Final Days
After the Kansas City Massacre, Miller fled to the east coast, staying with New Jersey mobster Abner "Longy" Zwillman in Orange, New Jersey until Miller killed a Zwillman gunman in an argument. Leaving for Chicago on October 23, 1933, Miller posed as a salesman for an optical supply house while living with girlfriend Vi Mathias until federal agents raided her apartment on the morning of November 1. Shooting his way out, however, Miller was able to escape from federal agents.
A month later, on November 29, 1933, a motorist discovered Miller's body in a roadside ditch outside Detroit, Michigan. He appeared to have been tortured by strangulation with a clothesline and beaten to death with a clawhammer. Miller appeared to have been the victim of a gangland slaying. Although the motive for Miller's murder remains unclear, probable causes include retaliation for the murder of Zwillman's gang member one month earlier, punishment for the failure of the Kansas City Massacre, and perhaps retribution for the Fox Lake Massacre.
Read more about this topic: Vernon C. Miller
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