One man’s quest for vengeance against Wells Fargo turned into a massive crime spree—with occasional poetry breaks. Returning guest Amanda Jean joins us to fall in love with Black Bart, the gentleman robber who bluffed his way through a criminal career with no horse, no accomplices, and no bullets.
Featured image: Portrait of Charles Boles (spelled Bowles here) (Image source)
A portrait of “Charles Bolton” in his typical stylish attire. (Image source)
A stagecoach on display at the Wells Fargo museum in Phoenix, Arizona.. Passengers would have ridden in the body of the coach while a driver (and sometimes a “shotgun messenger”) would sit up front. (Image source)
Demonstration of a Wells Fargo coach in action. (Image source)
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The modern equivalent of a Wells Fargo coach, paying tribute to the company’s history. (Image source)
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Guest
Sources
- Black Bart: California’s Infamous Stage Robber
- Black Bart makes his last stagecoach robbery
- California Gold Rush
- Industrialization and Conflict in America: 1840–1875
- Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company
- Wells Fargo’s earliest risk managers
- Black Bart: Capture of the Daring Highwayman
- Laundry and dry-cleaning marks
- Black Bart’s Wife
- A Poet Highwayman: The Singular Habits of the Terror of the West (note: Dan Shealy’s story with the additional poems doesn’t match up with my other sources, and the direct threats to kill him don’t seem like Black Bart’s usual style)
- Black Bart (1948)
- Text of the Hayes Code
My dad actually did get a Wells Fargo card just for the stagecoach picture. He told me it wasn’t worth it