"The report of my death was an exaggeration." John E. Bianchi

That line is a quote from humorist Mark Twain, made during a time when such rumors were circulating about him.

Over the last few years I have been receiving claims of the unlikely death of John Bianchi, most recently from my friend Gene DeSantis. Even the folks in the press and the industry whom I know to have a special relationship with my former boss, JB, could neither confirm nor deny. Not even the staffer at the current iteration of the Bianchi Leather company could or would tell me one way or the other.

Above is JB's earliest venture that began in 1962.

"We don't know, the bio on our site is based on when we worked with him". Safariland Customer Service, 22 Mar 2025. They didn't offer to pick up the phone and find out. Thankfully, though, recently I connected with a family member who did know and confirmed that JB is still living.

On that subject, once upon a time, I made up a list of all big names who had passed away in the late 20th century. They were all important members of holstory; for example, it was Paris Theodore's wife who came up with the idea for Paris to create a gunleather company (as a beard for his lethal weapons business). You should already know who these folks were, but I've annotated the less obvious ones. I've met most of them, beginning with Elmer Keith in the '70s, who died in '84. Not on the list here is JB's mother "Mrs B" who died in the same year as my own mother, Marjorie Nichols (a coincidence but read on to the next chart):

And in this century, so far. My friend Michael Punzone, who founded High Noon Holsters and isn't even mentioned on that company's site, deserves special mention as dying youngest of this list. Again, met most of them in my time, but not all. "Mr. B" died the same year as my own father, Col. Paul L. Nichols, USA:

When I review my Chronology of Holstory, a 3500-line document that begins with Lincoln's birth and continues through today, I feel like I'm traveling through the Valley of Death; because there have been no survivors this far into the 21st century except me and JB.

Read more about it in my book that is titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century - the Second Edition": click on the link at the top of the page to review then purchase it. THE THIRD EDITION IS AT THE PRINTER NOW, though not yet available for purchase.