In today’s edition of the Appalachian Moments, outside of Buffalo Bill Cody, no one from the American Wild West has anything on Appalachia’s own Devil John Wright.
John Wesley Wright was born in Letcher County, Kentucky in 1844. This bouncing boy would come of age during a chapter of Appalachian history when The Civil War and divided loyalties would split the very seams of families and communities.
Wright joined the Civil War at age 16 as a member of the Confederate Army. He was captured by Union troops a year later and then forced to join Yankee army. Fighting alongside them seemed a better prospect than staying in substandard prisons rife with disease or being executed. Folks also need to remember that Kentucky was officially neutral in the War between the states.
After surviving the war, Wright and his Uncle Martin joined the famous Robinson Circus (which toured from 1842 to 1911). Wright performed as a trick rider and sharp shooter and Uncle Martin, who was over 7 feet tall, was billed as the Kentucky Giant.
Wright became famous for doing a flip off the back of his horse while firing his pistols at bottles placed on barrels. His stint in the circus took him all over the world, even performing for Queen Victoria.
After the circus, Wright returned to Appalachia and tried farming and settling down, but it didn’t take.
In the years after the Civil War, the law of the land in Appalachia was simple: there wasn’t any. So, Wright found his calling. He served as Sheriff of Wise County, Virginia and was at also a Pinkerton Detective Agent.
It was from these many years as a “keeper of the peace” and bounty hunter that he gained the nickname of ”Devil John.”
It was said that when tracking an enemy or an outlaw, he never relented until he got his man. Thus to be chased by John Wright was to have the Devil himself on your heels…and the nickname and the legend was born.
It was also the fearless Devil John Wright who enabled many remote circuit courts to convene during dangerous feuds. He would stand in the back of the court room with his firearms prominently displayed, and inform the judge to proceed, as he was going to stick around for a while making sure the courtroom was secure.
While Wright was a “Peace” officer, he engaged in many a shoot-out. He killed well over 30 men while serving, all of them within the norms of frontier justice, as his friends hastened to add.
As he stated, “Some killin’s had to be done in them days after the war. I always gave horse thieves, murderers and rapists a chance to come in peacefully.” But when they raised their guns and fired first, it was Wright who fired the last shot.
But Devil John had a change of heart towards the end of his life. Big, bad Devil John Wright got religion.
in fact, at the age of 81 he was baptized. Over 2,000 people came to witness it, some out of curiosity, some because they might then breathe a sigh of relief. He put down his firearms forever and died with his badge retired and boots off five years later…knocking on heaven’s door. No word as to if he made it in.
It was said John had a wife on every mountaintop and that is not difficult to imagine as he had many children by several different women. It’s said that his lasting regret was that he didn’t have enough children to balance the books. After dispatching over 30 men to the hereafter, and despite his best efforts in fatherhood, Devil John Wright never broke even.
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