Legends of the Old West - OUTLAWS Ep. 3 | Jim Miller: “Born Bad”

Episode Date: February 1, 2023

In the 1890s, Jim Miller emerges from central Texas as a strange combination: he’s both a religious fanatic and a cold-blooded killer. He drifts west to the El Paso area and becomes embroiled in a long-running feud with a local sheriff. The body count rises; controversy and rumor follow Miller everywhere he goes; and the law seems unable to convict him.  Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Sunday, July 30, 1884, Jim Miller left a nighttime religious service near Gatesville in the heart of Texas. He galloped to his sister's farmhouse about three miles away. When he arrived, he found his brother-in-law dozing in a hammock on the porch. Miller raised a shotgun, pulled the trigger, and killed his brother-in-law instantly. Everyone knew that 22-year-old Jim Miller didn't like his brother-in-law, but people who had recently met Miller wouldn't have believed he was capable of something like this. He was an immaculate dresser. He never cursed. He went to

church several times a week. He never smoked and hardly ever drank alcohol. But over time, people would learn that just because Miller looked like a preacher and talked like a preacher, that didn't mean he was a preacher. Miller blamed two other men for the shooting, including one of his own brothers. The authorities saw through the lie and arrested him. His case went to trial within weeks. On the witness stand, Miller gave his alibi. He explained that at the time of the killing, he was at that revival meeting. He had a corroborating witness, his girlfriend, Ms. Georgia Large. Georgia supported his claim, in part anyway. On cross-examination, Georgia admitted that Miller had been right next to her until the preaching began. Then he excused himself.

He was gone during the entire sermon and didn't return until the congregation started the more raucous portion of the evening with singing and shouting. In all, he was gone for about 40 minutes, plenty of time to commit a murder and return. He was there for the close of the meeting. The jury found Miller guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. The jury found Miller guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. He appealed, and by the time his case dragged through the courts and was tentatively scheduled for a new trial, all of the witnesses had mysteriously disappeared. The prosecution gave up, and Miller was released without any further consequences.

If the law had been able to see into the future, it might have tried harder to keep Miller in prison. His careful planning of the murder of his own brother-in-law was just the first in a long string of killings. Miller managed to avoid any notable prison time, even though he killed at least 12 people and maybe as many as 51. In terms of Texas killers, he was right up there with John Wesley Harden, which was interesting because the two men would share multiple connections. But in the end, the law didn't bring Jim Miller to justice. The mob did that.

And the outlaw who looked like a preacher, walked like a preacher, and talked like a preacher met an end that an outlaw wouldn't wish on his worst enemy, let alone a preacher. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of three outlaws, California bandit Joaquin Murrieta, Texas killer Jim Miller, and train robber Black Jack Ketchum. This is Jim Miller, Part 1 of 2, Born Bad. When Jim Miller was 22 years old and faced the murder charge for his brother-in-law,

that wasn't the first time he'd been accused of killing. The details of the first time are scarce and genuinely hard to believe, but the story is this. In the early 1860s, when Miller was about a year old, his father moved the family from Van Buren, Arkansas to Texas. A few years later, the father passed away. Miller's mother brought her two youngest kids, Jim and sister Georgia, to live with her parents in Coriel, Texas. When Jim was eight years old, the grandparents were found dead in the home. The suspicion was murder, and the supposed killer was Jim Miller. He was never prosecuted for the crime, and if there's any germ of truth to the story, it was a scary beginning for a would-be outlaw. Maybe he was a victim of circumstance. Maybe his early years were exceptionally hard. So little detail exists

that it's hard to know for sure. But at the end of his life, when people looked back on all the things he did, if they wanted to believe the story about his grandparents, it was easy for them to say he was just born bad. Years later, Miller's sister Georgia got married and settled in Gatesville, which today is a town of about 16,000 that is straight west of Waco and just north of the Fort Hood Army Base. Jim and his mother ended up moving in with Georgia and her husband. Jim developed into something of a religious fanatic and met a girl with the same name as his sister.

