John Wesley Hardin


John Wesley Hardin was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. The son of a Methodist preacher, Hardin got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at age 15; he claimed it was in self-defense.
Pursued by lawmen for most of his life, he was sentenced in 1877, at age 23, to 24 years in prison for murder. When he was sentenced, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men, but contemporary newspaper accounts attributed only 27 deaths to him. While in prison, Hardin studied law and wrote an autobiography. He was well known for wildly exaggerating or completely making up stories about his life. He claimed credit for many killings that cannot be corroborated.
Within a year of his release in 1894, Hardin was killed by John Selman in an El Paso saloon.

Early life

Hardin was born in 1853 near Bonham, Texas, to a Methodist preacher and circuit rider, James "Gip" Hardin, and Mary Elizabeth Dixson. He was named after John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist denomination of the Christian church. In his autobiography, Hardin described his mother as "blond, highly cultured... charity predominated in her disposition." Hardin's father traveled over much of central Texas on his preaching circuit until he settled his family in Sumpter, Trinity County, Texas in 1859. There, Joseph Hardin established and taught at the school that John Hardin and his siblings attended. Hardin was the second surviving son of ten children.
In 1862, at age nine, Hardin tried to run away and join the Confederate army.

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. Sloter charged at Hardin with a knife but Hardin stabbed him with his own knife, almost killing him. Hardin was nearly expelled over the incident.

First killing

In November 1868, when he was 15, Hardin challenged his uncle Holshousen's former slave, Major "Maje" Holshousen, to a wrestling match, which Hardin won. According to Hardin, the following day, Maje "ambushed" him as he rode past shouting at him and waving a stick. Hardin drew his revolver and shot Maje five times. Hardin wrote in his autobiography that he rode to get help for the wounded man, but he died three days later. Hardin further wrote that his father did not believe he would receive a fair hearing in the Union-occupied state, so he ordered him into hiding. Hardin claimed that the authorities eventually discovered his location and three Union soldiers were sent to arrest him, at which time he "chose to confront his pursuers" despite having been warned of their approach by an older brother, Joseph:

Fugitive from justice

Hardin knew he could not return home. As a fugitive, he traveled initially 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 pursued the duo. Hardin escaped but the soldiers apprehended Polk and jailed him temporarily. Hardin also briefly taught school in Pisgah. While there, he claimed he shot a man's eye out to win a bottle of whiskey in a bet. Hardin also claimed that he and his cousin, "Simp" Dixon, encountered a group of soldiers and each killed a man. Allegedly, Hardin killed a black man in Leon County, Texas. On January 5, 1870, Hardin was playing cards with Benjamin Bradley in Towash, Hill County, Texas. Hardin was winning almost every hand, which angered Bradley who threatened to "cut out his liver" if he won again. Bradley drew a knife and a six-shooter. Hardin said he was unarmed and excused himself but claimed that later that night, Bradley came looking for him. Bradley allegedly fired a shot at Hardin and missed; Hardin drew both his pistols and returned fire, one shot striking Bradley in the head and the other in his chest. Dozens of people saw this fight, and from them there is a good record of how Hardin had used his guns. His holsters were sewn into his vest so that the butts of his pistols pointed inward across his chest. He crossed his arms to draw. Hardin claimed this was the fastest way to draw, and he practised every day. A man called "Judge Moore", who held Hardin's stakes of money and a pistol, refused to give them up without Bradley's consent, later "vanished". Hardin eventually admitted killing two men in Hill County.
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—"I reckon they are waiting for me yet."
Later that month, on January 20, in Horn Hill, Limestone County, Texas, Hardin claimed 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.

