John Wesley Hardin

Trouble at school In 1867, while attending his father's school, Hardin was taunted by another student, Charles Sloter. Sloter accused Hardin of being the author of graffiti on the schoolhouse wall that insulted a girl in his class. Hardin denied writing the poetry, claiming in turn that Sloter was the author. Hardin was nearly expelled over the incident. were former slaves), so he ordered him into hiding. At a creek crossing, Hardin claimed to have killed two white men with a shotgun and killed a black man with a pistol:

Locals hid the victims in the creekbed about 100 yards from the ambush.

Fugitive from justice Hardin knew that he would be arrested if he returned home. As a fugitive, he initially traveled with outlaw Frank Polk in the Pisgah area of Navarro County, Texas. Polk had killed a man named Tom Brady, and a detachment of soldiers sent from Corsicana, Texas, were pursuing the duo. Hardin escaped, but the soldiers apprehended Polk and jailed him temporarily.

After killing Bradley, Hardin claimed that, when a posse of fifteen men came after him, he captured two of them and took a shotgun, two six-shooters, a rifle, and two derringers from his captives. He then ordered the two men to join the other members of the posse at Jim Page's and wait for him to come along, stating, "I reckon they are waiting for me yet."

Later that month, on January 20 in Horn Hill, Limestone County, Texas, Hardin claimed that he killed a man in a gunfight after an argument at the circus. Less than a week after this incident, in nearby Kosse, Texas, Hardin was accompanying a prostitute home when they were accosted by her pimp, who demanded money. Hardin threw money on the ground and shot the would-be thief when he bent over to pick it up. were assigned to escort Hardin to Waco for trial. According to Hardin, they tied him on a horse with no saddle for the trip. While making camp along the way, Hardin escaped when Stakes went to procure fodder for the horses. He claims he was left alone with Smalley, who began to taunt and beat the then 17-year-old prisoner with the butt of a pistol. Hardin says he feigned crying and huddled against his pony's flank. Hidden by the animal, he pulled out a gun, fatally shot Smalley, and used his horse to escape. Hardin then claimed that, while on the run, he was "arrested" by three men named Smith, Jones, and Davis, but in Bell County, Texas, he killed all three with their own guns, after they became drunk and careless, and he escaped again.

A Texas Historical Marker notes that, in the 1870s, Hardin hid out in the vicinity of Pilgrim, Texas. After the Bell County shootings, Hardin found refuge with his cousins, the Clements, who were then living in Gonzales, in south Texas. They suggested he could make money by driving cattle to Kansas as a cowboy. Thinking he could get out of Texas long enough for his pursuers to lose interest, Hardin worked with his cousins, rustling cattle for Jake Johnson and Columbus Carol. Hardin writes that he was made trail boss for the herd. In February 1871, while the herd was being collected for the drive to Kansas, a freedman, Bob King, attempted to cut a beef cow out of the herd. When he refused to obey Hardin's demand to stop, Hardin hit him over the head with his pistol. That same month, Hardin may have wounded three Mexicans in an argument over a Three-card Monte card game, pistol-whipping one man over the head, shooting one man in the arm, and shooting the third man in the lung.

In the summer of 1871, while driving cattle on the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas, Hardin is reputed to have fought Mexican vaqueros and cattle rustlers. was killed on the Cottonwood Trail ( south of Abilene) by an unnamed Mexican, who "fled south" and was subsequently killed by two cowboys in a Sumner County, Kansas, restaurant on July 20. Hardin not only admitted to being involved in the shooting of the Mexican outlaw but also claimed to have been deputized as a law officer and to have received a reward from Texas cattlemen for helping to shoot the John Doe killer. Hardin reached down, picked his revolvers up from the holsters, and handed the guns to Wild Bill butts forward, then swiftly rolled them over in his hands and suddenly Wild Bill was staring right into their muzzles. However, both men did back down. Hickok had no knowledge that Hardin was a wanted man, and he advised Hardin to avoid problems while in Abilene.

