Assassin of the Old West | Short Documentary

When he died in 1909, Jim Miller said he killed 51 men. If that’s true, it would make him one of the deadliest gunfighters in the Old West. Miller was a lawman, a devout methodist, a devoted husband and father. He was also an outlaw, a train robber, and a professional assassin. A man with two faces- a respected citizen who preached the word of God, and a cold-blooded killer, who sent so many to meet Him. This is the story, of Jim “Killer” Miller, Assassin of the Old West. - In 1891, the town of

Pecos, Texas got a new deputy sheriff, a man from Arkansas named Jim Miller. Pecos had needed a deputy for a while, and when Miller applied for the job, the County Sheriff, a man named Bud Frazer, hired him on the spot. Sheriff Frazer did not inquire too much into Miller’s background, as in those days, it was considered impolite to ask questions about another man’s past. But the Sheriff thought well of his new deputy at first. Miller was tall and capable looking and had worked as a lawman on the

Arizona border. He didn’t smoke or drink, and never left home without his bible. To Sheriff Frazer, it seemed like Miller was the perfect man for the job. The sheriff was unaware that only a few years before, Miller had been a member of a notorious outlaw gang, taking part in armed robberies of trains and stagecoaches, and killing anyone who resisted. In fact, Miller had gotten so good at killing, he advertised himself as a professional assassin, earning the nickname “Killer Miller” in the proc

ess. Of course, the Sheriff didn’t know any of this when he hired Miller. And while Ignorance is sometimes bliss, in this case, it would cost Sheriff Frazer his life. - Miller was well-liked by the townspeople of Pecos. Their new deputy was friendly, well-mannered, and could quote scripture from the bible. He was also an impeccable dresser, and known for wearing a long black coat on even the hottest of days. Miller’s solemn attire gave him an air of authority, and his good nature endeared him to

all of Pecos. He was especially popular at the local Methodist church, where he and his family never missed a Sunday service. His fellow church goers would have never guessed that Miller had been accused of murdering his grandparents when he was just eight years old. Or that only a few years before, he had shot his own brother-in-law to death, ambushing the man as he slept peacefully in bed. Miller had been tried for the murder and was sentenced to life in prison, but was later released on a le

gal technicality. The townspeople assumed Miller would bring law and order to that rugged part of Texas. But when horses started disappearing at an alarming rate, there were those who wondered if their new deputy was really who he claimed to be… - Sheriff Frazer heard about the thefts of livestock but was perplexed by the lack of arrests. His brother-in-law, a retired gunfighter named Barney Riggs, suspected their new deputy was responsible for the crimes. He pointed out that the thefts only beg

an after Miller was appointed deputy, and advised his brother-in-law to fire Miller immediately. But Sheriff Frazer gave Miller the benefit of the doubt and spoke to him about it first. Miller brushed off the accusations, and assured the Sheriff that he would soon have the horse thieves under control. But shortly afterwards, Sheriff Frazer learned that Miller had shot a Mexican prisoner under suspicious circumstances. Miller reported that the man had been shot trying to escape, but Barney Riggs

told his brother-in-law about a rumor he heard around town. A rumor that the Mexican knew where Miller had hidden some stolen horses, and that Miller had shot the man in cold blood to keep his silence. When Sheriff Frazer investigated, he found the stolen horses and immediately arrested his deputy for murder. Miller was tried and found not guilty, but was fired from his job as deputy sheriff. Miller swore revenge on Sheriff Frazer, and in doing so, started a violent feud that would last for seve

ral years. - In 1892, Jim Miller ran against Bud Frazer in the election for County Sheriff. Despite tremendous support from the citizens of Pecos, Miller lost. But the townspeople, unwilling to lose their beloved lawman, made Miller the town Marshal, and there was nothing Sheriff Frazer could do about it. Miller’s corruptions of the law resumed after he was sworn in, and his first order of business was to hire some of his old friends for protection- outlaw gunmen by the names of John Denson, Bil

l Earheart and Martin Q. Hardin. When Sheriff Frazer was forced to leave Texas on a business matter, Marshal Miller and his gunmen worked to expand their criminal enterprise. Miller understood that they would never achieve their aspirations with Bud Frazer as County Sheriff, so Miller plotted to murder Frazier when the man returned to Pecos. But it was not as simple as just sending an assassin to shoot the Sheriff. The feud between the two men was widely known- an obvious assassination would bri

