Ralphie’s fantasy encounter with Black Bart in A Christmas Story leads one to believe that Black Bart was some desperado. In the 1870′s there was a dime novel that was loosely based on the true story. A Christmas Story author Jean Shepherd read this novel as a kid and included Ralphie’s reincarnation of Black Bart as a desperado. But Black Bart’s real story is far more fantastical than Ralphie’s imagination. Here to tell the story of America’s most successful and eccentric stagecoach robber is one of America’s greatest Old West storytellers, Roger McGrath.