Hardin met up with Hickok again while on a cattle drive in August 1871. This time, Hickok allowed Hardin to carry his pistols into town—something he had never allowed others to do. For his part, Hardin (still using his alias) was fascinated by Wild Bill and reveled in being seen on intimate terms with such a celebrated gunfighter. Hardin alleged that when his cousin, Mannen Clements, was jailed for the killing of two cowhands (Joe and Dolph Shadden) in July 1871, Hickok—at Hardin's request—arranged for his escape.

Kills snoring man Soon afterwards, on August 6, 1871, Hardin, his cousin Gip Clements, and a rancher friend named Charles Couger put up for the night at the American House Hotel after an evening of gambling. Clements and Hardin shared one room, with Couger in the adjacent room. All three had been drinking heavily. Sometime during the evening, Hardin was awakened by loud snoring coming from Couger's room. He first shouted several times for the man to "rollover" and then, irritated by the lack of response, drunkenly fired several bullets through the shared wall, in an apparent effort to awaken him.

A newspaper reported, "A man was killed in his bed at a hotel in Abilene, Monday night, by a desperado called Arkansas. The murderer escaped. This was his sixth murder." ("Monday night", as reported by the newspaper, would have been August 7, 1871, not August 6.) Hardin leapt from the roof into the street and hid in a haystack for the rest of the night. He then stole a horse and rode to a cow camp 35 miles outside town. Hardin claimed he ambushed lawman Tom Carson and two other deputies there. According to Hardin, he did not kill them but forced them to remove all their clothing and walk back to Abilene. The next day, Hardin left for Texas, never to return to Abilene.

The incident earned Hardin a reputation as a man "so mean, he once shot a man for snoring". Years later, Hardin made a casual reference to the episode: "They tell lots of lies about me," he complained. "They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. Well, it ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring."

Gunfights 1871–1872 Following his escape, Hardin claimed to have been involved in the following gunfights: On October 6, 1871, Hardin was involved in a gunfight with two Texas Special Policemen, two freedmen, privates Green Paramore and John Lackey, during which Paramore was killed and Lackey wounded. After October 1871, a black posse from Austin, Texas, came after him for killing Paramore but said that they returned "sadder and wiser" after he ambushed and killed three of them. In May 1872, about 45 miles outside Corpus Christi, Texas, after he was followed by two Mexicans, he shot one off his horse while the other "quit the fight." On June 19, 1872, Hardin was involved in a gunfight in Willis, Texas. On July 26, 1872, Hardin wounded Texas state policeman Sonny Speights in the arm with a derringer pistol, in Hemphill, Texas.

Sutton–Taylor feud

In early 1872, Hardin was in south–central Texas, in the area around Gonzales County. It was about this time that Hardin married Jane Bowen and started to keep regular company with her brother, cattle rustler Robert Bowen. While in the area, he also renewed his acquaintance with some of his cousins who were allied with a local family, the Taylors, who had been feuding with the rival Sutton faction for several years.

On August 7, 1872, Hardin was wounded by a shotgun blast in a gambling dispute at the Gates Saloon in Trinity, Texas. He was shot by Phil Sublett, who had lost money to him in a poker game. Two buckshot pellets penetrated Hardin's kidney and for a time it looked as if he would die.

While recuperating from his wounds, Hardin decided he wanted to settle down. After surrendering to Sheriff Reagan (brother of John Henninger Reagan) of Cherokee County, Texas, he was wounded in the right knee by an accidental gunshot from a nervous deputy. Hardin made a sick-bed surrender to authorities, handing over his guns to Sheriff Reagan and asking to be tried for his past crimes in order "to clear the slate". However, when Hardin learned of how many murders Reagan was going to charge him with, he changed his mind. A relative smuggled a hacksaw to Hardin, who escaped after cutting through the bars of a prison window. In November 1872, Hardin escaped from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail despite a guard of six men; a $100 reward was offered for his arrest.

