Hell Bent is a novel about the life of John Wesley Hardin, the most dangerous gunslinger in Texas history. Based on both fictional and authenticated facts, (as accurate as possible for the 1800’s anyway), his notorious life has become the stuff of legend. The fabled Texas gunfighter led the life of ten mortal men and was a walking contradiction. At times, he was the polite southern gentleman, whom the girls loved, to a two-gun, fast draw sharpshooter who feared no one and would kill at the drop of a hat. Even as a teenager, he became the lightning rod for pro-southern sentiment, which was still festering in the Texas Reconstruction Era more than ten years after the Civil War. Many folks considered him a hero for standing up to the Federal Army and the State Police occupation of their land that they had fought and died for.

John Wesley’s father, James G. Hardin, a traveling Methodist preacher, named him after the founder of the Methodist faith in hopes that he would follow in his footsteps. At the age of 15, Wes killed his first man, an ex-slave, in an act of self-defense. His father, fearing his son wouldn’t get a fair trial in the now Union-occupied south, advised him to go into hiding. The authorities eventually located Hardin, and sent three Union soldiers to arrest him. Despite being warned by his brother Joe Hardin to run and hide, he chose to stay and fight. He killed the three soldiers and thus began his life on the run.

By the age of twenty-one, he became public enemy #1. The newly formed Texas Rangers tracked him all over Texas, and finally into Florida where he was captured on a train in Pensacola. Hardin was returned to Texas where he stood trial and was convicted for killing Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb. He was found guilty and sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor in the infamous Huntsville Prison.

After reading this book, you can decide if he was a hero or villain, but either way, you will see why he was called the last true gunfighter of The Old West.