TEXAS JACK VERMILLION: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER

The Frontierado Holiday falls on Friday, August 7th this year. As always, Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. 

JOHN WILSON VERMILLION aka TEXAS JACK VERMILLION and “SHOOT-YOUR-EYE-OUT” VERMILLION, was born in Virginia in 1842 to William and Nancy Vermillion. After the Civil War broke out in 1861, Jack enlisted in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry sometime in 1862.

When the war ended in April 1865, Jack moved to Indiana, where he married Margaret Horton that September. By 1866 Vermillion was working as a Territorial Marshall in the eastern part of still-chaotic post-Civil War Missouri.

As for how our man got the nickname Texas Jack, multiple possible explanations are given. One version states it came from his insistent preference for riding Texas Quarter-Horses. Another states it came from spending time in Texas in the late 1860s or early 1870s.

Some accounts state Vermillion claimed to be from Texas and related Tall Tales that the Lone Star State had jackrabbits as big as horses. One illogical account claims that when Jack was asked why he was called Texas Jack he replied “Because I’m from Virginia.” Well, okay then! 

At any rate, Jack and Margaret had a daughter named Mary and then a son whose name has not come down to us. A few weeks after that son was born, Marshall Vermillion had to travel as part of his duties. Different reasons are given, like extraditing a prisoner or prisoners, or pursuit of outlaws or prison escapees.

While Jack was away a diphtheria epidemic swept part of Missouri. When he returned home his wife and children had all died from the disease. Devastated, Vermillion turned in his badge and drifted westward to Texas for a time, where tradition holds he drank heavily from mourning and tried to get himself killed in assorted gunfights and other escapades so he could be reunited with his late loved ones.   

By the early 1870s, Texas Jack was living in Dodge City, KS. His reputation for Bad Craziness continued as he resumed pounding down booze, gambling, debauching, and wielding his guns on both sides of the law. Vermillion blew away at least one Dodge City gambler during an argument in a card game.

In May 1876 our man met and befriended Wyatt Earp in Dodge City and in 1878 Wyatt’s friend Doc Holliday. During 1879 Jack may or may not have had his first acquaintance with the Soapy Smith bunco gang and participated in their cons. (He definitely joined them in the late 1880s.)

By June of 1881 Texas Jack was in Tombstone, AZ and when the June 22nd fire ravaged the town Virgil Earp deputized Vermillion to help deal with the resulting unrest and widespread looting. Jack’s friendship with Doc Holliday and to a lesser degree Wyatt Earp became tighter during this period.

In March 1882 Morgan Earp was murdered by the Clanton Faction and beginning March 21st Texas Jack (played in Tombstone by Peter Sherayko at right) joined in the Earp Vendetta Ride over the next three weeks. That period saw multiple clashes with Clanton Brothers and their gang members. 

On March 24th came the gun battle near Iron Springs, AZ. Several members of the warring factions shot it out, with Clanton Faction leader Curly Bill Brocius among the dead. Texas Jack was nearly killed as well when his horse was shot out from under him at one point. The foolhardy Vermillion exchanged gunfire with his opponents from out in the open as he kept trying to recover his rifle upon which his horse’s dead body lay.   

Doc Holliday had to rush to Jack’s side and force him to give up on the rifle and instead join him in taking cover to continue the firefight.

According to the Flood Manuscript of Wyatt Earp’s autobiography, on one occasion during the Vendetta Ride the Clanton Faction gunmen had him pinned down in a position where they might have eventually overwhelmed him. With a certain amount of emotional turmoil, Wyatt stated that Texas Jack was the only man on his side who stayed beside him fighting off the enemy while Doc Holliday, Sherman McMasters and Turkey Creek Johnson retreated before the superior numbers.

NOTE: Wyatt said his younger brother Warren Earp was on an errand for their side and was not present at this action.

We all know how the Vendetta Ride eventually ended, and in March or April of the following year (1883) Vermillion was back in Dodge City as one of the gunslingers on the side of the famous Luke Short during the Dodge City War. Jack served as part of the Dodge City Peace Commission (at left) alongside Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Shotgun John and other iconic Wild West figures.

By June 10th Luke Short’s side won out over the men backing corrupt Dodge City Mayor Larry Deger and before long Texas Jack moved back to Virginia and married his second wife Nannie Fleenor by year’s end. The couple had two children – son Opie and daughter Minnie.

For unknown reasons, by 1888 Vermillion was back out west as part of now-crimelord Soapy Smith’s gang in Denver, CO. Texas Jack took part in assorted activities on behalf of that “Al Capone of the Old West” including gun battles at the Glasson Detective Agency and elsewhere. He began to be called “Shoot-Your-Eye-Out” Vermillion around this time.

In August of 1889 Vermillion was traveling with Soapy, Fatty Gray Morris and Soapy’s brother Bascomb Smith in Pocatello, ID. Rival criminals tried to assassinate Soapy at the train depot but Texas Jack and the others fought off the attackers.

At some point in 1890 our man parted with Soapy and company and headed back east to rejoin his wife and children in Virginia. He killed his last man in a gunfight there that same year. Presumably he was found to have acted in self-defense since he served no time and remained in Virginia as a farmer. 

For a time Jack was believed to have drowned in Lake Michigan during a visit to Chicago in 1900. Instead, he survived and by some accounts felt spared by God.

Upon returning to Virginia, Jack became a Methodist Minister, living peacefully with Nannie, Opie and Minnie until his death by natural causes in 1911. He and they are buried in Mendota, Virginia. 

NOTE: TEXAS JACK VERMILLION IS SOMETIMES CONFUSED WITH TEXAS JACK OMOHUNDRO.