Arrest and escape

In January 1871, Hardin was arrested for the murder of the Waco, Texas city marshal, Laban John Hoffman. However, he denied having committed this crime. Following his arrest, he was held temporarily in a log jail in the town of Marshall, awaiting transfer to Waco for trial. While locked up, he bought a revolver from another prisoner. Two Texas state policemen, Captain Edward T. Stakes and an officer named Jim Smalley, 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 drunken and careless and 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.
While driving cattle on the Chisholm Trail to Abilene, Kansas, in the summer of 1871, Hardin is reputed to have fought Mexican vaqueros and cattle rustlers. Towards the end of the drive, a Mexican herd crowded in behind Hardin's and there was some trouble keeping the two herds apart. Hardin exchanged words with the man in charge of the other herd; both men were on horseback. The Mexican fired his gun at Hardin, putting a hole through Hardin's hat. Hardin found that his own weapon, a worn-out cap-and-ball pistol with a loose cylinder, would not fire. He dismounted and managed to discharge the gun by steadying the cylinder with one hand and pulling the trigger with the other. He hit the Mexican in the thigh. A truce was declared and both parties went their separate ways. However, Hardin borrowed a pistol from a friend and went looking for the Mexican, this time fatally shooting him through the head. A firefight between the rival camps ensued. Hardin claimed six vaqueros died in the exchanges although this claim appears exaggerated—only three Mexican vaqueros were killed. Hardin also claimed to have killed two Indians in separate gunfights on the same cattle drive. The first instance was when an Indian tried to shoot an arrow at him on the South Canadian River. Hardin shot him and then had the body buried to avoid retribution from the man's tribe. The second incident, at Bluff Creek, Kansas, occurred when Indians wanted to collect a "tax" on the cattle. Hardin hit an Indian over the head who he claimed had stolen a silver bridle from him. He then forced a war party to flee after he shot a second Indian who had killed a beef cow.
After arriving in Abilene, Hardin claimed that he and a companion named Pain got into an argument in a restaurant with an anti-Texan, which left Pain wounded in one arm and the stranger shot in the mouth by Hardin's bullet. Hardin fled Abilene to the Cottonwood Trail.
On July 4, 1871, a Texas trail boss named William Cohron, was killed on the Cottonwood Trail by an unnamed Mexican, who "fled south" and was subsequently killed by two cowboys in a Sumner County, Kansas, restaurant on July 20. Hardin admitted to being involved in the shooting of the Mexican.

Encounters with "Wild Bill" Hickok

The Bull's Head Tavern, in Abilene, Kansas, had been established as a partnership between ex-lawman Ben Thompson and gambler Phil Coe. The two entrepreneurs had painted a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of their establishment as an advertisement. Citizens complained to Town Marshal "Wild Bill" Hickok. When Thompson and Coe refused his request to remove the bull, Hickok altered it himself. Infuriated, Thompson tried to incite his new acquaintance, Hardin, by exclaiming to him: "He's a damn Yankee. Picks on Rebels, especially Texans, to kill." Hardin, then under the assumed name "Wesley Clemmons", seemed to have had respect for Hickok, and replied, "If Bill needs killing why don't you kill him yourself?" Later that night, Hardin was confronted by Hickok, who told him that he was wearing guns in violation of town ordinance, and ordered to hand over his guns, which he did, but in a quite surprising way: 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 the barrels. 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 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 "roll over" and then, irritated by the lack of response, drunkenly fired several bullets through the shared wall in an apparent effort to awaken him. Couger was hit in the head by the second bullet as he lay in bed, and was killed instantly. Although Hardin may not have intended to kill Couger, he had violated an ordinance prohibiting firing a gun within the city limits. Half-dressed and still drunk, he and Clements exited through a second-story window onto the roof of the hotel. He saw Hickok arrive with four policemen. "Now, I believed," Hardin wrote, "that if Wild Bill found me in a defenseless condition he would take no explanation, but would kill me to add to his reputation."
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." 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 the 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. Carson denied the incident ever took place. 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." Later, in his contradictory 1896 autobiography, Hardin completely omitted the "snoring man" from the story, as he related not only a wrong date but claimed the shooting was a case of self-defense, saying that the man he killed had first tried to stab him with a dirk and was a burglar who tried to make off with Hardin's pants.