And presumably, his living situation in the home of his sister and her husband was not going well. living situation in the home of his sister and her husband was not going well. Then, for reasons that people can only guess at, Miller reportedly killed his sister's husband. There were rumors that the shotgun he used for the murder belonged to his cousin, Bill Basham. Bill and his brother supposedly killed a father and son around the same time that Miller killed his brother-in-law. If it all happened that way, then there was a lot of heat on Jim Miller and the Basham brothers at the same time, and that made it a good time for Miller to leave town. Miller wandered about 70 miles west to San Saba County and fell in with a bad crowd. That wasn't hard to do in San Saba at the time. The county was rife with gunmen and cattle thieves,

one of whom was the notorious Thomas Blackjack Ketchum. Miller started associating with a group of four hard cases, three brothers with the last name Renfro and their friend Bill White. One of the Renfro brothers had recently been found guilty of horse theft. Before being jailed, he and Bill White saw one of the jurors at a saloon. White punched the juror, who stumbled out of the saloon and went straight to the sheriff's office to report it. The sheriff and his brother went in search of the assailants and found them at another saloon. The sheriff peered in through the doorway of the second saloon

and scoped the situation inside. The three Renfro brothers were playing a game of billiards toward the back, and Bill White and Jim Miller were closer to the front. According to the sheriff's younger brother, the sheriff whispered that they should target Miller and White. The sheriff would shoot and kill Bill White, and the sheriff's brother should shoot and kill Jim Miller. The sheriff's younger brother might have misunderstood the instructions, or he might have misremembered them when he told the story years later. But either way, the brothers stopped short of turning the saloon into a bloodbath. They rushed inside and confronted Miller and White. Miller said,

my God, kid, please don't kill me. And that seemed to have an effect on the sheriff's brother. The sheriff and his younger brother arrested Jim Miller and Bill White instead of killing them. Miller sat in jail for a day or two and then bonded out because there probably wasn't a charge against him. Bill White was the one who had punched the juror in the other saloon, and he was the real target of the raid. After that introduction to Jim Miller, Sansaba lawmen lost interest in him. They were more concerned with other outlaws in the area. But years later, the sheriff's younger brother would look back on that moment in the saloon when he had the drop on Jim Miller and wish he had done something more permanent about the man who was about to take

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Sadly, that all came to an end on the afternoon of March 29, 1887. Clements was at the Alamo Saloon with the local sheriff and the deputy sheriff. The sheriff had been drinking at a different saloon before he came to the Alamo, and he had randomly fired his pistol in the previous saloon. Now, in the Alamo, the sheriff reached for his gun again, and the deputy tried to grab the gun to stop the sheriff from firing it indoors again, and the situation escalated lightning fast from there. Clements, for whatever reason, swore at the deputy and told him to stop,

and then drew his own gun and pointed it at the deputy. The deputy kept one hand on the sheriff's gun and drew his own pistol with the other hand. The deputy pointed his gun at Emmanuel Clements and shot him point-blank, right above the eye. Clements died instantly and slumped to the floor. Clements had been one of John Wesley Harden's closest friends, in addition to being related by blood. Clements had financially and emotionally supported Harden's wife while Harden was in prison after he was finally caught by the Texas Rangers. Thus, Harden was eternally grateful to Clements

and understandably enraged when Clements was killed. Jim Miller worked for Clements and was also understandably outraged. In addition to being a lawman, that deputy, Joe Townsend, owned a grocery store and a restaurant behind it. About eight months after Townsend killed Clements, Townsend was sitting in that little restaurant. after Townsend killed Clements, Townsend was sitting in that little restaurant. An unknown attacker stepped into the doorway of the grocery store and called out Townsend's name. Townsend left the restaurant

