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James B. Miller ("Killin' Jim," "Killer Miller," "Deacon")

Born in Van Buren, Ark., on Oct. 24, 1866, James B. Miller moved with his parents to Franklin, Texas, when he was one year old. Both his parents died when he was young, and when his older sister married, Miller was sent to live with his grandparents in Evant, Coryell County. In 1874, when Miller was only eight, both his grandmother and grandfather were found murdered, and he was arrested for the killings. He was not prosecuted, however, because of his age.

He was then sent to live with his sister and her husband, J. E. Coop, on their farm near Gatesville, and the hot-tempered boy frequently clashed with his brother-in-law. On July 30, 1884, when Miller was seventeen, he attended church with a Miss Georgia Large. During the meeting he left for about forty minutes. During that time, Coop was murdered by someone unleashing a shotgun blast into him while he was asleep on a porch hammock. Miller was convicted of the murder and sent to prison for life.

After Miller's lawyers appealed on a technicality, the youthful killer was again tried and was acquitted for lack of evidence. He was released and rode to San Saba County where he soon became a cowhand on the McCulloch County ranch of Mannen Clements. Clements was killed in 1887, and his slayer was promptly ambushed in the Miller style.

For a couple of years Miller drifted around the Mexican border country, ran a saloon in San Saba, then began wearing a badge. He was a deputy sheriff of Reeves County and later became town marshal of the county seat, Pecos. During this period he reputedly killed several Mexicans while they were "attempting to escape." "I have lost my notch stick on Mexicans that I killed out on the border," he bragged.

Miller hired out his gun to the highest bidder. Miller told those who hired him that he would murder anyone for $1,000, and he was soon in the employ of cattlemen and businessmen who wanted rivals or truculent partners out of the way. Miller killed with alacrity, but was seldom charged with murder since no motive could be established and eyewitnesses did not exist. Miller was careful to shoot his victims always from ambush and mostly at night. He invariably used a shotgun so that the spread of pellets would find their mark and his work would be done with a single blast from his favorite weapon.

By the early 1890s, Miller had selected West Texas as his area of operations. He associated himself with Mannen and Joe Clements and his outlaw family and accepted many murder assignments from Clements. Miller also had some dealings with the notorious gunfighter, John Wesley Hardin, who was, a short time later, killed by John Selman, Sr.

In 1891 Miller married Sallie Clements, daughter of Mannen, and became such an outwardly devout Methodist that he was dubbed Deacon Jim. While in Pecos, Miller became involved in a feud with Sheriff G. A. ("Bud") Frazer, who accused Deacon Jim of stealing a pair of mules. The two lawmen exchanged shots in the streets of Pecos, and Miller later ended the feud by murdering Frazer. After arranging the murder of a cattleman, Con Gibson, Miller was confronted by Sheriff Bud Frazer in Pecos, Texas, on Apr. 12, 1894. Frazer did not give Miller time to reach for his shotgun but opened fire on the killer while Miller was fixing a wagon. The first bullet from Frazer's gun bounced harmlessly off Miller's chest as did four more shots. Miller, wounded in the right arm, drew his gun and tried to fire with his left hand as he advanced on the startled Frazer. The sheriff fired another shot and this one struck Miller in his side, felling him.

Miller's friends rushed him to a doctor's office. The long, black frock coat Miller always wore, no matter the heat, was removed and so was Miller's shirt. It was then that the solid steel plate Miller wore hidden beneath his clothes, strapped to his chest, was seen. Four dents from Frazer's bullets had been made in it, but it had saved the killer's life. When Miller recovered, he immediately stalked Frazer and shot and killed the sheriff while he was playing cards. Miller was later confronted by Frazer's sister who held a gun on him. Miller drew his own gun and aimed it at the grief-stricken girl, snarling: "If you try to use that gun, I'll give you what your brother got! I'll shoot you right in the face!" The girl put the gun down and went home.

