This we know: John Selman killed John Wesley Hardin at El Paso’s Acme Saloon on August 19, 1895. Tradition says Selman shot him in the back of the head.
But Hardin biographers Chuck Parsons and Norman Wayne Brown disagree, pointing to some eyewitness accounts saying Hardin spun and went for his gun when he noticed Selman. They also argue that the small wound near Hardin’s left eye matches an entrance hole—the larger wound in the back of the head is more likely the exit wound. A hung j

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows