Early in his outlaw career, a man named Ed Clark became his friend. When he found out what Fellows was up to, he tried to convince him to go straight. He brought Fellows into his business, which was hog farming. The association didn’t last long, however, as the business soon went bankrupt. Fellows went back to robbing stages.
His first target was the Soledad stage. He hid at a spot called the San Fernando Plain, about six miles from town. The road crossed a boggy area. As soon as the stage came along, Fellows jumped out of the bog and yelled at the driver to halt. The driver did so, but at the same time a soldier who was a passenger, jumped off the stage and hid behind some cactus. Seeing this Fellows called out “Hurry up Bill. You and John go around on one side and I’ll take the other.” The soldier surrendered rather than get killed. Unfortunately, while Fellows was preoccupied with the soldier, the driver drove away. It looked like a bust, until he was able to collect $300 from the soldier.
He decided to try to rob the stage that regularly used the Cahuenga Grade. This time he hid in a grove of oak trees. The stage was coming down the hill, when Fellows jumped out and demanded the driver to stop. Unfortunately, one of the passengers took a couple of shots at Fellows. Neither one hit him, but both spooked the horses. They tore off down the hill with the driver barely in control.
Fellows was determined to get the booty. He got on his horse and took a shortcut that would place him ahead of the stage. Then he took his hat and a cloak and placed them with a long stick on top of a bank, to look like a man. When the driver reached that point, Fellows called out “Be on the alert ahead there, boys!” The trick made the driver think more there was more than one man. When Fellows told him to throw down the strong box, he didn’t hesitate. Fellows waived the stage on its way before attempting to open the strong box. He got only $435 for his efforts.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Elizabeth Gibson's The Old West topic, please visit the Discussions page.