Fighting City Hall

Abstract

John T. Miller, a 50-year-old “deadbeat dad,” murdered four county workers in Watkins Glen, New York, who were responsible for collecting child support money. Having been arrested several times over a span of 20 years for nonpayment of child support, Miller was on the run from a system that he felt was stacked against men like himself. He felt victimized for being compelled to pay $6,780 in arrearages to support a daughter who had matured into her late 20s and was now on her own. Moreover, he had never married the woman who had filed the claim against him, and he even denied that the girl he was to support was his daughter. Still, he refused to consent to a blood test that might have proven his lack of paternity and absolved him of legal responsibility.