Hardin knew that he would be arrested if he returned home. As a fugitive, he initially traveled with outlaw Frank Polk in the
Pisgah area of
Navarro County, Texas. Polk had killed a man named Tom Brady, and a detachment of soldiers sent from
Corsicana, Texas, were pursuing the duo. Hardin escaped, but the soldiers apprehended Polk and jailed him temporarily. After killing Bradley, Hardin claimed that, when a posse of fifteen men came after him, he captured two of them and took a
shotgun, two six-shooters, a
rifle, and two
derringers from his captives. He then ordered the two men to join the other members of the posse at Jim Page's and wait for him to come along, stating, "I reckon they are waiting for me yet." Later that month, on January 20 in Horn Hill,
Limestone County, Texas, Hardin claimed that he killed a man in a gunfight after an argument at the
circus. Less than a week after this incident, in nearby
Kosse, Texas, Hardin was accompanying a prostitute home when they were accosted by her pimp, who demanded money. Hardin threw money on the ground and shot the would-be thief when he bent over to pick it up. were assigned to escort Hardin to Waco for trial. According to Hardin, they tied him on a horse with no saddle for the trip. While making camp along the way, Hardin escaped when Stakes went to procure
fodder for the horses. He claims he was left alone with Smalley, who began to taunt and beat the then 17-year-old prisoner with the butt of a pistol. Hardin says he feigned crying and huddled against his pony's flank. Hidden by the animal, he pulled out a gun, fatally shot Smalley, and used his horse to escape. Hardin then claimed that, while on the run, he was "arrested" by three men named Smith, Jones, and Davis, but in
Bell County, Texas, he killed all three with their own guns, after they became drunk and careless, and he escaped again. A Texas Historical Marker notes that, in the 1870s, Hardin hid out in the vicinity of
Pilgrim, Texas. After the Bell County shootings, Hardin found refuge with his cousins, the Clements, who were then living in
Gonzales, in south Texas. They suggested he could make money by driving cattle to
Kansas as a
cowboy. Thinking he could get out of Texas long enough for his pursuers to lose interest, Hardin worked with his cousins,
rustling cattle for Jake Johnson and Columbus Carol. Hardin writes that he was made trail boss for the herd. In February 1871, while the herd was being collected for the drive to Kansas, a
freedman, Bob King, attempted to cut a
beef cow out of the herd. When he refused to obey Hardin's demand to stop, Hardin hit him over the head with his pistol. That same month, Hardin may have wounded three Mexicans in an argument over a
Three-card Monte card game,
pistol-whipping one man over the head, shooting one man in the arm, and shooting the third man in the lung. In the summer of 1871, while driving cattle on the
Chisholm Trail to
Abilene, Kansas, Hardin is reputed to have fought Mexican
vaqueros and cattle rustlers. was killed on the Cottonwood Trail ( south of Abilene) by an unnamed Mexican, who "fled south" and was subsequently killed by two cowboys in a
Sumner County, Kansas, restaurant on July 20. Hardin not only admitted to being involved in the shooting of the Mexican outlaw but also claimed to have been deputized as a law officer and to have received a reward from Texas cattlemen for helping to shoot the
John Doe killer. Hardin reached down, picked his revolvers up from the holsters, and handed the guns to Wild Bill butts forward, then swiftly rolled them over in his hands and suddenly Wild Bill was staring right into their muzzles. However, both men did back down. Hickok had no knowledge that Hardin was a wanted man, and he advised Hardin to avoid problems while in Abilene. Hardin met up with Hickok again while on a cattle drive in August 1871. This time, Hickok allowed Hardin to carry his pistols into town—something he had never allowed others to do. For his part, Hardin (still using his alias) was fascinated by Wild Bill and reveled in being seen on intimate terms with such a celebrated gunfighter. Hardin alleged that when his cousin, Mannen Clements, was jailed for the killing of two cowhands (Joe and Dolph Shadden) in July 1871, Hickok—at Hardin's request—arranged for his escape.
Kills snoring man Soon afterwards, on August 6, 1871, Hardin, his cousin Gip Clements, and a rancher friend named Charles Couger put up for the night at the American House Hotel after an evening of gambling. Clements and Hardin shared one room, with Couger in the adjacent room. All three had been drinking heavily. Sometime during the evening, Hardin was awakened by loud snoring coming from Couger's room. He first shouted several times for the man to "rollover" and then, irritated by the lack of response, drunkenly fired several bullets through the shared wall, in an apparent effort to awaken him. A newspaper reported, "A man was killed in his bed at a hotel in Abilene, Monday night, by a desperado called Arkansas. The murderer escaped. This was his sixth murder." ("Monday night", as reported by the newspaper, would have been August 7, 1871, not August 6.) Hardin leapt from the roof into the street and hid in a haystack for the rest of the night. He then stole a horse and rode to a cow camp 35 miles outside town. Hardin claimed he ambushed lawman Tom Carson and two other deputies there. According to Hardin, he did not kill them but forced them to remove all their clothing and walk back to Abilene. The next day, Hardin left for Texas, never to return to Abilene. The incident earned Hardin a reputation as a man "so mean, he once shot a man for snoring". Years later, Hardin made a casual reference to the episode: "They tell lots of lies about me," he complained. "They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. Well, it ain't true. I only killed one man for snoring."
Gunfights 1871–1872 Following his escape, Hardin claimed to have been involved in the following gunfights: • On October 6, 1871, Hardin was involved in a gunfight with two
Texas Special Policemen, two freedmen, privates Green Paramore and John Lackey, during which Paramore was killed and Lackey wounded. • After October 1871, a black posse from
Austin, Texas, came after him for killing Paramore but said that they returned "sadder and wiser" after he ambushed and killed three of them. • In May 1872, about 45 miles outside
Corpus Christi, Texas, after he was followed by two Mexicans, he shot one off his horse while the other "quit the fight." • On June 19, 1872, Hardin was involved in a gunfight in
Willis, Texas. • On July 26, 1872, Hardin wounded Texas state policeman Sonny Speights in the arm with a derringer pistol, in
Hemphill, Texas.
