King Fisher

American gunslinger

John King Fisher (October 1853 – March 11, 1884) was a gunslinger from the U. S. state of Texas during the heyday of the American Old West.

Fisher was born during October 1853 in Collin County, north of Dallas, Texas, to Jobe Fisher and the former Lucinda Warren. His brothers were Jasper and James Fisher. Fisher's mother died when he was two years old, and his father married a woman named Minerva. After the Civil War ended, the family moved to Williamson County, near Austin, where his brother James was then residing. Jobe Fisher was a cattleman who owned and operated two freight wagons. After the death of his stepmother Minerva, the Fishers moved to Goliad, west of Victoria, Texas, where they were joined by his paternal grandmother, who helped her son raise his children. King Fisher was restless, handsome, popular with women and prone to running with a tough crowd. His father sent him to live with his brother James circa 1869. Some two years later, Fisher was arrested for horse theft and sentenced to two years in prison. However, because of his youth, he was released after only a short time that same year.

After his release from prison, Fisher began working as a cowboy, breaking horses. Because of the incessant raids, lootings, and rapes of Texas ranch and farm families by bandits, he soon found himself taking part in posse activities. As a result of his successes in this arena, he fancied himself as a gunman. Fisher began to dress rather flamboyantly and carried ivory handled pistols. He became quite proficient with a gun and began running with a band of outlaws which carried out frequent raids into Mexico.

By the late 1870s, Fisher had a reputation as being fast with a gun. In 1878, an argument between Fisher and four Mexican vaqueros erupted. Fisher is alleged to have clubbed the nearest one to him with a branding iron, then as a second drew a pistol Fisher drew his own pistol and shot and killed the man. He then spun around and shot the other two, who evidently had not produced weapons and merely sat on the fence during the altercation. With his new family, he began a more settled life by working in the cattle business. Between 1881 and 1883, he served as a deputy sheriff and later acting sheriff of Uvalde County, Texas. During this service, he trailed two stagecoach robbery suspects, the brothers Tom and Jim Hannehan, to their ranch near Leakey in Real County, Texas. The Hannehans resisted, and Fisher shot and killed Tom. Jim then surrendered and was taken into custody along with the stolen loot from the robbery. For years after Fisher's death, Tom Hannehan's mother would travel to Fisher's grave on the anniversary of Tom Hannehan's death. She would build a fire on top of the grave and then dance around it. Fisher is portrayed by Robert Yuro in "King of the Uvalde Road," a 1970 episode of the syndicated television series Death Valley Days, with Dale Robertson as host and co star. Alfred Molina plays Fisher in the 2001 film Texas Rangers. In William W. Johnstone's Flintlock: A Time For Vultures, King Fisher appears as a mechanical man who after his apparent death is saved by an engineer who gives him clockwork parts.