A downtown El Paso historic building, which was used by gunfighter John Wesley Hardin in the 1800s has been destroyed by fire.

The outlaw's violent career started in 1867 with a schoolyard squabble in which he stabbed another kid.

The downtown building was ravaged by flames on Thursday night.

The Frontier Times says of Hardin, "The fact that he had more than thirty notches on his gun is evidence that no more dangerous gunman ever operated in Texas."

A 1962 historic marker describes Hardin as "the West's most feared gunman" who killed at least 26 men. The marker says Hardin was shot dead at the Acme Saloon in El Paso on Aug. 19, 1895.

Another part of the old west history gone. Our history of death and destruction, like it or not, is OUR history. Learn your history or your damned to repeat history.

And sadly this is what the building looks like today.

aftermath of fire
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Watch the El Paso Times' video as the building is destroyed below.

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