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{{RecurringCharacters
|image=[[File:OG JohnWinchester.jpg|350px]]<br>[[File:YoungJohnWinchester.jpg|350px]]
|name= John Eric Winchester
|actor= [[Jeffrey Dean Morgan]]<br>[[Matthew Cohen]] (Young John)<br>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5495146/ Nels Gulofen] (Child John)
|dates= 1954 - July 19, 2006 (killed by [[Azazel]])
|location= [[Heaven]] (currently)<br>[[Lawrence, Kansas]] (formerly)
|occupation= Marine<br>Mechanic<br>[[Hunter]]<br>[[Vessel]] for [[Michael]] ([[5.13 The Song Remains the Same|5.13]])
|episodes= [[1.01 Pilot]]<br>[[1.04 Phantom Traveler]] (voice only)<br>[[1.09 Home]]<br>[[1.10 Asylum]] (not seen)<br>[[1.11 Scarecrow]]<br>[[1.16 Shadow]]<br>[[1.18 Something Wicked]]<br>[[1.20 Dead Man's Blood]]<br>[[1.21 Salvation]]<br>[[1.22 Devil's Trap]]<br>[[2.01 In My Time of Dying]]<br> [[2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two]]<br>[[4.03 In the Beginning]]<br>[[4.13 After School Special]] (not seen)<br>[[5.13 The Song Remains the Same]]<br>[[8.12 As Time Goes By]]<br>[[9.07 Bad Boys]] (not seen)<br>[[11.04 Baby]] (vision)<br>[[14.13 Lebanon]]
}}
{{Quotation
|title=
|text= You gotta understand somethin'. After your mother passed, all I saw was evil. Everywhere. And all I cared about was, was keepin' you boys alive. I wanted you prepared. Ready. So somewhere along the line I uh, I stopped being your father, and I, I became your, your drill-sergeant. So when you said that you wanted to go away to school, all I could think about, my only thought was, that you were gonna be alone. Vulnerable. Sammy it just, it never occurred to me what you wanted. I just couldn't accept the fact that you and me... we're just different.
|author= John Winchesterto [[Sam]]
|source= [[1.20 Dead Man's Blood]]
}}
{{Quotation
|title=
|text= You know, when you were a kid, I'd come home from a hunt, and after what I'd seen, I'd be, I'd be wrecked. And you, you'd come up to me and you, you'd put your hand on my shoulder and you'd look me in the eye and you'd... You'd say 'It's okay, Dad' [...] You shouldn't have had to say that to me, I should have been saying that to you. You know, I put, I put too much on your shoulders, I made you grow up too fast. You took care of Sammy, you took care of me. You did that, and you didn't complain, not once. I just want you to know that I am so proud of you.
|author= John Winchester to [[Dean]]
|source= [[2.01 In My Time of Dying]]
}}
}}
John Winchester was [[Sam]] and [[Dean]]'s father, and son of husband to [[Henry Mary Winchester]]; a member of the [[Men of Letters]], making John a legacy. Born in Normal, Illinois, he was four when his father disappeared. John thought Henry had simply left, not knowing that his father had fled through time to escape the grasp of the [[Knight of Hell]], [[Abaddon]]. Had Henry not left, John most likely would've been initiated into the Men of Letters.<ref>[[8.12 As Time Goes By]]</ref>
[[File:John&Henry.jpg|thumb|right|350px|A photo of a young John and [[Henry Winchester]].]]
