John Wesley Hardin

Hardin's El Paso months tangled him with the men who killed him. He took as his lover the wife of a client, Martin Mroz, a cattle thief who had fled to Mexico. Mroz crossed the border under a promise of safe passage from lawman George Scarborough and was killed by several officers, and Hardin was rumored to have hired them. John Selman was one of them. Selman was tried and released after a hung jury, and Scarborough later shot him dead.

What the plaque says

John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 - August 19, 1895) Born in Bonham, Texas, John Wesley Hardin was named for the founder of Methodism. "Wes" Hardin grew into a family man, cowboy, and outlaw who claimed to have killed more than 30 men. An unusual sort of gunslinger, Hardin considered himself a pillar of society who killed to save his own life. Hardin served 15 years in state prison for murder, was pardoned, then opened a law office in El Paso in May 1895. He was killed 3 months later by John Selman, an El Paso city constable. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.0 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 2.2 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 9.4 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 10 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• James H. White — steps away
• Henry O. Flipper — 0.5 mi
• Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon — 0.5 mi
• Henry C. Trost — 0.5 mi