Legends of the Old West - OUTLAWS Ep. 1 | John Wesley Hardin: “Hero or Villain”

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

John Wesley Hardin was the son of a Methodist preacher who grew into one of the most prolific killers in American history. He killed his first man at the age of 15. By 18, he’d killed Union soldiers, Texas State Police officers, and more than one civilian — at least, that’s what the legend says. With Hardin, there is always a fine line between fact and fiction. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join To advertise on this podcast, please email [e-mail] For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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In the case of John Wesley Harden, his story has the typical inconsistencies that come with the attempt to chronicle events that happened more than a hundred years ago. Witness accounts vary wildly. Oftentimes, Harden himself was the only witness, and his word is notoriously untrustworthy. He admitted to roughly 25 murders, and we have to say roughly because even he didn't know, or he lost track over time. On top of that, he was credited with more than 40 killings. But what doesn't make him typical was that his father was a Methodist preacher, and his mother was loving and devoted. He didn't experience the same type of trauma that Jesse James experienced during the Civil War years.

The war was a motivator for both Harden and Jesse, but for different reasons. And Harden didn't have a chaotic childhood like Billy the Kid, a childhood that seemed to lead Billy from one unfortunate event to another. So it's all the more mysterious that John Wesley Harden became one of the most prolific killers to ever walk the earth. In his own account of his life, he wasn't a cold-blooded monster. He said he never killed anybody who didn't need killing. But in many cases, that was patently false.

In others, it was debatable. In some, he might have been right. But regardless of the numbers or the reasons why, we know his name at all because he was a killer. He didn't spend years robbing banks and trains like Jesse James or Butch and Sundance. He didn't lead a vendetta during a range war like Billy the Kid. He just seemed to use his gun to solve problems, or perceived problems, more than anyone. Some of Hardin's reports about his life and timeline have been corroborated by historians

and eyewitnesses, but others are available only through Harden himself. So the tale of John Wesley Harden is going to fall squarely into the category of a legend of the old west. It's an incredible story, but be prepared, it's also bloody as hell. Consider yourself warned as we dive into the life of one of the most infamous outlaws of the American West. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify.

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I'm your host, Chris Wimmer. In this season, we're telling the stories of two outlaws, John Wesley Hardin and Henry Plummer. This is Episode 1, John Wesley Hardin, Hero or Villain? John Wesley Hardin was named after the 18th century English cleric who founded the Methodist Church. The midwife who delivered John Wesley into the world allegedly said he would either be a great hero or a monumental villain. It's one of those perfect quotes that was almost certainly dreamed up after the fact, but it's a fun part of the legend. John Wesley was born to James and Elizabeth Harden on May 23, 1853, in Fannin County, Texas,

near the Oklahoma border. And according to his biography, his first exposure to deadly violence came at the tender age of eight. Young John Wesley witnessed a man hit another man with a cane. That in itself was a fairly benign assault, but the man who received the blow pulled out a bowie knife. He slit his attacker's throat and left him to bleed to death in the street. That was the part that probably had a lasting effect on the boy. But there was another bloody event that had a profound impact on John Wesley Harden, like it did on almost everyone else in the country. The Civil War. Harden's family were Texas Confederates, and he desperately wanted to run away and join the war to kill Yankees, at the age of nine. He and one of his cousins conspired to do

just that. But his father, by John's account, found out about the plan and gave him a good thrashing. Hardin couldn't join the war effort, but his hatred for the Northern cause and those who fought for it never went away. At age 14, he had a run-in with a classmate named Charles Slaughter. Charles aspired to be, as John put it, the boss among the boys. The problem was that John aspired to the same position. In their schoolyard power struggle, Charles launched a smear campaign that accused John of scrawling an obscene rhyme on the school wall about a girl in their class. John was somehow able to prove that it was another boy who wrote the offensive rhyme. That put Charles on the defensive. According to Hardin, Charles confronted John at his desk by

first slugging him and then pulling out a knife. John responded by grabbing the knife from Charles and stabbing him in the chest and the back. Charles nearly died, but John didn't suffer any consequences for the attack because it was deemed self-defense. Charles Slaughter recovered from his injuries, but the next victim didn't. At age 15, John graduated to murder. He was visiting his uncle Barnett Hardin, who lived in Livingston, Texas, not far from John's home in Sumter. It all began when a cousin arranged for he and John to challenge a former slave named Major to a wrestling match somewhere near Uncle Barnett's

farm. Mage, as he was called, was a strong man with a muscular build who was known for his wrestling abilities. Even in the two-against-one match, it didn't look very promising for John and his cousin. As a crowd gathered to watch what was sure to be a humiliating defeat for the teenagers, the young men proved to be better wrestlers than Mage anticipated. John was able to throw Mage to the ground twice and scratch him badly in the process. Mage apparently became enraged and, according to John, left the fight to go get his pistol. He supposedly proclaimed, no white boy could draw his blood and live, and a bird never flew too high not to come to the ground.

