COMANCHE II

    Joe Hardin, the younger brother of John Wesley Hardin arrived in Comanche in 1871 and John arrived in 1874.  On May 26, 1874 John Wesley shot and killed Brown County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb in Jack Wright’s Saloon.  John Wesley escaped, was caught in Pensacola, Florida by Texas Rangers and returned to Comanche for trial.  After serving time in Huntsville, he was freed on Feb. 17, 1894 and ultimately ended up in El Paso after spending over 15 years in prison.

    On August 19, 1895, John Wesley Hardin was shot to death by John Henry Selman in the Acme Saloon in El Paso.

     One of the best books on the life of John Wesley Hardin is Dark Angel of Texas by Leon Metz.

    The above photos were provided by the State National Bank of El Paso which like De Leon celebrated its centennial in 1981.  The Handbook of Texas in one edition indicated that John Wesley Hardin had been in De Leon.  That was not correct, De Leon had not been founded at the time he was in Comanche.  Subsequent editions and the on line version has been corrected.  www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/DD/hjd3.html

John Wesley Hardin as a young man.

   John Wesley Hardin’s grave in El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery.  The stone has been stolen so often that the grave is no longer marked.  John Selman was also buried in the same cemetery but with repeated thefts of his stone the location of his grave has been lost.

   The deceased John Wesley Hardin.  Two bullet holes are visible one above his left eye and a second on his right breast.

John Henry Selman, the El Paso Constable who gunned down Hardin.