Johnny Desperado



Johnny Desperado''' is a eighteen year old boy from Texas. He is the vampire that Grace meets at the Sanctuary while Lorcan is undergonig treatment for his blindness. Johnny was the one that Grace would go to if she was upset, because he knew how to cheer her up.'''

Biography
Johnny, also known as Juan, was born on a ranch in Texas in 1869. Johnny tells Grace that he grew up on a ranch with his brother Rico and his dad and mom (though he didn't spend much time with her). Growing up, Johnny was sometimes teased because he thought that the horses were his "real parents". The ranchers on the ranch believed that Johnny could ride before he could walk. Johnny tells Grace that he wasn't just any kind of cowboy, he was a vaquero. "A Mexican cowboy- the very best kind of cowboy you can be!" Like his brother, his dad, and his grandfather, horsemanship was in Johnny's blood. Johnny was trianed by his dad and Rico, and took part in his first trial drive when he turned eleven. Johnny tells Grace that "That was when my life took its first downturn. You grow up fast on a trial drive." Johnny became used to the foul, fickle weather, stampeded, and death that took place on the trial drives. Johnny's dad and Rico led the trial drive that went all the way from Texas to Denver before a major stampede broke out. It was snowing badly and the cattle were going crazy. Rico and Johnny's dad did all they could to prevent this, but they were climbing a mountain and the cattle started jumping off of the cliff of the mountain. That was the day that they lost three hundred and sixty-one cattle, two horses, and two men who were Rico and Johnnu's dad. They fell ninety-five feet to their death into the abyss. After losing his father and his brother, Johnny soon lost his mother as well from a broken heart. The ranchers, who were like family to Johnny, took good care of Johnny afterwards. The ranchers knew that Johnny could outdo all of them with his lariat. By the time Johnny turned fourteen, he was a high demand on Texas ranches, because Johnny was an excellent bronco buster- Johnny was able to break in the meanest of the horses. It was fun for him for a while knowing he could run rings' round men twice, three times his age. But bronco bustin' was dangerous work for a fourteen year old boy and not enough pay, Johnny wanted something better out of life....that was his first mistake. Johnny set off from Texas, riding the trial and never went back home. He moved around the country, there wasn't a lot of work available, but a lot of time to play. Johnny had some crazy times with a lot of fiestas and street fairs which had amazingly good tasting foods like tamales, tortillas, and dulicies along with whiskey which was the name he gave his horse. Johnny also participated in a lot of rodeos before they became big. But then Johnny decided that he need the "wide open spaces"....his second mistake. At the age of eighteen in the winter of 1887, Johnny was up in the South Dakota badlands when he hears about a job with two cattlemen who are tending a herd. The two men wanted a horse wrangler and loved Johnny's style and put down some real good money on the table. Johnny, thinking that this was the best deal of his life and that nothing could possible go wrong, accepted the deal never knowing what was coming. The winters of 1885 to 1887 were brutal for Johnny and the two cattlemen, experiencing one blizzard after another, and storms so harsh they killed millions of cattle on the Great Plains. Only three quarters of the northern range cattle perished. It was the end of an era, the era they called 'the Great Die-up'. It was the last long trail drives and roundups that Johnny would ever go on, because it was also the end of his era as well. It was a very tense time for Johnny and the two cattlemen, the cattle were dying left and right. If you had any cattle, you'd prized them. The men who hired Johnny had a good sized herd, but there was only one problem...it was a stolen herd. Johnny didn't find this out until the very end of his journey, by then it was way too late. Johnny realized that he had payed his life over to two rustlers who had payed him good money. The whole time Johnny had been working his butt off tending to the cattle, some vigilantes were on their trial, who were sent by the rightful owner of that herd to "exact revenge". When the vigilantes caught up to Johnny and the two rustlers they hanged the two cattlemen from a tree. Johnny told them that he had no idea that the two cattlemen were rustlers or that it was a stolen herd. The vigilantes talked about letting Johnny go but, in the end, they decided they couldn't take that chance and hanged him from the same tree.

Johnny was hanging for three days with a broken neck from a tree branch, by then the view had lost its appeal to Johnny. The snow kept falling, and what with the rigor mortis and the bitter cold, Johnny was turning into a regular icicle. On the third day, a rider comes along the way. But this guy wasn't just any regular rider, he wasn't the usual kind of guy making his way through the badlands. Johnny had lost all his senses by this time, of course, what comes next is dependent on what he told Johnny.

Personality
Johnny admits to Grace that he is a "bad judge of character" which is later proven when he decides to follow Sidorio.

 According to Justin Somper: 

When we first meet him, Johnny is one of the troubled Vampirates under Mosh Zu's care st Sanctuary. Grace befriends him and finds him a charismatic and intriguing companion. Johnny had a short and troubled life as a vaquero --- a Mexican cowboy --- before being killed for cattle rustling and crossing over into the Vampirate realm. As Johnny tells Grace, "It ain't that I can't be good. It's just that I'm so much better at being bad."

When Sidorio storms Sanctuary, looking for fresh recruits, Johnny is quick to sign up. Sidorio spots leadership potential in Johnny and makes him his joint second-in-command. In life and afterwards, Johnny has consistently demonstrated a knack for making the wrong decisions and "backing the wrong horses". How is that going to play out now that he's in a position of power on board the aggressive new Vampirate ship, The Blood Captain?