JAIL-PROOF JIM WEBSTER

While the poetic exploits of outlaw Charles Lane Boles (aka “Black Bart”) are fairly well documented, other California badmen have received short shrift from Old West historians. One such Golden State hard case is Jim Webster. Though more than 20 years separated their crime sprees, Boles and Webster operated in roughly the same locale. But the similarity ends there. Black Bart, the self-described “Po-8” (read “poet”), is known for never having triggered the shotgun he brandished during robberies; Webster, on the other hand, murdered at least three people and was rumored to have killed as many as 40.

The details of Webster’s background are sketchy and conflicting, perhaps because he wanted it that way, to throw off lawmen and otherwise cover