Death has been the only prison able to hold famous outlaw Bill Miner. But even in the after life, his earthly remains are subject to the question: Where did he go?

In life, Miner was never known to stay in one place long. His profession of stage coach and train robber kept him out on the road, one step ahead of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. And his tendency to get caught, matched with his dislike of penitentiaries encouraged him to leave places and never look back. But Milledgeville was one place that he grew to call home during the last years of his life because he just couldn’t get away.

Miner made the name “the Gentleman Bandit” for himself because of the polite demeanor he displayed while relieving people of their money and possessions. Many people believe Miner’s manners came from his school teacher mother, who following Miner’s father’s death moved the family to California in the midst of the California Gold Rush.

Georgia College & State University History Professor Dr. Bob Wilson said that once in California, Miner fell into bad company, stealing horses and getting into trouble. From his youthful indiscretions, he began the life of a highwayman robbing stage coaches.

It is even rumored that Miner may have coined the phrase “Stick ‘em up.”

His lifestyle found him locked up on several occasions, several times in the famed penitentiary of San Quentin.

When he got out of San Quentin, he got right back to robbing stage coaches. One Colorado robbery netted Miner enough money to take time off and impersonate a wealthy South African gold mine owner in the town of Onondaga, Mich., Wilson said. While in Onondaga, Miner wooed the Mayor’s daughter, but Miner was never a spendthrift, and his finances dictated that he go back out for another score.

The law would catch up with Miner again, as it always seemed to, and Miner wound up serving more time in San Quentin. When Miner got back out, the century had changed and the stage coach robbing business was a thing of the past.

The movie “The Great Train Robbery” helped Miner make up for lost time and taught him the skills he would need to pull off the greatest heists of his career, Wilson said. After a few false starts attempting train robberies on the West Coast, Miner pulled off the first-ever train robbery in Canada, stealing gold dust and U.S. Bonds from the Canadian Pacific Railway Transcontinental Express in 1904.

This heist put Miner at ease for a while, and he bought a ranch and settled down. But it didn’t last long, and a botched train robbery in 1906 found him under arrest by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This time Miner was to be behind bars for good when the jury handed down a life sentence.

Although he never learned to stay out of prison, Miner learned how to break out. But Wilson contends that Miner’s escape from the New Westminster Prison could have been the result of a deal made with the Canadian Pacific Railway for the balance of the loot from the 1904 robbery.

Regardless of how he got out, Miner was quickly back at it and wound up in Georgia where his hold up of the Southern Express at White Sulphur Springs could have been the first train robbery the Empire State of the South had ever seen, Wilson said.

But Georgia lawmen were not to be had, first train robbery or not. A chase ensued and Miner was soon taking a train to Milledgeville as the premier prisoner at the Georgia State Penitentiary, which still stands today.

By this time, Miner had made quite a name for himself, and his reputation at the time matched those of Billy the Kid and Jesse James.

Wilson said the superintendent of Georgia’s corrections system paid Milledgeville a visit to see Miner. The story goes that the superintendent said to Miner: “Bill, I hear you have a reputation for breaking out of prison. I hope you don’t intend to do that here.” To which Miner reportedly replied: “I’m an old man now, all that is behind me now.”