#bill miner

[kapitanbank]

What if Bill Miner was literally a grey fox can you imagine can you? Have you seen the 1982 movie The Grey Fox starring Richard Farnsworth? It's p good!

[tombstonetourism]

Stage and train robber Bill Miner, Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville, Ga. He was portrayed in the 1982 film “The Grey Fox” by Richard Farnsworth.

[mikesfilmtalk]

The Grey Fox: A Step Back in Time

Based upon the life of the real Bill Miner; The Grey Fox is a real step back in time. Both in terms of the time period the film was set and the year it was released. The 1982 film stars the real-life stuntman Richard Farnsworth as Bill. The Story Bill Miner is a polite stage robber. He is eventually caught by the Pinkerton Agency and spends a few decades in prison. When Bill is released he…

View On WordPress

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

[The use of police dogs as a novel technology, one adopted by rank and file police officers with enthusiasm, ostensibly to enhance 'crime-fighting' by tracking bank robbers and escaped prisoners, but one that consistently failed to deliver results due to poor training and poorer handling. A consistent theme of police dogs, whether bloodhounds or narcotics dogs, is their high rate of error and general inability to deliver consistent results.]

"To further ensure the CPR’s profits were not affected by American “desperados,” [General Superintendent, Canadian Pacific Railway Pacific Division, Richard] Marpole recommended that troops of Royal North West Mounted Police be stationed at critical points along the CPR’s main line and at a strategic point in the south Okanagan or Kootenays.

At the expense of the B.C. Provincial Police, his editorial described the Mounties as “a magnificent body of men” that Alberta and Saskatchewan were lucky to have to maintain law and order in those provinces. Marpole also was not averse to incorporating American law enforcement techniques into Canada. “I am strongly in favour of keeping bloodhounds at certain points in this province,” he wrote. He went on to praise the handlers of the dogs that had come up from Spokane as “men of experience as hunters of outlaws.”

....

Despite the spectacular lack of success experienced by the bloodhounds brought in to hunt down the Ducks robbers, [B.C. Police Superintendent F.S.] Hussey was getting pressure from some of his constables in the Kootenays to authorize the use of the hounds in their regular work. On 20 June 1906, Hussey wrote Attorney General Fulton on the topic. He noted that some Provincial Police members kept their own bloodhounds and wished to be able to use them at their discretion without checking with Victoria first. Constable Young in Nelson, who had such a pitiful lack of success with his dogs south of Ducks, owned six, and Constable Darraugh of Midway had one or more. Other officers had solicited him for permission to be able to own and use such animals.

Hussey advised the Attorney General [Fulton] that in his judgment the dogs were almost useless unless they had been highly and competently trained in man hunting and were in the hands of exceedingly skilled handlers. It is under only the most favourable circumstances that these animals could be successful and do useful work.

He noted also that there exists a strong feeling from the general public against such use of bloodhounds excepting perhaps in the most extreme cases. Hussey recommended to Fulton that under no conditions should the use of bloodhounds be authorized except under the direct permission of the Superintendent’s office in Victoria.

He requested instructions from Fulton so that he might advise the constables in the field, and Fulton agreed that they should not be used in B.C. unless under emergency conditions.

...

[B.C. Provincial Police] Chief Constable Campbell had been eagerly anticipating an emergency situation to make use of the services of a local bloodhound and its trainer, Bradford Nanton of Vancouver. Despite Hussey’s reluctance to utilize the animals, the rule was initiated that under special circumstances they might be employed. As soon as Campbell received the call from [Acting Warden] Bourke about the prison breakout, he assigned Constable Spain that evening to escort the hound and handler to the B.C. penitentiary.

When Campbell and Spain, the handler and his hound arrived at the prison, they were met by some prison guards. The guards escorted the party to the brickyard, where the hound was given Miner’s scent from the straw hat he had left behind. Immediately the hound picked up the scent in the brickyard, and after circling the compound a few times, it tracked the scent to the hole under the fence.

Moving into the outer yard, the hound picked up the scent again which led the party to the door in the perimeter wooden wall. Here it was determined by the dog’s actions that Miner had tried the latch on the door before leaning the ladder on the fence and clambering over. The hound sat down and whined at the base of the ladder that was still leaning against the wall. Outside the prison walls, the dog led them alongside the ravine that held Glen Stream and into the brush to the north. As it was too dark to be thrashing about in the thick underbrush and risking destroying the scent, the handler and his hound, Spain and the guards called off the search until daylight.

Daybreak at 5:30 A.M. found the previous night’s bloodhound party joined by two newspaper reporters. The guards included Keeper W.A. Patchell, Instructor Doyle and guards Devine and McLure. ... The handler led the hound to where they halted the search in the dark the previous night, and again presented the animal with Bill Miner’s scent. The trail was picked up once more, and the party was led through the brush about a mile and a half from the penitentiary wall. The dog was able to show the guards and the trackers that Miner had separated from the other convicts at a location close to Thorne Road and the city boundary. Here the dog inexplicably seemed to have a change of heart, and the newspaper reporter described the animal’s antics in a scathing paragraph.

The bloodhound chase was a total failure, the animal seemingly being out of whack, and its owner out of sorts. The animal, a highly bred English hound, seemed to be primed for work, but after a few whiffs of the damp alfalfa, he apparently lost courage, and could not pick up the scent. He ... sulked fearfully Friday morning.

Patchell also described the hound as “sulky,” and after the searchers had wandered through the brush for two hours, he reported that the seemingly moody and sensitive animal refused to work any more. The fruitless search with the dubious aid of the emotionally challenged canine and his handler was abruptly terminated.

Colin Campbell’s expectations that the hound would be able to enhance the search efforts proved groundless, and it was to be some time before the Chief Constable, later to inherit Superintendent Hussey’s mantle, would again cast his eyes towards a dog to aid in the apprehension of criminals."

- Peter Grauer, Interred With Their Bones: Bill Miner in Canada, 1903-1907. Kamloops: Tillicum, 2006. p. 291, 396-397, 440-442.

[williamrablan]

The Bad Guys of the San Luis Valley Pt 8 - Bad Billy LeRoy, His Brother Sam, and a date with a tree.

The Bad Guys of the San Luis Valley Pt 8 – Bad Billy LeRoy, His Brother Sam, and a date with a tree.

PERSONAL NOTE: When I first heard of this, I was stunned. I’d lived in Del Norte for eight years, and never once heard the story. I guess the nice, quiet little town, where my kids played in the street, and where you could sleep with your door unlocked wasn’t so quiet once. Like a lot of things, I’ve gotten a more than passing interest in this now, and as I learn more details, I’ll pass them…

View On WordPress

[loradux]

[mmistroff]

‘iBoy’ Trailer: Netflix’s First Original Superhero Film Co-starring Maisie Williams Like most Netflix movies and TV shows, the streaming service has dropped a trailer for their first original superhero film 

[kamloopsbumbling]

WANTED: Bill Miner

The Kamloops Heritage Railway is looking for Bill Miner - an actor to portray him, that is! If you think you have what it takes to play this iconic figure of Kamloops history during the steam locomotive’s summer rides, stop by the ticket office on Tuesday July 7th at 6:30pm for an audition (no experience necessary).

The KHR is planning to commence its “Spirit of Kamloops” summer season on July 11, 2015.

"Creative minds, actors, entertainers, musicians, all welcome!"

The KHR ticket office is located at the Station Plaza, #5, 510 Lorne Street. (it is difficult to see the ticket office from Lorne Street - the Station Plaza is located off of Lorne Street, across from The Keg restaurant)

https://www.facebook.com/KamRail/posts/918789864830729

image link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Miner.jpg