Texas Gunslinger, Outlaw and Lawman
1854-1884

John King Fisher was the son of Jobe Fisher and Lucinda Warren.
Jobe Fisher was the son of James Fisher and Anna Ladd Damron.
Anna Ladd Damron was the daughter of Captain John Damron and Anna Ladd.

John King Fisher's parents were Jobe Fisher and Lucinda Warren. They had two sons, Jasper and King, while living in Collin County, Texas. He went to Jack County and then to Denton County where he lived during the Civil War. Lucinda died about 1856 when John King was about two years old.  Jobe then married Minerva . After the War, the family moved to Williamson County where his brother James lived. Jobe was in the cattle business and operated one or two freight wagons.

Minerva's health was frail so they moved to Goliad County to live closer to the coast. Jobe moved several hundred head of Durham cattle and his freight wagon business. However, Minerva soon died. Jasper drove one of the wagons with his father. Anna, Jobe's mother, moved to Goliad to help him rear his children.

Jobe became concerned about the unsavory company King was keeping. About 1869, he sent King to back to Williamson County to live with James. King attended school and was a fairly good student although, reportedly, rather quite and mild mannered. He was also good at fist-fighting. Good-looking and popular with girls, he attended numerous camp meetings of the time. He began buying wild or untamed horses at cheap prices, breaking them and selling them for a tidy profit.

Then he got into trouble over a stolen horse. A family version of the episode has King on a long, two or three days, sleepless, ride. He grew tired and unsaddled the horse and lay down to sleep. When he awoke, his horse had roamed away. King put his bridle on an available horse that belonged to a Mr. Turnbow. He claimed he was chasing his own horse. Mr. Turnbow filed a complaint against King for using the horse without his consent. King was captured a few days later. Mr. Turnbow would not drop the charges. The story relates that Turnbow slipped King a pocket knife that he used to cut the lead rope attached to his horse and quickly escaped. King returned to Goliad.

Back in Goliad, he was soon in trouble. The family story holds that he was led astray by some men named Bruton. Official records show that he was charged with horse theft. The family story states that it was housebreaking instigated by an older man. He was sentenced on 5 October 1870 to two years in the state penitentiary but was released in February of 1871 due to his youth. He was only in his mid-teens! He then became a cowboy in the "Nueches Strip" country in south Texas where he broke horses, chased Mexican bandits and learned to shoot. He often ran with a motley crew of rustlers and other desperadoes.

He was 5' 9" tall, 135 pounds with light hair and brown eyes. A photograph of King shows that he was good looking and wore a large mustache. He began to dress rather flamboyantly. He wore sombreros with gold braid, embroidered vests, silk shirts and crimson sashes. Bengal tiger skin chaps became his most famous trademark. Silver mounted holsters held a pair of ivory-handled, silver-plated pistols. Of course, he wore silver spurs mounted with silver bells that announced to everyone within earshot the presence of King Fisher. His full name was John King Fisher and he was called King by the family from the time he was a child. Some have reported that he adopted the name to reflect his flashy dress but this is not the case.

He teamed up with a gang of Mexican rustlers. There was an argument over the division of spoils. King shot and killed three of them. He took over the gang and eventually gained control of several bands with membership sometimes of over one hundred and covering three counties. He gunned down seven more men in the process.

Once established he bought a ranch on Pendencia Creek near Eagle Pass, Maverick Co., Texas, across the Rio Grande River from Mexico. King used his ranch as his base of operation. On the road that lead to his ranch he posted a sign reading "THIS IS KING FISHER'S ROAD. TAKE THE OTHER ONE." Evidently somewhat of a wit, he once said, "Fair play is a jewel, but I don't care for jewelry."

He reportedly had an alliance with Porfirio Diaz who eventually became president of Mexico. Diaz brought stolen Mexican stock to King's ranch to swap for stolen Texas stock. The Mexicans did not care if they dealt with stolen Texas cattle just as the Texans cared little if the traded stock bore a Mexican brand.

During the early 1870's, he was arrested several times in San Antonio and Uvalde County for gambling. He developed a reputation as a gunslinger claiming, in 1878, to have been responsible for seven deaths "not counting Mexicans." One story tells of him in an argument with four vaqueros at a cattle pen on his ranch. King clubbed the nearest one with a branding iron, shot and killed the second man who had drawn a gun, then spun around and shot the other two sitting on the fence.

King had several run-ins with the law at this time but the public seemed to consider him to be only an inconvenience. In 1875, he was arrested and charged with "intent to kill" but the prosecution could find no witness who would testify. King was released. In May of 1876, 1st Lieutenant (later, Captain) Lee Hall and a troop of Texas Rangers arrested him, Ben Thompson and some other men charged with murder in Austin. They were soon released. On 4 June 1876, Texas Ranger Captain Leander H. McNelly arrested King along with nine of his men and took them to Eagle Pass. Seven of the men could be convi