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John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon of the Old West. Hardin found himself in trouble with the law at an early age, and spent the majority of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops during the Reconstruction Era. He often used the residences of family and friends to hide out from the law. Hardin is known to have had at least one encounter with the famous lawman "Wild Bill" Hickok. When he was finally captured and sent to prison in 1878, Hardin claimed to have already killed 42 men, but newspapers of the day had attributed only 27 killings to him up to that point.〔("Hardin credited with 27 killings" );August 30, 1877 article; The Wichita City Eagle; p. 2, col 6 (in which his arrest was reported); Transcription: ''Whiting, Ala., August 21. To-day as a train was leaving Pensacola, the sheriff, with a posse, boarded the cars to assist Texan officers to arrest the notorious John Wesley Hardin, who is said to have committed twenty-seven murders, and for whose body $1,000 reward has been offered by an act of the Legislature of Texas. His last murder in Texas was the killing of the sheriff of Comanche county.'' ''He has lived in Florida for several years under the name of John Swain. About twenty shots were fired in making the arrest, and Hardin's companion, named Mann, who had a pistol in his hand, was killed''.〕 While in prison, Hardin wrote a factually slanted autobiography and studied law. He was released in 1894. In August 1895, Hardin was shot to death by Constable John Selman, Sr. in an El Paso saloon. == Early life == Hardin was born in 1853 near Bonham, Texas, to 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.〔; During the description of one book in the series, ''The Gunfighters'', the well-known claim is made: "John Wesley Hardin, so mean, he once shot a man just for snoring too loud."〕 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, in 1859, he and his family settled in Sumpter, Trinity County, Texas. There, Joseph Hardin taught school, and established a learning institution that John Hardin and his siblings attended. John Wesley Hardin was the second surviving son of 10 children. His brother Joseph Gibson Hardin was three years older. In 1862, at age nine, Hardin tried to run away and join the Confederate army.〔 Hardin wrote an autobiography while awaiting his execution which is used as a source for many stories about him. But Hardin was well known for wildly exaggerating or completley making up stories about his life. A number of his stories in which he claimed to have been involved in events cannot be confirmed or have proven unreliable. For example, 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."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Wesley Hardin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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