The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson

I loved this book. I knew stuff about Johnson. But their a cool stuff I didn't know. I would recommend this book. For who likes old tails about mountain men

It’s an entertaining read about a special time in The history of the American wedt.

Who was John Johnson? That’s the question D.J. Herda answers in his book entitled, “The Never-Ending Lives of Liver-Eating Johnson.” In his book, the reader sees him from every kind of perspective: mountain man, scout, Indian fighter, husband. He was called “liver-eating.” But that epithet may just be a undeserved. Though it made Johnson known through the Old West. Born John Garrison in New Jersey in in 1824 near Hickory Tavern, he changed his name to Johnson to evade charges of desertion by the U.S. Army. He became a friend of the legendary mountain man, Old John Hatcher. From him, Johnson learned how to fire a .50-caliber Hawken rifle and how to use a foot-long Bowie knife. Johnson went out on his own and lived in the wild, trapping and hunting, and peddling whiskey. He worked as a scout for General Miles Nelson. But his life changed when he traded with the Flathead Indians. The sub-chief made him a gift of his daughter. Johnson returned with her to live in his cabin on the Snake River. He left his wife to trap in the mountains. When he returned that spring he found the bones of his dead wife beside the skeleton of his unborn daughter. They were murdered by the Crow Indians. Johnson vowed revenge. His life changed forever. He devoted himself to killing Crow Indians. Over the next few years, he killed hundreds of them. The Indians sent a pack of their strongest warriors to hunt down and kill Johnson. Before they could kill him, he killed all of them. Johnson’s name became a legend. When he killed a warrior, he often took out the liver of his victim. The legend that was passed a long said that Johnson had eaten it. At the end of his book, D.J. Herda reveals the truth of the legend in Johnson’s own words. Herda’s book gives the reader the true feeling of what it was like to live in the early west. The men lived off the land like the Indians they pursued. According to D. Walker in his book, “The Mountain Man as a Literary Hero”, mountain men survived, “cold, drenching rain, roaring rivers, deadly animals, but also the most life-threatening force of hunger, thirst, disease, injury and hostile Indians.” These stories come to life in Herda’s book. In telling the tale of John Johnson, the author quotes actual accounts from contemporaries who knew him. The reader sees him from all angles: trapper, mountain man, scout and sheriff. The book consists of authentic stories of mountain men who were frequently ignored by historians. Since most couldn’t read or write, they didn’t keep journals. But Johnson was unusual, he could read and write. He didn’t keep a journal but his friend and partner, John X. Beidler, did. X wrote down where he was, who he was with and when. Herda says the information is “most likely accurate.” At the end of his life, Johnson gave up killing Indians and took a job as sheriff of Coulson (now Billings, Montana). He became a social drinker and grew tired of the job, then built a cabin in the mountains where he could live. He quit sheriffing to join the Wild West Show but gave it up. Finally in 1899, the last year of his life, he died at the age of 76. For Old West lovers and historians who love authenticity, this is a book that can’t be missed.Kathleen Vyn

THE NEVER-ENDING LIVES OF LIVER-EATING JOHNSON by D.J. Herda. Published by TwoDot. Available June 1, 2019.Some called him Crow Killer. He went on a twenty year spree, killing every Crow warrior he encountered after a group of them killed his wife and unborn child.Others called him Liver Eater because, it was said, he cut out the livers of those he killed and ate them, because he knew this would keep them out of a happy afterlife. He was alleged to have killed over 300 Crow warriors. He maintained that he never actually ate a single liver.Hollywood even made a movie that was loosely based on his life.His first name was John. His last name may have been Garrison, or it may have been Johnston. Whichever it was, he has come down through history as John Johnson, Mountain Man.He was born in New Jersey. He became a sailor as a young man. After disrespecting an officer he deserted, went west into the Rocky Mountains, and became a legend. Mountain man, lawman, tracker for the Army, he became all of these things. He enlisted to fight in the Civil War. He died in the National Soldiers Home in California in 1900, at the doorstep of the 20th century.Author D.J. Herda has deftly separated the man from the myth in THE NEVER-ENDING LIVES OF LIVER-EATING JOHNSON. Johnson was a true enigma, a man capable of great violence and retribution against his enemies, while at the same to being extremely loyal and kind to his friends and strangers, and to small children.Johnson was also a man who took advantage of the legend that grew around him. Herda writes of people who spoke in hushed tones whenever Johnson came around to local forts or towns to purchase or trade for supplies. He was greatly feared and respected by the Crow, who had sent out a party of 20 warriors to hunt him down and kill him. In his final years Johnson apparently made peace with them, boldly riding into their camp and sitting down with their leader, knowing at any moment he could be subjected to a very slow and very painful death.It’s obvious that Herda has made excellent use of available primary and secondary source material, much as he did in his previous book about Calamity Jane. Herda exacts no judgment on Johnson. He presents both the facts and the myths about his subject and leaves it to the reader to ponder the person.Johnson was definitely a product of his times and the world in which he moved. We should not take him out of his time and judge him by 21st century standards. Like every other man who chose to live an isolated existence in the Rocky Mountains, he did what he had to do to survive. John Johnson managed to live a long and eventful life, participating in many important, and sometimes tragic, events in American history. The Rocky Mountains were his true home.And some folks say he’s up there still.

Most of the stories are taken from written accounts from the period. The author is good at pointing out this and that the press of the period just like today never let facts get in the way of a good story. Overall a good listen, bought the audio version.

Legend meets truth in this well-researched chronicle of the Old West's most famous mountain man, John "Liver-eating" Johnson. The environment he lived in was brutal and unforgiving, forcing him to become brutal and unforgiving to survive. While customs of that era sound offensive to today's civilization, the reasons and justifications behind them become clear when taken in context of the dangerous wilderness of the 1800s.For all the gore and death he caused, Johnson could be kind, as evidenced by one anecdote from his later years as a law officer. He spotted some young boys trying to peek into a show since they didn't have the price of admission. Johnson hid them in his giant overcoat and took them inside to enjoy the entertainment.Much of the information is taken from newspaper articles, books, and journals written at the time. The language is far from PC but to sanitize it for modern sensibilities would take away the whole point of history. We study history to learn from it, not as we wish it had been, but as it actually was.