Bill Miner is among the more colorful figures buried in Memory Hill Cemetery off of Franklin Street.
Described as a “notorious wild west outlaw” by the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Miner was a stagecoach and train-robber as late as 1911, according to outlawbillminer.com, a Web site devoted to the exploits of the wild western wanderer.
Born in Jackson, Ky., in 1847, Miner eventually ran away to California to, in his words, “become a cowboy.”
He succeeded — but not in the usual way. A drifter lifestyle led him to work at a variety of jobs, including cowpuncher, bullwhacker, postal messenger — and thief.
Though his first stagecoach robbery in 1869 led him to the infamous San Quentin prison, Miner was soon released and found himself on the road again as a stereotypical desperado bad guy, robbing trains and stagecoaches when the opportunity presented itself.
Everything came to an end in February of 1911 after a robbery of the Southern Railroad Express led to the formation of a posse, the death of two of his gang members and Miner’s arrest.
Convicted of train robbery, Miner was sentenced to life in the Georgia State Penitentiary in Milledgeville, where he went through a series of escapes and recaptures.
In 1913, he died in prison at the age of 66 — still adamantly denying many of the robberies he had been accused of in his younger years.
Miner is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery on the east side, Section J, Lot 7, Person 1, according to findagrave.com.
Miner is one of several “ghosts” that awakens each year to appear on the CVB’s Haunted Trolley Tour.
Even in death, the man later known as “The Gentleman Robber” still claims his innocence.
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Bill Miner’s ghost still haunts Milledgeville history
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