Marvin Bieghler

You often hear people talk about “the good old days.” Now, the perception of when that time was to each person is subjective. To current older Americans they would argue that the 1950s through probably the 1970s qualify. For me I would argue that time was the 1980s and 1990s. One could argue that our perception of “the good old days” for each of us dated back to a time in our own lives in which things were easier. We were young; we did not have mortgages to pay or children to raise. We paid less attention to what was going on outside our little circle, let alone in other parts of the country or world. We were not as perceptive as we would become as we got older. The other argument is that in modern times little happens that the entire world does not hear about. We live in a twenty-four hour news world and an Internet that connects our computers and even our phones to things as they happen.

The reality of it all is that there really never were any “good old days.” Crimes involving murder, drugs, forgery, financial gain...etc have always been around. There was drug addiction in the 1800's; there were school shootings (and bombings) in the early 1900's. We are just now older, wiser and more informed. Even the young people today are more informed than we were when we were young due to the exposure of things. For example I got to pretend, at least in my own little world that racism was not what it really is today out in the real world.

While I may call the 1980's “the good old days” there is actually a show that calls it the “Deadliest Decade.” For me it was the music and fashion and freedom, but as I said earlier, it was also a time of teenage years and coming of age where I did not have to worry about the roof over my head or the food in my belly. The 1980's was decade of drug dealing and with that almost always comes murder. This was the era of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He was enacting “The War on Drugs” and putting mandatory minimum sentencing in place while her cause was the “Just say No” to drugs issue. Now, several decades later it is often argued that neither of these strategies worked.

On December 11, 1981 Kenneth Miller went to his brother Tommy's home. The twenty-one year old Tommy lived there, in Russiaville Indiana, just outside Kokomo, with his nineteen year old wife Kimberly and their two year old son. Kimberly was also just a few weeks pregnant with their second child. While it was not exactly stated what Kenneth's purpose of going to the home had been, I can say with some certainty that he did not expect to find what he did.

While the Millers' son was not harmed it seems, the same could not be said for Tommy and Kimberly. They both would be found dead in their home with multiple gunshot wounds to their chests. Kimberly had been shot three times, and Tommy, six. It was also widely reported that a dime was found on or near each of the bodies. Authorities would say that the dime was often left as a sign to possible police informants that “snitches die.”

It is not clear if authorities had any idea that Tommy Miller may have been involved in criminal activity prior to the bodies being found, or really in fairness how that led them eventually to Marvin Bieghler. But, it does appear that they quickly figured it all out.

Prosecutors would later allege that Bieghler was a major player in the drug trade. Large shipments of marijuana would be brought into the country and Bieghler apparently had a large crew that helped him transport it from Florida to Indiana. He was allegedly so powerful he had his own “bodyguard,” a man named Harold “Scotty” Brook, more often simply called Brook. Authorities would say that Tommy Miller was one of Bieghler's sellers.

One of Bieghler's associates had been arrested in Florida and a large shipment was seized. It was said that the confiscation was enough that it basically was putting Bieghler out of business. He became convinced that the only way that shipment had been discovered was if he had an informant in his crew. It is not sure how he came to decide that Tommy Miller was that informant. However, authorities would later say that Miller was not an informant or working with them in any way.

Bieghler would eventually be arrested in Florida but whether that was before or after Brook had talked to them. Brook would tell authorities that it was Bieghler who shot the couple and he knew, because he was there. He claimed that he stayed outside the home while Bieghler went inside with a .38 caliber pistol. The weapon was never found but authorities would say that casings found at the scene matched those found at an area in which Bieghler was known to do target practice.

It would be said that Harold Brook had struck a deal with prosecutors on an unrelated charge and became the star witness against Marvin Bieghler. Indiana has a very good Department of Corrections website and so I threw in Harold Brook's name to see if I could discover anything. I came up a little short. The only Harold Brook in the system was released in 1992 after being given a two year sentence for battery. The federal inmate website will only show current inmates, but I did attempt to try there too. Now, this does not mean that Harold Brook never did any more time after this. All I can say is that if the Harold Brook I found through the Indiana site is the same one then he has not served state prison time in Indiana since 1992 and is not currently an inmate in the federal system.

Marvin Bieghler would be convicted on two counts of first degree murder and one count of burglary. On March 25, 1983 he was given death for the murder convictions. There was no sentence given, or at least published for the burglary, in fact, this is not listed on the Department of Corrections website.

As is the case in death penalty cases the appeals process took years to go through the courts. The defense would argue, at least in a 1997 appeal, that Harold Brooks story did not hold up. They argued that the road conditions at the time would have prevented his timeline from being accurate. They also alleged there were witnesses in which claimed to have talked to Tommy Miller on the phone after the time authorities alleged the murders had occurred. Bieghler's defense also attempted to fight the chemicals that were being used for lethal injection at the time. There have been cases relating that in several different states and it was touch and go whether they were successful or not. In his case it looks as if the State of Indiana issued a stay of his execution on January 27, 2006 based on the issue with the chemicals. The state appealed that decision and the United States Supreme Court overruled the lower court just thirty minutes before his execution was to take place. While behind schedule a bit, the execution did take place.

Marvin Bieghler's last words were “Let's get it over with.” Relatives of Tommy and Kimberly Miller were at the prison when the execution took place but information I found stated that (at least at the time) the law in Indiana only allowed people invited to the execution by the inmate to be a witness. This was something that I had never heard of before and found interesting. I have attempted to see if that policy has changed but I have been unable to determine if it has.

*** I want to note that the Indiana Department of Corrections shows Bieghler's birth year as 1941.  This would have made him forty years old at the time of the murders.  However, this would also mean that he would have been sixty-five at the time of his death yet at least some information stated he was fifty-five at the time of his execution.