After returning to [[Lawrence, Kansas]], from the Vietnam War where he served as a marine, John worked as a mechanic and was eventually co-owner (with [[Mike Guenther]]) of a garage. On March 23, 1972 after seeing the film Slaughterhouse-Five, Mary Campbell bumped into John Winchester, knocking him down. While Mary was embarrassed, John simply laughed it off, and told her she could get him a cup coffee to make it up to him. The two would go to Mulroney's Diner and talk. When John asked for Mary's number, she gave it to him, despite knowing her father wouldn't approve. [[Heaven]] was also interested in bringing together the lines of [[hunter]]s and [[Men of Letters]], and so a [[cherub]] intervened, causing the two to fall in love.<ref>[[5.14 My Bloody Valentine]]</ref> John and Mary's marriage was not always happy, and at least once he moved out of the family home.<ref name="five16">[[5.16 Dark Side of the Moon]]</ref>
John was unaware of Mary's life as a hunter. He , but did learn of this when Sam and Dean return to 1978 protect their parents from the [[angel]] [[Anna]],who had gone back in time to prevent Sam from being born by killing John and Mary.<ref>[[5.13 The Song Remains the Same]]</ref> but his memory is wiped of this information John consented to being possessed by [[Michael]], following thinking it would help save Mary, allowing Michaelto kill Anna. Afterwards, John and Mary's possession memories are wiped of John in order to kill the encounter with the angels and Sam and Dean by [[AnnaMichael]].
When Mary was murdered by Azazel in 1983, John raised their two sons, Sam and Dean, alone. Mary's marriage mysterious death became an obsession for John, who sought to learn what happened that night and kill the thing that pinned Mary to the ceiling. His quest for revenge led him [[Missouri Mosely]], who revealed to John the world of the supernatural. After taking to the hunter life, John moved his family from town to town following leads on supernatural creatures (telling Sam that he was not always happya traveling salesman). In the early days, and he would often leave the boys with other hunters like [[Pastor Jim]] or with babysitters he'd find at least once motels, but sometimes he moved out of left them to fend for themselves for days or even weeks<ref name="four19">[[4.19 Jump the family homeShark]]</ref>.<ref name="three08">[[3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas]]</ref><ref name="five16four13">[[54.16 Dark Side 13 After School Special]]</ref> Though he never settled anywhere for very long, John did establish a [[John's lock-up|lock-up]] where he stored weapons (including landmines and grenades), [[curse boxes]], and mementos from Sam and Dean's childhood. When Dean was six or seven, John began training him to use a shotgun, while keeping Sam unaware of the Moonhunting. Sam believed John was a salesman until he read [[John's Journal]] when he was eight.<ref name="three08">[[3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas]]</ref>
In 1990, unbeknownst to Sam and Dean, John fathered was injured on a child with nurse hunt in Windom, Minnesota, and went to the hospital where he met [[Kate Milligan]]. Though During a brief fling, he got her pregnant, although he didn't meet his son -- [[Adam Milligan]] didn't meet John -- until he was 12-years-old, . John had sporadic contact with Adam from 2002 until John's death in 2006. As While John raised Sam and Dean in a very militant and non-conventional environment, it seemed he used his time with Adam to do more traditional father-son activities, such as going to a baseball game, games that he either couldn't or wouldn't do with his older two sons.<ref name="four19">[[4.19 Jump the Shark]]</ref>
===Middle name===
* Full name given on the tombstone in the alternative reality of episode [[2.20]]: John E. Winchester* At [[Comic-Con 2008]], Eric Kripke [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxxFxhSrrTQ confirmed] that John's middle name was Eric.* In [[11.23 Alpha and Omega]], [[Lady Antonia Bevell]] has cork board with information on the family. John's full name is written as John Edward Winchester. However as other information such as as Sam's birth date are incorrect, the veracity of any of the information there is in doubt.
==Episodes==
'''22 years later'''<br>
Dean visits Sam at [[Stanford]], telling him that John has gone missing. Sam reluctantly accompanies Dean to Jericho where John was on a case, but while they find his motel room, and belongings including [[John's Journal]], he is not there.
===[[1.04 Phantom Traveler]]===
===[[1.11 Scarecrow]]===
[[Dean]]’s cell rings, and [[Sam]] answers to hear his father’s voice. John expresses sympathy at the murder of [[Jess]], and for the first time reveals that he knows that what killed Mary and Jess was a [[demon]]. John tells Sam that he must stop looking for him and he starts to give Sam details of a new hunt, but Sam argues that he wants to help John hunt the demon. Dean grabs the phone and takes the details from John about couples who have gone missing near BurkitsvilleBurkittsville, Indiana.
