Ep 158 Crow Killer / "Liver-Eating" Johnson / Jeremiah Johnson

We journey out to Montana Territory in the latter half of the 19th century to break biscuits with John "Liver-Eating" Johnson, subject of the books Crow Killer by Raymond W. Thorp and Robert Bunker and Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher, both of which were subsequently adapted by John Milius for the Sydney Pollack film Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford. All three detail Johnson's life as a hunter/trapper and his war with the Crow Indians after the killing of his wife, and while the accounts of foes stomped and scalps collected by the vengeful "Dapiek Absaroka" are outlandish at best, it makes for some fun Old West mythologizin'. And who better to discuss Old West mythologizin' than artist/historian/something of a myth himself David Lambert, who has graced the Pink Smoke with his expertise on such subjects as Cattle Drive Westerns, Sam Peckinpah and faux-Wyatt Earp movies. Here he brings light to some of the tall tales, the rampant mutilating and biscuit-baking of Crow Killer, the brilliant original Milius script for Jeremiah Johnson and the changes made for the movie. Waugh!! Hey! Look! It's our Patreon:www.patreon.com/thepinksmoke The Pink Smoke site:www.thepinksmoke.com David Lambert on X:x.com/DavidLambertArt David Lambert on bsky:@davidlambertart.bsky.social The Pink Smoke on X:x.com/thepinksmoke John Cribbs on X:x.com/thelastmachine