The bandits had been waiting for three hours for the stagecoach to pass. At 5 p.m. on May 30, 1899, it finally rattled down the track in Kane Spring Canyon, Ariz., and the duo made their move. Stepping out from behind a roadside bush and armed with six-shooters and Winchester rifles, they ordered the driver to stop, forcing him and his three passengers to alight.
Lining them up on the ground, the robbers went through the victims’ pockets, helping themselves to hundreds of dollars, firearms and jewelry. When one of the passengers resisted, the smaller of the bandits — wearing blue overalls and coarse boots that were clearly too big — laid down the law: “Cough up, partner,” he gruffly said, “or I’ll plug you.”
Those were the only words the thief spoke the whole time — because she was afraid of being discovered as a woman. The heist over, Pearl Hart, “The Bandit Queen,” rode off into notoriety.
