Gentleman Train Robber: The Daring Escapades of Bill Miner

Geoff Hamilton is a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of
British Columbia.

Part of the Amazing Stories series, this book examines the colourful
criminal life of Bill Miner (1846–1913), a notorious American outlaw
known for a long career of dramatic train and stagecoach heists.

Sauerwein provides intriguing commentary on Miner’s family and
upbringing, his accommodation to the harsh conditions of the frontier,
his determination to live outside the law, and his apparent bisexuality.
Miner began his life of crime early, becoming a horse thief at age 16, a
holdup artist by 18. He soon discovered his métier in stagecoach
robberies, eventually committing crimes in several American states as
well as in Canada. Not especially gifted at avoiding capture, Miner
spent more than half his life incarcerated, much of it in the brutal San
Quentin penitentiary.

The title identifies Miner as a “gentleman” criminal, though his
gentleness was no doubt contingent on circumstances and, of course,
relative to the milieu. As Sauerwein’s account makes clear, Miner had
many of the personality traits associated with what we now call
“psychopathy”: in particular, superficial charm, a willingness to
exploit others, and criminal versatility. As the author puts it most
bluntly: “[Miner] had learned how to manufacture a beguiling persona,
one that disguised a simmering emotional storm behind a friendly smile.
He’d honed an ability to evaluate weakness in others and then
manipulate those failings to his advantage.” The less-regulated spaces
of the Wild West some 100 years ago provided, of course, ample
opportunity for the expression of these antisocial traits. Sauerwein’s
narrative does an exceptional job capturing the allure of this
accomplished desperado. This short book makes for very lively reading.