John “Jack” Hollis lost his arms in a sorghum mill accident as a boy. In the 1870s he showed up in Stephenville and became a cowboy with violent tendencies. He used his stub arms to amaze people with his dexterity in eating, penmanship, and handling firearms. In 1877 or 1878, he traveled west to kill thirty-six buffalo, by tying a string to the trigger of his rifle and pulling it with his teeth. Jack learned to hold a six-shooter by placing it against his chest, held with his left stub, and cocking and firing it with his right stub. In 1880, when he was working as a cowboy near Duffau, Sheriff Slaughter arrested him for cattle theft. Hollis was able to escape, but was arrested again three years later. In December of 1886, he was involved in a brawl. During the fight he convinced a friend to tie a large rock in one sleeve of his coat. He returned to the fight and knocked out four men in ten minutes. Hollis later died of smallpox in El Paso.

James Pylant, Sins of the Pioneers: Crimes and Scandals in a Small Texas Town, Stephenville: Jacobus Books, 2009, 121-123.