Orphaned Charley Miller, calling himself Kansas Charley, murders two boys in a boxcar in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Two Major Incidents in Wyoming
In 1892, the state of Wyoming in general, and the town of Cheyenne in particular, had two problems that created two major news-breaking events nation wide. It was that year in Cheyenne that the state of Wyoming hung a New York orphan boy by the name of Charley Miller. His crime was the murdering of his two traveling companions-not friends. They were just two young somewhat well-funded travelers that happened to be heading in the same direction that broke and starving Miller, who had sometime previous began calling himself Kansas Charley, was going. The second event that took place in and around Cheyenne, Wyoming that year had no connection with Charley Miller or his murdered traveling companions. However, the outcome of that second and bloody happening, the Lincoln County Cattle War, did have a fatal effect on young Miller.
Charley had been starving in that railroad car the three boys were sharing. Starving, even though the day before the murder he shared with his two companions a meager meal he had panhandled. His companions, earlier on the day of the murder, had attempted to shake the shabby and younger orphan before they went to fill their well-clothed bellies. They were snug and asleep in the boxcar when Charley entered, emptied a whiskey bottle the other two older boys had left, then put a bullet into each boys' brain.
Lincoln County Cattle War
The other event in Wyoming that drew national attention was an on-going battle between the big ranchers and the little ranchers allied by the hardworking homesteaders that managed to collect themselves a few cattle. The problem here was that for decades the rich cattle barons considered the open range their inalienable right for grazing their herds that numbered into the thousands. Of course, the small rancher-homesteader had the same right.
The problem, or one of the problems, was a little ole critter called the Maverick. These Mavericks, not unlike young Charley Miller-Kansas Charley, were unbranded and motherless calves of uncertain ownership that had gotten lost or had strayed.
If the small rancher or homesteader branded any of these unclaimed Mavericks the all-powerful Wyoming Stockgrowers Association (WSGA) considered it a case of cattle rustling. Of course, if one of the big ranchers put their brand on a Maverick that was right and proper, according to the big Wyoming money boys.
But the fact that both Charley Miller and the Mavericks were motherless and homeless was where the similarity ceased. No body wanted Kansas Charley-that is, not until after he'd committed murder. At the end of the Lincoln County War justice on someone was demanded and justice was served.
German Immigrant Born as Karl Muller
Who was the orphaned boy from New York City whose execution in Cheyenne, Wyoming for a double murder made headlines in newspapers across the nation? Charley Miller, later known as Kansas Charley, was a murderer, but a lot of things happened to Charley before that dastardly deed was done.
The Birth of Kansas Charley
Charley Miller was born on November 20, 1874. His family lived in a dingy apartment in a tenement crowded with a mixture of German and Irish immigrants. Charley was the third child born to Frederick and Marie Elise Muller. They named the boy 'Karl' and spoke their native German to him and his two older siblings. On the trip to America Mrs. Muller had given birth to Caroline in 1872. A year later Frederick was born.
An American Dream Goes Sour
In America Charlie's father could not find work in his usual trade as a nickel-plater. Mr. Muller took employment in a neighborhood saloon. Soon Muller was imbibing heavily in his own liquid commodity. Then a fourth child was born to the Mullers, William, in 1877, stretching the Muller earnings more worryingly thin.
Three years later, on January 20, 1880, Kansas Charlie's mother died suddenly of a miscarriage. Charlie was five years old when he lost his mother.
Now there was no one to look after the children while their father worked long hours to provide for them. Mr. Muller did have an alternative to attempting to keep the family together. In the late 1880s, in cities such as New York, it was not out of the ordinary, in such situations, for a single parent to elect to put their children in an orphanage, even temporarily. This road, at least physically, would have been the easy trail to take.
The Saga of Kansas Charley: continues with Kansas Charley Becomes an Orphan.
