  |
|
|
|
Longley visits Mexico and does some killing, then returns to Texas where the killing continues.
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. The reason being that the man had "no gun to match his." Moving north a bit, in San Antonio, 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 may have had a point about his sentence complaint, considering that by the age of 27 in 1878, he had only 31 dead men to his credit. However, he "lit his last cigar and climbed to the gallows." It's said he actually smiled at the trembling man that was to execute him. And for a short while it appeared that maybe the old Longley luck was going to sprout again. 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 Lucky Bill Longley eleven minutes to die-then his luck ran out for the final time. Recommended Reading: Butch Cassidy: The Outlaw That Got Away. Source: McCarty, Lea F. The Gunfighters. Mike Roberts Color Productions, Emeryville, California, 1959.
The copyright of the article Lucky Bill Longley 4 in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Lucky Bill Longley 4 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
|
|
|
|
