Webb Miller ( journalist ) Webb Miller ( February 10 , 1891 – May 7 , 1940 ) was an American journalist and war correspondent . He covered the Pancho Villa Expedition , World War I , the Spanish Civil War , the Italian invasion of Ethiopia , the Phoney War , and the Russo - Finnish War of 1939 . He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the execution of the French serial killer Henri Désiré Landru ( " Bluebeard " ) in 1922 . His reporting of the Salt Satyagraha raid on the Dharasana Salt Works was credited for helping turn world opinion against British colonial rule of India . Early life . Webb Miller was born Cub Webster Miller in Pokagon , Michigan in 1891 . His father , Jacob Miller , was a tenant farmer . He attended elementary school in Pokagon and other regional schools . He attended high school in Dowagiac , where he was a track and field runner and football player as well as a reporter for the school paper . Early in life , he became a lifelong vegetarian . While growing up , Miller was a friend of Ring Lardner , who also became a prominent writer . He also began reading the book " Walden " by Henry David Thoreau , and carried a copy of the work with him for the rest of his life . After graduation from high school , he attempted to find work as a reporter at the " South Bend Tribune " in South Bend , Indiana , but the paper would not hire him . He worked as a captain on a passenger steamboat ( he was fired after wrecking the ship ) and as a schoolteacher in Walnut Grove , Minnesota . He visited a brothel , and wrote extensively about his experience there . In 1912 , he went to Chicago , Illinois , and began work as a " legman " — reporting on the scene by telephone to journalists in the office who would rewrite his work and get the byline . He primarily covered murders , executions and court cases . During this time , he shortened his name to " Webb Miller " because it made for a better byline . Miller was kidnapped in 1914 . Helen Morton , daughter of Morton Salt co - founder Mark Morton , had eloped and married against her father ' s wishes . Morton tracked his daughter down and challenged the marriage on the grounds that Helen Morton was mentally deranged . A court ruled in his favor , and Helen was committed to an asylum . Miller attempted to interview Helen Morton , but Mark Morton had his employees beat Miller unconscious . Morton then kidnapped Miller and drove off — with the 23 - year - old journalist tied up in the trunk of his car . Morton crashed the automobile , and police discovered the bound Miller in the vehicle . Miller sued Morton for $ 50 , 000 , but won only a minimal payment of $ 500 six years later . Journalism career . In 1916 , Miller went to work as a freelance journalist . He followed Gen . John J . Pershing into Mexico as part of the Punitive Expedition pursuing Pancho Villa . Having spent most of his life walking ( not driving ) from town to town in Michigan , Miller was one of the few journalists able to keep up with Pershing ' s expedition as it marched through the Mexican desert . Miller ' s reporting led to a job with the United Press later that year . World War I . In 1917 , UP sent Miller to London to cover World War I . He observed the war - time air raids against the city , and his reports of the terrifying bombardments brought him worldwide notice . UP named him London Bureau Chief as a reward for his success . Covering both the British and American fronts in Europe , Miller was present at and reported on the Battle of Château - Thierry , the Second Battle of the Aisne , and the Meuse - Argonne Offensive . Miller was the first American journalist to report that an armistice had been reached with Germany . After the armistice , Miller covered the Paris Peace Conference and interviewed Raymond Poincaré , Georges Clemenceau , David Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson as well as covering the peace talks . While reporting from Versailles , Miller met and became acquainted with an Italian journalist , Benito Mussolini . He later parlayed this relationship into an interview in 1932 . Inter - war period . In late 1918 , Miller was assigned to cover the aftermath of the Easter Rising in Ireland . He interviewed Sinn Féin founder Arthur Griffith and political activist Michael Fitzgerald , both then in hiding . In 1920 , he covered the Rif War in Morocco . During this time , he met and became friends with the former Spanish dictator , Miguel Primo de Rivera . In 1921 , Miller was named Paris Bureau Chief for UP , and was promoted in 1925 to European Bureau Chief . In 1922 , while traveling in France , Miller saw Henri Désiré Landru ( known as " Bluebeard " ) guillotined in a Versailles street for murdering 10 women and a boy . Miller began timing the execution . The executioners threw Landru onto the upper platform of the guillotine which such force that the deck partially collapsed . The executioners clamped him to the deck , and executed him . Miller ' s report , which won worldwide acclaim for on - the - spot reporting , noted that the entire botched execution took only 26 seconds . His report , with its graphic description of Landru ' s death , led to a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize . In 1930 , Miller took a 12 , 000 - mile airplane trip across the Middle East and India . While in India , he met and became friends with Mohandas Gandhi . Gandhi was launching the Salt Satyagraha , and Miller stayed to cover the event . Miller witnessed the raid on the Dharasana Salt Works on May 12 , 1930 , in which more than 1 , 300 unarmed Indians were severely beaten and several deaths occurred . Miller ' s report helped turn world opinion against the British occupation of India . Gandhi himself later said that Miller " helped make " Indian independence through his eyewitness report . His Middle East experiences later landed Miller a job reporting on the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 . Once more , he walked alongside an army traveling in the desert , telling his audience how his shoes and socks turned to bloody rags as he marched through the sand and rocks . Miller reported on the " surprising efficiency " in which the Italians — armed with bombers , tanks , field artillery , gasoline and napalm — massacred thousands of natives armed only with spears , slings and the occasional handgun . His reports , conveyed by courier across the desert to the nearest telegraph and then to the world , often reached Rome before the official Italian military reports did . Miller ' s articles were the only news reports to come from the front line during the opening of the war . He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize a second time , in this instance for a 44 - minute report delivered by telephone at the start of the war . Exhausted from his constant travels and depressed after seeing so much bloodshed , Miller flew to the United States on the inaugural trans - Atlantic flight of the Hindenburg . From May to September , he worked on his memoirs . His book , " I Found No Peace , " was published by Simon & Schuster in November 1936 . Miller immediately went back out into the field . His success in Ethiopia led UP to assign him to cover the initial stages of the Spanish Civil War in late 1936 . In 1937 and 1938 , he traveled to the Soviet Union , where he covered the Stalinist purges and smuggled his reports out of the country . World War II . Miller reported widely on many of the key early events leading up to World War II . He attended the Munich Conference , and interviewed Adolf Hitler , Neville Chamberlain and Mussolini . He traveled to Czechoslovakia immediately afterward , and reported from the scheduled advance of German troops into the Sudetenland . He remained in the country for the next six months , and again reported from the front lines on March 12 , 1939 , when German troops occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia . As tensions rose between Germany and France , Miller returned to Paris . During the Phoney War , Miller rushed to the Low Countries and filed numerous reports . Miller immediately went to Finland after the Soviet Union invaded on November 30 , 1939 . He spent Christmas Eve in four inches of newly - fallen snow with Finnish soldiers on the front lines of the " Winter War . " Death in the Underground tunnel . Miller died on the evening of May 7 , 1940 , in London , while traveling on the London Underground . There were no eyewitnesses to his death . However , British investigators later concluded that the train had come to a stop in the tunnel rather than at a platform . Miller , they said , stepped out of the train and fell on the tracks . He hit his head against the tunnel wall and died . While the press proclaimed his death " mysterious " and friends said the experienced traveler would never have made such an error , the case was closed and his death ruled accidental . Webb Miller was survived by his wife , Marie , and a son , Kenneth . He was buried in Dewey Cemetery in Dowagiac . Cultural influences . In 1943 , the U . S . government announced that Liberty ship s would begin to be named after distinguished journalists who had died in action . The first Liberty ship to be named for a war correspondent was the " SS Webb Miller . " The ship carried American soldiers onto the beaches at Normandy . Scholars now consider Miller ' s account of Bluebeard ' s death a classic of spot journalism . The report is often required reading for aspiring journalists . Webb Miller was also the inspiration for the character of Vince Walker in the movie , " Gandhi . " Cigarette case . When he met Mohandas Gandhi in 1930 , Miller was carrying a cigarette case . Gandhi agreed to inscribe his name on the case on the condition that it never be used again to carry cigarettes . Miller agreed . Miller carried the cigarette case with him for the rest of his life . Most of the dignitaries and world leaders he met over the next 10 years inscribed their names on the case , including Benito Mussolini , Franklin D . Roosevelt , David Lloyd George , Adolf Hitler , and author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez . The cigarette case was stolen after his death , and never reappeared . Most of his journals , papers , and personal effects now reside at the Museum of Southwestern Michigan College .