Later , [[Sam]] leaves [[Dean]], intending to travel to California and find John. However, he returns after Dean goes missing on the case, he returns saying that while he still wants to find John, he and Dean need to stick together.
===[[1.12 Faith]]===
[[File:John-Daeva.jpg|thumb|right|350px|John being attacked by a [[daeva]].]]
===[[1.14 Nightmare]]===
After the Winchesters' encounter with [[Max Miller]] - another boy who acquired powers after the demon visited him as a child and killed his mother, -- Sam notes for the first time that they were lucky to have John as a father; where Max's father turned his anger and rage at the loss of his wife on to his son, John channeled his grief at the creatures that killed Mary while doing what he could to protect his children.
===[[1.16 Shadow]]===
When [[Sam]] and [[Dean]] encounter [[Meg]] in Chicago and realize she is linked to the [[demon]] that killed [[Mary]] and [[Jess]], Dean calls John. He later arrives and Dean embraces him warmly. John reveals that Meg was trying to kill him because he is hunting [[Azazel|the demon]] with the intention of killing it, something he isn't sure is possible but which he is determined to try. Just as he reunites for the first time in years with Sam, greeting him warmly and showing some regret that it has been so long, they are attacked by [[daeva]]s and are nearly killed before Sam manages to dispel them with flares. Afterward, Dean supports John when he says it is too dangerous for them all to be together, and they part with John promising that the fight is just beginning and that they will be a part of it.
[[File:JohnSavesSam.jpg|thumb||left|350px|John saves [[Sam]] and [[Dean]] from a [[shtriga]].]]
===[[1.18 Something Wicked]]===
[[Dean]] reveals to [[Sam]] that in 1989 when John was hunting a [[shtriga]], he left Dean and Sam alone. When the shtriga attacks attacked Sam, John returns returned just in time to save him. In the present, John sends them the coordinates to Fitchburg, Wisconsin, knowing the shtriga is there and that killing it is unfinished business for Dean.
===[[1.20 Dead Man's Blood]]===
Following up on the death of the hunter [[Daniel Elkins]], Sam and Dean are surprised when John arrives. He tells them about [[the Colt]], a gun that can kill any supernatural beings, which he know now realizes Elkins had. Together they fight the [[vampires]] that killed Elkins, and retrieve [[the Colt]], although John and Sam clash almost immediately and argue. John tries to send Sam and Dean to safety while he confronts the vampires, but he is nearly killed. However, Sam and Dean defy him and return, saving his life. John then kills the vampire leader [[Luther]] with the Colt. After the hunt, John finally realizes that Sam and Dean are right and decides to continue hunting the demon with Sam and Dean.
===[[1.21 Salvation]]===
As hunters they know start being killed, the Winchester start the begin to hunt for the [[demon]] in earnest, following signs, that John has learned are associated with its appearance, to Salvation, Iowa. [[Sam]] has a vision concerning a young woman and her baby, suggesting she is a target of the demon. John is angry that the boys hadn't told him about Sam's visions, but Dean stands up to him, berating him for almost never picking up the phone whenever they called.
When [[Meg]] calls she demands [[the Colt]], killing his friend [[Caleb]] as John listens. John plans a ruse to give her a fake Colt, as Sam and Dean take the real Colt to kill the demon. Both plans go wrong, when John is captured, by Meg and [[Tom]] and the demon eludes the boys.
===[[1.22 Devil's Trap]]===
[[Sam]] and [[Dean]] turn to [[Bobby]] for help. When [[Meg]] turns up, they capture her, and manage to find out John's location. The boys rescue John, and take him to a remote cabin. It is while he is telling Dean he is proud of him that Dean gets suspicious and realizes that John is possessed by [[the Yellow-Eyed Demon]]. He taunts Dean and Sam and is killing Dean when John manages to wrest control for a moment, and allow Sam to get control of the Colt. Sam , however , can't shoot to kill and the demon escapes after Sam only shoots John in the leg. As they escape in the [[Impala]], a demon-possessed [[Trucker|truck driver]] totals the car.