John claimed he feared for his life. He returned with his cousin to his uncle's farm to get his Colt pistol. He intended to return for a showdown, but his uncle was able to intercede and calm John down. Unfortunately, the confrontation with Mage had not been stopped. It had just been postponed. When John was returning home to Sumter the next day, he ran into Mage along the way. According to Harden's version of the story, Mage began to curse and abuse him, and called him a coward for not shooting it out the night before. Harden claimed he apologized to Mage for scratching him and told him that he never intended to hurt him. According to Harden's account, which,

not surprisingly, puts him in the best possible light and points to Mage as the aggressor, the former slave was not satisfied with Harden's apology. Mage attacked Harden with a stick, threatening to kill him and throw his body in a nearby creek. Harden claimed he pulled his colt and gave Mage fair warning to back away and let him pass. Mage ignored the warning and grabbed the bridle of Harden's horse. At that point, Harden fired. He then claimed that Mage kept coming back at him, so he kept shooting, presumably until he emptied his pistol and Mage finally collapsed.

Although badly wounded, Mage was still alive, so Harden rode to yet another uncle's house. This uncle was not only Mage's one-time owner, but he was also a local judge. was not only Mage's one-time owner, but he was also a local judge. The two returned to the scene and found Mage, who was remarkably still alive, but just barely. The judge is said to have taken him home in an effort to save him, but Mage died soon afterward. One of Hardin's uncles, either the judge or Uncle Barnett, gave him a gold piece and told him to go home, tell his parents what he'd done, and then go into hiding. This was 1868, so Reconstruction was in full swing, and Texas was filled with Union soldiers and carpetbaggers. Those Texans who had supported the Confederate cause believed they were being singled out and treated unjustly by the new Northern Provisional Government.

Union soldiers were there to see that Texas Confederates and their sympathizers followed the law, and if they did not, the soldiers would dole out the appropriate punishment. One new law that Southerners had to adjust to was that murdering a black man or woman was now a hanging offense. New laws didn't stop that much violence, but they did set Union soldiers on the trail of John Wesley Harden. When Harden told his parents that he had killed a black man, they feared for their son's life. Convinced he would never get a fair trial, they sent him to live with Mrs. Harden's sister, Susanna Morgan, and her husband,

who lived at Richland Crossing in Navarro County, Texas. John's older brother, Joe, was a schoolteacher and lived near the Morgans farm. He allegedly heard a rumor that three Union soldiers, two white and one black, were looking for John and planned to arrest him for Mage's murder. So Joe rode to the Morgans' farm to warn his brother. There's no evidence that the army sent three soldiers to arrest Hardin, but the rumor was enough to get Hardin to act. Hardin didn't want to keep running, and he didn't want to wait for the soldiers to track him down. In his own account, he found a place to hide near a creek where he thought the soldiers would likely stop to water their horses.

When they did, he planned to ambush them. In his autobiography, Hardin proudly described what happened next. The soldiers stopped at the creek, just like he thought they would, and he wrote, I had no mercy on men whom I knew only wanted to get my body to torture and kill. I brought it on by opening the fight with a double-barrel shotgun and ending it with a cap-and-ball six-shooter. After the ambush, Harden said he buried the soldiers in a dried-up creek bed. Nobody knows if the details of the attack on the soldiers are true, and nobody knows if the soldiers were on their way to arrest Harden or if they were just passing through. But according to John Wesley Hardin, he ambushed and killed three Union soldiers

when he was just 15 years old. That brought his body count up to four, and he was just getting warmed up. After the ambush, Hardin returned to Sumter to confess to his father, the Reverend James Hardin. This strange ritual would happen over and over in Hardin's early years. The Reverend was certain there would be a posse looking for his son now, and even more certain he would be hanged if he were captured. So Reverend Hardin traveled with John to Spring Hill in north-central Texas, where they had more family who could hide and protect him. The reverend also secured a teaching position for his son. It was 1869, and John had just turned

16. One of his ex-pupils recalled John being a very strict teacher who prayed before class every morning. It was the interesting dichotomy of John Wesley Hardin, because it wasn't long before he committed his fifth murder. It happened when John and a cousin named Simp Dixon, a proud member of the Ku Klux Klan, came across a squad of Union soldiers. The cousins shared a hatred for Yankees, and they saw an opportunity to take revenge. They launched a surprise attack, and Harden and Dixon shot and killed a soldier each, and then somehow fled without being captured. Sixteen-year-old John Wesley Harden had now, by his own count, killed five men. 16-year-old John Wesley Harden had now, by his own count, killed five men.