ng too much attention, and Miller had not escaped justice so many times before by being foolish. So, Miller and his gunmen decided to stage a shootout at the railroad station. The plan was for two men to wait for Sheriff Frazer to exit the train, and then begin shooting at each other from across the platform. In the confusion, a third man would take careful aim, and kill the Sheriff, to make it appear that he had been hit by a stray bullet. But a local cattleman named Con Gibson overheard the me

n discussing the plot and rushed to get word to Sheriff Frazer. When Frazer was informed of Miller’s plan, he contacted the Texas Rangers, and returned to Pecos with an entourage of armed lawmen. The Rangers arrested Miller and two of his men for the conspiracy, and all the men involved faced a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. But Con Gibson, the key witness in the state’s case against Miller, fled to New Mexico in fear of his life. It did him no good, as one of Miller’s gunmen found him th

ere and killed him, silencing the only witness to the conspiracy. With Con Gibson dead, the state had no case, and Miller and his men were released. - After the attempted assassination, Miller lost his job as town marshal. Instead of moving on to another county, he chose to remain in Pecos, and try his hand at an honest living. He bought a hotel in town, and for a time, was uninvolved in his usual illegal activities. But Sheriff Frazer was still furious about the attempt on his life, as well as

the murder of his friend Con Gibson. To make matters worse, Miller had damaged his reputation. The word around Pecos was that Sheriff Frazer couldn’t handle Miller, and that it was only a matter of time before Killer Miller got his revenge. One bright summer morning, Sheriff Frazer had had enough. When he saw Miller on the street, he approached and drew his .45 Colt revolver. Sheriff Frazer said, “Jim, you’re a cattle rustler and a murderer. This is for Con Gibson!” Before Miller could pull his

gun, the Sheriff shot him in the arm, and then the groin. Miller fell to the ground, and as he fell, he discharged his weapon, injuring a nearby shopkeeper. As he writhed on the ground, Sheriff Frazer walked calmly over, and emptied his revolver into Miller’s chest. Miller went limp, and Sheriff Frazer left him lying in the street, confident that his enemy was dead. Miller’s men arrived to find him bleeding in the street. They rushed him inside his hotel and called for medical assistance. The to

wn doctor arrived, confident as Sheriff Frazer that Miller was a dead man. He had seen his share of gunshot wounds, and was sure that the .45 caliber bullets to Miller’s chest would be the end of him. But when the doctor pulled open Miller’s black coat, he was shocked to find a shaped steel plate strapped to his chest. It was a primitive form of body armor that had stopped the Sheriff’s bullets, and finally explained why Miller wore his black coat all year long. Killer Miller escaped destruction

, and made a full recovery. - Sheriff Frazer was understandably shocked to hear Miller had survived. It seemed impossible that a man could live through a shooting like that, but Miller’s mere existence was living proof. Miller was alive and well, and reportedly well enough to begin plotting his revenge against the Sheriff, as he recovered in his hotel room. Frazer lost his re-election as Sheriff, and decided to leave Texas for New Mexico, a move which might have ended the feud for good. But when

Frazer returned to Pecos a few months later to settle a business affair, he found his old nemesis standing outside a blacksmith’s shop. Frazer figured Miller wouldn’t beat the odds a second time, and again drew his Colt revolver. He shot miller in the arm, the leg, and then twice more in the chest, confident that this time, Miller was as good as dead. To his surprise, Miller seemed to simply absorb the bullets, and did not fall to the floor in a heap as he should have. A confused and defeated F

razer fled the scene, and Miller, once again, survived. - Jim Miller was not the kind of man to let two attempts on his life go unanswered. He planned to settle the score with not only Frazer, but the man who had always supported Frazier, his brother-in-law Barney Riggs. Miller sent two of his gunmen, John Denson, and Bill Earheart, to kill the retired gunfighter, who was working as a bartender in a local saloon. The two men burst through the saloon doors and started shooting, but they wounded R

iggs, who then drew his own weapon and returned fire. Earheart was killed instantly, and Denson, seeing the balance shift from his favor, fled outside into the street. Riggs chased after him, and as Denson ran for his life, Riggs took careful aim and shot him in the head. Barney Riggs immediately turned himself in to the Sheriff, and following a short trial, was found innocent of any crime. - Later that year, Bud Frazer returned to Texas. When Miller heard that his old enemy was visiting family

in a neighboring County, he rode out to have his revenge. Miller eventually found Frazer in a saloon, playing cards with his sister and some old friends. Frazer’s back was to the door, and Miller didn’t hesitate. He aimed his gun over the saloon doors and fired, practically blowing Frazer’s head off his shoulders. Frazer’s sister screamed and went for her dead brother’s gun, but Miller aimed his weapon at her and yelled- “I’ll give you what your brother got! I’ll shoot you right in the face!” So