On May 15, 1873, Jim Cox and Jake Christman were killed by the Taylor faction at Tumlinson Creek. Hardin, having by then recovered from the injuries sustained in Sublett's attack, admitted that there were reports that he had led the fights in which these men were killed but would neither confirm nor deny his involvement: "...as I have never pleaded to that case, I will at this time have little to say..."

Hardin's main notoriety in the Sutton–Taylor feud came from his part in the killing of two lawmen known to be Sutton family allies. On May, 17, 1873 in Cuero, Texas, Hardin killed DeWitt County Deputy Sheriff J.B. Morgan, who served under County Sheriff Jack Helm (a former captain in the Texas State Police and leader of the Sutton force at that time). Later that day, Hardin and Jack Taylor killed Helm in the town square of Albuquerque, Texas. On the run again in June 1873, Hardin assisted in the escape of his brother-in-law, Joshua Bowen, from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail imprisoned there on an 1872 murder charge. Allegedly, Hardin was also involved in this killing of Thomas Holderman. as they waited on a steamboat platform in Indianola, Texas. Tired of the feuding, the two were planning to leave the area for good. Hardin admitted that he and his brother Joseph had been involved (along with both Taylors) in the killings.

After a brief visit to Florida—where he claimed to have been involved in three incidents against Negroes, including a lynching—Hardin met up with his wife, Jane, and their young daughter, with whom he had relocated under the assumed name "Swain". Hardin met with his "gang" on May 26, 1874, in a Comanche, Texas, saloon to celebrate his 21st birthday. Hardin spotted Brown County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb entering the premises. He asked Webb if he had come to arrest him. When Webb replied he had not, Hardin invited him into the hotel for a drink. As Webb followed him inside, Hardin claimed Webb drew his gun. One of Hardin's men yelled out a warning, and in the ensuing gunfight, Webb was shot dead. It was reported at the time that Webb was shot as he was pulling out an arrest warrant for one of Hardin's group. Two of Hardin's accomplices in the shooting were cousin Bud Dixon and Jim Taylor. The pistol Hardin used was a .44 Smith and Wesson Model 3 Russian First Model # 25274.

The death of the popular Webb resulted in the quick formation of a lynch mob. Hardin's parents and wife were taken into protective custody, while his brother Joe and two cousins, brothers Bud and Tom Dixon, were arrested on outstanding warrants. A group of local men broke into the jail in July 1874 and hanged Joe and the two Dixon boys. On November 18, 1875, the leader of the Suttons, ex-Cuero, Texas, town marshal Reuben Brown was shot and killed by five men in Cuero along with a negro named Tom Freeman, with another negro being wounded. In his autobiography, Hardin made only two references to Brown: that "Rube" Brown had arrested William Taylor before sending him to Galveston, Texas, for trial, and that Brown had been among the leaders of a Sutton "posse" that had been out to "get" him in Gonzales County, Texas. It is not known if Hardin was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Reuben Brown, as he makes no further mention of the incident in his life story.

Captured and tried

On January 20, 1875, the Texas Legislature authorized Governor Richard B. Hubbard to offer a $4,000 reward for Hardin's arrest. An undercover Texas Ranger named Jack Duncan intercepted a letter sent to Hardin's father-in-law by Hardin's brother-in-law, Joshua Robert "Brown" Bowen. The letter mentioned that Hardin was hiding out at a lumber yard on the Alabama-Florida border using the name "John (or James) W. Swain". In his autobiography, Hardin admitted that he had "adopted" this alias from Brenham, Texas, Town Marshal Henry Swain, who had married a cousin of Hardin's named Molly Parks.

In March 1876, Hardin wounded a man, in Florida, who had tried to mediate a quarrel between him and another man. In November 1876, in Mobile, Alabama, Hardin was arrested briefly for having marked cards. In mid-1877, two former slaves of his father's, "Jake" Menzel and Robert Borup tried to capture Hardin in Gainesville, Florida. Hardin killed one and blinded the other. Hardin claimed that he was captured while smoking his pipe and that Duncan found Hardin's pistol under his shirt only after his arrest.

Trial and imprisonment Hardin was tried for Webb's killing, and on June 5, 1878, was sentenced to serve 25 years in Huntsville Prison. In 1879, Hardin and 50 other convicts were stopped within hours of successfully tunneling into the prison armory. Hardin made several attempts to escape. On February 14, 1892, during his prison term, he was convicted of another manslaughter charge for the earlier shooting of J.B. Morgan and given a two-year sentence to be served concurrently with his unexpired 25-year sentence.

Hardin eventually adapted to prison life. While there, he read theological books, becoming the superintendent of the prison Sunday School, and studied law. He was plagued by recurring poor health, especially when the wound he had received from Sublett became re-infected in 1883, causing him to be bedridden for almost two years. In 1892, Hardin was described as tall and , with a fair complexion, hazel eyes, dark hair, and wound scars on his right knee, left thigh, right side, hip, elbow, shoulder, and back. On November 6, 1892, during Hardin's stay in prison, his first wife, Jane, died.

While in prison, he wrote an autobiography. He was well known for fabricating or wildly exaggerating stories about his life. He claimed credit for many murders that cannot be corroborated. Hardin wrote that he was first exposed to violence in 1861 when he saw a man named Turner Evans stabbed by John Ruff. Evans died of his injuries and Ruff was jailed. Hardin wrote, "... Readers you see what drink and passion will do. If you wish to be successful in life, be temperate and control your passions; if you don't, ruin and death is the result."

After prison On February 17, 1894, Hardin was released from prison, having served seventeen years of his twenty-five-year sentence. Hardin's hand was on the handle of his holstered pistol, a Smith and Wesson Frontier Model .44-40 #352. Hardin was buried the following day

Selman Sr. was arrested for murder and stood trial. He claimed self-defense, stating that he witnessed Hardin attempting to draw his pistol upon seeing him enter the saloon, and a hung jury resulted in his being released on bond, pending a retrial. However, before the retrial could be organized Selman was killed in a shootout with US Marshal George Scarborough on April 6, 1896, during an argument following a card game.