Gunfights 1871–1872

Following his escape, Hardin claimed to be involved in the following gunfights:
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 acquaintance with some of his cousins who were allied with a local family, the Taylors.
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 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: "... but as I have never pleaded to that case, I will at this time have little to say."
Yet 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. In Cuero, Texas, on May 17, 1873, Hardin killed DeWitt County Deputy Sheriff J.B. Morgan, who served under County Sheriff Jack Helm. Later that day, Hardin 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 where he was imprisoned on an 1872 murder charge. Allegedly, Hardin was also involved in this killing of Thomas Holderman.
The Sutton–Taylor feud intensified when Jim and Bill Taylor gunned down Billy Sutton and Gabriel Slaughter as they waited on a steamboat platform in Indianola, Texas, on March 11, 1874. 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 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 with his wife, Jane, and their young daughter, with whom he had relocated under the assumed name "Swain". Hardin then met up with his "gang" on May 26, 1874, in a Comanche 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 he 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 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, Bud, and Tom. After this, Hardin and Jim Taylor parted ways for good. Hardin would claim that he twice drove away men connected to the feud who had come after him, killing a man in each encounter. 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 and another negro was 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 his brother-in-law, Joshua Robert "Brown" Bowen. The letter mentioned that Hardin was hiding out on the Alabama-Florida border using the name "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 Hardin was arrested briefly for having marked cards in Mobile, Alabama. Two former slaves of his father's, "Jake" Menzel and Robert Borup tried to capture Hardin in Gainesville, Florida in mid-1877. Hardin killed one and blinded the other.
On August 24, 1877, Rangers and local authorities confronted Hardin on a train in Pensacola, Florida. He attempted to draw a.44 Colt cap-and-ball pistol but it got caught up in his suspenders. The officers knocked Hardin unconscious. They arrested two of his companions and Ranger John B. Armstrong killed a third, a man named Mann, who had a pistol in his hand. Hardin claimed that he was captured while smoking his pipe and Duncan only found Hardin's pistol under his shirt 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. During his prison term, on February 14, 1892, 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. During Hardin's stay in prison, his first wife, Jane, died, on November 6, 1892.
While in prison, he wrote an autobiography. He was well known for wildly exaggerating or completely making up 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

Hardin was released from prison on February 17, 1894, having served seventeen years of his twenty-five-year sentence. He was forty years old when he returned to Gonzales, Texas. Later that year, on March 16, Hardin was pardoned, and, on July 21, he passed the state's bar examination, obtaining his license to practice law. According to a newspaper article in 1900, shortly after being released from prison, Hardin committed negligent homicide when he made a $5 bet that he could "at the first shot" knock a Mexican man off the soap box on which he was "sunning" himself, winning the bet and leaving the man dead from the fall and not the gunshot.
On January 9, 1895, Hardin married a 15-year-old girl named Callie Lewis. The marriage ended quickly, although it was never legally dissolved. Afterward, Hardin moved to El Paso, Texas.

Death

An El Paso lawman, John Selman, Jr., arrested Hardin's acquaintance and part-time prostitute, the "widow" M'Rose, for "brandishing a gun in public". Hardin confronted Selman and the two men argued. Some accounts state that Hardin pistol-whipped the younger man. Selman's 56-year-old father, Constable John Selman, Sr., approached Hardin on the afternoon of August 19, 1895, and the two men exchanged heated words. That night, Hardin went to the Acme Saloon, where he began playing dice. Shortly before midnight, Selman Sr. entered the saloon, walked up to Hardin from behind, and shot him in the head, killing him instantly. As Hardin lay on the floor, Selman fired three more shots into him. 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 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.
Hardin was buried the following day in Concordia Cemetery, in El Paso.

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.

Known contacts with the law

Hardin had numerous confirmed clashes with the law:
Hardin's autobiography is filled with statements which cannot be confirmed independently from his book:
The memorable circumstances and sheer number of Hardin's life events, real or exaggerated, made him a legend of the Old West and an icon of American folklore. His autobiography was published posthumously in 1925 by Bandera publisher, historian, and journalist J. Marvin Hunter, founder of Frontier Times magazine and the Frontier Times Museum.
Hardin is referenced to in the Colter Wall song "Wild Bill Hickok".

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 John Wesley Hardin carried a Colt "Lightning" revolver at the time of his death. He also carried an Elgin watch 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, which was owned by Hardin and used by him to rob the Gem Saloon, was sold at the same auction for $100,000.
In 2002, an auction house in San Francisco, California, auctioned three lots of John Wesley Hardin's personal effects. One lot containing a deck of his playing cards, one of his business cards, and a contemporary newspaper account of his death, sold for $15,250. The bullet that killed Hardin sold for $80,000.