History of Liver-Eating Johnson

History of Liver-Eating Johnson

John Jeremiah Garrison Johnston (July 1, 1824 – January 21, 1900), was a mountain man of the American Old West, he is also known as John “Liver-Eating” Johnson and “Crow Killer”. He was living in the area of the Hickory Tavern between Pattenburg and Little York, near the border of now it is Alexandria and Union Townships in Hunterdon County.

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American-Mexican War:

During the Mexican–American War he served on board a battling ship, for short period. After striking an official, whether intentionally or coincidentally, he fled the military and turned into a betrayer. Then he changed is name John Johnson to divert the authorities and traveled to west because authorities would be looking for him.

He was escaping from all of them who knew him. It’s hard to erase the memory of Liver-Eating Johnson as he was 6 feet tall and weighted 260 pounds with fat body. He put his considerable size and strength to work as a “woodhawk” supplying wood for steamers to shipbuilders.

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Johnson met his future wife in Alder Gulch territory of Montana, she was member of Flathead American Indian tribe. Together they lived a peaceful life before the tragedy.

Revenge for Wife Death

During 1847 Liver-Eating Johnson’s wife was killed by Crow Indian. They attacked his home and burned it to ground. Johnson was angry and had full of revenge, he tracked each member of of the Crow tribe and killed them.

For the gigantic man like Johnson killing and hunting each of the men in the Crow tribe was not a tough job and the cause of this name. After killing the members of the Crow, he cut out their liver and ate them.

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You may wonder, why liver?

The Crow people believe that liver was very important to enter the after life. Johnson thought that, by taking their liver’s out and eating he not only ended their life here and also he took the chance to enter afterlife.

Taking all things together, legend has it that Johnson murdered, scalped, and ate up the livers of more than 300 Crow Indians. In a little while, he was dreaded among all the clans, not simply the Crow, and even the notice of his name created a fear.

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Later life and End

Talk has it that while he was on his crucial retribution, Liver-Eating Johnson was kidnapped by a group of Blackfoot Indian warriors who planned to offer him to the Crow.

They stripped him to the midriff, tied him up with leather strips, and left him in a teepee with a watchman until they could get together with the Crow. In spite of being tied up, Johnson figured out how to free himself and escaped the teepee. After of taking out the gatekeeper, he scalped him and cut off one of his legs before escaping into the forested areas, where he consumed the watchman’s leg.

Unexpectedly, Johnson met a friend of his who helped him return home.

Later around 25 years setting out on his mission for vengeance, Liver-Eating Johnson by one way or another put in a safe spot his hunger for blood and made peace with the Crow.

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After making peace with the Crow, Liver-Eating Johnson in the long run proceeded onward, joining the Company H, second Colorado Cavalry of the Union Army in St. Louis in 1864 preceding being decently released the next year. After his administration, he moved to Coulson, Montana and was appointed as deputy sheriff. Later he turned into the town marshal of Red Lodge, Montana.

Over the years he made his way of living life in different ways, working as a sailor, warrior, hunter, trapper, builder, gold digger, bourbon vendor, and local area expert. In the long run, he wound up in a veterans home in Santa Monica, Calif. also, was covered in a Los Angeles veterans burial ground on Jan. 21, 1900.

However, the story of Liver-Eating Johnson didn’t end there.

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In 1974, a group of 25 seventh-graders drove a six-month crusade to have Johnson’s body moved from Los Angeles to Cody, Wyoming.

Their crusade was eventually fruitful, and the understudies sorted out a disinterment and a re-interment service. Entertainer Robert Redford, who played a fictionalized adaptation of Liver-Eating Johnson in the film Jeremiah Johnson, even went about as pallbearer for Johnson’s body during the re-interment.

Today, Liver-Eating Johnson stays in Cody, Wyoming, resting in the incomparable Wild West where he put his living and earned his on the map epithet.