OT- Rare John Wesley Hardin's Death Cabinet Photo.

[rangerider7]

Seldom have I seen a full shot, including the cabinet card, of Hardin's death photo. By the way you can't see it but the tip his left trigger was shot off. He practiced 2 hours a day pulling his guns from shoulder holsters in a cross draw. He did it with them unloaded in front of a mirror.

[Bogie35]

Very cool!

bogie

[Blaine]

Very Cool......

[Sixgun]

RR-7,
Neat pic--looks like he got stung in the eye by a wasp or something, and whats that on his arm, a snake bite? ------------Sixgun

[John in MS]

Wow! Very cool -- where do you find this stuff? Interesting detail about the trigger finger
and practicing daily -- and then, to be shot in the back of the head when his guard was down...
OUCH.

I didn't know he was shot more than once. What's the story on the apparent arm wound?

Thanks much for posting these -- REAL old West history is always fascinating!

John

[pokey]

huh!

kinda..........interesting,

in a morbid sorta way.

[Borregos]

Thanks again, interesting one

[20cows]

I don't know what the spot on the arm is, but I understand he was just shot the one time in his last fracas. The spot on the eye lid is the exit wound.

A second shot was not necessary.

[Chas.]

Did he sign the photo??

[C. Cash]

The two other holes(arm and breast) were John Selman's final shots at Hardin's lifeless body. He reportedly fired them in a frenzy after Hardin hit the ground.

[rangerider7]

C. Cash, you are correct. One shot in the frenzy even missed him. This photo came from a book. I have studied John Wesley Hardin for many years. Since I live on the Brazos River channel at Lake Whitney, He probably came through here many times. He had relatives in Towash up by the dam. It is now covered with water. He killed a man there over a poker game. He came up the Chisholm Trail that runs just a few miles away. I was lucky enough to know Bobby McNellis, former owner of El Paso Saddlery, when he ran down Hardin's relatives in El Paso and obtain many items from his trunk that had been put away. I was able to trade for a few items and that got me started reading everything I could find. He was an interesting man to say the least.

[pharmseller]

That kind of wound wouldn't hurt for long.

P

[FWiedner]

My understanding is that after he got out of prison he got a law degree and worked as an attorney, but he was still very handy with a gun. He used to do trick shooting to entertain folks at the saloon, shooting holes in cards and coins and such. He had a squabble with a town deputy, and the deputy's pa shot him later in the day when he found him and his back was turned.

So much for the most dangerous man in Texas.

[Ysabel Kid]

2 hours a day? That kind of practice would indeed make one very lethal.

[rangerider7]

FWiedner, That might have set it off but it was much deeper than that most historians have stated. A man by the name of M'Rose was ambushed by Hardin and a few others. One of them was John Selman. M'Rose was killed and robbed. Selman never did get his cut and Hardin started seeing the ex wife of M'Rose. You could see where this might lead towards a problem with them. Selman was killed outside in the alley of the Wigwam Saloon by John Scarborough a few months later over that same issue. By the way the Wigwam was the saloon Hardin had a partnership in when he died. Some of the cards you talked about were shot outside the saloon for it's opening and given away as souvenirs.

[KirkD]

I'm surprised at the very tiny exit wound by the left eye. I can hardly believe its an exit wound, compared to the messes I've seen whenever there is an exit wound through a skull.

[C. Cash]

I'm surprised at the very tiny exit wound by the left eye. I can hardly believe its an exit wound, compared to the messes I've seen whenever there is an exit wound through a skull.

Kirk, the bullet from Selman's 45 was a slow moving round nose design. You can see on the front of the bullet where it hit the frame of the mirror after going through Hardin's head. In the zoomed up photo of Hardin's head, it looks like a perfect 45 hole in his eyelid. Killed him dead! Hardin was toting a Smith and Wesson Frontier Double action I believe in 44/40, which of course he never got into action.

[rjohns94]

similar but different pick on wikopedia. very kewl. so much I don't know

[Buck Elliott]

"He don't look too good."

"That's 'cause he's dead..."

(Conagher...)

[nemhed]

What amazes me is how much these well known "western types' danced on both sides of the law. No wonder they ended up getting shot!

[Hardcase]

A series of articles dredged up from the morgue at the El Paso Times. Up at the top are links to move through the series of stories. Having not been around these forums for some time, I don't know if this is "old" old news or not.

http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2 ... e-off.html

[KirkD]

.... You can see on the front of the bullet where it hit the frame of the mirror after going through Hardin's head.

Where is that photo?

[C. Cash]

Hey Kirk,

It's in "Guns and the Gunfighters" by Guns and Ammo....published back in the 70's. I gave my copy to Joe Miller or I would get a pic to ya.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Guns-The-Gunfighter ... 562d8bb029

[KirkD]

That sounds like a really interesting book!

[J Miller]

.... You can see on the front of the bullet where it hit the frame of the mirror after going through Hardin's head.

Where is that photo?

Hey Kirk,

It's in "Guns and the Gunfighters" by Guns and Ammo....published back in the 70's. I gave my copy to Joe Miller or I would get a pic to ya.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Guns-The-Gunfighter ... 562d8bb029

Kirk and C. Cash,
Just to show my appreciation for that book, here is that pic. From page 83 of "Guns and the Gunfighters":

JohnWesleyHardin death bullet.JPG

Joe

[KirkD]

Thanks, Joe. Very interesting. Apart from the notch in the nose from hitting the mirror, there isn't a lot of expansion.

[C. Cash]

Thanks Joe! That was great of you to post. That book is worth it for the pics alone Kirk....highly recommended. The earlier ones have some color pages, the later seem to be just black and white. Good article on Hardin and many of the Old Gunfighters and impressions of the firearms that they used..

