After Prison Life
Hardin was released from prison on February 17, 1894, after serving seventeen years of his twenty-five year sentence. He returned to Gonzales, Texas. Later that year, on March 16, Hardin was pardoned; and, on July 21, he passed the Texas state's bar examination, obtaining his license to practice law. According to a newspaper article in 1900, shortly after being released from prison, Hardin committed negligent homicide when he made a $5 bet that he could "at the first shot" knock a Mexican man off the soap box he was "sunning" himself, winning the bet and leaving the man dead from the fall and not the gunshot.
On January 9, 1895, Hardin married a 15-year-old girl named Callie Lewis.The marriage ended quickly, although it was never legally dissolved. Afterward, Hardin moved to El Paso.
Read more about this topic: John Wesley Hardin
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