UPDATED 9-23-07
The old Territorial Prison at Yuma, Arizona has witnessed many a strange tale, but none
quite as strange as that of John Boot, "the invisible man." Boot is usually
overshadowed by his partner in crime, Pearl Hart, sometimes called "the last of the
stagecoach robbers" or "the Arizona Bandit Queen." Boot's actual name was
John J. Bowen, and he was born in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, a tiny town just northwest of
Fitchburg, in 1874. When John was ten, his family relocated to Kansas City, and it was
here that he met 18-year-old Pearl Hart in the summer of 1898. By 1899, the two lovers
found themselves in an Arizona mining camp. Tiring of kitchen work, Pearl "convinced
him there was more money in robbing stagecoaches than in mining." "On May 30,
1899, Peal and Boot held up the Benson-Globe stage. As Boot collected the loot from the
three passengers...Pearl, her long brunette locks stuffed under a hat, trained a six-gun
on the driver and the victims." They netted a total of $431. Their bandit careers
proved short-lived, however. Days later, the pair were arrested at Poston's Butte, just
outside Florence, Arizona by Sheriff William Truman. "At Florence, however, there
were no accommodations for women, so Pearl was taken to the Pima County Jail in Tucson to
await trial. She remained there only overnight. The next day, the turnkey discovered that
Pearl had cut a hole through a thin partition and escaped." "On the same night,
John Boot, in some mysterious manner, disappeared from his cell in Florence." True
enough! The deputy, bringing Bowen the evening meal, was stunned to find the barred door
locked and the cell empty. He quickly opened the door and looked around, testing the bars
on the windows. But there was no trace of Bowen. Leaving the cell door wide open, he ran
to fetch Sheriff Truman. But Pearl and John's luck ran out again. They were captured two
weeks later near Deming, New Mexico by a posse out hunting for cattle rustlers. Both were
convicted of robbery. John was sentenced to 35 years in Yuma. Pearl drew a five-year
sentence and immediately became a celebrity upon her arrival at the prison. "Pearl
was wearing tight jeans, a man's blouse and was smoking a cigarette, all three of which
were considered unladylike" back in 1899. "By contrast, Boot was quiet,
well-spoken and seemed to sigh with relief when he was separated from his mistress."
As the only female inmate in Yuma, Pearl had a custom-made uniform hand-sewed by the wife
of the warden, Captain F.S. Ingalls. "Sunday visitors asked her to pose for pictures
in the jail yard, and she always obliged." She also caused Capt. Ingalls no end of
trouble. "One of her favorite pastimes was to call out through the bars of her cell
for some man to come and join her, an invitation which so upset most of the inmates 'that
they would howl like coyotes all during the night,'" Capt. Ingalls said. The prison
at Yuma is built right up against steep granite bluffs on the banks of the Colorado River.
"Boot was a model prisoner. He responded to orders with alacrity. The only thing he
volunteered about his background was that his name was not Boot, and his accent indicated
that he came from somewhere in New England." "Then one day (in 1901), a little
less than two years after he had been admitted, he vanished. He had become so unobtrusive
that no one missed him between breakfast and the customary bunk check at night."
"No one ever saw him again." One prisoner told a bizarre tale of how he'd seen
Bowen near the vertical granite bluff. He said Bowen had stood with his palms facing the
rock and had made an unusual humming noise. Then he stepped forward--and vanished. The
other inmate hobbled over to the spot as fast as his leg irons would allow. He thought he
had seen "Boot" walk into solid rock! But Capt. Ingalls dismissed the man's
story, noting that "the fellow is addicted to the liquor habit." There are two
curious postscripts to the story of Arizona's "invisible man." In 1939, an
American named Elijah Bowen turned up in Madras, India. He was searching, as many tourists
do, for the Hidden Masters. He was interned by the British at the same time Mohandas
Gandhi and Jawarhalal Nehru were arrested. And where was Mr. Bowen from? None other than
Ashburnham, Massachusetts, USA. In 1899, right after the robbery, John and Pearl hid out
on Poston's Butte during an unusual (for Arizona, anyway) three-day downpour. That
particular butte has a strange history. It was purchased by Charles Poston, one of
Arizona's earliest pioneers. "In 1863, Poston assumed his duties as Superintendent of
Indian Affairs for Arizona, an office created especially for him; the following year he
was elected delegate to Congress in the first territorial election. After completing his
term in Congress, he traveled extensively in Europe and Asia and returned to Florence,
Ariz. in 1878. While in India he became a sun worshipper and upon his return built a road,
costing several thousand dollars, to the top of this butte, which he called 'Parsee Hill.'
and where he erected a pyre of continuous fire as a temple to the sun. After burning for
several months, the fire died and the project became Poston's Folly." Two men forty
years apart. The same last name. From the same tiny town in Massachusetts. And both with
strange unexplained linkages to India. There's a mystery here for anyone who'd care to
solve it. (See The Encyclopedia of American Crime by Carl Sifakis, Facts on File Inc., New
York, N.Y. 1982, page 317. Also Pioneer Days in Arizona by Francis Cummins Lockwood,
Macmillan, New York, N.Y., 1932. Also Lost Legends of the West by Brad Williams and Choral
Pepper, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, NewYork, N.Y., 1970, pages 30 to 35.)
AFTER SPEAKING TO THE MANAGER OF THE
TERRITORIAL PRISON HE HAD THIS TO ADD TO THIS STORY.
"THE PRISONER IN QUESTION
WAS ACTUALLY JOE BOOT, HE DID NOT DISAPPEAR FROM INSIDE THE WALLS OF THE PRISON
HE ESCAPED WHILE OUT ON WORK DETAIL WORKING OUTSIDE THE PRISON WALLS. AS FAR AS
PEARL HEART CALLING OUT TO THE MALE PRISONERS IT COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED AS THE
WOMEN'S WARD WAS SEPARATE FROM THE MALE POPULATION"