John Wesley Hardin
Named after the Methodist preacher, Hardin was anything but pious. By 1878, he claimed to have killed 44 men. Born in Bonham, Texas in 1853, Hardin killed his first man in 1868. Thus began the law-breaking career of Wes Hardin. He married Jane Bowen in 1871, Hardin saying of her, "She was as true to me as the magnet of steel."
While in the Huntsville, TX, prison, Hardin studied law, eventually opening a law office in El Paso. Hardin and the law passed by one another for the last time in 1895 when the current lady love of his love was arrested for carrying a pistol. Hardin threatened John Selman, then a policeman. Selman walked up behind the outlaw-turned-lawyer and shot him dead on August 19, 1895.
Many books and articles have been written about John Wesley Hardin, including an autobiography of the man.