Bill Longley: Texas gun-fighter, killer, western outlaw, and murderer of numerous blacks in Texas.
Texas Gunfighter Kills Eight Blacks
Bill Longley was more than a mere gunfighter; he was also a deadly, Negro-murdering killer. His notorious career may have begun when he shot a Negro dead for sassing Bill's father. Longley was born in Austin County, Texas 1851. Like many boys and young men that grew up on the western frontier, he was no stranger to guns and violence, even from an early age. Longley's father had rode beside Sam Houston, and young Bill surely learned from his own father the business end of a pistol. That Bill hated free Negroes, was proven out when, one night, he made a mad dash through Lexington and shot down eight black men. From then on the label of killer and gunslinger was assuredly a part of this wild man's description. Longley also dressed the part with his holster strapped around his waist, its tie-thongs securely tied around his legs. Just looking at this man left no doubt about his profession.
The law was now out to apprehend Longley. Especially after he shot down an Army sergeant. Bill, at least, then had the good sense to hightail it for Arkansas.
Law Gets the Drop on Longley and a Horse Thief
One night, while Longley was still on the run, he was relaxing around his campfire when another fellow, a horse thief, by the name of Johnson rode up. While Longley and Johnson were sitting there, the law rode up and got the drop on the both of them. Now it surely looked like Longley, as well as the horse thief, had reached the end of their rope, in more ways than one.
In no time at all the law had Longley and Johnson astride their horses with ropes around their necks. Longley's bloody career was about to come to an abrupt end when the lawmen switched the horses out from under the two outlaws. Their deed done, the lawmen turned to ride away but before disappearing into the night they turned and took a few shots at the two dangling desperados.
As strange as any tale told of the Wild West, all of the bullets that the lawmen fired at Longley and the horse thief missed both of the swinging men. However, the misplaced bullets the law had fired at the two men had severed the hanging rope that Bill Longley dangled from, thus setting him free. Johnson was left to strangle to death.
Longley Gets Revenge on Lawman
Luck seemed to still be with Longley when, sometime later, the outlaw just happened upon one of the lawmen who had attempted to hang him. The fellow was bragging to others about how he'd hung some big fellow from an oak tree a short time back. The lawman must have surely been surprised when he found him self staring down the twin barrels of Longley's firearm. His surprise didn't last too much longer because Longley marched the fellow out to the same hanging tree that had previously been in use. There, Longley hung the lawman from the same branch that he, himself, had been strung up too.
Trail Boss Sees End of Trail
Sometime after that, Bill was riding trail-herd towards Abilene, Kansas. The man that was the trail boss for the outfit was somewhat of a braggart that liked to expound on his own shooting and drawing talents. The man went so far, and erroneously, to inform Bill that he could outdraw him. The brag may have been in fun but Longley didn't take it that way. He drew his gun, fired, and killed the trail boss.
Texans Are Horse Thieves, Their Women Prostitutes
That Bill Longley was a true-blue Texas there is little doubt. He proved it so one night in a saloon in Abilene, Kansas when a man bellied up to the bar and loudly announced that "all Texans were 'hoss thieves' and their women prostitutes." Well, there wasn't much else, by Longley's reckoning, for him to do but kill the man. But, before Bill drew on the loudmouth, he gave that mouth a good slapping. It would have seemed that Bill was giving the man fair warning and a chance to pull his own pistol, except that the slap was sufficient to knock the man down, and that's when Bill shot him dead.
Bill Longley continues with: The Death of Bill Longley: Outlaw Leaves a Trail of Murderers.