Simp Dixon was later apprehended for the murders, and he was executed by a firing squad at the age of 19. Harden went on the run again. This time he hid out with his brother Joe in a Texas hill country. By then, their parents had moved to an adjoining county, hoping they could encourage their son to give up his wicked ways. It didn't work. On Christmas Eve, John's father tried to bring John back to the family's new home for Christmas. But on Christmas Day, 1869, John borrowed his father's horse and rode to a nearby horse track. Hardin had developed a fondness for gambling, and he wanted to bet on

the races. According to Harden's account, he won $350 in gold. After the races, and hoping to keep his winning streak going, he joined a game of draw poker at a nearby grocery store with three men from Arkansas, Jim Bradley, Hamp Davis, and Judge Moore. The cards were with John that day, and he apparently won all the money on the table. And Jim Bradley took exception. Whether he believed John was cheating, or he was just a sore loser who didn't want to pay up to a teenager is unknown. But whatever his reasoning, Bradley pulled his gun on Harden and demanded his money

back. Caught off guard, Harden had no choice but to oblige. Bradley then made him take off his boots before threatening to shoot him if he didn't leave. Humiliated, bootless, and broke, Harden left the store as directed. And Jim Bradley had no idea that he'd just made the worst and last mistake of his life. Harden went to see a friend who lived nearby, borrowed a pistol, and returned to the grocery store. Bradley was still playing cards. John approached the table, pulled out his pistol, and shot Bradley multiple times in the head and chest. Harden retrieved his boots and left Jim Bradley on the floor. Harden went back to confess to his father that he'd killed another man. Jim Bradley was number six. Harden hid with his family for a while,

but soon his father learned the bad news. Authorities discovered John's whereabouts, learned the bad news. Authorities discovered John's whereabouts, and a posse was on its way to arrest John for the murder of Jim Bradley. It looked like John may have finally been cornered, but cornering John Wesley Harden was no easy task, and this time Harden tried a different tactic. When Harden's father warned his son that a posse was on its way to arrest him for another murder, Hardin decided to go on the offensive again. Rather than wait for them to come to him, Hardin and some friends rode out to greet the men. But instead of waging a violent attack, John politely asked to see their warrant, a document they didn't have. Harden and his friends made it clear that without an arrest warrant, Harden would not surrender. They also

strongly suggested that it would be in the best interest of the men of the posse and their wives and children to turn around and ride home. Harden and his crew outnumbered the posse, and after a brief standoff, the posse decided to heed the warning The men turned and rode away For the first time, Harden used words instead of guns, and he successfully avoided a shootout But the bloodless streak didn't last long Harden kicked off the new year of 1870 with two more confrontations. The first occurred when Hardin and a friend named Alec Berrickman were on their way to visit a Hardin relative.

They came across a traveling circus that had stopped to camp for the night. Hardin and Berrickman asked the circus people if they could warm themselves by the fire, and they were invited to join. asked the circus people if they could warm themselves by the fire, and they were invited to join. At some point, for unknown reasons, Harden and one of the circus performers got into a fight. Harden settled the argument by shooting and killing the circus performer. Assuming the circus people would chase them, Harden and Barrickman decided to split up so they would be more difficult to track. men decided to split up so they would be more difficult to track. Harden rode to the tiny town of Cossie, Texas. He met a young lady outside the Dillon Hotel and was instantly smitten. Unfortunately, she had another admirer, her boyfriend, who was a former soldier and not at all happy about Harden's flirtations. The soldier decided to teach Harden a lesson by robbing him.

The soldier decided to teach Harden a lesson by robbing him. Harden gave the man the impression he was cooperating and pulled some money out of his pocket, then purposefully dropped it on the ground. The boyfriend bent over to grab it, and when he stood back up, he was surprised to see Harden's gun pointed at his head. Harden supposedly killed the man on the spot. But as with many of Harden's stories, the details are disputed. Another version is that the woman in question was a prostitute, and the man was her boss.

And it's impossible to know if it happened at all. But either way, Harden was just 16 years old and now claiming he'd killed eight men. After a busy January, Harden evidently decided to slow down a bit. He went to work on an uncle's farm near Brenham, Texas. And I can't mention Brenham without also saying, for the new listeners, that that's where this podcast started. I was working in Brenham when I launched this show. I love that town. Check it out if you get the chance. So Harden worked with his uncle and his cousins by day, and by night, he took his wages into town to gamble.

