Christopher Evans

Born near Ottawa on February 19, 1847, Christopher "Chris" Evans was raised in Canada West and later settled in California, where he worked as a farmer and teamster. He became widely known in the early 1890s as the leader of the Evans–Sontag Gang, accused of train robberies on the Southern Pacific line. After months on the run, a violent capture, and severe injuries that cost him an eye and his left arm, he was sentenced to life in Folsom State Prison.

Evans remained a public fascination during and after his outlaw years. Newspaper writers including Ambrose Bierce and Joaquin Miller wrote about him while he was still a fugitive, helping turn his case into a larger story about railroads, lawmen, and public sympathy in California.

After serving seventeen years, he was paroled in 1911. He spent his final years insisting he had been misjudged and also wrote a socialist work calling for stronger government limits on business abuses. He died in Portland, Oregon, on February 9, 1917.