Colonel Jeremiah Custer

Colonel Jeremiah Custer

Creator: Tom Johnson

Characters

Colonel Jeremiah Custer

Chief Thunder Cloud

Mai Ling

Colonel Jeremiah Custer is tall, thin, with a brushy mustache and long yellow hair, and stands with a military bearing. His flashing blue eyes denote a quick mind. Educated in the best schools, he claims to be a distant relative of General Armstrong Custer. Of mature age, he fought in France during WWI, receiving many decorations for bravery in the Intelligence Department.

After the Armistice, he worked for a secret government agency for a while, then tired of mundane assignment he set out on his own. A sharpshooter of great skill, he toured the southwest with a traveling troupe of acrobats and showmen, displaying his skills with guns of every sort. His act required that he wear western attire, including boots and ten-gallon hat. Around his waist was strapped a pair of Colt revolvers, and he enjoyed thrilling the audience with his quick draw act, shooting a cigarette out of the mouth of someone staunch enough to stand twenty paces in front of him.

When the traveling tent show disbanded, Colonel Jeremiah Custer found that he wasn’t ready to give up his act. That’s when he conceived of the Jeremiah Custer Wild West Show And Other Delights!

Chief Thunder Cloud calls himself a warrior of a lost tribe. The colonel wasn’t sure if he was Indian or bear, but Chief Thunder Cloud was the largest man he had ever encountered. Dark skinned, he was a former wrestler Jeremiah had found in Saint Louis and recruited for his show. Long on muscle, he had very little education. The wrestling bouts had left him with a cauliflower ear and flattened nose. Small gray eyes were set in his round jovial face. His shoulders were as wide as a boxcar, and muscles rippled with his slightest movement. Calloused hands resembled large rocks, and were just as hard.

When not performing stunts for Colonel Custer’s act, he delighted in showing off his great strength to an audience. His act consisted of bending horseshoes, and tying steel pipes into pretzels.

Mai Ling is a beautiful Oriental girl from China. She is a tiny piece of dynamite. Full of energy, she had come with Colonel Custer from the traveling tent show when it disbanded. Thrilling the audiences with her flying gymnastics, and death-defying stunts, she was only happy when performing. An exotic dancer, at times, she also performed the dance of the 7 Veils on the detachable platform, which brought in much of their coins. Her third persona was that of an Eastern princess, in which she wore a dark gown and veil that only covered her lower face, revealing almond-shaped eyes of black pearls.

Tom Johnson’s relatives came out of the southern tent shows, and he always wanted to create a series in the mold of Doctor Thaddeus C. Harker. Colonel Custer is his answer. There has only been one story so far in the planned series.

“The Silence of Death” Kindle edition & in the FADING SHADOWS paperback anthology, “Classic Pulp Fiction Stories”.