Jack Johnson (posseman) - Deadwood

Deadwood

Johnson supposedly spent some time in Deadwood in the Dakota Territory in 1876. He is said to have participated in a gunfight in 1876, where he calmly and slowly used two pistol shots to kill two men at a distance of 30 yards. They were both trying to kill him with multiple pistol shots. It is debated as to whether this actually occurred, as there are no written records of the event. However, there is a record of a Marshal named Jack Johnson who killed a desperado named Mike Fitzgerald in a gunfight in 1872, in Nebraska. This same man named John Johnson was possibly in Tombstone according to the 1880 Census and may have ridden with Wyatt Earp, indicating "Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson and John Johnson, the marshal, are likely one and the same.

Jack Johnson is believed to have later spent time in Dodge City, Kansas. Little is known about exactly when he met Wyatt Earp. It could have been during Wyatt's buffalo hunting days, in Deadwood, or during the time that both were in Dodge City. He is believed to have first ventured into Arizona Territory by way of a cattle drive, alongside Sherman McMasters, "Curly Bill" Brocius, and Pony Diehl, in late 1878. Brocius and Diehl had only recently left the "Murphy-Dolan" faction, having both taken part in the Lincoln County War, opposite Billy the Kid and his "Regulators". There is no evidence that Johnson took part in that range war, nor that he knew Brocius or Diehl prior to the cattle drive.