← Back to the front page

The Lawmen and Outlaws Who Built the Old West

Khalid Elhassan August 29, 2021 35 min

Photo claimed to be of John Wesley Hardin after he became a lawyer. Wild West Outlaws

15. From Convicted Murderer to Lawyer

In 1878, John Wesley Hardin was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 25 years behind bars. He made numerous escape attempts, including a tunnel into the prison armory, but they all failed. He eventually adapted to prison life, settled down, began to read theological books, and was put in charge of the prison’s Sunday school. He also studied law while behind bars. That changed attitude helped him get a pardon, and in 1894, Hardin was released from prison after he had served 17 years of his sentence.

Constable John Selman, who shot and killed John Wesley Hardin. Alchetron

Upon his release, he took and passed Texas’ bar exam, and became a licensed lawyer. He moved to El Paso in 1895 to start a law practice but got into trouble when he quarreled with John Selman, a lawman who had arrested a prostitute friend of Hardin. Heated words were exchanged, and that night, as Hardin was playing dice in a local saloon, Selman walked up to him from behind, shot him in the back of the head, then pumped three more bullets into him as lay on the ground.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.