Officer James Maynard Miller Jr.
(July 31, 1896 -- March 14, 1926)

After decades of social and political pressure by temperance groups, including the Anti-Saloon League and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, to stop the consumption of alcohol in the United States, the U.S. Congress voted in late 1917 to approve the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to prohibit "the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors." (Notably, the 18th Amendment did not specifically prohibit the consumption of alcohol.)

On Jan. 16, 1919, when Nebraska became the 36th of the 48 states to vote in favor of the amendment -- the required three-fourths majority -- it was officially ratified and became law of the land exactly one year later, at one second after midnight on Jan. 17, 1920. The first violation came less than an hour later, when six armed men stole $100,000 worth of "medicinal whiskey" from freight cars on a train in Chicago.

To define and clarify the details, requirements and enforcement of the 18th Amendment, Congress passed legislation called the National Prohibition Act, better known as the Volstead Act. In the first six months of Prohibition, the federal government reported more than 7,000 violations of the Volstead Act. The following year, there were more than 29,000 reported violations.

From the start, the Volstead Act was a difficult law to enforce. First of all, there were not nearly enough police officers or federal agents to enforce the law. From a legal standpoint, there were challenges to the definition of "intoxicating liquor." Initially, it was defined as any beverage with 0.5 percent or more alcohol by volume, but the Bureau of Internal Revenue rejected that definition, effectively legalizing home wine-making.

The Volstead Act also allowed physicians to prescribe "medicinal whiskey" for patients, but limited the amount. The American Medical Association argued that the legislature should not be allowed to place limits on any therapeutic treatment or medication.

And, with more than a year to prepare, many wealthy citizens and distributers were able to buy out the inventories of alcohol retailers, wholesalers and saloons, and stockpile alcohol for legal home consumption. President Woodrow Wilson -- who vetoed the Volstead Act, but his veto was over-ridden by both the U.S. House and the Senate -- had his own personal stash of alcohol at the White House, as did his successor, Warren G. Harding, when he moved in in 1921.

The main problem with the law and its enforcement, however, was that a large number of citizens -- including wealthy and powerful members of society, elected lawmakers and even police officials -- enjoyed drinking alcohol, and they were willing take the minimal risks and flout the law. Illegal speakeasies, private clubs and secret cocktail parties could be found in cities throughout the country, supplied by bootleggers, ignored by city and police officials, and protected by organized crime.

Many of the bootleggers and organized crime figures, notably Chicago's Al Capone, became wealthy and powerful because of Prohibition, and they received the sympathy and admiration of otherwise-respectable citizens who just wanted to enjoy an alcoholic drink. Prohibition is often credited for the rise in power, wealth and influence of organized crime across the country.

After more than 13 years, in January 1933, Congress passed the Blaine Act to repeal the 18th Amendment. The Blaine Act, which became the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was ratified by the minimum number of states before the end of the year, and Prohibition officially ended on Dec. 5. 1933.

During those 13 years of Prohibition, however, police officers were still sworn to uphold the law, whatever the public sentiment might be, from the president on down. That meant battling with organized crime, intercepting alcohol shipments and deliveries, finding and closing down illegal distilleries, and raiding and shutting down speakeasies.

During Prohibition, the number of U.S. police officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire spiked to the highest levels the nation's history.

LAPD Officer James Miller Jr. was one of those fallen officers.

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James Maynard Miller Jr. was born July 31, 1896, in Viola, Kansas, a tiny farm town about 25 miles southwest of Wichita. He was the youngest of five children born to James Miller Sr., a farmer, and Susan Fleming Miller.

Miller served his country during World War I and, after the war, he returned to Kansas and worked as a salesman for the J. Arch Butts auto dealership in Wichita. He moved to Southern California in late 1923, and joined the LAPD on Oct. 1, 1924.

For his first year with the department, Miller worked out of Central Station, then transferred to University Station, where he worked as a member of the plainclothes detail.

Late in the evening on Sunday, March 14, 1926, Miller, 29, and his partner, Officer Charles L. Christopher, 28 -- a fellow native of Kansas -- went to a home at 649½ E. 24th St. to investigate reports of an illegal still on the premises.

While Christopher went to the rear of the house, Miller knocked on the front door and announced that he was a police officer. The response was a gunshot fired through the closed door, which hit Miller in the chest.

The shooter immediately opened the door and jumped over Miller's body before running off. Though mortally wounded, Miller was able to draw his gun and fire four unsuccessful shots at his fleeing assailant. Christopher, who heard the shots, ran around to the front of the house, but the gunman had already jumped into a car and sped off, escaping into the darkness. Miller fell back in front of the door, and died at the scene.

A search of the house uncovered a 50-gallon still, 50 barrels of liquor and several barrels of mash. Hundreds of police officers were called to conduct a city-wide manhunt for Miller's killer.

Police quickly identified the owner of the house as the likely suspect in Miller's murder. The homeowner and suspected shooter was described as "a well-known police character and has been identified with illicit liquor activities for several years."

On March 18, four days after the shooting, the suspected gunman and his two brothers surrendered to police. All three brothers had lengthy police records, primarily as bootleggers. When asked about Miller's murder, all three would only say that they turned themselves in on the advice of their attorney, and they refused to discuss Miller's death. All three were booked on suspicion of murder. But, without a confession, police had no other solid evidence against any of them.

Two days later, police claimed "definitively" that one of the brothers was responsible for shooting Miller. They alleged that Christopher, at the back of the house, saw the shooter through a window.

In addition to the three brothers, six other people -- including the wife of one of the brothers -- were arrested on charges related to Miller's death and/or violations of the Volstead Act.

Although there were multiple arrests immediately following the shooting of Miller, and the LAPD insisted it had solid evidence against all the suspects, by mid-April, a month after Miller's death, all charges against all the suspects were either were dropped for lack of evidence, or dismissed by a judge.

At the end of the legal process, all the suspects were released. There were no trials, and no one was ever held responsible or accountable for Miller's death.

After funeral services in Los Angeles, Miller's body was returned to his native Kansas, where he was buried in Peotone Cemetery in Viola, the city where he was born, next to his father, who died in 1922 at the age of 84, and his older brother Floyd, who died in 1908 at the age of 16.

They were later joined in the Peotone Cemetery family plot by Miller's mother, Susan, who died in 1944, at the age of 86; and his older sister, Gertrude, who died in 1956, at the age of 75.

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