James Brown Miller, AKA: "Killin Jim Miller" or "Deacon Jim Miller". He started out as a deputy sheriff of Reeves County County, Texas and later town marshal of Pecos, Texas, circa 1888-1889. He married the daughter of Mannen Clements, Sallie Clements, in 1891. Clements was a cousin of John Wesley Hardin. In the later 1890's, Miller became a Texas Ranger and the resident Ranger in Memphis, Texas and Hall County. He acted as an inspector of Brands. I have a document he signed as this ranger authenticating brands. He killed a man in the county of Collingsworth during this period as a Ranger. He moved to Ft. Worth in 1900 and his wife opened a boarding house there. It was at this point that he advertised as a professional, hired killer at $150.00 per killing. He was one of the first men who acting in this "profession" in U.S. history. He killed men in this way between 1902 and 1909. He was accused of killing former Sheriff Gus Bobbit in Ada, Oklahoma in 1909. The townsmen, fearing he may beat the wrap, removed him and three others from the jail and lynched them in a barn on April 19, 1909. This photograph was used on the front page of the Fort Worth Star Telegram to announce his death in Ada. I bought the original photo and one other from his niece many years ago. She lived in Houston, Texas. I believe Bob McCubbin also had an exact original of this image as well. It is one of my prized possessions.