===[[2.01 In My Time of Dying]]===
All the Winchesters are in the hospital, with [[Dean]] near death, when . When [[Sam]] discovers John is planning on pursuing the [[Yellow-Eyed Demon]], they argue. John promises to hold off until Dean recovers, but actually summons the Yellow-Eyed Demon and makes a deal - his life for Dean's.
John has a final few moments with his sons. He tries to make peace with [[Sam]], and then whispers a secret to [[Dean]]. The secret is later revealed to be John's warning to Dean: Dean needs to save Sam, but if he can't, Dean will have to kill his brother.
In a dream world created by a [[djinn]] where [[Mary]] was never killed, John died of a stroke at approximately the same time as he died in the real world. He apparently played in a softball team in this world.
When [[Dean]] learns that, in the world where he and [[Sam]] are not hunters, the people he saved are all dead, he goes to John's grave to talk about his frustration over the idea that they have to sacrifice their chance at normal lives for others, but . He admits in the endthat, while he doesn't know what the John of this world would say, the father who raised him would remind him that he cannot let others suffer for his stakesake.
===[[2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two]]===
When [[Jake Talley]] manages to open the [[Devil's Gate in Wyoming]] using [[the Colt]], John escapes from [[Hell]] and saves [[Dean]] from the [[Yellow-Eyed Demon]]. John distracts the [[demon]] by temporarily pulling him out of its his [[meatsuit]] long enough for Dean to retrieve the Colt and finally kill him as the demon returns to his body. John then shares an emotional moment with his sons and disappears in a flash of white light.
{|align="center"
===[[4.03 In the Beginning]]===
[[File:Deanjohnimpala.jpg|thumb|right|350px|John in 1973 with [[Dean]] and the [[Impala]].]]
Back in 1973, [[Dean]] meets a young John Winchester, not long returned from Vietnam. Dean follows John to a car lot, where he suggests his father buy the '67 Chevy Impala instead of an old VW van. Dean introduces himself as Dean Van Halen and assures John that the car will still be "bad-ass when it's 40." Dean tries to get info about any mysterious events but John doesn't know anything. Dean follows John on a date with [[Mary Campbell]] - who whom John is planning to propose to.
Later, as Mary decides to elope with John to escape a life of hunting, he is killed by [[Azazel]]. So she She makes a deal to bring John back to life - his life in return for letting Azazel access to her house ten years in the future, when unknown to her he will feed [[demon blood]] to baby Sam.
===[[4.04 Metamorphosis]]===
===[[4.19 Jump the Shark]]===
[[Sam]] and [[Dean]] learn that John had a son with [[Kate Milligan]], a nurse he met January 1990. She worked as a nurse, when he was injured during a hunt. [[Adam Milligan]] was born on September 29, 1990. He didn't have any contact with John until he was twelve, after which John showed up at some of Adam's various birthdays to buy him his first beer or take him to baseball games. Adam lost last saw John "a couple of years ago", so perhaps some time in 2007. In 1990, John killed a [[ghoul]]; now its children want revenge on John, and use Adam and Kate to lure John in. Adam and Kate both die.
===[[5.13 The Song Remains the Same]]===
[[Castiel]] takes [[Sam]] and [[Dean]] to 1978 to save their parents from [[Anna]], who is trying to kill them. John is shocked to learn the truth about the supernatural, and that Mary was raised as a hunter. When Sam reveals he and Dean, were also raised that way too, John, unaware of their true identity, criticizes their father. Sam gets a chance to defend his father and says he now understands better that John tried his best, and that he loves him.
When [[Anna]] and [[Uriel]] attack the family, John is injured. [[Michael]] appears and asks for John's permission to take him over as a [[vessel]] and save Mary. John consents. Later Michael erases all memory of the events from John and Mary.
===[[5.16 Dark Side of the Moon]]===
While in [[Heaven]], Sam and Dean meet [[Ash]], who informs them that he has been unable to locate John, [[Mary]], [[Ellen]] , or [[Jo]] in [[Heaven]], despite his success in tracking down psychic [[Pamela Barnes]].
