HE was described as “one of the greatest actors of his generation” and said to be the “perfect chameleon” who could transform himself for any role.
Yet Gary Johnson never set foot on a stage or starred in any film and appeared to be a straight-laced university professor and ‘human resources’ worker.
Unknown to many in his life, Gary – who died two years ago – worked as a fake hit man and his undercover work led to more than 60 arrests in a decades-long career.
Under the aliases Chris Buck, Mike Caine and Jody Eagle, he secretly recorded ‘clients’ soliciting hits for Harris County District Attorney’s Office, in Houston, Texas.
The staff investigator snared a range of people including a teenager looking to take out a love rival to a high-society wife, who offered him $200,000-worth of jewellery to kill her husband.
Gary’s former supervisor Michael Hinton told Texas Monthly: “He’s the perfect chameleon, Gary is a truly great performer who can turn into whatever he needs to be, in whatever situation he finds himself.
“He never gets flustered and he never says the wrong thing. He’s somehow able to persuade people who are rich and not so rich, successful and not so successful, that he’s the real thing. He fools them every time.”
Gary’s remarkable life story is the basis for the new Netflix comedy Hit Man, starring Glen Powell and directed by Richard Linklater. Here we look into the true story and cases behind it.
Prior to his job as an ‘assassin’ for hire, Gary served as a military policeman in Vietnam for a year and worked as a sheriff’s deputy in Louisiana.
In the mid-seventies, he moved to Port Arthur Police Department, in Texas, where he first went undercover posing as a junkie who wanted to get into dealing.
“I don’t think the drug dealers ever suspected I might be a cop because my personality was so weird to begin with,” Gary told Texas Monthly, back in 2001.
Despite his success in the role, his heart didn’t lie in law enforcement. At night, he was studying to become a psychology professor and gained a master’s degree.
After being rejected from a doctoral programme, Gary took a job as an investigator for the district attorney’s office in Houston.
There he was responsible for building evidence for cases, tracking down stolen automobiles, assisting with stakeouts and finding witnesses for upcoming trials.
In 1989, his life’s calling became clear when bosses asked him to pose as an assassin after receiving a tip-off about a woman looking to pay someone to kill her husband.
Gary invented the character Mike Caine, a “badass biker” who spoke in a “gruff manner” and went undercover.
He met lab technician Kathy Scott, then 37, who said “the perfect spot” to kill her husband was in a rough neighbourhood, which she branded “a drugs haven”, that he drove through on the way home from work.
She wanted him dead to get his money after getting incensed when he removed her name from their joint bank account – due to her spending – just four months into their marriage.
Kathy stood to gain $50,000 from an insurance policy, $47,000 in retirement benefits and two homes, collectively worth $175,000.
Gary accepted a $100 down payment and agreed to a $2,500 fee – half to be paid upfront and left in a Yellow Pages inside a phone booth at an agreed time.
“Are you sure you want this sucker killed?” Johnson asked her. “Yes,” she replied. Minutes later she was arrested by police.
It’s still amazing to me that he can turn on this other personality that makes people think he is a vicious killer.
Sunny, Gary's ex-wife
In court, Kathy’s lawyer argued she was coerced by the fake hitman and didn’t want him dead. But the jury were unconvinced and sentenced her to 80 years in prison.
‘Chillest dude imaginable’
Despite the nature of his work, Gary was described as the “chillest dude imaginable” and an “animal-loving Buddhist” in a description by the upcoming film Hit Man.
Away from his work, he lived alone with his two cats, Id and Ego and spent mornings outside feeding his goldfish in a small pond and meditating in his garden.
Gary taught two nights a week at a local college – lecturing on human sexuality and general psychology – and told neighbours he worked in “human resources”.
His ex-wife Sunny told Texas Monthly it was his relaxed personality that made him such a success and his profession was a surprise to the few who knew what he really did.
“The true essence of Gary is that he is a loner,” Sunny explained. “He’ll show up at parties and have a good time and he’s always friendly, but he likes being alone, being quiet.
“It’s still amazing to me that he can turn on this other personality that makes people think he is a vicious killer.”
Paid with video games
Gary’s work, which spanned the Nineties and Noughties, led to busts in a number of shocking cases. By 2001, the Washington Post reported that of the 60 arrests, 55 people had charges brought against them.
They included father Bobby Wigley, who asked him to “saw through the brake cable” of his wife’s car to kill her and their infant child to claim on life insurance policies.
