The legend: an orphaned “Killin” Jim Miller murdered his grandparents when he was a small child in Texas.
The truth. Miller was living with his mother at the time, not his grandparents, so he wasn’t orphaned. His mom’s folks died before the time of the alleged killings—and they lived in Arkansas. And it’s unclear that his Miller ancestors lived in Texas, either.
No contemporary accounts document any such murders; the first stories came out in 1909, after Miller had been lynched. He did kill his brother-in-law when Jim was 22…but that’s another story.
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