TODAY IN WILD WEST HISTORY
- Rocky Mountain Soap Works
- Aug 23
- 2 min read
August 23, 1877 — John Wesley Hardin Is Finally Caught
For years, John Wesley Hardin had managed to stay one step ahead of the law.
That changed on August 23, 1877.
Hardin was one of the most notorious gunmen of the Old West—and by 1874, he was a wanted man after the killing of Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb in Comanche, Texas.
Rather than stick around and face a Texas courtroom, Hardin disappeared.
The hunt eventually fell to Texas Ranger John B. Armstrong, who followed Hardin's trail more than a thousand miles from Texas to Florida.
Armstrong finally found his man aboard a train near Pensacola.
And Hardin wasn't planning on surrendering peacefully.
When the Rangers moved in, Hardin reportedly reached for his revolver—but the gun became tangled in his suspenders.
Yep.
After years of shootouts, close calls, aliases, and running from the law, one of the West's most feared gunmen may have been undone by his own suspenders.
Hardin was captured alive and returned to Texas, where he was tried and convicted of the murder of Charles Webb. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
He ultimately served about 15 years.
And here's where Hardin's story gets even stranger.
While behind bars, he studied law.
After receiving a pardon and leaving prison in 1894, John Wesley Hardin became a licensed attorney.
His attempt at respectable life didn't last long.
On August 19, 1895, Hardin was shot and killed in the Acme Saloon in El Paso, Texas, by lawman John Selman.
He was 42 years old.
From outlaw…
to prisoner…
to lawyer…
and right back into the violence of the Old West.
John Wesley Hardin was captured on this day, August 23, 1877.
Just another chapter from the days when the West was still Wild.
— Rocky Mountain Soap Works
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