Jack Powers

Who was Jack Powers?

Jack Powers was an Irish born gambler, outlaw, highway-robber, gang leader, and murderer in southern and central California during the Gold Rush era. For a time in the 1850s, robberies and murders committed by his group of bandits made the stretch of El Camino Real between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara the most dangerous route in the state, and he and his gang had almost complete control of the small city of Santa Barbara. He was eventually driven out of town, but only after intimidating and defeating the sheriff and a posse of 200. He eventually fled the area, and after a brief career running a ranch in the Mexican state of Sonora, he was murdered in a fight over a woman, and his body was fed to a pen of starving pigs.