Hardin, John Wesley
Comanche, Comanche County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Champion gunfighter in personal combat, Hardin was brought to justice for first time for murder of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb here in Comanche in 1874. Served 15 years in prison. On release, opened law office in El Paso, 1894. Killed at age of 42 when shot in back, 1895. (1966)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Wesley Hardin was among the deadliest gunfighters of the Old West, and it was here in Comanche in 1874 that he was first brought to justice for killing Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. He served fifteen years in prison, where he studied law, then opened a practice in El Paso in 1894. A year later he was shot in the back and killed at age forty-two.
Why it matters
Hardin's violent life and eventual reckoning with the law dramatize the struggle to impose order on the lawless Texas frontier of the late nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · John Wesley Hardin
- · Charles Webb
Themes & tags
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