and walked into the store at the front of the building. And as soon as he did, the person who had shouted fired both barrels of a shotgun. Amazingly, the blasts missed all of Townsend's vital organs, but they did shatter his right arm. Surgeons worked on him all night and the next day, but it was no use. They had to amputate his arm. The ambusher was never identified, but everyone strongly suspected Jim Miller. Harden was in prison, so it wasn't him, and the rumor was Miller had developed feelings toward Clements' daughter, Sally. So, if the gunman was Miller, he was trying to get revenge for both

his employer and his sweetheart's father. A case of attempted murder never developed, but the rumors turned out to be true. In February of 1888, one year after Deputy Townsend was shot, Jim Miller married Sally Clements. By doing so, Miller was now a cousin by marriage to John Wesley Harden. And like nearly everyone in Harden's life, that would have consequences for Jim Miller in the future. A couple years later, Jim and Sally drifted farther west to Pecos City, Texas. It's just called Pecos today, and it's in far west Texas on Interstate 20, in line with Monahans, Odessa, and Midland. People in town noticed Miller because he always wore a long black coat, no matter the season or the heat of the day. He was soft-spoken and devoutly attended

the Methodist church several times a week. Because of his habits, people began calling him Deacon Jim. In 1891, despite the rumors of murder and attempted murder that surely followed Miller, the county sheriff deputized Deacon Jim. At the time, hiring someone like Miller, who might have had a checkered past, was far more common than it would be today. Back then, it was considered rude to ask too many questions about a person's past. More urgently, able-bodied men who were willing to serve as lawmen in the raw territories and towns of the West were hard to come by. On the surface, Miller was a devout religious man,

and he was considered good with a gun. Those were the only qualifications he needed. The sheriff handed him a badge, and in short order, that turned out to be a fatal mistake. The Sheriff Frequently Sent His new deputy, Jim Miller, to investigate the growing number of horses and cows that were disappearing from ranches in Reeves County. Deputy Miller spent more and more time away from Pecos,

supposedly chasing thieves to and from the Mexican border. But he never seemed to be able to catch them, and the animal rustling continued. Then one day, everything became clear to Sheriff George Frazier. Sheriff Frazier instructed Miller to transport a prisoner to Fort Stockton, about 50 miles away down modern-day Highway 285. Miller departed on his assignment and then killed the prisoner. Miller claimed the man was trying to escape. There were no witnesses, so Sheriff Frazier had to take Miller at his word. But Frazier's brother-in-law, a longtime rancher in Pecos, told the sheriff that Miller was bad

news. The rancher said Miller had been stealing livestock, and Miller killed the prisoner because the prisoner knew about Miller's illegal activities. The prisoner knew the location of two stolen mules and planned to tell the sheriff about Miller's involvement, but Miller had killed the man before he could talk. Sheriff Frazier found the stolen mules. Technically, he couldn't prove that Miller had stolen them or that Miller had intentionally killed the prisoner, but Frazier had enough ammo to fire Miller. Miller calmly accepted his firing, at least on the outside. A few months later, he ran against Frazier for the job of county sheriff.

Frazier won re-election, but lots of people in Pecos still liked Jim Miller. They thought of him as a pious, church-going man, and they pressured the city government to appoint him town marshal. And it did. And with Jim Miller as town marshal and George Frazier as county sheriff, the tension between the two men grew worse. In May of 1893, a man named Con Gibson had too much to drink and started telling his brother some distressing news. According to Gibson, Jim Miller and one of John Wesley

Harden's cousins tried to recruit Gibson in a plot to assassinate Sheriff Frazier. Apparently, they discussed at least three different plans to kill Frazier while making it look like an accident or blaming the crime on someone else. But none of the plans materialized because Con Gibson's brother was the city clerk of Pecos. Gibson's brother immediately telegraphed Sheriff Frazier with the news that he was in danger. Frazier was in El Paso, and he quickly telegraphed the Texas Rangers and organized their help. Frazier took the train to Pecos, and he quickly telegraphed the Texas Rangers and organized their help. Frazier took the train to Pecos, and when he stepped down onto the platform, the Rangers were there to protect him. They quickly arrested Jim Miller and the Hardin cousin and charged them with conspiracy to commit murder.

