GUNFIGHTER JOHN WESLEY HARDIN - TEXAS POSTER

PAINTERLY Portrait of prolific old west Texas outlaw and gunfighter, John Wesley Hardin. Few quality photographs exist, so this painterly version gives a good idea what he looked like. He was the son of a Methodist preacher. But, killed his first man at age 14, which he claimed was self defense. He claimed to have gunned down 42 men, but newspapers only attributed 27 deaths to him. It's said he once shot a man dead for snoring too loud. While in prison, Hardin studied law and wrote an interesting autobiography. After release, he briefly worked as an attorney. In 1895, the sheriff of El Paso tried to make the town a bit less deadly by outlawing the carrying of guns within city limits. In August of that year, Hardin’s girlfriend was caught with a gun in the city and arrested by El Paso officer, John Selman. Hardin, who had never learned completely to control his vicious temper, became angry. Bystanders overhead him threaten Selman for bothering his girl. Not long after, Selman went looking for Hardin. He found the famous gunman throwing dice at the bar of the Acme saloon. Without a word, Selman walked up behind Hardin and killed him with a shot in the head. Whether Selman was acting out of anger, self-protection, or perhaps to burnish his own reputation as a gunslinger remains unclear. Regardless, an El Paso jury apparently felt that Selman had done the town a favor. The jurors acquitted him of any wrongdoing.