[3] Hardin claimed that weeks later the authorities eventually discovered his location, and three Union soldiers were sent to arrest him, at which time he "chose to confront his pursuers" despite having been warned of their approach by an older brother, Joseph:;[14][15] at a creek crossing Hardin claimed to have killed two white men with a shotgun and killed a negro with a pistol: ...

Polk had killed a man named Tom Brady, and a detachment of soldiers sent from Corsicana, Texas, were pursuing the duo.

A man called "Judge Moore", who held Hardin's stakes of money and a pistol, refused to give them up without Bradley's consent and later "vanished".

[20] After killing Bradley, Hardin claimed that when a posse of fifteen men came after him, he captured two of them and took a shotgun, two six-shooters, a rifle, and two derringers from his captives.

"[7]: 22 Later that month, on January 20 in Horn Hill, Limestone County, Texas, Hardin claimed he killed a man in a gunfight after an argument at the circus.

[7]: 23  Less than a week after this incident, in nearby Kosse, Texas, Hardin was accompanying a prostitute home when they were accosted by her pimp, who demanded money.

[7]: 24 [14] In January 1871, Hardin was arrested for the murder of Waco, Texas, city marshal Laban John Hoffman; however, he denied committing this crime.

Two Texas state policemen, Captain Edward T. Stakes and an officer named Jim Smalley,[7]: 30–31 [21] were assigned to escort Hardin to Waco for trial.

Hardin then claimed that while on the run he was "arrested" by three men named Smith, Jones, and Davis; but in Bell County, Texas, he killed all three with their own guns, after they became drunk and careless, and escaped again.

[22] After the Bell County shootings, Hardin found refuge with his cousins, the Clements, who were then living in Gonzales, in south Texas.

Thinking he could get out of Texas long enough for his pursuers to lose interest, Hardin worked with his cousins, rustling cattle for Jake Johnson and Columbus Carol.

[7]: 46–49 [notes 4] The Bull's Head Tavern, in Abilene, Kansas, had been established as a partnership between ex-lawman Ben Thompson and gambler Phil Coe.

[7]: 54–56 [33] Soon afterwards, on August 6, 1871, Hardin, his cousin Gip Clements, and a rancher friend named Charles Couger put up for the night at the American House Hotel after an evening of gambling.

He first shouted several times for the man to "rollover" and then, irritated by the lack of response, drunkenly fired several bullets through the shared wall, in an apparent effort to awaken him.

"Now, I believed," Hardin wrote, "that if Wild Bill found me in a defenseless condition he would take no explanation, but would kill me to add to his reputation.

While in the area, he also renewed his acquaintance with some of his cousins who were allied with a local family, the Taylors, who had been feuding with the rival Sutton faction for several years.

[citation needed] On August 7, 1872, Hardin was wounded by a shotgun blast in a gambling dispute at the Gates Saloon in Trinity, Texas.

[7]: 73  Hardin made a sick-bed surrender to authorities, handing over his guns to Sheriff Reagan and asking to be tried for his past crimes in order "to clear the slate".

[41] In November 1872, Hardin escaped from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail despite a guard of six men; a $100 reward was offered for his arrest.

[44][45][46] On the run again in June 1873, Hardin assisted in the escape of his brother-in-law, Joshua Bowen, from the Gonzales County, Texas, jail where he was imprisoned on an 1872 murder charge.

[47] On March 11, 1874, the Sutton–Taylor feud intensified when Jim and Bill Taylor gunned down Billy Sutton and Gabriel Slaughter[48] as they waited on a steamboat platform in Indianola, Texas.

[7]: 86–87 After a brief visit to Florida—where he claimed to have been involved in three incidents against Negroes, including a lynching—Hardin met with his wife, Jane, and their young daughter, with whom he had relocated under the assumed name "Swain".

[7]: 106  It is not known if Hardin was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Reuben Brown, as he makes no further mention of the incident in his life story.

[citation needed] On January 20, 1875, the Texas Legislature authorized Governor Richard B. Hubbard to offer a $4,000 reward for Hardin's arrest.

The letter mentioned that Hardin was hiding out at a lumber yard on the Alabama-Florida border using the name "John (or James) W. Swain".

In 1892, Hardin was described as 5.9 feet (1.8 m) tall and 160 pounds (73 kg), with a fair complexion, hazel eyes, dark hair, and wound scars on his right knee, left thigh, right side, hip, elbow, shoulder, and back.

Later that year, on March 16, Hardin was pardoned, and, on July 21, he passed the state's bar examination, obtaining his license to practice law.

An El Paso lawman, John Selman Jr., arrested Hardin's acquaintance and part-time prostitute, the "widow" M'Rose (or Mroz), for "brandishing a gun in public".

He claimed self-defense, stating that he witnessed Hardin attempting to draw his pistol upon seeing him enter the saloon, and a hung jury resulted in his being released on bond, pending a retrial.

One group, representing several of Hardin's great-grandchildren, sought to relocate his body to Nixon, Texas, to be interred next to the grave of his first wife, Jane.