Until January 31, 1882, John Henning was a normal husband and father of three children, but he began to show erratic behavior and paranoia. He was especially resentful of the state requirement that men were responsible for maintaining roads for a few days each year. J.B. Lewis was sent to tell Henning that he owed the county a few days labor and Henning shot him to death. Henning escaped on horseback to New Mexico where he worked on a railroad until October, when the local sheriff telegraphed his location to Stephenville Sheriff W.B Slaughter. Slaughter traveled by horseback to New Mexico and brought him back. Before the trial, Slaughter was assassinated on the square and was replaced by J.C. Gilbreath. Henning’s defense was that he was insane when he shot Lewis. He was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison. He survived fifteen years in Huntsville, the last several years in isolation because of his insanity. Prison records show that he died of complications of insanity and diarrhea.

Sherri Knight, Vigilantes to Verdicts: Stories from a Texas District Court, Stephenville: Jacobus Books, 2009.