John's Journal

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John's Journal is one of the iconic items of Supernatural. It provides an invaluable source of information about supernatural creatures and lore, and is a symbol of the Winchester 'family business'.


Journal keeping appears to be a hunter's tradition - other hunter's journals include those kept by Samuel Colt, Moishe Campbell, Daniel Elkins, Bobby Singer, Gordon Walker and Jo Harvelle.


John kept his journal from early on in his hunting life. At the age of eight, it is from the journal that Sam finally discovers the truth about supernatural beings, and what his father does.


The journal comes into Dean and Sam's possession when John leaves it his motel room in Jericho, California, before disappearing. The Journal (which Sam and Dean most frequently refer to as "Dad's Journal") seems to hold a large body of John's Hunting knowledge, though not all. As time goes on, Sam & Dean comment on the information that John has left out of the Journal. Nevertheless, Sam and Dean frequently use it as their first point of reference when investigating a job. Interestingly, Sam and Dean never start their own journals.


The Official Website has a reproduction of John's Journal

See also:

Significant Journal episodes

  • 1.01 Pilot - John leaves the Journal in his motel room in Jericho, California; Sam and Dean claim it & use it to research the Woman in White. John leaves the co-ordinates for Lost Creek on a page with Dean's name.
  • 1.02 Wendigo - After the Wendigo has taken all of their equipment, Sam takes Dean aside and asks for John's Journal that he opens to

a page that shows John's entry on Wendigos that has a drawing that John made along with all of the Anasazi symbols that the Wendigo cannot cross.

  • 1.09 Home - Dean reveals the first line - "I went to Missouri and I learned the truth". There is a glimpse of the front cover of the journal (see screencap) from which we can find out about John's military history.
  • 1.10 Asylum -The boys find reference in John’s journal to kids who disappeared from the south wing of the Asylum in 1972
  • 1.19 Provenance - John's Journal records the history of deaths related to the painting. Sam connects up John's pattern with the painting's Provenance. This page we glimpse of the Journal appears in Jo's Blog, captioned "page from Gordon's logbook"
  • 2.01 In My Time Of Dying- Sam looks up Reapers in the journal. While he finds nothing to help Dean, Dean notes that reapers can alter human perception, and deduces that Tessa is a reaper.
  • 2.09 Croatoan - Sam speculates that what's happening to people could be related to a theory in John's Journal, that Croatoan is the name of a demon associated with plague and pestilence, and calls what's going on "demonic germ warfare".


  • 2.17 Heart - Sam finds lore in his father’s journal that suggests that if the “sire” of someone who is a werewolf is killed, they will be released from the curse. Sam reads from the journal: “Lycanthropy might have a cure if you kill the werewolf who bit you severing the bloodline.”
  • 3.03 Bad Day at Black Rock - Sam and Dean commiserate over the fact that John said nothing in his journal about his Lock-up and the supernatural artifacts within it.

Dean has the journal with him when Castiel sends him back to 1973 and he uses it to track where Azazel will attack next. he shows [{Samuel]] how John documented all possible signs related to and appearances of Azazel.

  • 4.15 Death Takes A HolidayDean reads the journal while he and Sam prepare a ritual in a graveyard to speak to the last person to die in the town of Greybull Wyoming.
  • 4.19 Jump the Shark - Sam uses the journal to point out to Dean that Adam might, in fact, be their half-brother. A page that dated close to the time Adam would have been conceived had been torn out.
  • ''6.01 Exile On Main St. Now that he's not hunting, Dean has stored the Journal in a strong box containing his leather jacket.
  • 6.12 Like A Virgin- While researching lore on dragons, Sam is going through John's Journal looking to see if John made any entries on Dragon's to which Dean says there isn't, and Sam has a deja vu moment when he's sees John's entries on Skinwalkers and asks Dean if they hunted one lately to which Dean says no since he doesn't want to prompt any of Sam's memories about what happened when he didn't have his Soul.

The Journal in Tie-ins

Panels from Origins 2

Official Website

The Official Website is home to an electronic version of John's Journal. The first handful of pages have diary entries written by John immediately following Mary's death. You can read a transcription here.

Following the "diary entry" pages are mocked-up pages of the journal containing notes, newspaper clippings and other scribbles. You can find transcriptions & screencaps here.

The website implies John staretd the journal the day of Mary's funeral.

Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal

This book by Alex Irvine is a reproduction of John's journal from 1983 until the events preceeding the Pilot. It includes extensive notes on John's hunts, and tracks the family's life over these years.

Supernatural: Origins

The Supernatural tie-in comic, Origins, somewhat contradicts the Official Website canon; John is given the blank journal by a character called Fletcher Gable, who he visits after he meets Missouri.

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