Sure, it starts out when you read all the accounting of the man. Killing was in this Man’s Blood. Maybe the most Notorious Killer in the Old West. And he killed mostly with a Shotgun. But his killing of Witnesses is not fully discussed. Killing Witnesses? You bet. The man was arrested on Killing Charges and released over and over because the Witnesses could not Testify because they were found DEAD. And did the Method of Death not jump out at people? Maybe not when a Syringe was used. Huh?
But this one sight below has one of the BEST reads on Deacon Miller I’ve ever read. It even talks about him losing His Marking or Counting Stick or “Notch Stick” where he notched each death on it. He lost his stick while killing Mexicans on the Border. It sure looks like he covered a whole lot of Territory in his Lifetime on his Killings. Mostly Paid Killings. And if you were a Witness, you’d better stay quiet or he’d kill you too.
And when they finally took him to hang
in the Livery Stable, he was saved for last to hang. And They waited and gave him time. Time to count. And he then counted up all the Killings and proudly told his Own Killers that he’d killed 51! And his last words!
“Let the record show that I’ve killed 51 men. Let her Rip!“
51 People he alone had killed. He did not fear Death. And it’s highly likely that
he did kill Pat Garrett, who was the man who killed Billy the Kid. More So, than Wayne Brazel being the man who took credit for it, confessing to it.
You must read this BEST READ I ever read about Miller from below-
And another thing that I find interesting is was John Wesley Hardin killed in an El Paso Texas Saloon to keep another’s Murderer’s Trial from taking place? John Wesley Hardin?
In March 1895, John Wesley Hardin, who had become an attorney while in prison, arrived in Pecos and filed charges of attempted murder against Bud Frazer. The ex-sheriff’s trial was scheduled to be heard in El Paso.
John Wesley Hardin, one of the bloodiest killers of the Old West, is murdered by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas on August 19, 1895.
In 1895, the sheriff of El Paso tried to make the town a bit less deadly by outlawing the carrying of guns within city limits. In August of that year, Hardin’s girlfriend was caught with a gun in the city and arrested by El Paso officer John Selman. Hardin, who had never learned completely to control his vicious temper, became angry. Bystanders overheard him threaten Selman for bothering his girl. Not long after, on this day in 1895, Selman went looking for Hardin. He found the famous gunman throwing dice at the bar of the Acme saloon. Without a word, Selman walked up behind Hardin and killed him with a shot in the head.
Whether Selman was acting out of anger, self-protection, or perhaps to burnish his own reputation as a gunslinger remains unclear. Regardless, an El Paso jury apparently felt that Selman had done the town a favor. The jurors acquitted him of any wrongdoing. Or was this an Act of Assassination by Selman to keep ex-Lawman Bud Frazer from going to Trial in El Paso?
There are still lots of Old West “Connect The Dots” Issues that we can peep at Today as we see snips of the Past. Back then, killing and Assassins and Assassinations were close partners. But-
There are lots of these Modern Questions that do apply. Another is who was around when Pat Garrett was Killed? Guilt thru association by those that were there does point heavily towards Jim Miller. Reading Old West Magazines and Books was always part if my younger life. My father bought new ones and old ones and we read them. But Gunslingers, Notorious Outlaws. And Lawman were always being discussed.
On many a Sunday Afternoon with my grandparents and great-grandparents, while Sunday Lunch was being cooked inside the house after church, these oldsters would sit around and talk and I’d sit and listen to incredible tales. Tales about WWI, WWII, and Indians and Battles there near Gatesville Texas and the Notorious men of the Old West and true tales these men told about famous men they encountered in their real lifetimes. Even Jessie and Frank James. And I remember Deacon Miller discussed also.
My Great-Grandfather, Johnnie Marshel Sims, was a Lawman in the early 1900s and he knew a lot of them from work and work related stuff. But social gatherings were quite frequent back then.
They were the first form of societal protection in the United States was based on practices developed in England. The City of Boston was the first settlement in the thirteen colonies to establish a night watch in 1631[32] (replaced in 1838); Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1633 (replaced in 1861);[33] New York (then New Amsterdam) (replaced in 1845) and Jamestown followed in 1658.
With the unification of laws and centralization of state power (e.g. the Municipal Police Act of 1844 in New York City, United States), such formations became increasingly incorporated into state-run police forces (see metropolitan police and municipal police).
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth426813/
Description
Photograph of elderly men Bain Allen and Bud Henderson behind a counter at the Buckhorn Saloon in Gatesville, Texas. The ceiling is covered with deer antlers. Cattle horns and animal heads are mounted above an arched window behind the counter. Assorted firearms hang from the wall over antique photographs on the left side of the wall. Many a Bad Man walked into this Saloon. And the Night Watchman kept things civil and those hanged when hanging was needed…I remember hearing the stories of the Hangings the most and the Indian Tales from theirs and his own lips. Great Tales from a man I saw my Great-Grandfather as a Gentle Giant. And not a Vicious and Tough Night Watchman or Law Enforcement.
thelivingbreathingjamesbrown.com 
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