19. A Violent Man Who Literally Got Away With Murder
In 1878, John King Fisher got into an argument with two Mexican cowboys and greatly escalated things when he smashed in the head of one with an iron rod and shot the other died when he tried to draw his pistol. He then shot two other Mexicans who had been sitting on a fence and simply watching. Since his victims were Mexican, and it was the Old West, nothing came of it. Nor did anything come of other instances when Fisher was arrested for violent acts and attempted murders, only to be released when witnesses refused to come forward or disappeared.
Although he was a notorious troublemaker, Fisher was nonetheless liked in the community, and by the 1880s he had transitioned from bandit to lawman. He served a brief stint as sheriff of Uvalde County in 1883, during which service he tracked down a pair of stagecoach robbers, shot one dead, and brought the other one in. The following year, Fisher went to see a play with a friend in San Antonio but was killed when a quarrel between his friend and the theater owner ended with Fisher and his friend ambushed in their theater box and cut down in a hail of bullets.