Vernon C. "Verne" Miller (August 25, 1896 – November 29, 1933)[1] was a freelance Prohibition hitman, bootlegger, bank robber and the disgraced former sheriff of Beadle County, South Dakota.

Born into a family of Scotch-Irish descent in Kimball, South Dakota,[2] Miller moved 35 miles northeast to Huron in 1914 and began working as an auto mechanic.

Decorated with the Croix de Guerre by the Government of the Third French Republic for courage under enemy fire, Miller rose to the rank of color sergeant by the 1918 Armistice.

According to declassified FBI files, Miller carried out contract killings for both Jewish- and Italian-American organized crime; including Lepke Buchalter of Murder, Inc., the Purple Gang of Detroit, and the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone.

With the end of Prohibition approaching, Miller teamed up with Harvey Bailey, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and three others in a daylight raid resulting in the theft of $70,000 from a bank in Willmar, Minnesota, on July 15, 1930.

On August 13, in an argument over a "double-cross" from the bank robbery, Miller killed Frank "Weinie" Coleman, Mike Rusick and "Jew" Sammy Stein and dumped their bodies at White Bear Lake.

The murders did not seem to affect Miller's relationship with his accomplices as he again participated with Bailey, Holden, Keating, Kelly and Lawrence De Vol in robbing a bank in Ottumwa, Iowa, for $40,000 on September 9, 1930.

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.

Crime is a business and Verne Miller had become a debit; they wiped him off the ledger and the photograph of his mangled body, which I later saw, told a gruesome story of a cold and bloody murder.