EX-EDITOR SHOOTS WIFE, THEN HIMSELF
By JOSEPH B. TREASTER DEC. 22, 1982
A retired Wisconsin newspaper editor and publisher who had been suffering from cancer shot and critically wounded his wife yesterday and then killed himself in their home on a Rockefeller estate in the Adirondacks, the state police said.
Miles J. McMillin, 69 years old, who retired four years ago from The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., and his wife, Elsie Rockefeller McMillin, 58, were found by her daughter and their son. Both were shot in the head.
Mrs. McMillin, who was in critical condition at the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center in Plattsburgh, is the daughter of William Avery Rockefeller, a grandson of William Rockefeller. William Rockefeller was associated with his brother, John D. Rockefeller, in the organization of the Standard Oil Company. From 1946 to 1955, Mrs. McMillin was married to Senator William Proxmire, Democrat of Wisconsin. Classified a Suicide
Mr. McMillin joined The Capital Times in 1945 and served as a reporter, editorial writer, columnist and associate publisher before becoming publisher. He was an early critic of both Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin, and the Vietnam War.
After retirement, he remained a member of the newspaper's board of directors. The state police said Mr. McMillin had undergone radiation and chemotherapy treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and was in the ''advanced stages of terminal cancer.'' They classified his death as a suicide.
Nine years ago, Mrs. McMillin's father committed suicide on the same 20,000-acre estate. Mrs. McMillin and her husband had been living on the estate since his retirement. Elsie Proxmire Zwerner and Miles McMillin, who found the couple, said they became suspicious that something had happened when they saw no lights in the house shortly before 7 P.M.
They went inside, the state police said, and found the McMillins on a bed. The police said they found the apparent weapon, a .25-caliber automatic pistol, nearby.
The estate, now known as Bay Pond, is in the community of Paul Smiths, about 12 miles northwest of Lake Placid.