John Winchester

John Winchester was a high-profile political figure, volunteer Fire Marshal, soldier and police officer from Blaine County portrayed by DocHoliday

## Early Life

John Winchester was born on his family farm during a bad storm in 1947 to his father Samuel Gregory Winchester II. His grandfather, Samuel Johnathan Winchester was a famous frontiersman from the State of West Elizabeth and prominent railroad owner.

John attended the Grapeseed Grammar School until it burned down in 1960 and at the age of 13 he began working on the family farm. His father's farm primarily grew tobacco and tomatoes. His father was known locally for attempting to cross germinate tobacco and tomato into a single plant. No known successful germinations are recorded to have taken place.

From 16-19 Winchester moved around Blaine County taking odd jobs like working on the subway tunnels in Los Santos and other laborer jobs. He is noted in 1967 for having saved a small child from drowning just outside Grapeseed near a small bridge.

## Education and Military Service

#### Vietnam War

In 1968 when Winchester turned 21, he was drafted into the Vietnam War with the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He completed his basic training in mid-1969 and was deployed to join his brigade in Vietnam. However, the 505th was pulled out of Vietnam at the end of 1969.

Winchester transferred from the 505th into the 1st Cavalry Division, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Battalion and redeployed to Vietnam in 1970 and served in theatre from 1970 to 1972. During the American tactical withdrawal from the country during April of 1973 Winchester was in the United States on leave. It is here that he got a non-judicial punishment when he assaulted an officer for saying that the Vietnam War was for nothing. He was bumped down a pay grade for this incident but not demoted in rank.

During his service he was twice promoted reaching the rank of Sergeant. At the end of the Vietnam War he applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point under the G.I. Bill. He pursued a bachelor's degree in defence and strategic studies. He then re-enlisted as a commissioned officer of the United States Army upon graduation and was promoted to Lieutenant due to time served.

#### Post-Vietnam

It was around this time that Winchester began referring to his service as having served in Korea due to his personal disgust for how the Vietnam War ended and how so many of his friends had died for nothing. From 1977 to 1984 Winchester continued serving with his Vietnam-era unit, getting promoted only once over the years to Captain. His records show that his senior officers commonly noted his habit of insubordination and lashing out at the government for mishandling the Vietnam War. He also reportedly sought treatment for "shell shock" twice in 1978 and 1980.

During reforms in the late 1980s, Winchester was transferred to the 1st Squadron and began training with the new M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. At age 44 he was promoted to Major before being deployed to the Southwest Asia command in October of 1990.

#### Operation Desert Storm

The 1st Squadron, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Walter L. Sharp, was the divisional cavalry squadron for the 1st Cavalry Division and assigned to the division's aviation brigade. The squadron was organized as a headquarters troop, one ground troop (Troop A), and two air troops (Troops C and D). Prior to deployment, the squadron also attached two ground troops, Troop A, and Troop B, 2d Squadron, 1st Cavalry, from the inactivating 2d Armored Division, also at Fort Hood.

After attachment, the additional troops were provisionally flagged as Troop B, and Troop E, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry. The squadron was in Southwest Asia from October 1990 until May 1991. During the campaign, 1-7 CAV over watched the border area of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait did numerous recon missions into Iraq and led the 1st Cavalry Division during its attack into Iraq after being released as the CENTCOM theater reserve.

## Post-Military Life

Winchester parted ways with the US Army in 1994 at the age of 47 having achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At this time he was working in Washington D.C. as part of the United States Strategic Command. Somewhat uncommon for a man of his age, he went back to university using the G.I. Bill once again, getting another bachelor degree in American history from the University of California, Berkely in 1998.

He then moved back to Grapeseed, San Andreas - and took up residence on his old family lot. The lot had been abandoned sometime in the 1970s when his mother died of cancer. The farm fields his family has formerly owned had been annexed by other local farmers that didn't like the overgrown field interfering with their own crops. It was at this time when Winchester became active in local politics.

