35. Killer Miller’s Early Start
Jim Miller’s family moved from Arkansas to Texas when he was a year old, and settled in Austin, where his father worked as a stonemason. The father died when Miller was a child, and somewhere along the line, something went wrong with young Jim. At age eight, according to some accounts, he killed his own grandparents, although no conclusive proof has emerged to support that.
Whether or not he did in his grandparents, Miller grew into a violent young man, and one of his earliest documented killings was of his brother-in-law, whom Miller detested. On July 30th, 1884, the brother-in-law was killed with a shotgun blast while he was sleeping. Miller was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life behind bars. However, the case was appealed, and the conviction was reversed on a technicality.