The Murder of John Harden
Episode 239
John Harden
On a warm spring night in March of 1975, thirty-two year old John Harden completed an emergency call for a client and returned home. Less than an hour later, he'd be shot dead in his driveway.
After finishing his shower, John glanced out the window and saw his work truck engulfed in flames. Running outside to try and snuff out the blaze, his killer got his opening and fired a single blast from his gun. John fell to the pavement and died from his wounds less than twenty minutes later.
Investigators would later determine that the fire had been purposefully set to lure the father of five outside and into the kill zone. They recovered the murder weapon, though they could never identify it or the owner. As years wore on, the case grew increasingly cold.
In October of 1991 an episode of Unsolved Mysteries revitalized interest in the yet solved homicide. Not by focusing on the murder and investigating the case, but by chasing alleged ghosts around the house in which John had been killed.
Was John Harden the victim of a random act of violence, had he been targeted by someone he knew and trusted or was his murder arranged by local union members who grew furious watching John take contracts they felt belonged to them.
Sources:
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John Warren Harden (1942-1975) - Find a Grave Memorial
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Did John Hardin's Murder Spur An Even Stranger Haunting?
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Timothy Paul Harden (1961-1991) - Find a Grave Memorial
Clermont’s Creepiest Dwelling: The Harden House
Poltergeist Associated With Clermont's Only Unsolved Murder
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