Gentleman Train Robber : The Daring Escapades of Bill Miner

by Sauerwein, Stan

• ISBN13: 9781554390496
• ISBN10: 1554390494
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-15
• Publisher: Heritage Group Dist

Summary

A cunning and formidable opponent of the law, Bill Miner spent half his life behind bars and the other half planning and executing robberies to fuel his love of fancy clothes and the good life. Described as the master criminal of the West, the dashing thief carried out Canada's first train robbery in 1904.

Table of Contents

Prologue	11	(13)
The Road to San Quentin	13	(16)
Robbing Stagecoaches and Dressing Fancy	29	(10)
A Nasty Protege and a Lynching	39	(8)
A Tattooed Gentleman	47	(7)
Back in the Hole	54	(10)
New Country --- New Tricks	64	(10)
Canada's First Train Robbery	74	(10)
``No Prison Walls Can Hold Me''	84	(19)
A Very Strange Jailbreak	103	(12)
Miner's Last Escape	115	(7)
Epilogue	122	(2)
Further Reading	124

Excerpts

"Hands up!"Nate Scott felt the sudden pressure of a fist on his shoulder and the unmistakable threat of a gun barrel pressed to his temple. He raised his arms and slowly turned to face a black hood and the steely-blue eyes of a bandit. This had never happened before. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) Continental Express bound through the Rocky Mountains for Vancouver had never been robbed. The engineer could have frantically killed the throttle, perhaps sending his off-balance assailant lurching from the engine into the fog, but he didn't. He was a married man and he had no intention of being a hero. Besides, the bandit's handgun was held in deadly aim, and from behind a crudely sewn mask, the orders the bandit gave were cold and certain. "I want you to stop the train at Silverdale crossing. Do what you are told and not a hair of your head will be harmed," the bandit warned in a soft southern drawl."I am at your service," the engineer answered carefully, turning back to his work. He had to crane his neck to see forward. Cutting through a dense fog, the yellow beam of the engine's headlamp was useless to him. It barely exposed the thick crowding edge of forest whipping by the train as it steamed through heavy mist toward the coast, but Nate knew Silverdale was just ahead. He eased back on the throttle and let the train slow toward the siding between Mission Junction and Whonnock.Once he'd brought the train to a wheezing stop, Nate turned around. His assailant was pushing the train's fireman, Harry Freeman, from the cab. Another bandit now had a rifle pointed squarely in the engineer's face. "Uncouple the train at the express car, please."The fireman complied immediately. He stumbled in the darkness toward the rear of the train just as the brakeman, Bill Abbott, poked his head from between the cars. Why had the Express made an unscheduled stop? A delay would play hell with their schedule."Get back inside unless you want your head blown off, and be quick," Freeman's guard shouted.Abbott popped back inside, gulping air. "Robbery," he shouted to dozing passengers! "We're being robbed!" The brakeman fumbled his way down the aisle, shooting furtive glances to the dark passenger car windows. "Hide your valuables and make it quick. We're being robbed!"