John J. King was born on September 27, 1880, to Paul and Mary King in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts. He had brown hair and blue eyes, stood 5'5", and was a Catholic. Before his incarceration, he worked as a mill hand in North Adams, Massachusetts.
He was incarcerated in the Massachusetts Reformatory on November 16, 1896. He died of pneumonia while still imprisoned on December 11, 1896, at 16, less than one month after his incarceration.
