John Winchester

John Eric Winchester was born April 22, 1954 in Lawrence, Kansas. He came from a "family of mechanics." Early on in his life, his mother died from cancer and his father followed shortly after, suffering from an apparent broken heart after the loss of his wife. In 1973, John met Mary Campbell and fell in love with her instantly. Her family, however, disapproved of the relationship between them. That wasn't enough to stop them, however and shortly after her parent's deaths, she and John finally married and settled in Lawrence, Kansas. They had two children who were four years apart: Dean (named after his grandmother, Deanna Campbell), and Sam (named after his grandfather, Samuel). Aside from a few rough patches in which John moved out of the family home, they were a happy couple. However, on the night of November 2, 1983, John's life changed forever when Mary was murdered by a demon in Sam's nursery, the night of his sixth month birthday. Seeing what had seen and after getting confirmation from Lawrence based psychic, Missouri Mosley, John packed the boys up and started his "career" of hunting the supernatural creatures that secretly inhabited our world.

Pre-Series

When John started hunting, he took the boys through several states, several schols. He was obsessed with finding the demon that killed Mary. However, for nearly twenty-five years, he never picked up a trail; that didn't stop him from going after other evil creatures and killing them. He was such a good hunter that he became known as a sort of legend. John, as a personal rule, never relied on other hunters to help him, preferring to work alone until his sons became old enough to help him. However, sonetimes he made exceptions to that rule. He met a few hunters who became sort of like family to him: Caleb, Bobby Singer (whom he would leave Dean and Sam with, and who Sam would refer to as "uncle Bobby"), Jim Murphy (who was a pastor and also someone that John trusted with the boys), and Bill Harvelle (who was killed on a hunt with John in 1995)

Sometime around 1989, John hunted a shtriga in Wisconsin, the shtriga had a MO of hunting children and making them sick enough to be in the hospital. The number of sick children was quickly becoming a sort of epidemic, and John took the case. When he went out to hunt it, he left ten-year-old Dean in charge of six-year-old, Sam. However, when John returned to their motel, he found a shtriga on the verge of attacking Sam and Dean sneaking up on it with a shotgun that had been left there to protect the boys. John instantly shoots the monster out the window and rushes to make sure that Sam is okay. Upon hearing that Dean had left Sam alone, John was infuriated and immediately packed the boys up, dropping them off with Jim Murphy and going back to hunt the creature, but by that time, it was already gone.

In 1990, while hunting a few ghouls in Windom, Minnesota he was injured and was taken to the local hospital where he met a young nurse Kate Milligan who nursed him back to health and they ended up sleeping together. This resulted in her getting pregnant--although John had no idea of this fact until nearly twelve years later. After wrapping up the ghoul case, he visited the RoadHouse which was run by hunters--a young, married couple named Bill and Ellen Harvelle. He became an unofficial member of their family, visiting the Roadhouse several times until 1995 when he and Bill went on a hunt together and it ended with Bill dying. John never forgave himself and for twelve years he didn't see Ellen.

Meanwhile, tensions were rising with him and his son, Sam. Sam had only ever wanted to be normal, he believed in the cause that his family was fighting for but also wanted a chance to be normal for once. He wanted school, friends and other things that he had been denied his entire life. He wanted things that just didn't go together with a hunters lifestyle--something that John told him right before he got his acceptance letter to Stanford. John and Sam had one of their worst fights ever when Sam announced that he was going. It ended with John telling Sam that if he left to never come back--Sam still went and for nearly three years, John did not have any contact with Sam.

It was around two months after Sam left that John got a call from an old friend of his: Kate Milligan, a nurse who had treated John in Windom, Minnesota where she worked as nurse in the ER department. She informed him that had a son named Adam who was about to turn twelve and wanted to meet John. When John heard he had another son, he raced to town, dropped everything to meet him. Their initial meeting included John taking Adam to a Minnesota Vikings Game and spending quality time with him. Over the following two to three years, John traveled to Windom whenever he was able to--which was about once year around Adam's birthday.