Reburial controversy

A century later, on August 27, 1995, there was a confrontation between two groups at the site of Hardin's grave. One group, representing several of Hardin's great-grandchildren, sought to relocate his body to Nixon, Texas, to be interred next to the grave of his first wife, Jane. The other group, consisting of locals from El Paso, sought to prevent the move. At the cemetery, the group representing Hardin's descendants presented a disinterment permit for the body, while the El Pasoans presented a court order prohibiting its removal. Both sides accused the other parties of seeking the tourist revenue generated by the location of the body. A subsequent lawsuit ruled in favor of keeping the body in El Paso, which was reversed on appeal, but his remains were never moved. It is alleged that Hardin was an accomplice in the killing of ex-Texas State Policeman and Waco Texas Town Marshal Laban John Hoffman on January 6, 1871. Hardin claimed not to have been involved in Hoffman's murder. January 22, 1871: Hardin killed Texas State Police officer Jim Smalley and escaped. October 6, 1871: Texas Special Policemen Green Paramore and John Lackey were killed and wounded, respectively, by Hardin in Gonzales, Texas. October 1873: Hardin was indicted in Hill County, Texas, for the 1870 death of Benjamin Bradley, but was never tried. Hardin would later publish a defense of his action. July 1895: Fined $25 for gaming, relating to the May 1 incident, where he lost and took back $100 at the Gem Saloon. His gun was confiscated. January 22, 1871: Hardin killed Texas State Policeman John Smalley. July 17, 1873: Hardin killed J.B. Morgan in Cuero, Texas. Circumstantial evidence is that a murder was committed here, but the names and number of victims are unknown. "Simp" Dixson/Dickson was killed by US soldiers In February 1870. Allegedly, Hardin killed a black man in Leon County, Texas. A few days later, Hardin killed a man in Kosse, Texas; there are no contemporary newspapers to confirm this shooting. Hardin claimed that after killing Green Paramore in October 1871, he forced an African-American posse to flee after killing three of them. There are no contemporary accounts to confirm this claim. At an unknown date in May 1872, Hardin claimed that 45 miles outside Corpus Christie, Texas, he was followed by two Mexicans; that he killed one and the other fled. Hardin claimed that on June 19, 1872, in Willis, Texas, some men tried to arrest him for carrying a pistol, "... but they got the contents instead". Hardin was wounded in a gunfight around this time, but records indicate the fight occurred with just one other man. In May 1874, while in Gainesville, Florida, Hardin confessed to having knocked down a black man and shooting another during a disturbance outside the Alachua County jail. A black prisoner named "Eli", was lynched when the jail was burned down by a mob. Hardin claimed to have been part of the mob. Hardin claimed that on July 1, 1874, he drove off 17 Texas Rangers who had been trailing him, and killed one of them. This alleged shooting happened after a triple lynching of Hardin's cousin and two ranch hands during the Sutton–Taylor Feud. He also claimed to have driven off another group of men after killing one of them. There are no contemporary reports to confirm these stories. However, on June 1, 1874, a Texas Ranger's company did kill Hardin's cousins, Alexander Barekman and Alexander Anderson, in a gunfight and claimed to have wounded Hardin as well. Hardin wrote about his cousins' killings but does not confirm that he was wounded at all, and claimed to have heard about their deaths later. Later, Hardin and Mac Young were supposedly stopped near Bellville, Texas, by a posse under Sheriff Charles Langhammer of Austin on suspicion of being horse thieves. Hardin pulled his guns on Langhammer but did not shoot him, fleeing instead; Young was arrested and fined $100 for having a concealed pistol. Hardin claimed to have been involved in the killing of two Pinkerton agents on the Florida–Georgia border sometime between April and November 1876, after a gunfight with a "Pinkerton Gang" who had been tracking him from Jacksonville, Florida. This confrontation is pure fiction, as the Pinkerton Detective Agency never pursued Hardin. However, in March 1876 it was alleged Hardin, "Swain", who had wounded W.C. Overbey, who had tried to act as a mediator between Hardin and another person. Again Hardin's version does not fit with contemporary records which tell that nobody was killed and the only person injured was a Mobile policeman Sgt Ryan who was shot in the arm. After being sentenced in September 1878, Hardin supposedly met Johnny Ringo, a fellow convict, in an Austin, Texas jail; in fact, Ringo had been acquitted and freed in May 1878.

At least three other relatives of Hardin were also killers: James "Gip" Hardin—his brother—killed Deputy Sheriff John Turman March 28, 1898, for which he served a jail term Emanuel "Mannen" Clements Sr-cousin-is alleged to have killed 2 cowhands in 1871. Clements was killed in a saloon March 29, 1887; ironically his son Mannen Clements Jr was an El Paso Constable/Deputy Sheriff 1894-until 1908; although acquitted of a robbery charge he was no longer a law officer. Just like his father he was killed in a saloon December 29, 1908 "Deacon" Jim Miller (outlaw)—a cousin by marriage—killed Officer Ben C. Collins August 1, 1906 and was later lynched April 16, 1909 One relation was a law officer killed in the line of duty: James Burch killed October 10, 1897

Firearms and effects Hardin's weapons of choice, and several of his personal effects, have been well documented and auctioned to private collectors. Court records show that Hardin carried a Colt "Lightning" revolver at the time of his death. when he was shot and killed. The revolver and the watch had been presented to Hardin in appreciation for his legal efforts on behalf of Jim Miller at Miller's trial for the killing of ex-sheriff George "Bud" Frazer. The Colt, with a .38-caliber " barrel, is nickel-plated, with blued hammer, trigger, and screws. It features mother-of-pearl grips, and the back-strap is hand-engraved "J.B.M. TO J.W.H.". This gun and its holster were once sold at auction for $168,000. Another Colt revolver (known as a .41-caliber "Thunderer"), which was owned by Hardin and used by him to rob the Gem Saloon, was sold at the same auction for $100,000.