Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Boessenecker, John, 1953-

Description

1. xxiv, 260 p. : ill., ports.; 23 cm.

Summary

1. Of all the outlaws in the Old West--and there were many hundreds of them--Bill Miner, the last of the old-time bandits, came closest to matching the popularity of England's legendary Robin Hood. Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and John Wesley Hardin may have been better known, but none could command the reverence accorded Bill Miner by people in every walk of life, from businessmen to housewives. He had a magnetism like no other. Active for more than four decades, Miner began his criminal career in California in the 1860s and ended it in Georgia in 1911. He stole horses and robbed stagecoaches, and when railroad tracks replaced stage roads, he robbed trains. He was caught and imprisoned only to be released or to escape and rob again. He considered his victims to be corporations rather than people, and he did not consider it wrong to rob, for instance, the Canadian Pacific Railway, which he said had plenty of money and robbed the public. In this book, Mark Dugan and John Boessenecker trace Miner's life from Onondaga, Michigan, to Milledgeville, Georgia, where he died in prison in 1913. They reveal his character and his unusual ability to charm men and women alike, even his victims. He carried weapons but did not kill; he always worked with an accomplice or two or sometimes three, usually younger men; and the authors contend that he is the only proven homosexual outlaw the West has known. With its wealth of information, this thoroughly researched and well-documented story should stand as the definitive biography of the man who is Canada's best-known outlaw and the hero of the popular film, The Grey Fox.

Subject

1. Miner, William A., 1847?-1913
2. 1800-1999
3. Older offenders > United States > Biography
4. Outlaws > United States > Biography
5. Fugitives from justice > United States > Biography
6. Train robberies > West (U.S.) > History > 19th century
7. Train robberies > British Columbia > History > 20th century
8. Train robberies > Georgia > History > 20th century

Genre/Form

1. Biographies
2. History
3. History.
4. Biographies.

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain