Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) a mule; also attrib.

[1888		Eve. Capital Jrnl (Salem, OR) 27 Sept. 6/1: Over in Montana they have a peculiar way of making comparisons, for instance, jack-rabbits they call ‘narrow-gauge mules’] .
1898		Chicago Record’s War Stories 181: The sextet of black ‘jack rabbits’ refused to respond promptly to his call to ‘get ap’ [HDAS].
1904		‘O. Henry’ ‘Fox-in-the-Morning’ in Works 557: The ‘jack-rabbit line’ could mean nothing else than the mule-back system of transport.
1940		W. Faulkner Hamlet 329: Whoa you blare-eyed jack rabbit [= a pony] [DARE].
1940s		‘Wild Buckaroo’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 107: She screamed, ‘You jack rabbit! You shot off, you’re thru; / You can go fuck yourself now you Wild Buckaroo.’.
1950		WELS [DARE].
1967–69		in DARE.

2. (US prison) an escaped convict.

1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 208: jack rabbit, n. – a prisoner: with a reputation for taking advantage of escape opportunities.
1980		J. McLendon Eddie Macon’s Run 107: A lesson ‘jackrabbits,’ escapees, learned in the dark [HDAS].
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 152: Should we put this one in the middle? [i.e. of two policemen] He’s the jackrabbit in the bunch.