a bullet shot at him grazed his head and left a scar. In his final robbery he was shot in the hand. When Bart was arrested he was using the name Charles E. Bolton, the name under which he had been living for years in San Francisco. When he was booked, he gave his name as T. Z. Spalding. However, Bart's real name was Charles E. Boles. Bart was tried, convicted and sentenced to San Quentin prison. He served his time, was released early, then disappeared without a trace. Is that the end of the story? Not a chance! The story of Black Bart is unique and interesting.

If you have read this far, We hope you have as much fun viewing this site as we had making it. The site will be constantly evolving as we get new data or correct inaccuracies. If you have information on Bart, please send it to us. We would be interested in seeing it and including it on the site.

This site was not set up to depict Black Bart as a hero, role model or person to be emulated. It is strictly a collection of information on Black Bart. We make no representation as to the accuracy of anything contained in this website except for three things: Black Bart existed, he robbed stages, he went to jail. Oh yes there is one more thing. If Bart was still alive, he would be over 175 years old. My how time flies.

The information presented here is from many different sources. While many of the accounts of Black Bart's exploits are slightly different in content, they all state many of the same basic facts. We tried to use as many facts as we felt were reputable. However, this is not the definitive story of Black Bart.