Bill Miner: Last of the Old Time Bandits

On May 8th of 1906, three armed and masked men held up the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Transcontinental Express, at a place called Duck’s Station, 17 miles east of Kamloops in British Columbia. It was a botched robbery to say the least. The bandits ordered the engine and mail car uncoupled, and moved the train a mile down the track. Realizing that the safe containing 35,000 dollars in gold had been mistakenly left behind in the second express car, which was still attached to the main passenger cars, they started going through the mail sacks. Overlooking a bag containing over 40,000 dollars in cash, they ended up with only 15 dollars and 50 cents, and a bottle of liver pills. The holdup set off one of the largest manhunts in Canadian history. One of the men being hunted, was the notorious Bill Miner, the last of the old-time bandits… On today’s episode, we discuss the life and times of the legendary criminal with author and historian John Boessenecker. John’s 1992 book, The Grey Fox: The True Story of Bill Miner, Last of the Old Time Bandits, co-written with Mark Dugan, stands as the definitive biography of Canada’s best-known outlaw.