John Wesley Hardin

John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon.

Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age.

He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he did so in self-defense.

Hardin was born in 1853 near Bonham, Texas, to James Gibson "Gip" Hardin, a Methodist preacher and circuit rider, 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 ... [while] 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, Hardin's father established and taught at the school that John Hardin and his siblings attended.

Hardin was the second surviving son of ten children.

The Hardins were Southerners and politically prominent.

His great-grandfather was North Carolina provincial Congressman Colonel Joseph Hardin, the cousin of Senator Martin D. Hardin of Kentucky and father of Congressman John J. Hardin; relatives included Congressman Benjamin Hardin, Revolutionary war Colonel John Hardin of Virginia, and opposing Civil war Generals Martin Davis Hardin and Benjamin Hardin Helm.

At the outbreak of Civil War, Hardin's father was elected a Confederate Captain; In 1862, at age nine, Hardin tried to run away from home and join the Confederate army.

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.

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 Maje died three days later.

Hardin further wrote that his father did not believe he would receive a fair hearing in the Union-occupied state (where more than a third of the state police were former slaves), so he ordered him into hiding.

Hardin claimed that weeks later 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:; at a creek crossing Hardin claimed to have killed two white men with a shotgun and killed a negro with a pistol:

"... I waylaid them, as I had no mercy on men whom I knew only wanted to get my body to torture and kill. It was war to the knife for me, and I brought it on by opening the fight with a double-barreled shotgun and ended it with a cap and ball six-shooter. Thus it was by the fall of 1868 I had killed four men and was myself wounded in the arm."

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

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.

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 Hardin's liver if he won again.

Pursued by lawmen for most of his life, in 1877 at the age of 23, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison for murder.

At the time of sentencing, Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men, while contemporary newspaper accounts attributed 27 deaths to him.

While in prison, Hardin studied law and wrote an autobiography.

He was well known for exaggerating or fabricating stories about his life and claimed credit for many killings that cannot be corroborated.

Within a year of his 1894 release from prison, Hardin was killed by John Selman in an El Paso saloon.