But after a while, Harden realized he was not only gambling with his wages, he was also gambling with his freedom. He heard persistent rumors that a relatively new law enforcement agency, the Texas State Police, was hunting for him for the murder of Jim Bradley. Apparently, a reward was now being offered, and Hardin decided it was time to leave Brenham. For the next several months, he traveled alone, mostly after dark, throughout central Texas, visiting friends and relatives and hiding from the law. But late in 1870, he decided to head to Louisiana, where he had still more relatives and where he would be out of reach of Texas authorities. But before he made it, his luck ran out in Longview, Texas. He was arrested and thrown in jail while he waited to be transferred to Waco to stand trial for Jim Bradley's murder.

While he was in jail, he was somehow able to buy a pistol from another prisoner. He initially intended to use it to escape before his transfer, but he missed his chance. State Police Lieutenant E.T. Stokes, Private James Smalley, and a civilian named L.B. Anderson arrived to escort Harden to Waco. It was a 160-mile ride from East Texas to Central Texas, and the three men didn't know that their prisoner had managed to hide a weapon under his shirt by hanging it from a string under his arm. Harden planned to use the gun at the first opportunity, but on the trail, he was going to try some frontier theatrics to help grease the

wheels for his escape. Harden proved he was not only a ruthless killer, but a wily one at that. Harden tried to make his captors think he was less of a threat than he actually was. He played himself off as a timid and weak young man who was terrified by the prospect of being hanged. The act apparently served to create a false sense of security for the lawmen, and they slowly let their guard down. For one of them, it was a deadly mistake. According to a local newspaper report written at the time, the group rode into the town of Marshall, Texas in late January 1871. Lieutenant Stokes and the civilian assistant Anderson stopped in town, presumably to buy

supplies, but Private Smalley continued riding with Hardin. Smalley and Hardin rode for another two miles beyond town before they stopped for the night. Harden now had the perfect opportunity to escape, and he took advantage of it. As Smalley began to set up camp, Harden pulled out his concealed Colt.45 and shot the private in the back. Smalley turned to draw his pistol, and Harden shot him in the stomach. By that point, Stokes and Anderson were within earshot of the gunfire, and they raced to the campsite. They arrived just in time to see Harden gallop away on Smalley's horse. Private Smalley was dead on the ground, and John Wesley Harden was back on the run. He had now killed nine men, and he was 17 years old. Harden fled to,

where else, the safety of his father. Each time the son returned home, the situation was more desperate than the last. John Wesley was wanted by the army for killing multiple soldiers. He was wanted by local authorities for killing Jim Bradley, and now he would be wanted by the state police for killing an officer. Hardin's father gave him a fresh horse and told him to ride for the Mexican border. Apparently, Hardin accepted the idea and began the journey. According to Hardin's autobiography, he was arrested near Waco by three men who said they were Texas state policemen. The arrest is suspicious and largely uncorroborated. Harden claimed that his most

recent captors proceeded to get drunk around the campfire that night, and when they passed out, he was able to untie himself, and then he killed all three men with their own guns. One Texas state police officer was listed as killed in action during this period of time, but it was never determined whether or not he was one of the men Harden claimed to have killed. If Harden's claims are correct, his body count was now up to an even dozen. After his second escape, if it actually happened, Harden abandoned his solo trip to Mexico and returned home to update his father on his latest sins. Reverend Harden decided he would have to take an active role in his son's escape, if John was going to make it all the way to Mexico. He would ride

with John and get him as close to the Mexican border as he could. Sometime in late January or early February of 1871, father and son rode off toward Mexico. Despite Reverend Hardin's desire to escort his son to the border, he didn't make it very far. The reverend said goodbye to his son somewhere near Belton, Texas, halfway between Waco and Austin. That was still more than 200 miles from the border. After the pair parted, John rode to the Gonzalez area where he stopped to visit another batch of relatives. They were the Clements family, and they talked John into joining them on a cattle drive to Kansas. They thought a cattle drive would be a good way to move through the area, and when Hardin made it to Kansas, it would be easier to hide from Texas lawmen.

Hardin liked the idea, and he scrapped his plan to flee to Mexico. Later that spring, John Wesley Hardin and his cousins headed north on the Chisholm Trail. Their destination was Abilene, Kansas, where legendary lawman and gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok was the new marshal. Wherever Hardin went, there was trouble, and there would be gunplay on the trail long before he made it to Abilene. Next time on Legends of the Old West, John Wesley Harden runs afoul of Native American warriors and Mexican vaqueros and kills a man in an Abilene hotel and then finds true love. That's next week on Legends of the Old West.

Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week for new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Michael Byrne. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more.

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