But then both men were released from jail until trial, which was several months away. But then both men were released from jail until trial, which was several months away. So Sheriff Frazier was worried all over again, which grew worse when he learned what happened to Con Gibson. After Gibson had been forced to testify about the plot in a court hearing, he fled Texas in fear for his life, which turned out to be justified. In New Mexico, Gibson was murdered by a man named John Denson. Denson had no quarrel with Gibson and no direct connection to him. But Denson was a cousin of Jim Miller's wife, and Miller either paid him or forced him to kill Con Gibson. So, with Gibson dead, Sheriff Frazier's fear grew more intense, and he decided there was only one thing to do. He couldn't sit around and wait for Jim Miller to find a way to kill him.

Frazier would have to strike first. And that's what he did in April of 1894 on the streets of Pecos. Introducing the Miller Optics 2KW Handheld Laser Welder. It's so simple to use, even a rookie can weld like an expert, allowing you to boost your shop's productivity up to 5 to 10 times more than with traditional arc welding processes. Expand your workforce so you can start doing more and making more. Get the Optics Laser laser advantage now and start changing

the welding game introducing the miller optics 2kw handheld laser welder it's so simple to use even a rookie can weld like an expert allowing you to boost your shop's productivity up to 5 to 10 times more than with traditional arc welding processes. Expand your workforce so you can start doing more and making more. Get the Optics Laser Advantage now and start changing the welding game. On April 12, 1894, Frazier confronted Miller in the street. Frazier shouted something about Miller organizing the murder of Con Gibson. Then, Frazier shot Miller. The bullet hit Miller's right arm, which stopped Miller from raising his shotgun. With his left hand, Miller grabbed his pistol and fired at Frazier, but he was firing with his weaker hand

and the shot went wild. At that point, Sheriff Frazier lost his nerve and ran. Miller's friends collected him off the street and took him to a home to recover. He spent the next few months recuperating from his wound, and in that time, Frazier lost his bid for another re-election as county sheriff. Frazier left Texas and headed to New Mexico for a fresh start. But that wasn't the end of the feud between Frazier and Miller. One day after Christmas, 1894, Frazier spotted Miller in front of a blacksmith's shop. Apparently, Miller had tracked Frazier to New Mexico and was still intent on killing his nemesis. Frazier was armed with a repeating rifle,

and Miller was armed with a double-barrel shotgun. Frazier fired first and hit Miller in the right arm, again, and then added a bullet to Miller's left leg. Legend has it that Miller survived both gunfights because of something more than just Frazier's bad aim with a gun. The story has always persisted that Miller wore a metal plate under his shirt that acted as a kind of crude bulletproof vest. People speculated that that was why he always wore a long black waistcoat,

to conceal the metal plate that saved his life. There's no evidence to support the idea, but at the time, observers of the feud simply couldn't believe that Frazier could shoot Miller twice at such close range and miss so badly both times. Again, Jim Miller recovered from his wounds, but this time he filed charges against Frazier for attempted murder. He did so with the help of his cousin-in-law, John Wesley Harden, who was newly released from prison where he'd studied law. George Frazier went on trial in El Paso, but the case resulted in a hung jury. In the retrial, he was acquitted. And shortly thereafter, in August of 1895, John Wesley Hardin was killed in El Paso by John Selman. Around that time, Frazier disappeared. He likely

learned that he needed to do a better job of covering his tracks, but if so, he must have forgotten those lessons one year later. In September of 1896, Frazier returned to Texas and within striking distance of Jim Miller. On September 14, 1896, Frazier visited family members in Toya, Texas, a village just a few miles down the road from Pecos. He made the mistake of playing poker in a saloon where everyone could see him. Jim Miller learned from a friend that Frazier was in the saloon, and Miller hurried to Toya. Miller simply strolled into the joint, emptied both barrels of his shotgun into George Frazier, and walked out again. The blasts nearly decapitated Frazier, and the Miller-Frazier feud was finally over. Once again, Jim Miller went on trial for

