Old West Legends ~ Bill Miner

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Bill Miner's restless coal mining father abandoned the family when Bill was ten years old. Bill must have had some of that nomad's blood in himself, because shortly past his thirteenth birthday, Bill left his family in Jackson Kentucky to go west and be a cowboy.

Miner landed in San Diego where he kicked around various ranches as a cowhand. In 1863, when Bill was sixteen years old, he took a job offer from General Wright, who was the U.S. Army's commander of the Pacific Division.The Apaches were in a warring mood and the general needed to get a message to Colonel Corner, who was stationed in a fort on the Gile River. The job paid $100 to the man who got the message through Apache thick territory and to Colonel Corner.

Sixteen year old Miner took the job and made the trip to the fort and back without incident. He only stopped long enough to deliver additional mail to the men in the fort. Before he made the trip citizens of San Diego, who had relatives in the fort, gave him mail and messages to deliver. They offered him anywhere between five and ten dollars a message.

Seeing opportunity falling in his lap he asked for and received permission from General Wright to operate a one man mail service between San Diego the fort on the Gile River and other points. Miner charged $5, $10, and $25 a message. This was the downfall of Bill Miner.

He became addicted to the high life and spent the money quicker than a rattler's strike. Miner had to end up selling his horses and rigs because the creditors came a' calling. Yearning to get back in the saddle and live the kind of life he enjoyed as a road agent, Bill decided to rob his first stagecoach. So, in 1869, he heisted a coach just outside of Sonora California. He was away with just a few hundred dollars, but a posse caught up with hism when his clumsy horse dropped during the chase.

Bill Miner was convicted of the robbery and sentenced to fifteen years at San Quentin federal penitentiary. He was released in 1879 for good behavior, but he wasn't reformed.

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After serving his time in San Quentin, Bill Miner left California and moved onto Colorado where he met up with notorious Rocky Mountain highwayman, Bill Leroy.

Before 1879 was out, Leroy and Miner had quite a time of it robbing several trains and stagecoaches. A short time in the saddle and a bit of the high life is all the two were able to enjoy as vigilante posses were hunting them down.

The pair of highwaymen were caught up with. Leroy was captured and hanged by a posse, but Miner made good an escape with the proceeds from the daring duo's heists after a shootout with a posse.

After that brush with territorial justice, Miner made his way to San Francisco where he secured passage on a ship that set him off on at London and a several month stint in Europe. He never owned up to robbing any trains American Style before moving on to Turkey, but it is suspected that may have pulled some kind of heist.

While he was in Turkey, Miner ran with Turkish bandits and dabbled in the slave trade. The heat got turned up, so moved onto South Africa and the rich diamond fields. After discounting the possibility of knocking over a diamond train, Bill moved onto South America, where he set up shop in Rio de Janeiro. A couple of jobs and a short tour in South America proved to bore Miner to tears. He was homesick for the western region of America., so he went home.

In November of 1981, Bill Miner was home and doing what he did best, robbing stagecoaches. It was during his first job back home, a stagecoach outside of Sonora California, that he declared, "Hands up, and I won't harm a hair on your head." Taking the $3000 he acquired on that job, he moved back into Colorado as the law got close.

After literally striking gold (thousands in gold dust) during a robbery of the Del Norte stagecoach, Miner fled to Chicago and then into Michigan where he cooled his heels under the disguise of a wealthy traveler. But, once again the highlife kicked him in the pants as he lost most of his money at the Faro tables.

It was off to work again for Bill as he headed out west to get some dough. After a few hold-ups, he was back around the Sonora California area.Three times is a charm, as the saying goes, and Miner was caught after holding up the Sonora Stage yet again. The gang was caught, after a furious gun battle, and Miner was sentenced to twenty-five years at San Quentin.

The conviction came in 1882 and once again, short of serving a full term, Miner was released six years early for good behavior. But, of course, he had an occupation to get back to.

In September of 1903, near Corbett Oregon, Miner single-handedly held up a train. A year later, he and an accomplice pulled off the first of only two Train robberies in Canadian history. By this time, the reward for Bill Miner was $15,500 dead or alive. This prompted Bill to move into Kamloops British Columbia where he took up the disguise of a wealthy businessman from California.

Miner remained in hiding for an incredible three years. Finally, after seeing a screening of the movie The Great Train Robbery, his itchy palms and addiction to trail dust kicked in.

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Bill Miner and to other men pulled off the second of the only two armed train robberies in Canadian history when they robbed the CPR at Ducks Landing. The three men got away on foot with a whopping fifteen dollars and a bottle of liver pills.

True to their reputation, the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police got their man, and on Jume 11, 1906, Bill Miner was convicted and sentenced to a life term. This gave the Canadian Pacific Railroad a huge comfort zone, knowing that the one man who robbed them twice was going to be locked away for good.

Bill Miner was quite finished. Stating to the judge, as polite as he could, Miner avowed there was no jail that could hold him. Less than two months after he was convicted, he made good his promise and escaped the New Westminster Penitentiary. He gained a reputation for being a gentleman as his cell buddies and jailers both grew fond of him.

After scampering back to the states, Miner cranked up the old money machine again. This time, he included a bank in Oregon as he worked train hold ups all the way into Georgia.

But, technology caught up with "Old Bill" as the Pinkerton Detective Agency used the telegraph system to catch up with Miner and overtake him in Feruary 1911, near White Sulpher Georgia.

He was sentenced to life and spent the final years of his life tending a garden at Georgia State Penitentiary. Even then, he didn't settle down until three escapes and subsequent re-captures. While he was being transported back to the prison, after his final escape, he remarked to his captors, "I guess I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."

Bill Miner, a.k.a. The Gentleman Bandit, died quietly in his sleep at the age of 66.

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