Beschreibung:

HARDIN, John Wesley (1853-1895). Schoolteacher, cowboy, convict, lawyer, gunfighter. Autograph letter signed ("JWH"), on a partly printed letter sheet of the prison in Hunstville, to his wife Jane, Huntsville, Texas, February 24, 1889. 2 pages recto and verso, folio, minor paper loss at the folds and with some toning and foxing, otherwise fine. The manuscrpt is housed in a 1/4 black morocco case with marbled boards and gilt lettered spine. Also included is a facsimile portrait. John Wesley Hardin was one of the most dangerous men in America. At age 11 he stabbed another boy in the chest and back. At 15 he shot and killed a former slave. And so the pattern was set. At 21, he gunned down Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb and Texas put a $4,000 dead or alive price on his head. Hardin relocated to Florida, assuming a new name, but after three years Texas Ranger John Armstrong captured him on a train near Pensacola. He spent the next 17 years behind bars in Hunstville from whence, after more than a decade of separation, he writes his still loving and faithful wife this excellent letter. "This will assure you that you have again thrilled my heart by this evidence of your loyal faith and love which stands now unshaken ... after a separation of more than a decade of years, after having endured trials, temptations, sorrows of the ... most woeful nature resultant of this ungodly separation brought about by diabolic conspirators as sly ... as any ever produced by home, who to wash their hands before men of the innocent blood of Brothers, of Relatives ... by perversion of the lowly minds have consigned me to this lethiferous [sic] abode have ostracised [sic] me from my beloved wife and children have deprived me of liberty by a means known only of the devil ... lashed and reviled by the press and villains ... you have continued faithful loving true and you have by your indefatigable endeavors exhibited a fialty [sic] worthy of the triumphant heroine that you are ... You stand the embodiment of American womanhood ... when you sign your name 'Your wife Jane Hardin until death' ... and let us labor and hope but not fret. Now if I have said one word that will stimulate you to renewed efforts to fight this battle of life with viurtuous weapons for your children for your husband for yourself for mankind for your God I am well paid ... I rejoice in your love and I assure you again that I reciprocate it with all my heart .. just go on with the good work and show the world what a Texas woman with indomitable courage irrepressible love and perserverance can accomplish. Jane dearest .. I close by sending my love with a kiss to each of our dear children and acknowledge J.W.H. & M.E.H. [the children] letters received sometime since tell them to write often Papa will write by and by JWH". Tragically Jane died about a year and a half before John got out. This letter shows a very different side to John Wesley Hardin, a man who would kill at the drop of a hat. If you compare the track records of all the Western gunfighters, only 'Killin' Jim Miller had more kills, and he was a hitman for hire, with 12 confirmed kills, and 14 gunfights. Hardin had 11 confirmed kills and 19 gunfights, none of them, strictly speaking, were killings for hire. But finally on August 19, 1895 in El Paso, Hardin had a run in with law officers John Selman Sr. and Jr. Mr. Hardin was shooting dice at the Acme Saloon, where he had just thrown down his cards and yelled 'you have four sixes to beat', when a slug crashed into the back of his skull, exiting his left eye. Selman, who had shot without warning from behind, calmly walked up to the prostrate Hardin and fired three more times. Selman was arrested, but was himself gunned down in cold blood before the case could come to trial. Hardin is very rare in ALS and this is an extraordinary example. Accompanying the letter is a certification of authenticity signed by Charles Hamilton and dated June 19, 1996. Provenance: Ronald J. Atlas collect