In 2004, there was a dark period where John and Adam saw each other due to the fact of Kate dating a complete loser. He had hit Adam and Adam had called John to come and get him. John had agreed and they spent a peaceful weekend together before John returned Adam to his mother after she had broken up with him. After that, things became easier with John taking Adam and Kate on a vacation to Yosemite National Park in California and doing more family oriented things with both of them instead of just with Adam.

After a nasty spirit hunt, John finally told Dean about his brother. Dean was understandably angry and hurt about the fact that John had chosen to hide this from him for so long but John impressed upon him the urge he felt to protect Adam from the life that his brothers and father led. He told Dean that he was only trying to protect Adam from suffering through the same things that his brothers had, he told Dean that the Winchester name was cursed and that was one of the reasons he never revealed anything until that time.

2005-2007-Season 1-2

Dean wanted to meet Adam and when they did, John became enraged when Dean started becoming hostile towards John and Adam. Tensions, though, disappeared and John continued to see Adam and Kate whenever he was able to. However, in late 2005, he got the first real lead on the demon that had killed Mary all those years ago. He got a lead that, first the demon had stopped in Palo Alto where Sam was currently living in an apartment near Stanford. When he got there, he saw that he had been too late to save Jessica and he noted that Sam was gone, he knew with Dean.

He describes this in a journal entry dated October 30, 2005

''It's gone. I was one step behind it. All the signs fit. A few tornados that caused the deaths, electrical storms that caused a few houses to burn to the ground. I can't figure it out. I've always been one step behind. I learned today that it made another pit stop: Palo Alto. It killed Jessica Moore, Sammy's girlfriend. My heart aches for him, aches for this poor girls family.''

''I would have given anything to prevent my son from experiencing the same kind of pain I went through with Mary. Anything. My next stop was there. Sam was gone. The apartment was destroyed. No traces of sulfur or anything that could be remotely demonically related. ''

John continued his search for the demon, disconnecting his phone line when he became fearful that the demon might target one of his contacts or friends. After a time, he connected it back only to be shaken to his core when he heard Dean's voice over the message saying that Adam's mother was dead and that sulfur had been found at her place. He wanted with all of his heart to go and be with Adam, to comfort him in this confusing and terrifying time. However, he knew that he still risked the chance of being followed so he didn't. As much as he wanted to, he didn't.

In June 2006, a few months after Kate's death, John receives a call from Dean asking him to hurry to Chicago, thinking that they had a lead on the demon that had killed thier Mom. John, knowing that it was most likely a trap, heads there anyway. Sure enough, when he gets there he gets there in time to see the demon Meg fall out a seventh story window at the warehouse. He decides to go to the boys' apartment and breaks in. When they finally do come back and see John for the first time, the boys share an emotional reunion with each other.

However, the moment didn't last long before shadow demons attacked them. The Winchesters barely made it out, but thanks to Adam thinking of using a flair, they were able to move. Once out on the street, Dean insists that John and Adam have to separate from them, that they're both weak with them there. John tries to argue but he realizes that Dean is right, he and Adam say a goodbye to Dean and Sam before going off on their own.

Over the next few months, John trains Adam to hunt and the two of them go on a series of hunts together. It was when John gets a call from one of his old buddies that he has serious doubts about bringing Adam. He heard that his friend, Daniel, had been killed by vampires and the colt gun-capable of killing anything supernatural-was missing. He tried leaving Adam with Bobby but was unable to do so after Bobby informed him that he was on a hunt in California. John hesitantly agrees to take Adam with him and two head together for Manning, Colorado.

Once there, they discover that by some strange coincidence, Sam and Dean had taken the same case. It had been the first time the family had seen each other since separating after the shadow attack. Almost immediately, old feelings arose between John and Sam, who spent the majority of the trip snapping at each other over petty things and fighting over small things. When John and Dean and Sam decide to go and check out a potential location for the vampires, John leaves Adam in charge of the truck until they come back. However, Adam is soon kidnapped by vampires and taken to their lair.

When John discovers that he is missing, he knows immediately what happened and he and the boys head back into the forest to find him. They get a visual on the lair but have no choice but to wait until the vampires head out to hunt before they can safely go in and get Adam. When they find him, they discover that he has a severe broken leg that ended up needing surgery on it. When Adam is released from the hospital, John decides to seek refuge with Bobby Singer, their old friend. Soon, John gets a lead on "the" demon in Salvation, Iowa. To be sure, he calls and gets confirmation from his old friend, Missouri Mosley.

