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237 “I want justice. I want to be dealt with according to law. All I ask is legal protection against mobs.” John Wesley Hardin, August 28, 1877 rmstrong and Duncan arrived in Texas on August 27. From Longview Duncan sent a telegram to his brother S. W. S. Duncan informing him where they were and that they were “all safe” and that they would arrive in Austin the following day.1 All along the way, once the news was out that Hardin the man-killer was on the train, people crowded the depots desperate to glimpse the notorious desperado. At Palestine , the county seat of Anderson County, a reporter provided a brief description for his readers. Working his way closer amongst the hundreds of people there he saw that Hardin was “heavily ironed with shackles and handcuffs.” He also saw the Rangers; the trio had to disembark to change trains before they “took supper” there at the La Clede hotel on Spring Street, where proprietor James Denyven provided meals to travelers at all hours.2 Someone in the throng called out, “What have you got there?” Aware only of guarding their $4,000 prisoner, neither Armstrong nor Duncan thought of an answer, but Hardin did and responded: “A panther .” At supper they chanced to remove Hardin’s handcuffs and he “ate quite heartily and unconcernedly, his manner being easy and indifferent.” Hardin’s attire even brought attention, “quite ordinary” to the reporter’s eyes, “the Texas white wool hat with dark alpaca coat. His health is good and robust.” A final word of assurance was that “there is no doubt of his identity.”3 238 Chapter 14—Hardin on Trial The train reached Austin the morning of August 28. The “large crowd” at the depot wanting to see the prisoner was disappointed, as Hardin was slipped out the rear of the train into a carriage with the curtains drawn.4 He recalled the arrival in Austin with greater drama, relating that his “guards learned that there was a tremendous crowd at the depot” and therefore stopped the train and rode in a “hack for the jail.” When the crowd at the depot learned of the trick the people “broke for the jail” and the hack “just did manage to get there first, and they carried me bodily into the jail; so when the crowd arrived, they failed to see the great curiosity.” 5 While Sheriff Dennis Corwin6 and his deputies dealt with how best to deal with the publicity, Hardin wrote to friends and relatives, perhaps requesting them to come and see him as he had been out of the state for over three years. He also was thinking about attorneys for his defense. As people applied to Sheriff Corwin to see Hardin, he realized there were numerous prisoners he knew, some as friends but some as enemies. Relatives included cousin Mannen Clements, charged with a Gonzales County killing; Bill Taylor was there, between court appearances on trial for the killing of Gabriel Webster Slaughter back in 1874; George Gladden and John Ringo were there as well, imprisoned for their activities during the Mason County “Hoo Doo” War; John Collins and Jefferson Ake were there as well, but perhaps most interesting among the eighty prisoners there were “several from DeWitt [County],” although not identified by name.7 Hardin certainly recognized them as they were also participants in the bloody Sutton-Taylor Feud; these men were charged with the 1876 cold-blooded killing of Dr. Brassell and his son. Those DeWitt County prisoners were William D. Meador, Nicholas J. “Jake” Ryan, David Augustine, James Hester, Charles H. Heissig, Joseph Sitterle and William Cox. What Hardin and Cox may have said to each other, if they were within “talking” distance , may have been unprintable, as Hardin was involved in the shotgun ambush of Cox’s father, James W. Cox. Almost immediately the crowd of curious onlookers as well as the press discussed how many men the jail’s most famous prisoner had killed. Of the nearly eighty prisoners confined, the Galveston Daily News Chapter 14—Hardin on Trial 239 announced that “many are considered as desperate characters as Hardin” and further commented: “No one can make a complete list of Hardin’s victims, but the number will not probably fall short of twenty-three— eight in Kansas and the [Oklahoma] Territory and fifteen in Texas.” To create a better picture of the man for those who could not see him in person...

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