James R. Miller (1917-1993) Papers (0523kc)

James R. Miller was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and lived in Chicago and St. Louis before moving to the Kansas City area in 1957.

During the World War II, James Miller's job was security for reserve troops, locating housing for troops moving toward the fighting front, and contacting American agents behind German lines and passing on their information for evaluation. In 1944, Miller arrested Wernher von Braun, who later built the U. S. Space programs. After VE day, Miller was assigned to investigate war crimes. Returning to the United States he went into law enforcement. He started a library in the Clay County Jail in 1963 and offered the first education program with G.E.D. within a county jail in the United States. Mr. Miller retired in 1983 with nearly 25 years as a Gladstone policeman, Clay County chief jailer, deputy sheriff, security chief for Northwestern Missouri State University, Maryville, and the Excelsior Springs Job Corps Center, Clay County housing inspector and investigator for the Clay County Public Defender.

James R. Miller died October 3, 1993, at his home in Liberty, Missouri at the age of 76 years.  He was survived by his wife, Marjorie Miller and son, Richard Miller.

The papers contain files, scrapbooks, photographs and tape recordings relevant to Mr. Miller's career in law enforcement with an emphasis on the administration of the Clay County, Missouri jail and notes on his World War II intelligence work, including war crimes investigations. ca. 1943-1988.

2 cubic feet.

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