Knowing that Adam could not safely accompany them, he goes upstairs and explains to Adam that he and Sam and Dean are heading out to find the demon. Adam freaks, thinking that John might die. He tells John that if he loses his life, Adam would have lost both of his parents. John explains to him that if he did nothing, he would be letting the demon go after another family and kill them. Adam soon relents and agrees to not come between John and the hunt. John and the boys then head immediately for Salvation, Iowa. On the way, John gets a call from his friend, Caeb who informs him that their friend, Jim Murphy had been killed by a demon, traces of sulfur had been found at his place. John assumes that it was the demon acting out because it knew they were getting close.

John was devastated by the loss of his close friend and immediately vowed to kill the demon no matter what it took. He orders them to go to all the local county hospital and get birth records for babies that would be six months old that night. When he returns to their motel room, the boys get a call from Meg, the demon who had attacked and killed Adam's mother, and who had killed Jim Murphy. She wants to talk with John, Sam plays dumb--pretending to not know where John is--she demands to speak with him. John agrees to speak with her, he is overcome with rage for this demon, he knows that she killed Kate and when he learns she killed Jim, he has a hard time reigning in his emotions.

Meg wants the Colt gun that John is currently in possesion of. He plays dumb and pretends to not know what she's talking about. She then heartlessly kills his friend, Caleb. He hears all this over the phone and is devastated once again by the loss of a friend. He vows to kill her. She demands the gun from him again, telling him that if he doesn't give it up, everyone that he has ever known or loved will die. He agrees to give her the gun, knowing that he plans to give her a fake one. When he hangs up with her, he faces Dean and Sam and tells them his plan and tells them in an emotional confession that all he wants is for Dean to have a home, Sam to have school, and for Adam to have his mother back and not know anything about this life.

He gives Sam and Dean the real Colt and warns them to be careful, to make every shot count. They plan on meeting up again the following day at Bobby's since John would be closer to Bobby's than Sam or Dean. John then drives to Lincoln where Meg is waiting for him. He knows that she's setting up a trap for him, so he makes all the precautions he can, including setting salt lines around his truck and blessing a vat of holy water so he can turn it on if needed. When he meets Meg, he doesn't expect her to test the gun, but that's exactly what happens when her friend, Tom, shoots her as a test. Enraged that the gun is a fake, they chase John through the factory they were in until their persuit is halted by the holy water. John makes it back to his truck and back to the motel where he rests for a few hours before getting back on the road. When he learns that Sam and Dean have been in a car accident in Salvation, he immediately knows that the demon is somehow behind it. He rushes to the hospital where he keeps a constant vigil by Dean's bedside where Dean is in a coma from his injuries.

Sam, who was lucky to escape the wreck relatively unharmed, is desperate to try anything to save Dean. He proposes finding a faith healer that could help them with their problem. John, however, knows that the chances of a faith healer helping them are slim to none. He is skeptical when Sam brings in a ouji board to try and contact Dean's spirit. However, his skeptcism soon turns to dispair and fear when he learns that a reaper is in the hospital killing off certain patients and that Dean is on it's list. John informs Sam that there is no known way to kill a reaper if it was there naturally. Sam angrily denies this, telling John that there had to be way. John tells him that if there is a way, he doesn't know it.

Unknown to Sam, John is already planning a way to bring Dean back: His plan was to make a deal with the demon, trade the Colt (and possibly his soul) to the demon if he brings Dean back. However, to do this, he needs the Colt and the gun is currently in the trunk of the wrecked Impala. He sends Sam to Bobby's where they had the car towed to his salvage yard. John had also given Sam a list of things that he needed Bobby to get him--ingredients for the summoning ritual. When Bobby tells Sam what the items are for, Sam becomes enraged and goes back to the hospital where he angrily confronts John about the ingredients, accusing him of caring more about finding the demon than his own son. John denies it and tells Sam that Dean was getting better. The doctors had taken him off the ventilator after he had started fighting it.

