Killer Miller, Cowboy Hitman

hi I'm the history guy I have a degree in history and I love history in the fuel of 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 alarming has 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 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 a medium 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 andele 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 this 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 and 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 with Mystere he died 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 mob 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 about 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 in the competing interests of cattlemen farmers and sheep herders in marginalized populations like Mexicans and Native Americans could be murdered with virtual impunity people who live 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 and I hope you enjoyed this episode of my series five minutes of history short snippets of forgotten history five to ten minutes long and if you did enjoy this but that thumbs up button is just there on your left have any questions or comments would like to suggest other topics for the history guide please feel free to write those in the comment section I would be happy to respond and feel like five minutes for forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Views: 977,599

Rating: 4.9568319 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, us history, wild west, jim miller, killer miller, history guy

Id: s-Thmy2iuGY

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 16 2017