Iron-Sights Jones (1867-) was a legendary African-American outlaw and bounty hunter of the Wild West. Born in Reconstruction-era Louisiana to a family of freedmen, he was orphaned during a white supremacist riot, and, years later, he avenged the deaths of his parents by gunning down all of his former neighbors. Jones was sent to prison for mass murder, only to escape with the help of Samuel Horley. He became a gunslinger-for-hire and hunter in the American West, and, in 1898, he partnered with the Arizona Kid and Little Pete, two fellow shootists, for several ventures which included defending population centers and outposts of civilization such as Fort Mercer from outlaw assaults, working for both lawmen (such as Sam Freeman) and criminals (such as Mama Watson), and hunting in the Great Plains and the Rockies. Outside of his partnership with Arizona, Iron-Sights acquired a reputation for himself as a legendary bounty hunter who made a fortune from apprehending the West's most dangerous criminals. He also underwent a personal quest of redemption for his earlier murderous days, during which time he had gotten himself into bar fights and killed prostitutes; after becoming a bounty hunter, he attempted to refrain from killing innocents, apart from occasional shootouts with the law or killings of witnesses to his crimes.
Jones was a Republican due to the party's pro-Black policies and support for entrepreneurship, even though he sympathized with the Democrat William Jennings Bryan's anti-establishment and populist views. Having taken a liking to the town of Strawberry, Jones was elected to the Montrose County, Colorado Board of Tax Assessors in 1898, collecting taxes from local citizens. However, Jones continued to engage in bounty hunting and outlawry while being involved in Coloradan politics.
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