Jim Miller

Jim Miller (born April 11th, 1862) was an American business magnate turned outlaw of the Mao Gang.

Early Life and Career
Miller was born in Louisiana in 1862. His father was Bob Miller, a prominent Confederate general in the American Civil War, who would found the Louisiana Raiders bandit gang after the war. He received little attention from his father, though he respected him for his military and outlaw career.

In 1883, Miller started his company, Miller Oil, which employed his brother Dave. The company becomes successful for a while despite having to compete with Leviticus Cornwall. Miller married a woman in 1886 and had four children. A son, Phil, in 1888 and three daughters after that. Miller's business would not last forever as in the 1890s an economic crisis would occur and Miller Oil would fail. Miller blamed this on the fact that the Republican government was willing to support Cornwall's business in this time, but not his own. Because of all the debt he had acquired, all of Miller's assets had to be sold and he found himself in a very difficult situation. His wife left him and he had no income, so he got what little savings he had left and decided to move West to start a new life.

The Mao Gang
In 1899, Miller found himself unemployed in Tumbleweed, New Mexico. He was hungry and had no possessions except his clothes, some money made from playing poker and an old rifle and pistol with some ammo which he refused to part with as he knew the dangers of his environment. He was even contemplating suicide, but he met Lee Mao and Barry Bandit at the town's saloon and they offered him employment. Miller would go on to be a very significant member of the gang, playing a prominent role in the gang's hunting business especially. Miller would create a reputation of being a vicious killer who was quick on the draw and never afraid to use violence to achieve what he wanted.

Endings
Miller has two different endings.

Ending A (The Bad Ending)
Miller confronts Barry during the fall of the gang, but is injured in a gunfight, being shot in the stomach He manages to escape on his trusty steed Clint in the blizzard that was raging on in this time, but encounters a posse that had been hunting the Mao Gang. It consisted mainly of US Army cavalry, but also included some Pinkertons and lawmen. After failing to evade them, a gunfight ensued. Miller killed several of them, but after Clint was killed from underneath him, the soldiers surrounded him, and killed him.

Ending B (The Good Ending)
Miller manages to escape from the mountains of Colorado uninjured with some gold that he had managed to recover. It was a significant amount, but no where near as much in value as what Barry Bandit had. He managed to evade any posses that were hunting him and the Mao Gang and makes his way back to New Orleans. He had still known some influential figures there like the Police Chief, a lawyer and a judge. They didn't care for Miller when his business failed, but with the gold he had recovered, Miller managed to bribe his way to freedom, gaining himself an official pardon for any crimes he had been accused of. He had very little money left afterwards though, so ended up working as a shop assistant and living in a small apartment for a while.

After a couple of months living like this, Miller became deeply saddened and spent much of his time at a local two-bit saloon. One day however, he met the owner of a traveling theatre company. He told Miller that he had become quite famous because of his exploits in the West and asked if he would join his company as an actor, portraying himself. As he was sick of living in relative squalor, he accepted the offer.

Miller would act in many successful 'Wild West' shows over the years and actually become something of a national celebrity. He received a letter in 1901 telling him that his estranged wife had committed suicide and informed him that he had received custody of his children again. Miller reunited with his family as soon as he could. In 1908, Miller would remarry with a young Mexican barmaid he met in California while on one of his shows, he would then have three more children with her.

In 1912, Miller would retire as an actor to set up a new business. It was a producer of canned foods, and specialised in baked beans which had a unique recipe of tomato sauce. The business was not very successful outside of Louisiana where he set up the business at first, but when the Great War broke out in Europe in 1914, he managed to grow the business significantly by exporting to both sides. The business expanded to include factories all over America and new cigarette and tobacco factories as well.

In 1918, his second wife would die of the Spanish Flu and he would never remarry. At this time, Miller would start writing a book about his time in the Mao Gang, which wouldn't be released until 1929. In 1928, Miller retired from running the business. He left ownership to a son that was born to his second wife in 1910, Jim Jr. He would die in 1933 of old age.

Personality
Miller is notable for being an incredibly cynical, but honest and intelligent man. He had very few friends and no close ones before joining the Mao Gang. He felt betrayed by the government and Leviticus Cornwall as he once trusted him. The failure of the Confederates in the Civil War and tragic life of his father still weighs on his mind. Despite his contempt for humanity and his reputation as a dangerous killer, he did not take pleasure in being an outlaw. He did feel that he could trust the gang more and he enjoyed being away from cities, but this was still not the life he wanted to live as he felt like a villain. To make up for this, Miller would never lie, break promises or try to cause unnecessary pain, though this didn't stop him from killing even if it would only be slightly beneficial, or letting other gang members do those things he wouldn't. Miller never really recovered from his failed business and family as he could not bring himself to open up to people ever again, making him a quieter member of the gang. He is known to smoke and drink more than is healthy and is seen by those around him as a depressed shell of a man, but a reliable one.

Politics
Like his father, Miller was known to be a staunch supporter of the South's desire for secession as he considers the federal government to have abused its powers and caused nothing but pain for his homeland. He claims that it was wrong for the government to abolish slavery when it did, though he did not support the practice. He mostly kept these views to himself until his business failed however.

Miller was a strong supporter of free-market economics as he considers it to be the most efficient and morally justifiable system, though he does not consider the United States to be a country that has true capitalism because of all of the regulation the government enforces. He supported Grover Cleveland of the Democratic Party in his bid to become President. Miller often found himself agreeing with Barry Bandit's disparaging remarks about other ethnic groups, though he was critical of Barry's crude language. He also falsely believed that Lee Mao was Chinese.