Sutton–Taylor feud In early 1872, Hardin was in south–central Texas, in the area around
Gonzales County. It was about this time that Hardin married Jane Bowen and started to keep regular company with her brother, cattle rustler Robert Bowen. While in the area, he also renewed his acquaintance with some of his cousins who were allied with a local family, the Taylors, who had been
feuding with the rival Sutton faction for several years. On August 7, 1872, Hardin was wounded by a shotgun blast in a gambling dispute at the Gates Saloon in
Trinity, Texas. He was shot by Phil Sublett, who had lost money to him in a poker game. Two buckshot pellets penetrated Hardin's kidney and for a time it looked as if he would die. While recuperating from his wounds, Hardin decided he wanted to settle down. After surrendering to Sheriff Reagan (brother of
John Henninger Reagan) of
Cherokee County, Texas, he was wounded in the right knee by an accidental gunshot from a nervous deputy. Hardin made a sick-bed surrender to authorities, handing over his guns to Sheriff Reagan and asking to be tried for his past crimes in order "to clear the slate". However, when Hardin learned of how many murders Reagan was going to charge him with, he changed his mind. A relative smuggled a
hacksaw to Hardin, who escaped after cutting through the bars of a prison window. In November 1872, Hardin escaped from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail despite a guard of six men; a $100 reward was offered for his arrest. On May 15, 1873, Jim Cox and Jake Christman were killed by the Taylor faction at Tumlinson Creek. Hardin, having by then recovered from the injuries sustained in Sublett's attack, admitted that there were reports that he had led the fights in which these men were killed but would neither confirm nor deny his involvement: "...as I have never pleaded to that case, I will at this time have little to say..." Hardin's main notoriety in the
Sutton–Taylor feud came from his part in the killing of two lawmen known to be Sutton family allies. On May, 17, 1873 in
Cuero, Texas, Hardin killed
DeWitt County Deputy Sheriff J.B. Morgan, who served under County Sheriff
Jack Helm (a former
captain in the Texas State Police and leader of the Sutton force at that time). Later that day, Hardin and Jack Taylor killed Helm in the town square of
Albuquerque, Texas. On the run again in June 1873, Hardin assisted in the escape of his brother-in-law, Joshua Bowen, from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail imprisoned there on an 1872 murder charge. Allegedly, Hardin was also involved in this killing of Thomas Holderman. as they waited on a steamboat platform in
Indianola, Texas. Tired of the feuding, the two were planning to leave the area for good. Hardin admitted that he and his brother Joseph had been involved (along with both Taylors) in the killings. After a brief visit to Florida—where he claimed to have been involved in three incidents against Negroes, including a lynching—Hardin met up with his wife, Jane, and their young daughter, with whom he had relocated under the assumed name "Swain". Hardin met with his "gang" on May 26, 1874, in a
Comanche, Texas, saloon to celebrate his 21st birthday. Hardin spotted
Brown County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb entering the premises. He asked Webb if he had come to arrest him. When Webb replied he had not, Hardin invited him into the hotel for a drink. As Webb followed him inside, Hardin claimed Webb drew his gun. One of Hardin's men yelled out a warning, and in the ensuing gunfight, Webb was shot dead. It was reported at the time that Webb was shot as he was pulling out an arrest warrant for one of Hardin's group. Two of Hardin's accomplices in the shooting were cousin Bud Dixon and Jim Taylor. The pistol Hardin used was a .44 Smith and Wesson Model 3 Russian First Model # 25274. The death of the popular Webb resulted in the quick formation of a
lynch mob. Hardin's parents and wife were taken into protective custody, while his brother Joe and two cousins, brothers Bud and Tom Dixon, were arrested on outstanding warrants. A group of local men broke into the jail in July 1874 and hanged Joe and the two Dixon boys. On November 18, 1875, the leader of the Suttons, ex-Cuero, Texas, town marshal Reuben Brown was shot and killed by five men in Cuero along with a negro named Tom Freeman, with another negro being wounded. In his autobiography, Hardin made only two references to Brown: that "Rube" Brown had arrested William Taylor before sending him to
Galveston, Texas, for trial, and that Brown had been among the leaders of a Sutton "posse" that had been out to "get" him in Gonzales County, Texas. It is not known if Hardin was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Reuben Brown, as he makes no further mention of the incident in his life story.
Captured and tried On January 20, 1875, the
Texas Legislature authorized Governor
Richard B. Hubbard to offer a $4,000 reward for Hardin's arrest. An undercover
Texas Ranger named
Jack Duncan intercepted a letter sent to Hardin's father-in-law by Hardin's brother-in-law, Joshua Robert "Brown" Bowen. The letter mentioned that Hardin was hiding out at a
lumber yard on the Alabama-Florida border using the name "John
(or James) W. Swain". In his autobiography, Hardin admitted that he had "adopted" this alias from
Brenham, Texas, Town Marshal Henry Swain, who had married a cousin of Hardin's named Molly Parks. In March 1876, Hardin wounded a man, in Florida, who had tried to mediate a quarrel between him and another man. In November 1876, in
Mobile, Alabama, Hardin was arrested briefly for having
marked cards. In mid-1877, two former slaves of his father's, "Jake" Menzel and Robert Borup tried to capture Hardin in
Gainesville, Florida. Hardin killed one and blinded the other. Hardin claimed that he was captured while smoking his pipe and that Duncan found Hardin's pistol under his shirt only after his arrest. == Trial and imprisonment ==