During the last week in May, 1874, John Wesley Hardin won $3000 at the Comanche County horse races. Charles Webb, Sheriff of Brown County, arrived with 15 men to arrest Hardin and announced that Comanche Sheriff John Karnes “was no man or sheriff because he allowed a set of murders to stay around him.” Celebrating after the race, Hardin threw a handful of $20 gold coins on the counter of a local saloon and ordered drinks for everyone. Sheriff Webb drew on Hardin in the saloon and was killed. A mob formed to hang Hardin, who surrendered to Sheriff Karnes. Vigilantes arrived from Erath County and together with the angry citizens of Comanche stormed the jail and disarmed Karnes. Hardin’s wife, mother, father, sister, and brother joined the Sheriff’s people, advanced with shoguns, allowing Hardin and a friend to reach their horses and ride out of town. Hardin was wounded by vigilante gunfire as he fled town and on the 26th camped in the hills four miles from Comanche, trying to avoid the hundreds of vigilantes that searched the area. Bill Waller, Ranger and vigilante captain, arrested Hardin’s father, brother, and several friends, to keep them from helping Hardin.

Robert G. McCubbin, (ed.) The Life of John Wesley Hardin, As Written by Himself. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.