Jim Miller

Jim Miller

He was five feet 10 inches tall. He wore a handlebar moustache and dapper clothes. He was easy-going and had many friends. He attended church regularly and never swore, smoked, or drank. He was once a lawman and was frequently in the hotel business. Yet he was a ruthless gun for hire. His fees ranged anywhere from $200 to $5,000, depending on the circumstances and the fame of the victim.

He was just 18 years old when he shot and killed his brother-in-law John Coop at Plumb Creek in Coryell County, Texas on July 30, 1884. Why he did it is not known. He was tried and convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But he appealed the case and won a retrial. He was acquitted in the second trial.

Two years later he hooked up with an outlaw gang in Saba County and hunt out with some rustlers. They he started hanging out with the Clements gang. He was best friends with mannie Clements Junior and was infatuated with Sallie Clements. A dispute between the Clements and the law came to a head on March 29, 1887 in Balinger, Texas. They met at the Senate Saloon. The city marshal, Joe Townsend, shot and killed the leader of the gang, Manning Clements. Before any of the family could take revenge, Miller took it upon himself to do so. He ambushed Townsend on a trail and filled him full of lead. Unfortunately for Miller, the man recovered, though he ended up having to have one arm amputated.

After this Miller married Sallie Clements and they moved to Pecos, the county seat of Reeves County. They opened a hotel there in 1890. The place was a wild cowtown and people tended to mind their own business. Miller joined a church there and soon after he was appointed a deputy by county sheriff G. A. "Bud" Frazer.

But it wasn't long before he was in trouble. Miller was on his way to Fort Stockton with a Mexican prisoner, when he shot and killed the man. He claimed the man was trying to escape. Frazer wasn't happy about it. He was even less happy when he discovered that Miller was involved in a cattle rustling ring.

What Frazer didn't know was that Miller knew he knew about him. He began to make plans to get rid of him. But then a small-time thief named Gibson told Frazer that Miller, Mannie Clements and Mart Q. Hardin were planning his demise. Frazer brought in the Texas Rangers and had Miller arrested for rustling and conspiracy to commit murder. He was soon out on bail, however. In the meantime, Gibson fled the county, but unfortunately went to Eddy, New Mexico, where one of Miller's cousins lived. The cousin dispatched Gibson without delay. Now the star witness in the Miller case was dead.

Frazer was nervous that Miller was still around. One day he saw him talking to someone in the street and opened fire on him. Miller was injured but was threatening enough, that when he went for his own gun, Frazer fled. Miller swore out a complaint to have Frazer charged with attempted murder. Frazer couldn't let that happen since it would nullify his own complaint against Miller. So on April 12, 1894 he went after Miller himself. He wounded Miller in the arm and the leg with his rifle, but Miller was fearless. His gun didn't have the range that Frazer's did so as he walked closer and closer to Frazer, Frazer got scared and ran. Miller went to Eddy to recover from his wounds. While there he opened a livery stable.

In November 1895, Miller's rustling charge finally came up in court. The outlaw John Wesley Hardin had just been released from prison and had recently passed the bar. Miller hired him to represent him in court. Before the case could take place, Hardin was killed. Both men were acquitted.

Miller returned to Eddy and hid out. But eventually he got his revenge on Frazer. He found out that Frazer liked to hang out at a particular saloon in Toyah, Texas. On September 13, 1896, he walked into Johnson's Saloon and found Frazer playing cards. He shot him where he sat.

Miller was tried for the crime in Eastland in March 1897. By the time the case went to trial, Miller had lived there for awhile and had ingratiated himself with the public by joining the church and getting in with the leading citizens. So when the trial came up, and he claimed self-defense, the outcome of the trial was less assured. The trial resulted in a hung jury. A new trial was set for January 1899.

While waiting for the trial, Miller moved to Memphis, where he opened another hotel. When the district attorney arrived for the trial, he met his demise. He was pronounced dead of peritonitis, though it looked suspiciously like arsenic poisoning. Somehow Miller also became a member of the Texas Rangers. He killed several men during that time, some of them for hire. The only one he was tried for was Frank For in 1904. But he was acquitted on a self-defense plea.

Afterward, Miller moved to Fort Worth and stayed there the rest of his life. In 1906 he left briefly to take care of an Indian policeman in Oklahoma. In 1908, he went to El Paso to take care of Pat Garrett. Factions there wanted Garrett out of the way because he owned some valuable land with water access. Miller went there to pose as a wealthy rancher interested in the property. Before the deal could go through, Garrett was killed by a man named Brazel, though Miller has long been suspected of doing the deed.

In April 1909, Miller again left Fort Worth to take care of a marshal named Gus bobbit at Ada, Oklahoma. This time, the victim lived long enough to tell whodunit, and Miller was arrested. Bobbit had been a popular man so the local citizens were very angry. On April 19 a mob broke into the jail and captured Miller and his three cohorts. The next day the four men were found dangling on the ends of ropes, dead at the hands of the mob.

SOURCES: "Wild and Woolly: An Encyclopedia of the Old West," by Denis McLoughlin
"How Pat Garrett Died," by Colin Rickards

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Last updated: 11/25/00