RUNNING FROM DEATH

John Hardin grows up in a religious family with a preacher father. Despite his upbringing John kills a slave named Mage by the age of 15 and starts his life on the run from the law. It is here that John first starts to see a “man in black”, a mysterious figure dressed in all black wearing a black cowboy hat.

John, while hiding at his cousin Emanuel “Mannen” Clements’ home, tells “Mannen” he is seeing a man dressed in black that is following him. John thinks it may be a bounty hunter. “Mannen” thinks John is seeing things and wants to help John stay on the right path by possibly getting him in the cattle business if the opportunity arises.

While playing poker in a saloon, John Hardin meets a man named John Selman. John Selman embarrasses John Hardin during an altercation, which makes John Hardin vow a lifetime hatred for Selman.

By 16 years old, John Hardin perfects a quick cross-draw to aid him in defending himself. He ends up using it against a gunfighter named Jim Bradley, killing him. People are instantly both infatuated with and in fear of John Hardin and his speed with guns. They enlarge his ego by asking him for autographs and buying him drinks. John Hardin welcomes the notoriety and becomes more fearless. Some people also start to test John, by wanting to make names for themselves by trying to kill John. John seems to always prove he is faster!

John, while on the run from the law, meets and marries his wife Jane (Bowen) Hardin and confesses to her he thinks death is after him because he is seeing the man more and more, before and after he kills people. Jane tells John he must mend his ways and that he needs to think of his wife now.

In Abilene Kansas, John accidently shoots a man that is snoring in a hotel room that is annoying John. Hardin immediately goes on the run again and he is convinced that it is death that is following him.

While on the run and in hiding, John kills a well-liked law man, Charles Webb. After that, state marshals go after John. He is forced to leave his wife and family or face the possibility of being hanged. By this time John has killed at least 16 men.

Hardin is found by marshals in Florida and brought to trial for murder. John Hardin after defending himself in court, goes to jail for 24 years. John concludes that it was death (the grim reaper) he was seeing because he never sees the “the man in black” the whole time he is in prison. John starts studying law more intently while in prison and vows to change his ways. After John is released, he finds out that his wife Jane has died. After grieving he pursues a career in law in El Paso, Texas. John has found that he no longer has the fame he once had. John is trying to stay on the right path, but without his fame and the fear it puts in people, he feels tested at every moment.

John then falls back into his bad ways by drinking and gambling almost every night. John is in a saloon and sees after many years, the “man in black” has returned. The man is finally revealed, and John is shocked to see it is himself, John Wesley Hardin. John Hardin then sees his longtime foe John Selman, who shoots and kills Hardin. We see at the funeral John is buried all in black like the man he has always seen following him. It is now evident that John was trying to warn himself in life about his impending death.