#### Local Politics

He ran as an independent in the 1999 County Elections becoming the Sheriff of Grapeseed. As Sheriff he waged a bitter campaign against the local farmers that annexed his land. The campaign ended in the 2000 Grapeseed Shootout where eight members of the O'Reilly Family and three Grapeseed Deputies were killed. Winchester was shot in the left arm and grazed on the neck. The property of the O'Reilly Family was confiscated and sold at an auction which only John Winchester attended.

In 2003, he stood down from Sheriff and focused on empowering local farmers by forming a union of Grapeseed farmers. Together they shared resources in order to work more efficiently and lower their expenses. This was part of a plan by Winchester to lower the cost of produce made by local farmers so they could compete with other regions and foreign nations. The success of Winchester's plan was awarded by the University of San Andreas in 2005 when they gave him an Honorary Master's Degree in Constitutional Law for his commitment to protecting local industry through a mastery of the legal process and adept understanding of constitutional law.

From 2003 to 2019 Winchester focused mostly on being a successful farmer and advocated for his industry. It was also around this time that his political messaging began to get more erratic including becoming more anti-government. Close friends say that he was deeply unsettled by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq due to how much they reminded him of Vietnam. They said he began talking about plans to make the government ineffective on purpose by running for office and then doing nothing.

## Modern Political and Law Enforcement Career

In 2020 John Winchester ran for, and was elected to, the Los Santos Sheriff's Department. During his time in this position he recruited no deputies, took no serious policing actions and generally did not help grow the department. Los Santos critics say that the 73-year-old Winchester was out of his depth and didn't understand the needs of modern police departments.

County critics say that Winchester was purposefully running the LSSD as ineffectively as possible in order to erode the public's trust in the government. Winchester resigned from Sheriff a mere three months into the position and announced his run for the Superior Court of San Andreas. In the January 2021 election he ran against a man named Ryan Winchester, who does not appear to be related to John, and won with 56.1% of the vote.

During his time in office, he issued no legal orders. He approved 0 permits, oversaw no cases and did not clear a single record. Despite objectively doing nothing while in office, his approval rating remained high. He resigned from this position by way of announce it on Twitter during an argument with other political personalities. During this point he was also working as a State Ranger.

He transferred from State Rangers to the Grapeseed Police Detachment when it was formed in May of 2021. In this position he has been an effective policing entity in Grapeseed. Having grown the department to five officers and successfully decreasing the amount of speeders being reported on the highways around the town. The GPD is a detachment that reports to State Police and was formed as part of the State's commitment to underserviced regions across San Andreas.

He was elected to Congress in the 8th-State General Election as a independent Conservative. During his time in office he has currently passed one major bill known as the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Control Act which received one minor amendment in congress and was then passed by a unanimous vote. It was signed into law by Governor Lexi Point.

## Death

Winchester was killed on May 18, 2021 by an unknown shooter. He was responding to a call in the heart of Grapeseed and dashcam evidence shows the suspect murdering him in cold blood, including put several shots into Winchester's head after he had already collapsed. Winchester was barely alive when he arrived at Paleto Bay Hospital, which he was taken to despite better medical hardware at Sandy Shores, and the fact Pillbox Hill isn't much farther than Paleto Bay.

The wounds inflicted on Winchester were all in the head and neck, it is unlikely that anyone could have survived the wounds he had.

## Personal Life

#### Family Connections

John Winchester's grandfather is famous for being the owner of the Union Pacific Railroad, a prominent businessman in West Elizabeth, leader of the Continental Army and War Minister of President Rockford Merks.

His Great-Uncle was Oliver Winchester who was the founder of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and also the 52nd Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.

#### Political Views

Winchester has demonstrated consistent conservative views throughout his political career and in his personal life. He has run as an independent for most of his political career until 2021 when he announced that he would be forming the Conservative Party of the State of San Andreas.