Gary Johnson Was a Quiet Unassuming Man With a Big Secret — He Pretended to Be a Hit Man

If you Google the words "murder-for-hire plot," the internet will provide a seemingly endless amount of stories where someone was trying to employ a contract killer. Sadly, some of them are successful while others are foiled before the tragic deed can be carried out. The motivation behind these crimes often appears to be either financial in nature or related to adultery. What they all have in common is one person's inability to face a problem in a normal, rational fashion. Just get a divorce!

There is also a third less common scenario when it comes to paying someone to kill another person. What if the exchange between a would-be murderer and a potential client was all a ruse? Gary Johnson is a man who you might not remember in a crowd, which is why he was the perfect person to become a fake hit man. Some of his stories got the fictional treatment in Richard Linklater's Hit Man. That's a lot of fake news! Where is this imitation assassin now? Here's what we know.

According to The U.S. Sun, Johnson died in 2022 with a lifetime's worth of stories under his belt. The first time the world became aware of the fake hit man was back in October 2001 when Texas Monthly introduced readers to a mild-mannered Clark Kent type who indeed had a super secret. He was a faux killer.

At the time, Johnson lived just north of Houston with his two cats and the goldfish that resided in a pond in his backyard. He was introspective and often sat next to said pond reading great works by scholars and authors like Shakespeare, Ghandi, and Carl Jung. Johnson's neighbors described him as polite and gentle and would have been surprised to learn that he was always just a phone call away from a possible hit.

A telephone in Johnson's bedroom would occasionally ring when law enforcement needed him to lend a helping hand. "We’ve got something for you," they would say. "A new client." Johnson was always available to be whatever they needed with a new name and identity every time. "For the past decade, more than sixty Houston-area residents have hired him to shoot, stab, chop, poison, or suffocate their enemies, their romantic rivals, or their former loved ones," reported Texas Monthly.

Many a police officer has done what Johnson did, but he was widely regarded as the Laurence Olivier of this field. Johnson is a chameleon who can blend in with an ultra-wealthy woman looking to bump off her husband or pal around with a working-class guy who wants out of a marriage so he can be with another woman. How did he get here? It's simple: Johnson is curious about the human brain.

After spending a year in Vietnam as a military policeman, Johnson continued with law enforcement in his home state of Louisiana. However, he harbored dreams of one day teaching psychology, which is what led him to a master's degree in psychology from McNeese State University. After moving to Houston in 1981 with a goal of entering the University of Houston’s doctoral program in psychology, Johnson was forced to pivot when he wasn't accepted into their program.

Soon he found himself working as an investigator for the Houston district attorney's office. He gathered evidence for prosectors, but this work wasn't scratching the psychological itch Johnson had. Then in 1989, his life was changed forever when a woman named Kathy Scott wanted to hire someone to kill her husband. This made its way to the DA's office where out of nowhere, Johnson was told he would be playing the part of the hit man.

This allowed Johnson to explore his interest in psychology by inventing a person who didn't exist, then embodying them completely. Suddenly Johnson was a biker with a violent streak or a remorseless psychopath who got off on killing people. It was almost fun, except for the murder parts. While speaking with Texas Monthly, Johnson said there wasn't any longevity to this kind of life, but it was interesting while it lasted. With the Hit Man movie, Johnson's story has once again found new life. It's really more of an actor on actor tale.