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The Notorious Men of the Wild West

Khalid Elhassan December 4, 2019 32 min

36. The Deadly Deacon

Jim Hardin could be seen as a representative of the early era of Wild West outlaws. Bookending the close of that era are the likes of James Brown Miller (1861 – 1909), also known as “Deacon Jim” because he neither smoked nor drank, and regularly attended the Methodist Church. Another of his nicknames was “Killer Miller“, because, well… for a seemingly straitlaced teetotaler, Miller sure killed a lot of people.

Deacon Jim put on an air of respectability, and liked to go about impeccably dressed. However, he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, having killed a dozen people in gunfights. He reportedly gunned down many more during a violent career in which he was an outlaw, a lawman, a Texas Ranger, and a killer for hire.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.