Thursday, May 2, 2024
In 1909, a former Coryell County resident, Jim Miller, was hanged by an angry mob in Ada, Oklahoma. It appears that his complicated life of crime began at an early age and started just on the outskirts of Gatesville with the murder of his brother-in-law.
James “Jim” Brown Miller was born in 1861 in Van Buren, Arkansas. When he was about a year old, his parents, Jacob and Cynthia Miller, migrated to Franklin, Texas with their family. Jacob Miller was a stonemason by trade and helped build the first capitol building in Austin. A few short years after their arrival in Texas, Jacob Miller died. It was then that Cynthia Miller moved with her children to Evant, Texas to be near family members.
It has been written that, in 1869, when Miller was a mere eight years old, he killed his grandparents in Evant. However, this story cannot be verified or documented and is probably more of a fabricated version of his childhood holding no truth.
It is known that by 1880, Miller was recorded in the census record as being 19 years of age and living in Coryell County with his widowed mother and his siblings. His younger sister, Georgia, had married a local man named John Thomas Coop whom Miller detested. The couple invited Miller to move to their farm located on Plum Creek just northwest of Gatesville. The relationship between Miller and his brother-in-law was turbulent, and the two often argued.
On a hot summer night in July of 1884, John Coop was killed by a shotgun blast while sleeping on his porch. It was a known fact that Miller did not like his brother-in-law, and he became the most apparent suspect in the shooting. The 23-year-old was soon arrested for the murder. It was reported that Miller was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison, but that later his attorneys took the case to the Texas Court of Appeals and that his conviction was reversed on a technicality. This would be the first documented murder committed by Jim Miller.
Upon leaving the Coop farm, Miller left Coryell County and later became a hired hand on the ranch of Emanuel Clements, who was a cousin of outlaw John Wesley Hardin. While working at the ranch, a city marshal was ambushed by an assailant wielding a shotgun, which later became known as Miller’s firearm of choice. Miller was again suspected in the shooting but never charged.
At this point in his life, Miller associated with a gang involved with the robbing of stagecoaches and trains. It was during this time that he also began a career as a “paid assassin,” stating that he would murder anyone for money. It was reported that he charged anywhere from $150 to $2,000 to kill someone. He would later earn a reputation for his efficiency at completing these assignments.
His reputation of being a professional killer often preceded him and he was often referred to as “Deacon Jim” because he was known for attending the Methodist Church on a regular basis and did not smoke, drink, or swear, and, instead, read his Bible daily. Miller was also noted for his fine attire – wearing a white shirt with a celluloid collar, a stick pin on his lapel, a diamond ring, a hat, and would always wear a long frock coat despite the hot weather.
The reason for the long, black frock coat was later revealed during several shoot-outs. Underneath the coat, Miller wore a large steel plate similar to an early-day bulletproof vest, which saved his life on many occasions.
Over the course of the years, Miller resided in southeastern New Mexico and west Texas. The list of the murders he committed was numerous, but when a case went to trial, he was generally acquitted, or the case was dismissed. Miller literally “got away with murder.” Often, before Miller could be tried for any of the murders, witnesses were soon killed, and the cases were often dismissed for lack of evidence.
Local columnist, Uncle Bob Saunders, wrote of his brief encounter with Miller in a 1951 article which appeared in The Gatesville Messenger. “Pete Arp of McGregor, who was scheduled to be a witness against Miller in another case, was found killed on the Waco Road between Gatesville and McGregor.”
Saunders went on to describe his boyhood recollection of seeing Miller once in a saloon on the courthouse square. “I noticed that he was a nice-looking man dressed in a Prince Albert coat and white shirt and black string tie and wearing a broad-brim black Stetson hat. The way he was dressed I couldn’t tell whether he was a preacher, a lawyer, or a gambler – he could pass for either of the three professions.”
In 1909, Miller was employed by ranchers Jesse West and Joe Allen through a middleman Berry Burrell. The men were wanting to hire Miller to murder Allen “Gus” Bobbitt of Ada, Oklahoma, who was a cattle rancher and former Deputy U.S. Marshal. The reason for the murder was thought to be because West, Allen, and Burrell wanted to acquire his land. Miller charged $1,700 and carried out the ambush on Bobbitt on Feb. 27, 1909. Upon shooting Bobbitt, Miller fled to Fort Worth so that he could have an alibi. Later, Miller was arrested in Texas and extradited to Oklahoma to stand trial with West, Allen, and Burrell.
Residents of Ada realized that the evidence against the four men was not as solid as it could be and decided to take matters into their own hands. A lynch mob, reported to be 200 in number, was formed and they broke into the jail in the early morning hours on April 19 and drug the four prisoners to an abandoned livery stable behind the jail where the men were bound with baling wire.
West, Allen, and Burrell were hung first. The lynch mob encouraged Miller to admit to his crimes, and it was reported that he said, “Let the record show that I’ve killed 51 men.” Legend has it that Miller made two final requests: One, that his diamond ring be given to his wife, and the other was that he would be permitted to wear his black hat while being hung. Both of his requests were granted.
Miller also requested to have his long, black frock coat draped around his shoulders, that request was denied. At that point, it was reported that Miller shouted, “Let ‘er rip!” and stepped off his box voluntarily to hang – going out on his own terms. He was 47 years of age. Following the hanging, it was said that the four men were left hanging in the livery stable for several hours until a photographer could be found to record the moment. The photos were then sold as postcards to tourists in Ada for many years after the hangings. Following his death, his body was returned to Texas where he was interred at the Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth.
While during his lifetime, Miller was often referred to as Deacon Jim, following his death, he was often labeled as “Killin’ Jim,” “Killer Miller,” and “Shotgun Miller.”
In 1974, Welborn Hope wrote a book about the hangings titled “Four Men Hanging: The End of the Old West.” Today, Hope’s book is considered to be a collector’s item.
In 1997, the city of Ada placed a marker near the spot where the hangings occurred in 1909. The marker tells the story of the lynching and reads at the bottom, “As a memorial to the end of the Old West and the struggle for law and order.”
With what was to be Miller’s first murder of his brother-in-law in Coryell County, little was it dreamed that 50 more hired killings would follow.