However, their moment of relief is shortlived when Dean flatlines. The doctors and nurses tried desperately to save him while John and Sam watched in horror, but Dean was gone. After his death, the tension between John and Sam was at a breaking point. Sam blamed John for Dean's death, and John says he blamed Sam for taking longer than was needed to get back to the hospital. The fight ends with John punching Sam after he questions John's devotion to Dean. Soon, though, they make up and go and kill their first demon--a Loch Ness Monster that had been killing local swimmers. After Adam's suggestion, John agrees to use Adam as bait, much to Sam's outrage. The ruse worked and the monster was killed.

Shortly after, John receives a phone call from his friend, Ellen Harvelle who had been trying to reach him for the past several months but he had somehow missed them. He decides to visit her at the Roadhouse where she tells him that she can help him find the demon. She is stunned to hear of Dean's death, but greets his other children warmly. She introduces him to Ash, who according to Ellen, is a techno genius. He tries to help them but comes up with nothing of substance. He's discouraged by the lack of progress.

A week later, he gets a new case: A spirit was haunting an apartment building in Philadelphia where they inspect the apartment in question before being surprised by Ellen's daughter, Jo, who had come to the city to work the same case, not knowing that John and the boys would be there. John was hesitant to let her stay, remembering the time her Dad had died on his watch. Shortly after she arrives, Ellen calls and asks if Jo is with them. John tells her the truth, and while Ellen admits that she can't make her come back, she begs John to watch her, John promises he will.

However, while they are searching the apartment for victims, Jo is grabbed by the spirit when she went down an air shaft by herself. John blames himself for this and after prodding from Sam and Adam, he reveals what really happened the night her father died. He vows to get her back, and the group starts to search the apartment before they realize that the place she's in is actually in a field underground. They go down where John and the boys find Jo as well as the missing victims. He's relieved by this and tells Jo that he won't tell Ellen if she doesn't want him to, but that she deserves to know. Jo denies this and tells him that she'll see that as an excuse to send her back to school.

A few weeks after that, he gets a call from his old friend, Deacon who worked with him in the military and who, while not a hunter himself, had knowledge of what John did and what was out there. A spirit was haunting the prison he worked at as a guard. He didn't know who else to call, so he called John and asked him if he could help him out. John agreed hesitantly, knowing that his plan involved him and Sam getting arrested for breaking and entering. The weekend before he set the plan in motion, he took Adam to Windom for his sixteenth birthday. After Adam's birthday party, he left to pick Sam up and head for the prison.

The plan was successful, John and Sam ended up vanquishing the spirit of the prison nurse who had killed the guilty people in her life, and was now going around doing the same as a spirit. Deacon helped him and Sam escape and he returned to Bobby's house where Adam was waiting. The following week, Adam, Sam and John were working a case in Joliet, Illinois. John hadn't shared much information about the hunt with Adam other than to mention things in passing, as a result Adam felt cooped up in their motel, and bored. He sneaks out and almost immediately gets attacked by the thing that John was hunting a djinn. The djinn creats an alternate reality by looking into Adam's mind and seeing his deepest desires.

When John discovers that Adam is missing, he and Sam instantly start searching for him. By the time they find Adam, they find that he is strung up by his hands and the djinn had already drained almost half of his blood supply. They get him down but not before the djinn attacks John, who almost instantly kills him. John was shaken to his core by the attack and grounded Adam for breaking his rules and sneaking out. However, the grounding is later eased when Adam does a report that was above par.

Shortly after that, John gets a call from Jo Harvelle that the Roadhouse had been burned to the ground by demons and her mother was missing. John and the boys rush to Bobby's where Jo had taken refuge. Once there, John and t he boys quickly discover that Ellen is in fact alive and that there are demonic signs cropping up in a special part of Wyoming. Bobby quickly finds out that Samuel Colt (the original owner and maker of the Colt gun) had built iron railroad ways connecting to churches within a hundred miles of each other--all of the railroads connecting church to church made the shape of a Devil's trap when traced on a map. It was a hundred square mile Devil's Trap, an iron line that demons could not cross. It was a brilliant move on Colt's part, and something that the Winchesters and their friends had never seen before.

