Little is known of the Johnny Thunder born in the Earth-One timeline before he was encountered by the Justice Society in 1965.  It is known he was raised by the Bahdnesians in a similar time frame as the Earth-Two Johnny Thunder but he was never  bound to a Thunderbolt. The reasons he was denied such is unclear.

The next several decades of Johnny's life is a blank.  By the 1960's, he is a small time criminal operating in Central City on Earth-One.  When the Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two gets curious as to why he has never encountered his Earth-One counterpart, he asks the Thunderbolt to take him to Earth-One for an introduction.  The clueless Johnny is enchanted with another version of himself and too slow to realize that is wily counterpart is a criminal.  The Earth-One Johnny knocks the Earth-Two version unconscious and immediately seizes command of the Thunderbolt.  He orders, over much protest, to rob a nearby bank.  The Thunderbolt acquiesces but runs afoul of the Earth-One Flash.  When he reports back to his master, Thunder realizes the JLA will be a problem and orders the Thunderbolt to travel back in time, subtly altering history so that the JLA members never becomes super-heroes.

With the JLA, gone Thunder becomes a dominant crime lord.  The JSA, missing Johnny, seek him out on Earth-Two and realize that his counterpart has removed the Justice League.  They battled Thunder's men and the Thunderbolt but when the tide turns, Johnny has himself whisked to safety.   The JSA then meets all the JLA members in their civilian identities and learns they have never been super-heroes.  In an effort to set things right, the JSA disguises themselves as the JLA to throw Thunder off guard but is again repelled. 

Realizing the JSA is not going away, Thunder has the Thunderbolt transport his men back to pivot point in history previously altered by Thunderbolt by replacing emerging superheroes with his men, creating a new Flash, Batman, Green Lantern, etc.   In the new timeline of Earth-A, this fake Justice League battles the Justice Society but is again defeated.   Frustrated, Johnny retreats to the moon and after dodging a sneaky attempt to thwart him by the Thunderbolt placing him an area with no air.  After forcing the Thunderbolt to add air to the moon, Thunder orders him to create massive monster men with outrageous powers to battle the JSA, who arrive shortly thereafter.  This gambit again fails and facing imminent capture by the JSA, Thunder orders the Thunderbolt to re-write history so that none of his actions ever happened.  The JSA is returned to Earth-Two with no memories and the JLA is left repeating report of recent thefts by Johnny Thunder (Justice League of America #37-38).

The activities of the Johnny Thunder of Earth-One for the next twenty years are  unrecorded.   He next encounters the Justice Society when by unknown means, he captures the Earth-Two Johnny Thunder and seizes control of Thunderbolt after being contacted by the Wizard of Earth-Two.  As the Wizard and his Crime Champions allies go on a crime spree, Thunder uses the Thunderbolt to neutralize the JLA and capture the Black Canary and Starman, pulling them into the Thunderbolts home dimension.  There he has discovered that Black Canary is actually the daughter of the original and uses the discovered bodies of her parents to torment her.  While the Thunderbolt and other JSA members reveal the truth of Black Canary's origins, the Johnny Thunder of Earth-Two slow frees himself and ambushes his counterpart, re-establishing control of the Thunderbolt and knocking the criminal Thunder unconscious (Justice League of America #219-220).

His later activities remain unrecorded.