Deacon Jim Miller: Killing in Deacon’s Clothing

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Nobody ever found out who the mob members were. Nobody really cared. As an Ada historian wrote later: ‘The forty-odd men who took part in the lynching were honorable men, for the most, who had patiently endured desperado rule until it could no longer be tolerated….It can be written down as the one mob action in America entirely justified in the eyes of God and man.’

If it was a bit presumptuous to announce that God approved, it is certain that most of Ada did. The message to hoodlums was clearly posted, and Ada was on her way to the peace and quiet her citizens so devoutly wanted.

To be sure, there were those who still believed Miller had been wrongly accused. Long lines of people paraded through the undertaker’s parlor. Even so, Ada had done the rest of the Southwest a mighty favor, for Miller had definitely killed at least a dozen men (maybe his own figure of 51 wasn’t too far off) and would certainly have continued his murdering ways. Not counting any future contracts he might have been offered, he had sworn to kill Barney Riggs and the man who had cut down Little Mannen Clements in El Paso.

With Deacon Jim Miller gone, the world was surely a cleaner, brighter place. One respected citizen spoke Miller’s epitaph, cutting cleanly through Miller’s smooth manners and churchgoing facade, ‘He was just a killer–the worst man I ever knew.’

This article was written by Robert Barr Smith and originally appeared in Wild West magazine.

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Tags: Historical Figures, People, The Wild West, Wild West