Gunslinger Bill Longley: Avoids Wild Bill Hickok, has gunfights in Mexico, is finally apprehended and hung.
Longley Avoids Trouble with Wild Bill Hickok
After knocking a man down in a saloon then shooting him to death, it was time for Bill Longley to leave Abilene, Kansas. This was especially so after Longley learned that Wild Bill Hickok was the sheriff and would not put up with any shooting. Bill was now out of a job and, as usual, out of money. But he had a plan. Longley picked a fight with another man, one who had a price on his head. Bill killed the man and collected the five hundred-dollar reward. With a part of the reward money, Longley bought himself a new pair of pistols.
Longley Kills Another Black
Back in those days, when a fellow purchased a new gun the usual inspection of any said item included spinning the gun to try its balance. Then you would cock it, flick the barrel, and once more try its balance. Bill did all of this as well as putting a couple of shells in the empty chambers. About that time, however, he saw a Negro strolling across the street. Longley took aim at the Black, fired, and killed the man. Just as if it was an ordinary, every-day occurrence, he told the storekeeper that the guns were fine weapons and paid for them. But that wasn't the end of it all.
The sheriff, upon seeing that someone inside the store had fired and killed the Black man, came running into the store. The officer tried to arrest Longley but Longley informed the lawman that he guessed he'd have to kill him, too, and he did.
Law Apprehends Longley
Now Bill Longley's head was worth something, because the U. S. Government put a bounty on it in Fredericksburg, Texas. Longley should have kept on moving and fast, but evidently one evening he stopped long enough to have himself some dinner. That was when the law nabbed him. It now looked as if the Longley luck might have just ran dry.
The man that had captured Longley took Bill to the U. S. Marshal but the government, for some unknown reason, refused to pay the reward. Not having the money, himself, to get out of jail, Bill wired his folks and they sent a rider with the money. Once again, Bill Longley walked free.
More Longley Killings: Old Mexico and South Texas
After that Bill drifted down into Old Mexico but the killing didn't halt. While in Mexico, Longley shot up two or three Mexican gunslingers. He then killed a man with his bare fists. Moving north to Fredericksburg, Texas, Bill shot still another man but this one evidently wasn't too keen on dying. Bill had to unload both guns before the man would lie still and die.
Bill was getting bolder now with his killing and made the mistake of killing a man in public. The reason for this murder was to avenge his cousin the, now dead, man had killed. Immediately, Longley was captured and sentenced to hang. Bill did have one complaint about his sentence. He figured it was unfair considering that a contemporary of his, one John Wesley Hardin, after killing some 40 men, had been dished up a sentence of 25 years in Huntsville Prison.
Longley Nearly Escapes the Noose
Longley may have had a point about his sentence complaint, considering that by the age of 27 in 1878, he had 31 dead men to his credit. However, he lit one last cigar and climbed to the gallows. It's said he actually smiled at the trembling man that was to execute him. The noose was placed around Longley's neck and the trap under his feet was released. Now was the moment of truth.
The rope around gunslinger Bill Longley's neck slipped and he landed "catlike" on his feet. Would Longley now go free-again?
That was not going to happen. The jailer cried out that this time they would hang the fellow for good. And they did, but it took Bill Longley eleven minutes to die-then his luck ran out for the final time.
Previous: Bill Longley: Gunfighter, Outlaw, Murderer, Negro-killer.
Source:
McCarty, Lea F. The Gunfighters. Mike Roberts Color Productions, Emeryville, California, 1959.