Shortly after that, they go to Wyoming to a cemetery where they find Jake, an associate of Azazel's making his move to open the Devil's Gates. After a short standoff, Jake is shot after making a threatening move toward Adam. However, the damage is done and the Devil's Gates open and therefore, release hundreds of demons from hell. Azazel crosses over and therefore starts a decade-in-the-making duel with John. During the fight, Azazel manages to get the Colt and is about to kill John when, seemingly out of nowhere, Dean's spirit appears and wrestles the demon from his host body. John watches in shock as the two fight before Azazel manages to throw him off and return to his body. But by that time, John had reclaimed the gun and fired the bullet--ending a twenty-three year quest for revenge.

Immediately afterword, John and Dean share an emotional reunion. Both are overcome with renewed grief for Mary, but also are overcome with relief at the fact that Azazel is finally dead for good. As John and Dean share their reunion, John notices that the hand that Dean had rested on his shoulder was solid, that he could actually feel it. Whereas before, it had just been something that John had envisioned and imagined, he noticed that now he could actually feel it. He looked in astonishment at Dean whose figure was also solid.

Before John could even blink, Dean had engulfed him a hug. John and Dean clung to each other, simply in shock at the events of the night. Though John was ecstatic to have Dean back, his mind was also overcome with grief at the knowledge that Dean had, for the past eight months-roughly, eighty years-in hell. During their standoff, Azazel had revealed to John that Dean had been tricked by his reaper, Tessa, that she had really been working for him to get a Winchester soul--he revealed that he really wanted John's, but settled for Dean's.

He tries to apologize to Dean, knowing that if he had known that the reaper hadn't been there naturally, he could have found a way to stop it. However, Dean refuses to let John apologize, insisting that John had had no possible way of knowing that the reaper was a servant for Azazel, that even he had been fooled into believing her and that it was only after agreeing to go with her did he know that he had been tricked. He begs John not to blame himself, and when John again tries to apologize, he begs John to quit talking about it, that they had forever to talk about it, but all he wanted to do was celebrate for a little while that they had finally killed the demon.

About a week after Dean's return, the boys see the signs of the war they have unwillingly unleashed. Several demons have decided to make their presence known and are manifesting themselves as the seven deadly sins. The Winchesters meet up with Bobby to see what they can do. While talking to him, they run into two of Bobby's friends-hunters-Tamara and Isaac. Tamara and Isaac don't trust the Winchesters because of the war they have started. However, John angrily insists that they did not knowingly do anything wrong. Things almost come to a head when Isaac questions John on bringing Adam into the life. However, John keeps his cool and tells Isaac the story of Kate's death.

Shortly after that, John learns of a murder in a department store. He and the boys nab the CCTV security footage and zero in on a possible suspect. They trail their guy to a local bar where, to their annoyance, Tamara and Issac are also there. They watch them from the safety of the car as the two hunters disappear inside. Shortly after, John and the boys make their move, knowing that the bar is demon possessed, they bang on the doors, hearing screams come from Tamara and Isaac. Unable to break through, John drives the Impala through the doors, breaking in and throwing holy water on the demons, before grabbing Tamara and shoving her in the car. Isaac had been killed by the demons, and she insisted that they go back and get him and kill the demons that did this.

He and Bobby pull Adam back after the demon they had captured taunted him by calling his mother a "slut". Shortly after that, a demon possessing Isaac's coprse, comes to the front door, yelling at her to come out, that he's alive. The Winchesters urge her to stay strong, reminding her that she saw Isaac dead with her own eyes. It was after the demon gets angry and taunts Tamara about the death of her daughter years prevoiusly that she finally snaps and runs outside, killing the demon with a special palo santo weapon.

After that, the effects of what she had done became apparent: She had broken through a protective salt ring that had been laid around the house leaving them vulnerable for demonic attack. And that is exactly what happened when the remaining deadly sins broke into the house. The battle took all night to win, but it eventually was won. After that, the group split up temporarily until John had found a case in Hood River, Oregon. The case involved the spirit of an insane, old drunk who, in life had gone around beating people up in drunken rages and starting fights. In death, his spirit had manifested itself into a murderous one. Several deaths had been reported in the forest where he used to live.

