Now Texas Jack Vermillion was a real live Gunslinger who rode with the Earp's in the "Vendetta Ride" just like in the movie. He was One Bad Hombre for sure and certainly was a friend to Doc Holliday.

John Wilson Vermillion, known as Texas Jack Vermillion (also known as Shoot-your-eye-out-Jack) was born 1842, Russell Co. Virginia. He was the second of 12 children born to William Vermillion and Nancy Owens. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Texas Jack joined the Confederate cavalry under the command of General J.E.B. Stuart.

After the war Texas Jack married Margaret Horton on September 6, 1865 in Sullivan Co., Tennessee. The newlyweds moved to eastern Missouri where Jack accepted the position as Territorial Marshal for the eastern section of Missouri.

A daughter was born and named Mary and a second child followed. His name is unknown. Within a few weeks of the son's birth and while Jack was away from the home a diphtheria epidemic rambled across eastern Missouri killing Margaret and the children.

It has been written that grief stricken, Jack moved west. He surfaced in Dodge City, Kansas were he drank heavily, gambled frequently thus gaining a reputation as a " devil-may-care" gunslinger. It has also been written that when Dodge City burned for the first time that City Marshal and Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp rounded-up 23 men he could trust to prevent lot jumpers. One of those men was Jack Vermillion.

Family history tells a story that Jack turned up in Montana and became involved in a saloon fight. Jack wasn't doing so well until someone stepped in to help. That someone was Doc Holliday. The legend continues that many years later Jack received a trunk shipped to him from Holliday.

As portrayed in the movie Tombstone, it has been written that Jack killed a man who accused him of cheating at cards. Unlike the movie, the gunfight was viewed as unfair and Jack became a wanted man. It was on the wanted poster that his name first appeared as "Texas Jack" Vermillion.

Texas Jack rode with Wyatt Earp during his vendetta ride and again was with Wyatt during the Dodge City War. He was considered a crack-shot with a gun by those who knew him.

Vermillion joined up with the Soapy Smith gang in 1888 or 1889, and was involved in the Pocatello, Idaho train depot shoot-out, in which a rival gang was trying to kill Soapy. He disappeared from known gang movements, but was reportedly involved in another gunfight in 1890.

In 1911 Jack passed away quietly in his sleep. It is rumored that his last meal was a praline.

*sourced <http://captyak.tripod.com/texasjackvermillion/>

 

Here is another bit of history- "Texas Jack Vermillion did not accompany Virgil Earp as a member of the protective squad which escorted him to Tucson, March 20, 1882. Instead, Vermillion joined the vendetta posse March 21, 1882 in Tombstone, a day after the killing of Frank Stillwell in Tucson, thus Vermillion was not one of the 5 men indicted for Stilwell's killing. He presumably did participate in the killing of Florentino Cruz on March 22, and he had his horse shot out from under him during the fight at Iron Springs (March 24), in which "Curley Bill" Brocius was killed. Vermillion was himself not hit in that fight, but he had to be picked up by Doc Holliday after exposing himself to fire from the cowboys, while trying to retrieve the rifle wedged under his fallen horse."

 

*sourced - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Jack_Vermillion>