He was the hardest damn man to kill.”

He was James Brown Miller and he was a hired killer, from 1861 until he was lynched by a mob in Ada, Oklahoma on April 19, 1909.  Known by his employers as “Killin’ Jim,” “Killer Miller” and “Deacon Jim,” he did not drink or smoke – the cigar in the photo was for publicity – and he attended the Methodist Church regularly. He was known to have killed at least 12 men – and there are those who state he was the one who killed Pat Garret. On August 28, 1902, he killed a lawyer by the name of James Jarrott.  Jarrott had defended farmers near Lubbock who where putting up fences. The ranchers, who found their range shut off, paid Miller $500 for the deed.  Miller had to shoot Jarrott four times to kill the man. Later he said,  “He was the hardest damn man to kill I ever tackled.” In April of 1909, Miller shot and killed a former Deputy U.S. Marshal in Ada, Oklahoma and a mob outrated citizens lynched him.   

www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi

Steve Levi is an Alaskan writer who specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush (nonfiction) and the ‘impossible crime,’ (fiction.)  An ‘impossible crime’ is one where the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before going after the perpetrators – like a Greyhound bus with bank robbers and hostages disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge –THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND. Steve’s books can be found at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi

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