John and the boys plus Bobby go to the area to check it out. Pretty soon though, they discover the sobering fact that his bones are scattered meaning that they couldn't just salt and burn them like they would have done if the bones had all been together. Soon they have no choice but to go into the forest themselves and dig for the bones in select areas that were areas of interest. The boys manage to dig up about twenty of his bones, but nowhere near enough to successfully perform a salt and burn operation.

Shortly after that, the spirit makes it's appearance, flinging Adam into a tree before either of the guys could do anything to stop it. John blasts a round of salt into the thing before rushing over to Adam's side. He's concerned about Adam, but Adam insists that he is fine and just wants to continue on back to the camp. John hesitantly agrees and the group continues to move. However, when Adam begins showing more signs of the attack, John stops the group and goes over to further inspect his son's injuries. He calls Bobby over to inspect him further and when Bobby pulls him aside, he informs John that his son is suffering from a collapsed lung curtesy of a broken rib he got when the spirit threw him.

John is even more horrified to learn that the only treatment for this sort of thing is inserting a chest tube into his side to drain the blood that was pooling in there. John is agonized over this, knowing that that they only had the most basic of items to perform this and also knowing that it would have to be done without any sort of numbing medication. He knows it has to be done, though and follows Bobby out to where Adam is. John knows that the less Adam knows before he has to, the better. He instructs Adam to take his shirt off and lie down. John agrees to let Bobby do the procedure, so he can squarely focus on keeping Adam calm and providing comfort. He positions himself behind Adam and pulls Adam's head into his lap.

When John breaks the news to Adam of his condition, the teen instantly panics and tells the group that there are ways to treat a collapsed lung without the aid of a chest tube. However, as John tells Adam, there is no way of knowing how big or small the problem is at that moment and that it was better to be safe than sorry. Something that Adam doesn't agree with, but doesn't have a choice in the matter. John is grateful to Dean when Dean tries to distract Adam by playing games with Adam on his cell phone and showing him pictures of his old flame, Lisa Braeden. John knows that Bobby has to be able to perform the procedure with a clear view of the site and not be hampered by anything, so he instructs Adam to lift his left arm above his head and grasp John's hand. He does this, and John's heart clenches when Adam asks him to hold his hand tighter. John does, and waits impatiently for the procedure to start. He wants it over for Adam's sake.

When it finally does happen, Adam is devastated by this and tries to get away, but he was trapped since John was right behind him. John tries to keep him calm, telling him over and over that he was okay, and that he would be fine. He was relieved when the tube was finally in place, not wanting to see Adam in anymore pain than he had to. He instructs Dean and Sam to lie down a line of salt around them to protect against the evil spirit and then tells Adam to go to sleep, that they'll keep watch and won't let anything happen.

Shortly after that, John and the boys pack up after Adam's chest tube is removed. John was secretly terrified that he had almost lost Adam. He let other hunters take on the job and he and Adam moved on. After a two week period in which John tried his hardest to keep Adam from anything hunting or supernatural, they end up taking a case: John's old storage had been broken into and a curse box stolen. He and Adam trace the location through looking through the security footage from that night.There, John and Adam get into a fight with the two men keeping it before safely getting it and carrying it away.

Later, John explains to Dean and Sam that a Rabbit's foot, which was the object that had been stolen, caused bad luck and that whenever the person lost the foot, their luck would turn for the worse. He is horrified when Sam reveals that he accidentally touched the foot without knowing what would happen. Later, John is forced to reveal just how much he knew about Sam and his psychic abilities when two hunters who he knew, came to kill Sam because they thought he was evil. John beats them and demands to know what they were doing, when they tell John they are only doing it for the safety of everyone--Dean and Adam included, John breaks and tells him that he knew he would have to kill Sam but only if he couldn't save him first.

Sam is understandably stunned by this news and is hurt that John never told him. After that, John and Dean go to Queens, New York to find the waitress that they know took the rabbit's foot from them, therefore transferring the bad luck over to Sam. They confront the girl, Bela that took it and end up transferring the bad luck over to her when they throw the foot at her later in the cemetery. After that, John decided they all needed a little breather. He and the boys sought refuge at Bobby's place where they met up with Ellen and her daughter, Jo.