Marin County Deaths

Transcribed by Betty Wilson

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit 
or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations 
desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain 
the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of 
the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to 
their own work.

KILLING OF WILLIAM RANDALL
	The circumstances attending this tragedy are these:  It would appear 
that Charles Nelson and William Randall had located on a certain tract of land 
contiguous to that occupied by John Miller, and which he had long wished to 
possess.  On the establishment of Nelson and Randall, Miller commenced a 
fierce war against them, and on two occasions shot at and missed Charles 
Nelson.  In 1861, Nelson sold out to Randall; in June of the same year he 
was shot by Miller, who had already fired seven times at him.  The day 
before while Randall was riding along the road, a ball whistled close by his 
head.  It would seem that Miller was in the habit of tearing down Randall�s 
fence, and permitting his stock to run at large upon the ranch.  On the morning 
of the shooting, Randall and his brother-in-law were driving out the stock when 
they came to a gate where they found Miller and his son, each armed, Miller with 
a rifle and the latter with a double-barrelled shot-gun.  Some words passed 
between them, when, on the arrival of another brother-in-law, the gun was taken 
from the younger Miller by the new-comer.  Upon this, Miller, the elder, 
presented the rifle which he carried at the last arrival, when Randall rode up 
towards Miller with a small pistol in his hand, on this move Miller whirled 
around and fired at Randall striking him in the abdomen.  This was at 10 a.m.; 
at 7 p.m., he died.  Miller was tried and sentenced to eleven years in the State 
Prison.  A new trial was had in the Supreme Court and the case finally wore 
itself out.  Miller used all his means in his defense, and ultimately went to 
Watsonville where he dropped dead in the street in the Fall of 1879.

History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, 
Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880