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John King Fisher wasn't a hero. Well, maybe to some, but not to history. He and history had a distorted and tolerant relationship. There was no real pat on the back from history. Perhaps that's why he's mostly absent from it. However, that doesn't render one's life insignificant or void out someone's noteworthiness. Usually, the facts or perceptions of a life are worth documenting and elucidating. Besides, history's mind can be changed or opened enough to make room for someone else, whether that indivicual is good or bad, magnetic or odious, friendly or hostile.
Legend and fact have it that Texas pistolero King Fisher dispatched a number of individuals to their eternal fates; his actions .a travel agency for the afterlife. Such was the culture and social climate of Texas during that time. But to define someone from snippets of reportage posted online renders an incomplete portrait and superficial glimpse of any historical figure. (There are a couple of books that detail his life.)
Fisher was accused of killing several men and being cast as a murderous desperate but the circumstances surrounding any death-by-shooting during the reconstruction era always seemed to be murky.
His foray into a profession that required a gi n and a shooting skill set began when he was a teenager. After being sentenced to the state penitentiary in Huntsville for burglary, and then eventually pardoned by the governor, King Fisher needed a change of venue. A man by the name of Grey "Dec" White provided it. He requested that King Fisher come to join his settlement at Pendencia Creek in Dimmitt County. Once he arrived. White asked him to protect their livestock from thieves, Mexican bandits, and Indian raiders.
"He quickly became a hard-riding, fearless 'stock marshal' who made the rules as he went...