, Frazer’s sister dropped the weapon, and went to attend her brother. Miller was arrested and tried for Frazer’s murder. He testified in court that he had done no worse than Frazer, and a jury agreed, releasing Miller on the grounds that the murder was a form of self-defense. Miller left the courtroom a free man, but with some unfinished business to attend to. Later that week, a man named Joe Earp, a friend of Frazer’s and the primary witness in his murder trial, was ambushed and killed by Mille

r. Miller then rode 100 miles through the night to another town, to establish an alibi. With Joe Earp’s murder, the feud between Jim Miller and Bud Frazer had come to violent end. But Killer Miller wasn’t finished just yet… - In the year 1900, Miller fought in a small but bloody engagement known as the Sheep War- an armed conflict fought between sheepherders and cattlemen, over grazing rights in the Western United States. The cattlemen saw the sheepherders as invaders destroying public grazing l

ands, and used their wealth and influence to have them removed by force. The cattlemen hired armed men known as Sheep Shooters to wipe out entire flocks of sheep, and sometimes, the sheepherders themselves. Miller claimed to have murdered over a dozen sheepherders, some for as little as $150. He also ambushed and murdered a prominent local lawyer, who had represented several farmers in a legal dispute against the cattlemen. In this case, Miller was paid $500 to take the lawyer’s life. - In 1906,

Miller and his family moved to Oklahoma, where he was hired to kill a former Sheriff named Ben Collins. Several years before, Ben Collins shot a man named Port Pruitt for resisting arrest, leaving the man paralyzed for life. Pruitt paid Miller $1800 to kill to Collins, and that’s exactly what Miller did, ambushing the former lawman when he returned home. Miller was arrested, but after the untimely deaths of several witnesses, he was released from jail without charges. The seemingly untouchable

Miller resumed his work as a hired killer, ever confident in his ability to escape justice. But no one’s luck holds out forever- Miller’s reign of terror would come to an end, when he accepted a contract to kill a former US Marshal named Gus Bobbit. - In 1909, Gus Bobbit was a beloved rancher in the town of Ada, Oklahoma and had long since retired from the Marshal’s service. But his commitment to the rule of law had not retired with him, and Bobbit made enemies when he became a vocal opponent of

the practice known as Indian Skinning, which involved con artists swindling desperate or severely intoxicated Native Americans out of their land holdings. Men like Saloon owners Joe Allen and Jesse West profited greatly from these scams, and when Gus Bobbit petitioned government officials to pass a law banning the practice, the saloon owners decided to have the retired marshal killed. They hired the infamous Killer Miller, who laid in wait to ambush Bobbit as the man drove his wagon home from t

own. Gus Bobbit was shot from his wagon, and his wound was fatal. But before he died, he instructed his wife to post a $1,000 reward for his killers. A posse was formed in Ada, and it was soon discovered that Miller had left his exhausted horse with a local farmer and had threatened to kill the man if he talked. The posse eventually caught up with Miller, returning him to Ada to face trial along with Joe Allen, Jesse West and another man named Berry Burell, who had also been involved in the plot

to kill Gus Bobbit. Though most people in town knew about the murder plot, the evidence against the four men was not strong enough to guarantee a conviction, and Miller was confident he would again avoid punishment. But a lynch mob of 50 men from Ada had a different plan. They stormed the jail, incapacitated the guards, and dragged the four men into a nearby horse stable for summary execution. One by one, the four men were stood on wooden crates, and hung from the rafters by their necks. When i

t was Miller’s turn, he had some last words for his executioners. “Let the record show I’ve killed fifty-one men,” he said. “Let er rip.” And jumped from the crate to his death. Bringing to an end, the story of Jim “Killer” Miller, Assassin of the Old West.