George Miller

Case summary

Incident

On August 28, 1948, 35-year-old George Miller spent the evening at Lillie’s Cafe in Lake Village, Arkansas, where his sister, Marie Mathews, was working as a waitress.

In her August 31 statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Mathews said that cafes and restaurants in the area were permitted to sell beer until midnight and had to clear the tables of alcohol by 1 a.m. According to Mathews, several patrons, including Miller, purchased beer about 10 minutes before midnight. Miller was sitting at a table with Berneice Pickett, the daughter of his girlfriend, Alice Jenkins.

Several witnesses gave statements to the FBI indicating that Lake Village Chief of Police Harvey Fuel and his deputy, Homer Rich, arrived at Lillie’s shortly before midnight. Fuel instructed the staff to begin clearing beer from the tables and bar. Miller asked Fuel if he could finish his beer or take it home with him. When Fuel told him he could not do either, Miller allegedly made a comment to Fuel about the money he had spent on the beer. Several witnesses stated that Miller and Fuel then began arguing, at which point Fuel handcuffed Miller.

Accounts of the handcuffing differed. Fuel told the FBI that he secured a “twister” on Miller’s left arm, while Mathews stated that Miller was fully handcuffed. Cafe owner Lillie Beans said Miller was not handcuffed at all. Fuel said that he had arrested Miller “several times before,” later telling the FBI, “He was seemingly a good negro when sober but when drunk was mean and vicious.”

Witnesses stated that as Fuel began leading Miller out of the cafe, Miller grabbed the door with one hand. Pickett told the FBI that Miller “braced himself” to avoid going outside, prompting Rich to intervene. The two officers, Pickett stated, “half carried” Miller to Fuel’s pickup truck about 40 yards away from the cafe.

Once by the truck, a scuffle ensued. Several witnesses told the FBI that they saw Miller on the ground, Fuel beating him with a blackjack. Fuel said in his FBI statement that he and Rich tried to handcuff Miller once outside, but managed only to secure Miller’s right arm.

A bystander named Julius “Red” Hall stepped in to help get Miller in the truck. In a second statement to the FBI, Hall told agents that Fuel pulled out his gun after Miller grabbed Fuel’s leg while both men were on the ground. Hall said he tried to hold Miller back, asking Fuel not to shoot. Miller broke away from Hall and, according to Fuel, began striking the officer with the handcuffs that were attached to his right arm. Fuel pulled out his gun for a second time and fired. While several witnesses told the FBI they believed that Fuel had fired a warning shot into the air, Fuel told the FBI that he was “off-balance” and therefore “missed” Miller. Fuel’s second shot hit Miller who, according to Hall, said “Oh, Lordy,” and fell to the ground.

Fuel stated that after firing the shot that hit Miller, he walked over and handcuffed Miller’s other wrist because he did not want “to injure him further than was necessary to stop his attack upon me.” Fuel told the FBI that Miller continued to fight and “curse” them as they put him in the truck and brought him to Lake Village Infirmary.

Dr. Edward Pelham McGehee, Jr., one of the two physicians who treated Miller in the early morning hours after the shooting, stated that Miller arrived at the hospital around 12:20 a.m. According to McGehee, Miller was “very irrational” upon arrival. McGehee found “no bruises or cuts” when he examined Miller’s head, but determined that Miller had been shot in his left side above the hip bone. Miller’s clothes, McGehee told the FBI, were “so covered with blood that any powder burns upon them were obscured.”

According to his death certificate, Miller died at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. on August 29, 1948. Surgery had revealed that the bullet had produced “12 openings” in Miller’s intestine. Miller’s cause of death was identified as “shock and intestinal injuries” due to a “gun shot wound of abdomen.” In his statement to the FBI, McGehee relayed that he did not know what happened to the bullet following the surgical procedure to remove it, suggesting that a nurse might have it. Miller’s death certificate indicates that no autopsy was performed.

Aftermath

Miller’s sister, Marie Mathews, reported the incident to the FBI’s Little Rock branch on September 1, 1948. The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas forwarded the statement to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Alexander M. Campbell, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, wrote to the FBI that Miller’s killing could “present a possible violation” of civil rights law and recommended an investigation.

An October 2, 1948 Wilmington Journal newspaper article indicated that the Chicot County community had appealed to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for an investigation into Miller’s death.

A few days later, a Chicot County grand jury determined that Fuel was “entirely justified” in shooting Miller, ruling that the officer had acted in self-defense.

The FBI began its investigation on October 14, 1948 with witness interviews. After reviewing the FBI’s report, the DOJ requested that the FBI interview Fuel and Rich. Campbell wrote, “Even in the case of one who has committed the most heinous felony, there can be no excuse for a killing where capture can be reasonably effected without sacrificing life.” It was necessary, Campbell stated, to determine whether or not the officers “applied such force” in the belief that Miller was trying to escape.

The FBI completed additional interviews in December 1948 and January 1949, securing a second statement from Hall and a signed statement from Fuel, the latter of which was prepared by the police chief’s lawyer. After reviewing the statements, James T. Gooch, U.S. Attorney for Arkansas, wrote to Campbell in February 1949 that he did not believe any Little Rock grand jury would indict Fuel. Gooch noted that Miller “was physically a very powerful man,” while Fuel, 13 years Miller’s senior, weighed approximately 78 pounds less than Miller and had two amputated fingers. Gooch wrote that considering “Miller had already knocked both officers down at the time he was shot,” there was “nothing else” Fuel could do other than “retreat or shoot.” In a March 1, 1949 response, Campbell agreed and closed the case.

On March 1, 1950, Mathews wrote to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to ask for a “fair trial” for her brother’s killer. Mathews stated that the grand jury proceedings had not even reflected the actual date of the killing, inaccurately citing it as September 11. Mathews did not “feel it was justice,” adding that Miller was unarmed and handcuffed when he was shot. Hoover wrote back eight days later, telling Mathews that Campbell had reviewed the investigation and determined that “it did not appear that prosecution was warranted in this case.” Hoover stated that he would forward Mathews’ letter to Assistant Attorney General James M. McInerney, which he did.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled from information contained in different sources, including, but not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

Papers of the NAACP: Arkansas Branch Files

U.S. Census, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950

Russell County Marriage License Record, 1942

Chicot County Death Certificate for George Miller