26. Black Bart Confessed to a Crime in the Mistaken Belief That the Statute of Limitations Had Run Out
Black Bart’s modus operandi after halting a stagecoach was to cover the driver with his shotgun, and politely tell him to throw down the strongbox. He would then order the driver to move on, recover the strongbox, and flee. Bart never fired his weapon, and sometimes left behind handwritten poems, which further enhanced his notoriety and gained him the nickname “Black Bart the Poet“. His crime spree ended in 1883 when a robbery went bad and he was shot in the hand. Fleeing, he dropped some personal items, including a handkerchief with a laundry mark. Wells Fargo detectives canvassed San Francisco laundromats until they found the right one, and discovered the identity of the handkerchief’s owner.
Black Bart eventually confessed to robbing Wells Fargo stagecoaches, but only before 1879, on the mistaken assumption that the statute of limitations had run out on robberies committed before that year. The company pressed charges only for the last robbery, and he was convicted and sentenced to six years for that crime. He served four and was released in 1888 for good behavior. In poor health, Black Bart did not return to his family, and wrote his wife that he was depressed and wanted to get away from everybody. His last known whereabouts are at a hotel in Visalia, California, from which he vanished a month after leaving prison.