murder, and once again, it ended with a hung jury and a mistrial. In the second trial, Jim Miller was declared not guilty of murder. For anyone who was paying attention, it was easy to speculate that Miller must have done something to keep himself free. He bribed the jury or scared the hell out of them with a shotgun, something like that. But in reality, he fell back on something that was far more powerful and had worked every time thus far. In the months between trials, Miller spent his time holding vibrant prayer meetings with his Methodist minister. After months of public displays of devotion, the jurors found a way to side with Miller. In January of 1899, Miller was a free man again. By that time, he had

tested the limits of the justice system in West Texas, and he moved his family to Memphis, Texas for a fresh start. Memphis was, and still is, a small town up in the Texas Panhandle, about 80 miles from Amarillo. It didn't take long for Miller to get caught up in a scheme to make fast money, which then backfired and brought out the bad side of Jim Miller. The plan was too convoluted and messy to try to describe in any detail, but basically a man named Joe Earp, who was no relation to the family of famous lawmen, wanted to claim a $10,000 reward by testifying at a murder trial. Joe partnered with Miller to make the plan work, but it failed miserably.

Joe Earp fled the area, and Jim Miller was tried and convicted of interfering with the legal proceeding. He had to sit in jail while he waited for his case to go through the appeals process, and when it did, the case got reversed and Jim Miller was a free man. At that point, he swore vengeance against Joe Earp.

Three weeks later, Joe was found dead near Waco. Joe was a mean man who drank too much and ran with some tough people. He was killed by his brother-in-law, who claimed the killing was self-defense, which was easy to believe for anyone who knew Joe Earp. But a lawman thought there was more to it. The lawman thought Miller had paid the brother-in-law to kill Joe Earp. With an antagonist like Joe Earp, almost any scenario was believable, and there was no proof to connect Miller with the killing.

So, Miller was never charged with a crime. But that certainly didn't stop people from talking about his possible involvement and adding it to his growing legend. Miller tried again to put some distance between himself and his legend, so he moved his family to Fort Worth right before the end of the year 1900. As Miller learned, his notoriety followed him everywhere. As Miller learned, his notoriety followed him everywhere. Persistent news stories accused Jim Miller of being a contract killer similar to Tom Horn. The alleged price for a murder was $150.

Miller wrote a lengthy letter to the Fort Worth Record and Register to try to explain the situation. He said he had accepted a job of Special Ranger on behalf of Collingsworth County at a salary of $150 a month. Collingsworth is in the panhandle, right next door to Miller's old home of Memphis, Texas. Miller claimed that lawmen in the area were trying to find a man who had killed a wealthy rancher. Miller said that as he investigated, all the suspects turned out to be wealthy ranchers as well. They didn't like being investigated, and now they were on a campaign to ruin Miller. In the article, Miller also bragged about other deeds that would convince the reading public that he was essentially being framed. He said he and his deputy had arrested a notorious outlaw, wounded a robber, and killed an unnamed Mexican man. Miller concluded by reminding readers that his recent

conviction had been overturned and the case had been dismissed. The whole article acted as a long veiled threat. It was a warning to the Fort Worth community. Jim Miller was operating as judge, jury, and executioner, and he seemed to be, and probably believed he was, untouchable. But there's a relatively famous quote from the Bible, Proverbs 16, verse 18, that says, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Today, we usually shorten it to this, Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Today, we usually shorten it to this, pride goes before the fall. If Jim Miller's ego was growing and he was believing himself to be

untouchable, he was going to find out that he was wrong. His pride may have allowed him to believe that he could kill a U.S. Marshal and get away with it, but the action would lead Jim Miller to a horrible fall. Next time on Legends of the Old West, before Jim Miller targets a U.S. marshal, he becomes involved in another high-profile murder, that of Pat Garrett, the man who was credited with killing Billy the Kid. But then Miller's final fall happens in Oklahoma, and that's the one no one will forget. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes.

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