On Riding Shotgun on the Wells Fargo & Co. Express

Award-winning author and Wild West contributor John Boessenecker trails the careers of 20 largely overlooked express messengers—the shotgun-wielding guards of the Wells, Fargo & Co. Express–and company detectives. Their jobs weren't easy. Between 1870 and 1884, Boessenecker writes, some 347 robberies or attempted robberies were made on stagecoaches carrying Wells Fargo express shipments, resulting in the deaths of six guards and drivers and the wounding of 10 others. It didn't end there. Between 1890 and 1903 the number of actual and attempted train robberies totaled 341, resulting in the deaths of 99 people. “Wells Fargo followed the money,” Boessenecker writes, “and robbers followed Wells Fargo.”