[Charles]

My Grandfather's sister married Wes Hardin's nephew, so I grew up with him as a family legend. His father was a Methodist preacher which accounts for the name John Wesley. I have a book containing Hardin's letters from prison. He taught Sunday School in prison and read the Law. Once he got to El Paso, his attempts to go straight didn't last long. John Barleycorn and painted women were his downfall again. His addiction to the wild side of life soon took hold of him again.

He was a highly intelligent man with a decent education and from a good family. He was not a sociopath who didn't know better. He just didn't seem to have what it takes to have self descipline and overcome his passions. A very interesting fellow who lived a tragic life.

Why anybody would select El Paso as a place for a new fresh start in those days in beyond my ability to comprehend. He is buried in the old Condordia cemetary there. I have been to his grave several times.

[gamekeeper]

A series of articles dredged up from the morgue at the El Paso Times. Up at the top are links to move through the series of stories. Having not been around these forums for some time, I don't know if this is "old" old news or not.

http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2 ... e-off.html

Cool

[J Miller]

Kirk,

The text states it was a .45 cal bullet, but it doesn't say which .45 cartridge it came from. By looking at the bullet I'd say it was the 250gr .45 Colt version. What I found fascinating about it is that it went through the back of the skull, scrambled his brain, then exited the front part of the scull with the most damage from hitting a mirror frame.

However, if you look at the bullet in it's entirety it is badly deformed and had started to tumble as the base is bent.

Here is what the bullet started out as:

Authentic .45 Colt bullets.JPG

The left is an old factory bullet, the center a later CCI Blazer bullet, and the right a Lyman 454190 bullet.

And what it ended up as:

JohnWesleyHardin death bullet.JPG

I guess that's why the .45 Colt was and is so effective for a non expanding, non magnum bullet. Soft or not it flat stomps on through playing hob with everything on the way.

Joe

[Charles]

There is an apocraphal story about the bullet wound in Hardin's head.

At the inquest the debate was whether Hardin was shot in the eye or shot in the back of the head. i.e. which was the entrance and which was the exit wound. It was reported the judge said, if he was shot in the eye, it was good shooting and if he was shot in the back of the head it was good judgment.

I don't think this every happened, but it does make a good story. No sense letting truth stand in the way of a good story.

[Doc Hudson]

The two other holes(arm and breast) were John Selman's final shots at Hardin's lifeless body. He reportedly fired them in a frenzy after Hardin hit the ground.

Shooting john Wesley Hardin in the back was hardly sporting, but you have to admit is was mighty darned prudent.

As for the other wounds, I don't blame Selman. If I'd just backshot someone of Hardin's reputation, I'd not stop shooting until I was certain he was dead or I was out of ammo.

[KirkD]

Joe, thank you for the photo of those various 45 bullets. The original looks very much like the kind that drop from my mould. By the way, I've got an appointment to get my front sight fixed in a week, so hopefully I'll soon be able to try out those bullets you sent. I'll keep you posted. Work has really gotten in the way of play, this winter.

[Kansas Ed]

Back in the early 80's CMSU had a copy of Hardin's "autobiography". I put that in quotations as there was some who believed that it was dictated to and embellished through a ghost writer. But never the less, it is one of the few books I've read that I remember excerpts of years later. Some of the things I remember....

He claimed to have shot a "wolf" from horseback at over 300 paces...with a handgun while on a cattle drive.

He didn't believe that Indians counted as men killed in his tally, nor did he check to see if they were dead. He considered them as animals.

He was caught in the kitchen of another mans wife, and when confronted by the husband stuck his hands in his pockets and pulled out a couple of $20 gold pieces and started playing with them as the argument got hot. He then dropped one, and when the other man bent over to pick it up...shot him in the back of the head. He stated that few people could resist picking up a falling gold coin.

Claimed that his whole "outlaw" life was started by a freed slave who tried to rob him of his horse just after the Civil War. He was just a kid, and had an 1860 Colt that the hand was broken in, and he had to turn the cylinder by hand to get the second shot. He killed the slave, in self defense, and the Union Troops came after him for murder several days later. At which time he started his running and trying to exist on any means possible. While some purport that the book is questionable, I suspect that this part of the tale certainly came from his own mouth. It rings too one sided to me to have come from the imagination of any other.

If CMSU still has that copy, it has tally marks in the front in pencil...cause every time I came across a confirmed kill...I marked it. His actual crime spree was far fewer years than many would guess...though I can't remember exactly...and IIRC there were some 20+ men that he claimed credit for...not counting indians.

Ed

[C. Cash]

The two other holes(arm and breast) were John Selman's final shots at Hardin's lifeless body. He reportedly fired them in a frenzy after Hardin hit the ground.

Shooting john Wesley Hardin in the back was hardly sporting, but you have to admit is was mighty darned prudent.

As for the other wounds, I don't blame Selman. If I'd just backshot someone of Hardin's reputation, I'd not stop shooting until I was certain he was dead or I was out of ammo.

Absolutely Doc....it's the way these fellas did business, the Hollywood version not withstanding.

[rangerider7]

Selman, I believe, stated that Hardin was looking him in the eye when he shot him but he had been drinking all day. The judge ascertained that Selman had seen Hardin's image in the mirror looking up at selman as he came in the door and that's all he could remember.

[donw]

i read that John Wesley Hardin and Clay Allison were two, of the few, gunfighters who actually practiced 'fast draw' to get their pistols into play. most "gunfighters", such as Jim "Killer Miller" Miller ambushed their victims; Miller favored the side-by-side shotgun.

i am not surprised by the size of the exit wound hole...bullets of the era were normally NOT expanding and did not have the "power" of the current propellants, all they did was penetrate. obviously...with lethal results.

very interesting photo...

[cshold]

This is indeed very interesting.