The Pistoleer: A Novel of John Wesley Hardin

THE CONVICT

The El Paso Daily Herald,

20 AUGUST 1895

Henry Brown testified as follows:

“My name is H. S. Brown. I am in the grocery business in El Paso with Mr. Lambert. I dropped into the Acme Saloon last night a little before 11 o’clock and met Mr. Hardin and several other parties in there, and Mr. Hardin offered to shake with me. I agreed and shook first; he shook back, and said he’d bet me a quarter on the side he could beat me. We had our quarters up and he and I were shaking dice. I heard a shot fired, and Mr. Hardin fell at my feet at my left side. I heard three or four shots fired. I then left, went out the back door, and don’t know what occurred afterward. When the shot was fired Mr. Hardin was against the bar, facing it, as near as I can say, and his back was toward the direction the shot came from. I did not see him make any effort to get his six-shooter. The last words he spoke before the first shot was fired were ‘Four sixes to beat,’ and they were addressed to me. For a moment or two before this he had not spoken to anyone but me, to the best of my recollection. I had not the slightest idea that anyone was quarreling there from anything I heard.”

(Signed) H. S. Brown

The Life of John Wesley Hardin as Written by Himself

“I was at a terrible disadvantage in my trial. I went before the court on a charge of murder without a witness. The cowardly mob had either killed them or run them out of the county. I went to trial in a town in which three years before my own brother and cousins had met an awful death at the hands of a mob. Who of my readers would like to be tried under these circumstances?”

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“When we got to Fort Worth, the people turned out like a Fourth of July picnic, and I had to get out of the wagon and shake hands for an hour before my guard could get me through the crowd.”

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“I knew there were a heap of Judases and Benedict Arnolds in the world and had had a lifelong experience with the meaning of the word treachery. I believed, however, that in jail even a coward was a brave man.”

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“In 1885 I conceived the idea of studying law.…”

The Daily Democratic Statesman

(AUSTIN, TEXAS)

AUGUST 25, 1877

MORE GLORY FOR THE ADJUTANT GENERAL AND THE STATE TROOPS

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WESLEY HARDIN ARRESTED AT PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

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A DESPERATE FIGHT

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ONE OF HIS CONFEDERATES KILLED AND THE OTHER TWO, WITH HARDIN, ARRESTED

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General Steele and the efficient State Troops under him have for some time been quietly working for the arrest of the notorious and desperate John Wesley Hardin, the terror of the Southwest, and the glorious news of his arrest at Pensacola, Florida, is announced by dispatch to the Adjutant General from Lt. J. B. Armstrong, who left this city on this mission, accompanied by Private Duncan, on the eighteenth instant. The arrest of this notorious character with two of his men and the killing of another adds new laurels to the achieved honors of the State Troops…. The following is a copy of the dispatch received by Gen. Steele yesterday morning:

WHITING, Alabama, August 23.

Gn. Wm. Steele, Austin:

Arrested John Wesley Hardin at Pensacola, Florida, this afternoon. He had three men with him, and we had some lively shooting. One of their number was killed, and the others were captured. Hardin fought desperately, but we closed in and took him by main strength, and then hurried aboard this train, which was just starting for this place. We are now waiting for a train to get away on. This is Hardin’s home, and his friends are trying to rally men to release him. I have some good citizens with me, and I will make it interesting.

J. B. Armstrong

Lieut. State Troops