This story is about the most unsuccessful robber in the history of the United States of America. He worked in the state of California, served many years in prison and then mysteriously disappeared. His name Dick Fellows ! 

He was born in Kentucky in the mid-1840s and was given the name George Brittain Little at birth. He studied law for a time, but succumbed to the vice of drunkenness and moved to California in the late 1860s, where he took the name Dick Fellows. He tried raising hogs near Los Angeles, but he failed as a farmer, instead Dick took up robbing stagecoaches.

The Wells, Fargo & Co. transportation company suspected Fellows of committing 12 stagecoach robberies between 1869 and 1882. During that time, he committed several attacks in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Yet it wasn't his criminal prowess that immortalized his name, but a series of comic mishaps.

During his 14-year career as a horse thief and stagecoach raider, Dick Fellows displayed both incredible courage and determination and shocking incompetence and pathological bad luck. The story of his victories and defeats has made Dick Fellows a household name throughout California.

One night it took Fellowes as many as three attempts to rob a stagecoach, including two attempts to rob the same carriage in different places. The first two times, the coachmen simply spurred the carriages and whizzed past the hapless, armed, masked robber. And once, during a robbery, an unruly horse simply carried Dick off into the darkness of night, preventing him from committing the crime.

Fellows was quickly recognised and put on the wanted list. While on the run, Dick stopped for lunch at a roadside diner, the owner of the establishment recognised him as a wanted criminal and attempted to apprehend him with a revolver. Fellows pretended he was going to surrender, and attempted to wrestle the weapon from the hands of the vigilant citizen.

He knocked the revolver out, but the owner of the diner managed to pull the trigger and the bullet hit the robber in the leg. Fellows made it to his horse and managed to escape, but was caught a short time later when he sought medical attention.

In January 1870, Fellowes was sent to serve time in San Quentin Prison. He was a model prisoner, working in the library and teaching Sunday school. Authorities pardoned him in the spring of 1874; Fellowes served less than half of his sentence in prison.

However, Fellowes' period of law-abiding life did not last long; by November 1875, he was back at it again. Dick attempted to rob a Wells Fargo stagecoach with $240,000,000 worth of valuables in a safe under the coachman's seat.

For security reasons, D.B. Hume, Wells Fargo's special agent, was seated next to the coachman on the seat, and inside the stagecoach were three other armed company officers. At one of the stops, Hume noticed Fellows looking at the stagecoach, so in addition to his regular shotgun, he added a double-barreled shotgun and two Winchester carbines to his arsenal.

No doubt Fellowes would have been pelted with lead from the four guards if he had tried to stop the stagecoach. It was his own luck that saved him from certain death. As the robber galloped off to outrun the stagecoach, he was thrown by the horse, hit his head on the ground and lost consciousness.

After recovering from his injuries, Fellowes was again ready for his night's work. He stole a horse and stopped a stagecoach that was carrying $1,800 worth of gold in a safe, but the triumph of the successful robbery was short-lived. When the robber tried to load the safe onto the horse, it spooked and sped off into the darkness.

Fellows did not give up; he hoisted the iron box on his shoulders and tried to drag the loot away. While walking past the newly dug tunnel No. 5 of the Southern Pacific Railway, he stumbled and fell into a deep pit with the safe. He eventually broke his leg above the ankle, and the foot on the same leg was mangled by the safe falling on it.

Fellows was soon arrested again. He was caught, however, not because of his inability to move quickly, but by the distinctive tracks of a stolen horse, which had a very conspicuous branding on one of its horseshoes.

While awaiting transfer to St Quentin Prison, Fellowes managed to escape, he sneaked onto a farm and stole an unsaddled horse. He took the animal to another farm where he intended to get a harness and saddle.

Everything he needed was found in the barn, but when Fellows went out with the stolen saddle, the horse became frightened, broke the tether and ran away. Left horseless, he could not get far and was soon caught and taken to jail.

Once again, there was no more exemplary prisoner than Dick Fellows. He wrote several petitions for early release, vowing that he would lead an honest life and, if he ever started stealing again, he would do so only from "wealthy corporations."

After serving 5 years out of 8, he was released in July 1881, and almost immediately robbed a stagecoach in San Luis Obispo County. This was followed by an unsuccessful robbery near Los Alamos and finally the last robbery of his career when he stole money and a gold watch from a stagecoach coachman near San Jose. No sooner had Fellows enjoyed his new acquisition than he was arrested and brought to Santa Barbara for trial.

In March 1882, Dick Fellows was sentenced to life in Folsom State Prison. Three days after his sentencing, he attacked a deputy sheriff and took his revolver from him. Jumping on an unsaddled horse, he headed for the foothills, but after a few blocks was thrown off by the unruly cattle.

He was quickly surrounded by armed townspeople. Retrieving his revolver, he, according to one newspaper, "lit a cigarette and returned to jail ... cool as an iced cucumber."

This event ended Dick Fellows' criminal career. He was finally released from prison on 8 March 1908 after 26 years in prison. He was last seen in Santa Barbara in 1915. After that, Dick Fellows disappeared, and his exact whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.