[[File:John_Winchester_-_child.png|thumb|left|350px|John Winchester when he was a child.]]
===[[9.17 Mother's Little Helper]]===
While on a final assignment before he is properly initiated into the [[Men of Letters]], [[Henry Winchester]] begins to show doubt about joining the group. Confessing He confesses to [[Josie Sands]] his worry that if something were to happen to him, he doesn't know who would take care of John and his mother.
===[[10.05 Fan Fiction]]===
Sam and Dean are investigating monster-related kidnappings at an all-girls academy, and find themselves confronted with a musical based on [[Chuck Shurley]]'s [[The Supernatural Books|''Supernatural'' book series]]. A girl plays John in the musical, and the songs "[[The Road So Far]]" and "[[A Single Man Tear]]" mention the way John's raising of Sam and Dean have negatively impacted their sense of autonomy and free will. At the end of the play, several cast members, including [[Mary Winchester|Mary]], [[Bobby Singer|Bobby]] , and John , perform a rendition of "[[Carry On Wayward Son]]."
===[[10.09 The Things We Left Behind]]===
While at a bar sulking, Castiel asks Sam and Dean if they love their father. Despite not having had an easy childhood, they both say they do. Sam and Dean tell [[Castiel]] a story about one a time when they and John were investigating a haunting on Long Island, New York. They beg begged him to take them to New York City, despite John's distaste for New York (and the Yankees) he was eventually talked into taking them into the city for sightseeing and pizza. Later that night , as John and Sam were asleep, Dean sneaks snuck off to visit CBGB CBGBs despite being underage. There, a woman invites invited him to drink with her and her friends. He gets got drunk for the first time, so much that according to Dean, "the room starts to spin, and I feel like I'm going to puke forever." John finds found Dean and rescues rescued him from the situation, intimidating everyone in the bar with his militaristic appearance and tone of voice. Dean recalls telling John that he embarrassed him, and that he hated John, to which John replies, "Son, if you don't like me, that's fine. It's not my job to be liked. It's my job to raise you right." Dean tells Castiel asks Sam and Dean if they loved their father, they both say they dothat John succeeded in that.
===[[11.04 Baby]]===
While driving to Quaker Valley, Oregon , to check out a possible case, believing [[Sam]] to be exhausted, [[Dean]] tells him to get in the back and get some rest. Suddenly Sam is awakened by Judy Collin’s Collins's "Someday Soon" playing on the radio. He asks Dean what he's listening to, only to find the younger version of John Winchester in the driver's seat. Sam believes he's having another vision. John says he is only here to deliver a message -- that [[the Darkness]] is coming and only the boys can stop it. Sam insists that there should be a way to stop the Darkness and that John needs to tell him, but John only answers, “[[God]] helps those who help themselves.” Sam asks John one last question before he wakes up: “Who are you?” After waking up, Sam tells Dean about the dream and his belief that it was someone masquerading as John to deliver a message. When Sam points out that John told him everything he wanted to hear, Dean agrees that that didn't sound like their father at all, but brushes off Sam's claims that it could be [[God]] responding to his [[prayer]]. Dean admits that he dreams about their father all the time, usually a dream where John is teaching Dean how to drive when he's sixteen, not a young boy as when John actually taught him, with Sam in the back seat and John telling him "perfect landing son" when they get home. The dream, which Dean has every couple of months, is something that he finds comforting. Sam says he usually has the same type of dream about their mother - a dream of a normal life with their parents.
===[[11.15 Beyond the Mat]]===
When [[Dean]] finds the obituary of a wrestler John was a fan of, he and Sam reminisce that watching wrestling was one of the few moments they could remember seeing him actually happy. Dean considered their time at wrestling shows as the nicest thing John ever did for them.
===[[12.15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell]]===
==Age Speculation==
* A draft script of the [[1.01 Pilot]] places John's age at 30 when Mary dies (therefore early '50s at present).