Teenager Shawn Quinn, who was described as “a brilliant kid with an IQ of 131”, offered seven Atari computer games, three dollar bills and $2.30 in nickels and dimes to kill a love rival.
They were not going to be talked out of it and if they had not found me, they would have found someone else to do their killing for them – and that’s what is so scary.
Gary Johnson
There was also “highly-regarded” Houston police officer William Peoples, who offered $10,000 for a hit on his ex-wife because she was “costing him too much money in child support”.
In court, defence lawyers often claimed their clients had been coerced and egged on by Gary and others said they were too afraid to turn down someone they thought was a hitman.
But, Gary insisted it was clear they “were not going to back down” when listening to them speak on tape and that their “cognitive reasoning” was “far gone”.
He added: “They were not going to be talked out of it and if they had not found me, they would have found someone else to do their killing for them – and that’s what is so scary.”
Most famous case
Gary’s most famous case was of Lynn Kilroy, a former vice president of the Houstonaires Republican Women, who wanted her husband Billy dead because he was driving her “nuts” and so that she could run away with her new lover.
She feared her partner, who she had been married to for a year and was set to inherit a vast oil and gas fortune, would use his family’s funds to win custody of their six-month-old daughter.
Police were tipped off about the deadly plans and Lynn was put in touch with Gary.
In a hotel room, where a camera had been installed behind a TV, she asked Gary to assassinate Billy while he travelled home from an upmarket cigar bar.
For payment, she removed $200,000 worth of jewellery – including her wedding ring, an engagement ring with ten and a half carats of diamond and a pearl necklace.
Today people can pay to get their televisions fixed and their garbage picked up, so why can’t they pay me, a hit man, to fix their lives?
Gary
Lynn told him: “Do what you need to do.” To which, Gary replied, “You’re going to be a widow.”
The next day she was arrested and was sentenced to five years probation in 2001.
Staged death
Secretly recording his clients and receiving a form of payment was enough evidence to take most of Gary’s cases to court – but in one instance, he was forced to stage a death.
It followed him being solicited by a 60-year-old used-car salesman, who was unhappy that his wife would get half of their community property in an upcoming divorce.
The man, from Tomball, insisted he would only pay the $20,000 fee after seeing evidence that she was dead.
After telling the lady involved about the plot, she replied: “Good God almighty. How can you live with somebody this long who can hate you so much?”
Hit Man: the review
By Mamie Serah Mboob
Inspired by a true story about a fake hitman, this twist-fuelled neo-noir from director Richard Linklater – who also created School Of Rock and Boyhood – stars the charismatic Glen Powell as by-the-book professor Gary Johnson, who moonlights as a fake hitman for the New Orleans PD.
He’s a master of disguise with a strong track record at snaring people who want to bump off their enemies.
That’s until he finds himself drawn to one of them – the alluring but potentially lethal Madison (Adria Arjona) – and a steamy, dangerous affair begins.
Hit Man is available to stream on Netflix from Friday
They persuaded her to be photographed “lying ‘dead’ on a tarp” – to make it more realistic, ketchup was poured over the back of her head and her hands and feet were bound with duct tape.
Failed romances
Gary admits most people he caught were “not ex-cons” and had “spent their lives living within the law” – the majority, he said, never had so much as a speeding ticket.
“Yet they have developed such a frustration with their place in the world that they think they have no other option but to eliminate whoever is causing their frustration,” he added.
“They are all looking for the quick fix, which has become the American way.
I only trust dead people and my enemies, because I know where they stand.
Gary
“Today people can pay to get their televisions fixed and their garbage picked up, so why can’t they pay me, a hit man, to fix their lives?”
In Skip Hollandsworth’s profile for Texas Monthly, he reveals Gary “did something out of character” when he let one of the would-be killers off the hook.
The woman was a domestic abuse victim who was “too terrified to leave” her violent partner, so he decided to offer her help rather than sending her to prison.
Gary referred the unnamed woman to social service agencies and a therapist. Accused of having “turned soft” he replied: “Just once, just this once”.
The encounter has been fictionalised for the main storyline in Richard Linklater’s film Hit Man, where a love story blossoms between the domestic abuse survivor, played by Adria Arjona, and Gary.
Sadly, there was no lasting love for the real Gary, who divorced three times and died in 2022, with him admitting his work had affected his ability to form relationships.
“I only trust dead people and my enemies, because I know where they stand,” he told The Washington Post, adding that it was those closest to you who will “sneak up and cut you”.
Hit Man is released on Netflix on June 7.