Hi, I’m the History Guy. I have a degree in history,
and I love history. And if you love history too, this is the channel for you.
Our understanding of the settlement of the American frontier has been unalterably
romanticized by the hundreds of motion pictures, television shows, and novels talking about the
Wild West. Yet few of those talk about real people or real events, and even fewer try to accurately
represent what life was like on the American frontier. In fact, the West could be quite wild,
and sometimes the true stories of real people are even more interesting than the plot of a
Hollywood film. And a good example of that is the story of these sometimes lawman,
sometimes outlaw, always murderous, Jim “Killer” Miller. It's probably not a better example to use
to understand the nature of law, justice, and the life of outlaws, in the Wild West.
If you were to see Jim Miller, the town marshal of Pecos Texas in 1890, you might have guessed that
he was as straight-laced, and serious a law man as has ever been portrayed wearing a white hat.
He was popular in the town, happily married, a devout Methodist who was always polite, never used
foul language, did not drink or smoke, and was an avid member of the church. He was well known
for his fastidious appearance, always wearing a white shirt with a stiff collar, a stick pin
in his lapel, and a heavy black frock overcoat, regardless of the weather. But appearances can be
deceiving, the man that was so pious that Pecos town folks sometimes referred to him as Deacon
Jim, was actually a cold-blooded killer. He was first accused of murdering his grandparents at
the age of eight years old, although he was never prosecuted for that crime. And in 1884,
he was convicted of murdering his brother-in-law, shooting him in cold blood with a shotgun while he
slept, and was sentenced to life in prison, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality.
He reportedly worked as a stagecoach robber, and an assassin for hire, and was highly suspected
as the culprit in an ambush that had cost a city marshal in Texas his arm. And as town Marshal of
Pecos, he had a reputation for killing Mexican prisoners, always claiming that they were shot
while trying to escape. While he was town Marshal, the County Sheriff, Bud Frazer,
began to suspect Miller of being complicit in a number of crimes. The two had a history,
as Miller had originally been hired as Frazier's deputy. Frazier had fired him claiming that he had
stolen two mules, but the church members supported Miller, and had made him town Marshal. That had
started a feud that was about to heat up. In 1893, Miller was accused of plotting to kill Frazier,
but the state's only witness was killed, most suspect by one of Miller's henchmen,
and the case was dropped. Miller did lose his job as Marshal though, and instead opened a hotel.
In April of 1894, Frazier confronted Miller in the street, not wanting to give Miller
a chance to use his famous shotgun, Frazier came out shooting! He shot Miller in the arm,
and then in the groin, and then unloaded his revolver into Miller's chest. Miller's
friends rushed him to a doctor, sure that the wounds would be mortal, only to find out that
the reason that Miller always wore his heavy frock coat, was because it concealed a heavy
iron plate that he wore beneath it that covered his chest, and in this case, had saved his life.
Astounded that Miller survived, and not knowing about the metal plate,
Frazier again attacked Miller in December. He shot Miller in the arm, and the leg, but
when he shot Miller in the chest, the metal plate again saved him. Demoralized, Frazier
ran away. Miller had him charged with attempted murder, but the trial resulted in a hung jury.
The feud seemed to end when Frazier lost his reelection as County Sheriff and left the area.
But when he came back for a visit in 1896, Miller killed him with a shotgun, surprised him and shot
him in the back of the head as he played cards in a saloon. Miller was taken to trial for murder but
the jury refused to convict him because he argued, “He had done no worse than Frazier had done”. A
witness that testified against Miller in the trial was later murdered, Miller reportedly killed the
man, and then galloped a horse nearly a hundred miles overnight in order to establish his alibi.
Miller continued his life of murder, and his astounding ability to escape the consequences.
Often he would commit murder for hire with an accomplice, one would claim responsibility for
the shooting, while the second would testify that it was in self-defense. Witnesses and attorneys
who tried to prosecute him would mysteriously die. He operated crooked businesses, for example,
selling land parcels that were actually in the Gulf of Mexico, and killed people who tried to
reveal his crimes. He took contracts during the famous Texas Sheep Wars, and Cattle Wars, where
factions fought over land, and murder-for-hire was a profitable business. He was accused of
killing a US Marshal named Ben Collins in 1906, but again all the witnesses mysteriously died,
and Miller escaped prosecution. In 1908, he was even suspected in the murder of the famous
lawmen Pat Garrett, owing to the fact that one of Miller's known henchmen was with Garrett at the
time, however another man was convicted of that murder. But Miller's luck had to end eventually,
in February of 1908, he was hired by two men to kill a former US Marshal, and popular rancher
named Gus Bobbitt over a land dispute. True to his usual form Miller ambushed Bobbitt, jumping from
behind a tree, and shooting with both barrels of his shotgun. Bobbitt died of his wounds,
but survived long enough to finger Miller, who was also implicated by other evidence. Miller,
the two men who hired him, and another accomplice were all arrested, and jailed in the town of Ada
Oklahoma. But the evidence against him was shaky and Miller, who had escaped justice so
many times sitting in jail, had to be confident that he would be acquitted...but not this time.
On April 19th 1909, a group of as many as 150 local citizens, mostly friends and neighbors of
Gus Bobbitt, disgusted that the justice system was letting such killers free, mobbed the jail,
subdued the deputies, and lynched all four men in a barn. Accepting his fate,
Miller reportedly jumped off the rafter himself, his last words being, “Let er rip!”.
It's difficult to separate fact from fiction in the story of the life of Jim Miller. But one
newspaper at the time said that shortly before his death, he bragged that he had killed 51
people. And while that is impossible to verify it is unquestionable that he was an unrepentant
murderer, whom one leading citizen described as, “The worst man that I ever knew”. And at the time
of his death, he was leading a well-organized gang of murderers, who said to have been the worst in
the history of the state of Oklahoma. But in some ways the life of Jim Miller is representative of
life on the American frontier, while most citizens were law and peaceful, there were many excuses for
conflict, especially conflict over land. Things like grazing rights, and the competing interests
of cattlemen, farmers, and sheep herders. And marginalized populations, like Mexicans
and Native Americans, could be murdered with virtual impunity. People who lived by violence,
often straddled the line between law and outlaw, and many of the wild West's most famous outlaws
served as lawmen at one time or another. Some even argued that Jim Miller became a Texas Ranger,
even after his murder of Bud Frazer, even though that hasn't been proven. And Bud Frazer himself
had been implicated in several murders before he became a County Sheriff. And the justice system
was easily corrupted, largely because the people who instigated the violence, were often the people
who were in power, and some even argued that the reason that Jim Miller was really lynched,
is because people were afraid that he could implicate too many leading citizens in his crimes.
Psychopaths, and mass murderers can occur at any time in history, a fact of which we are
reminded all too often today. But the violent life and death of Jim Miller is a good example
of what can happen to humanity, when the only law comes from the barrel of a gun.
I’m the History Guy. I hope you enjoyed this episode of my series, 5 minutes of history,
short snippets of forgotten history 5 to 10 minutes long, and if you did enjoy then
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