* [[John's email address]], jwinchester1246@gmail.com, could be read to refer to his birthdate - December 1946. This fits with the use of Mary's date of death throughout the show (it is used as a lock combination, or referred to as 110283 or 1183). This would place John at age 60 in 2006.
* John cannot plausibly have been born any later than 1957 (so as to have been 18, and in the Marines, in 1975). Considering the notes below about Vietnam force reduction, the likelihood is high that he turned 18 before 1971 (in which case his birth year would be 1953 or earlier). This is supported by the fact that he is clearly at least a few years old in [[8.12 As Time Goes By]].
* In an alternate reality experienced by Dean, John's gravestone indicates he was born in 1954. This would mean he was in his early fifties at his death. <ref>[[2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be]]</ref> Henry Winchester, John's father, disappeared when he was four years old in 1958. This confirms that the year he was born was 1954.
}}
John tended to work alone and avoid other hunters, although many appeared to know him or know of him and he seemed to have a good reputation as a hunter. According to [[Jo's Journal]], John used to visit the [[Roadhouse]] before her father's death in 1995. [[Ellen]] infers that her husband's death was John's fault - they were both usually solo hunters, who were hunting together, when Bill died.<ref>[[2.06 No Exit]]</ref> While in Heaven, [[Ash]] told Dean and Sam that he searched for John Winchester when he arrived, but he reported that he hasn't seen John.<ref name="five16" />
* [[Bobby Singer]] - Knew John since the boys were small. The last time he saw John alive, they argued and Bobby pointed and cocked a shotgun at him.
==John's Military History==
[[ImageFile:DogtagsJohn's_Dog_Tags.jpgpng|right|thumb|John's dog tags.]]
In [[2.09 Croatoan]], Dean says that John was a Corporal in the Marine Corps, with company 'Echo 2/1' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Battalion_1st_Marines 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, Echo company]). Sam reiterates this to [[Stan Thompson]] in [[8.08 Hunteri Heroici]].
It's unlikely John graduated from high school. The badges/medals/photos in his journal (see below) suggest he was a rifleman. High school graduates were almost always sent to aviation or communication schools, rather than combat arms.
The Tet Offensive , that marked the escalation of the North Vietnamese offensive against the the South Vietnamese, along with the United States Armed Forces and their allies, took place in January 1968. It is possible that this got John all fired up with patriotic fervor and he decided to screw school and enlist in the Marines. If he joined with his parents' permission, he could have been seventeen at this point. At that stage in the war, recruits were given four months of training then shipped straight out to Vietnam, so he would have been there by June 1968, by which time American bombing was already being curtailed and negotiations were beginning. Even so, it would be another year until troop withdrawal began.
Given the timing of the events in [[4.03 In the Beginning]] (April 1973), and the knowledge that he'd just returned from Vietnam, he would've had to have joined in 1971 in order to have served 2-years. If the headstone in [[2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be]] is true, then John would have turned 17 in April 1971, and this is the earliest he could have joined the Marines. Therefore, John didn't finish high school.
===Dog Tags===
* Vietnam Cease Fire : March 30, 1972 to March 28, 1973
Although the Marines were in Vietnam until the end of the war (assisting in the evacuation of US embassies, for example,) ground force reduction begins began in July of 1971. However, if Dean's statement was correct and John was in the 2nd Battalion 1st Marines (Echo 2/1), then he would have been reassigned to Camp Pendleton in June 1971.
[http://1stbattalion3rdmarines.com/usmc-units-vientam.htm USMC units in Vietnam]
, it confirms that, if John had joined as soon as he turned 17 (April 1971, see above), he would have spent practically no time in-country.
In April 1971 the battalion was sent to Da Nang to join the 3rd Marine Amphibious Brigade (IIIMAB). The battalion was in Da Nang for three months, until June 1971, and then it was sent to the newly -established Camp Pendleton in California. So John would have spent the majority of his military life on a safe, State-side base and not in the jungles of Vietnam.
==Trivia==
==See also==