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John Selman Gunfighter
by Leon C. Metz
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: University of Oklahoma Press
276 Pages | 6 x 9 | 36 b&w illus., 1 map
$14.95
Leon Metz has pieced together, for the first time, all that is known of John Selman, a shadowy figure in Texas and New Mexico during the unsettled, often violent, period after the Civil War. Unlike many of his comrades—including the most notorious outlaws of his time—John Selman did not wish to become well known. Indeed, his penchant for assumed names indicates he did not wish to be known at all.
Selman was an enigmatic man of many parts: he was an oldest son, responsive to the needs of his mother and siblings; a soldier with a talent for leadership—until his unexplained desertion from the Confederate Army; a husband and father; a rancher who struggled with, and murdered, would-be grangers; and a devoted friend to an evil influence named John Larn, with whom he seemed to kill for sport.
As the Southwest became more settled, so did John Selman. At the end of his career, when he was a constable in El Paso, Selman lost his anonymity for all time: He was the man who killed John Wesley Hardin. Metz explores the stories surrounding Hardin's death—some said Selman shot Hardin in the back. Including rare photographs, Metz presents his conclusions about this legendary gunfighter.
Selman was an enigmatic man of many parts: he was an oldest son, responsive to the needs of his mother and siblings; a soldier with a talent for leadership—until his unexplained desertion from the Confederate Army; a husband and father; a rancher who struggled with, and murdered, would-be grangers; and a devoted friend to an evil influence named John Larn, with whom he seemed to kill for sport.
As the Southwest became more settled, so did John Selman. At the end of his career, when he was a constable in El Paso, Selman lost his anonymity for all time: He was the man who killed John Wesley Hardin. Metz explores the stories surrounding Hardin's death—some said Selman shot Hardin in the back. Including rare photographs, Metz presents his conclusions about this legendary gunfighter.
Leon Claire Metz, a biographer and historian of the early Southwest, lives in El Paso, Texas. He is also the author of Pat Garrett: Story of a Western Lawman and Dallas Stoudenmire: El Paso Marshal, both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
"Selman was a typical frontier character. He grew up on the edge of civilization; fought with (and deserted) the Confederacy, became the leader of a hard-case gang in New Mexico during Lincoln County War days, and ended his career as a more-or-less respectable policeman in El Paso. He secured for himself a place in frontier history by killing John Wesley Hardin in the Acme Saloon on August 19, 1895. Eight months later, on April 5, 1896, be himself was shot and killed in an El Paso alley. Metz gathers up the scattered pieces of the Selman saga with extraordinary skill and puts them together in a well-told narrative.”—Journal of Arizona History
“This book goes much further than a discussion of the Hardin affair. It shows both sides of John Selman in an unbiased, factual way and describes a good many other interesting anecdotes in the life of Selman from his Civil War service to his escapades in Texas and New Mexico. While he did serve at times in various capacities as an officer of the law, his life story leaves little doubt in the mind's eye that here was basically a cold-blooded, vicious sociopath. . . . John Selman, before he, too, was gunned down, bad outlived all of the other gunslingers of the Old West and his passing really noted the passing of an era."—Annals of Wyoming
"This is quite a book about one of the West's most infamous gunmen, about whom very little bas been written. Mr. Metz has done a workmanlike job. His research was extensive and there are thirty-six pages of notes, a bibliography, and records of personal interviews."—Denver Westerners' Roundup
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