The Real (Not Reel) Grey Fox Bill Miner

[Wyatt Burp]

I just finished a great book by my favorite author John Boessenecker on old time robber Bill Miner. The great movie The Grey Fox was partly correct. This guy just loved to rob stage coaches and trains. He shot at but never killed anyone. He actually helped widows and little kids. He stole money then mingles with the upper crust and charmed them all. He would have been more successful as a con man but was an avowed Socialist who wanted to rob from corporations and give the money to...himself. The Pinkerton files label him gay in prison and a switch hitter on the outside (my modern terminology added). He was very intelligent yet spent over thirty years in prison by the time he was fifty five. He carried at different times a S&W Schofield, a Colt Bisley, and Colt pocket .32 autos. His accomplices when captured with him carried a Luger, a S&W M&P ivory handled with target sights and another .32 auto. When he died in prison, local admiring merchants paid the tab for his funeral.

 

[lawandorder]

Anyone who has seen the movie The Grey Fox has to remember that scene where Richard Farnsworth slow cocks that old Colt Bisley in the gun shop.

Will have to order this book. Dang if didn't spend my $ on books might have more to spend on Smiths and holsters.

 

[Wyatt Burp]

Anyone who has seen the movie The Grey Fox has to remember that scene where Richard Farnsworth slow cocks that old Colt Bisley in the gun shop.

Will have to order this book. Dang if didn't spend my $ on books might have more to spend on Smiths and holsters.

That one scene was the real Bill Miner's .41 Bisley, loaned by the owner or museum. A different Bisley was used in the rest of the movie.

 

[Iggy]

Interesting coincidence?

Bill Carlisle the "Gentleman Bandit" last train robber in Wyoming, kept this .41 Thunderer beneath the cash register at his Motel in Laramie many years after he was released from prison.
Is there something about the Colt's .41 caliber that we should know?