Although he eventually won acquittal on grounds that "he had done no worse than Frazer," Miller soon ambushed and killed Joe Earp, who had testified against him. Soon thereafter Judge Stanley, the district attorney who had vainly prosecuted Miller, died in Memphis, Texas, of supposed food poisoning, although there was widespread speculation that Killin' Jim had slipped arsenic to the lawyer.

Nevertheless, Jim somehow wangled his way into the Texas Rangers, becoming resident ranger at Memphis. Later he served as a ranger in Hall County, and while there, he killed a man in adjoining Collingsworth County. In 1900 the Millers moved to Fort Worth; Sallie opened a rooming house, and Jim became known as a killer for hire. He killed two men near Midland, and the score mounted as word spread that his services were available for $150 per victim; between jobs, however, Deacon Jim spoke regularly at prayer meetings.

The ruthless gunman went on killing for profit. On Feb. 29, 1908, Miller and Carl Adamson met with the famous Pat Garrett, retired lawman and killer of Billy the Kid. Garrett owned some rich land near Las Cruces, N.M., which another cattlemen coveted. He hired Miller to murder Garrett in order to steal the land. Miller and Adamson pretended to be interested in leasing some of Garrett's land, and when the old lawmen rode out to a remote spot to show them the land available, Miller shot and killed Garrett from ambush. He was never prosecuted for the crime for the usual reason - lack of evidence. The following year Killer Miller was paid his highest fee - two thousand dollars - to dispatch rancher A. A. Bobbitt in Ada, Oklahoma.

Miller had grown rich in the murder business. He owned a large house in Forth Worth, Texas, and he had several large bank accounts. He wore fine suits and ate in the best restaurants. Miller owned a string of thoroughbred horses and did not need to continue killing for a living. He nevertheless accepted another murder assignment, and it was clear by then that Miller enjoyed killing people. Angus A. Bobbitt, a cattle baron living near Ada, Okla., was his next victim. Jesse West, Berry B. Burrell, and Joe Allen hired Miller to kill Bobbitt, planning to acquire the Bobbitt holdings once its owner was safely buried.

Bobbitt had been a sheriff and was still handy with his six-gun. Miller took no chances with this victim, shooting, him from ambush with his shotgun, but he was seen by Oscar Peeler, a 19-year-old cowboy as he rode away from the slain Bobbitt. At first Peeler refused to say anything about Miller, but when he learned that he was about to be charged with Bobbitt's murder, Peeler told lawmen in Ada everything he knew, saying that he had been paid $50 to escort Miller to Bobbitt's ranch and that Miller had admitted to him that he had traveled from Fort Worth to murder the Oklahoma rancher.

Lawmen in Fort Worth were contacted, and Miller was extradited to Oklahoma where he stood trial. He, West, Burrell, and Allen were all convicted and sentenced to death, but Miller only laughed. The finest criminal lawyers in the West were on his payroll, and he soon bragged that he would be released after his attorneys filed their appeals. A crowd of vigilantes did not wait for these legal procedures to take place. They knew that Miller, who had bragged of killing as many as thirty men (twelve could be proven), might again cheat justice through his highly paid lawyers. On the night of Apr. 19, 1909, a lynch mob broke into the jail and dragged Miller and the others out to a livery stable. Though the other men begged for their lives, Jim "The Killer" Miller showed no signs of fear. He only asked that his diamond ring be given to his wife and that he be permitted to wear his black stetson while he was being hanged.

The vigilantes granted these wishes. Then Miller, standing on a box, displayed his last act of bravado, shouting: "Let 'er rip!" He then voluntarily stepped off the box to be jerked by the rope around his neck which was tied to a rafter in the stable. He dangled as the other three were strung up. The bodies were left hanging for some hours in order to allow a local photographer to take enough photos of the lynchings. These photos sold for many years in Ada to tourists. The only surviving photo shows Miller hanging with the others, his black hat on his tilted head.

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