TEXAS OUTLAWS
William Preston Longley
Never one to be unarmed, Bill Longley killed his first man in Austin County, Texas, when the soon-to-be gunman was 15 years old. Six feet tall, Longley was a racist and picked many a fight with Yankee sympathizers and carpetbaggers. He had a continuing feud with Wilson Anderson, the result being Anderson’s death. While waiting for the hangman’s noose to end his life for the killing of Anderson, Longley wrote a letter to the Texas governor asking why John Wesley Hardin only received 25 years in jail for forty killings while Longley received the death penalty for 30 killings. No reply came from the governor and Longley was executed in Giddings, Texas, 11 October, 1878. He was 27 years of age.

          John Wesley Hardin
Named after the Methodist preacher, Hardin was anything but pious. By 1878, he claimed to have killed 44 men. Born in Bonham, Texas in 1853, Hardin killed his first man in 1868. Thus began the law-breaking career of Wes Hardin. He married Jane Bowen in 1871, Hardin saying of her, "She was as true to me as the magnet of steel."

While in the Huntsville, TX, prison, Hardin studied law, eventually opening a law office in El Paso. Hardin and the law passed by one another for the last time in 1895 when the current lady love of his love was arrested for carrying a pistol. Hardin threatened John Selman, then a policeman. Selman walked up behind the outlaw-turned-lawyer and shot him dead on August 19, 1895.

Many books and articles have been written about John Wesley Hardin, including an autobiography of the man.

        The James Boys
Ever wonder which firearms the outlaws preferred? It seems Remington got a rather good endorsement from Frank James. "The Remington is the hardest and surest shooting pistol made," he claimed. On the other hand, little brother Jesse preferred the Smith and wesson Schofield .45, a single-action revolver first produced in 1875.

Frank and Jesse were no strangers to Texas. When the heat became unbearable in Missouri, the brothers would mosey down to Scyene, Texas. Scyene was a small town between Dallas and Mesquite, now incorporated into both. Scyene Road still runs as a main road in Dallas and Mesquite, where it was once an old buffalo trail.

Cullen Baker
Though born in Tennessee, Baker and his family moved to Texas when he was four. In 1854, Baker shot and killed a man then left for Arkansas. Serving in the Confederate and Union armies, Baker deserted both. After the War, Baker returned to Texas (near Cass County) where his reign of terror continued.

In 1869 Baker was killed in Arkansas. He was gunned down by four men while eating his lunch along a roadside. On his body was found four pistols, three derringers, six knives and one shotgun.

   Frank Jackson (1856-?)
Frank Jackson was born in Texas in 1856 and was orphaned as a boy. He was trained as a tinsmith, but lost interest. By the time he was 20, he was working in Denton at the Murphy ranch, a place of refuge for Sam Bass. Joining Bass' gang, Frank was with them in the disastrous train robbery in Mesquite, April 10, 1878.

Frank was also in Round Rock the fateful day Sam Bass and his men lost their battle with the Texas Rangers. Sam escaped with the help of Jackson, though Bass was critically wounded. Persuading Jackson to go on, Bass was then captured that night.

Frank Jackson wound up once more in Denton then suddenly disappeared. Some suspect he may have eventually turned up as William Downing, a deputy under Burt Alvord. But what really became of Frank Jackson is unknown.

         Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson was a Texas cowboy who went with the Lee faction during the Lee-Peacock Feud in Grayson Co. during the 1860's. When Bob Lee, the leader of the Lees, was killed in June 1869, Johnson headed to west Texas to raise cattle. When the Peacocks killed a half-brother in 1871, Johnson came back to Grayson Co. to avenge the death.

Together with Joe Parker, Johnson went to the leader of the Peacock's ranch and laid in wait up in a tree for the owner, Lewis Peacock, to appear. As Peacock stepped outside and stood on his front porch, Johnson fired, killing Peacock instantly with a bullet to the heart. Johnson fled and was never caught. The Lee-Peacock Feud ended abruptly following Lewis Peacock's death.

Lee-Peacock Feud
A dispute that held racial overtones, the Lee-Peacock Feud began after the close of the Civil War. Confederates would side with the Lees while Unionists would go with the Peacocks. Lewis Peacock, a powerful landowner near Pilot Grove, Texas, was involved in the Reconstruction Union League, a group that helped former slaves find jobs and places to live. Peacock's enemies saw the League as a land-grabbing scheme.

The first major fight happened in April 1868, with no casualties. However, another fight occurred in June, that same year, the Peacocks losing three men. Ambush of the Peacocks happened again in December 1868. The final confrontation took place June 13, 1871.

Bob Lee, head of the Lee faction, was killed in 1869; Lewis Peacock was shot dead by Richard Johnson in 1871.

              James Kennedy
Also known as 'Spike', James Kennedy was heir to a Texas fortune. In love with Dora Hand, Kennedy had a rival in James H. 'Dog' Kelley, the mayor of Dodge City, Kansas. When the mayor noticed Kennedy's affections toward Dora, he had Kennedy thrown out of the Alhambra Club. Vowing revenge, Kennedy sneaked up to the mayor's bedroom window and fired a few shots. However, Kelley was not home...Kennedy had shot and killed Dora Hand.

After a wild chase by lawmen Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown and Bill Tilghman, Kennedy was apprehended after being shot in the arm by Masterson. When told he had killed Dora instead of his intended target, Kennedy vowed he didn't have the will to live. Helped by family money, Kennedy was found "not guilty" for lack of evidence.

               Brack Cornett
Born and raised in Goliad County, Brack Cornett was a member of the Bill Whitley gang. With Whitley and others, Cornett robbed banks and trains in southwest Texas. The gang robbed the bank at Cisco, Texas, taking $25,000. A few days later the gang took $20,000 from the express car on the IG&N train in Travis County. A posse was waiting for them at Harwood, the gang giving up their attempt. In Wilson County, the gang was finally trapped by U.S. Marshals on September 25, 1888. The gang opted to shoot it out with the law, Whitley being killed. Cornett took off across the plains where he was killed in a shoot-out with Deputy Sheriff Alfred Allee.

   Kitty LeRoy (1850-1878)
One of the best women gamblers in the Old west, Kitty LeRoy was likely born in Texas. Beginning as a performer at the age of ten, Kitty then became the belle of Dallas. She gave up her theatrical skills to deal faro. As she went to the tables, she always carried several Bowie knives and revolvers on her person, and she was noted for stopping arguments with a single 'misplaced' shot.

Married four times, husband number one was the only man with the nerve to let Kitty shoot apples off the top of his head as she gallopped by on her horse. Her third husband she married on his death bed. She shot him then felt guilty and married him.

Kitty moved to Deadwood in 1876 with husband number four and opened the Mint Gambling Saloon. In 1878, her husband shot and killed her over her alleged affairs with Sam Bass and Bill Hickok.

                  Jack Harris
Born and raised in Texas, Jack Harris worked for the U.S. Army as a scout and an Indian fighter. After the War, he fought in Nicaragua (losing a finger) in the Central American revolution. Upon returning to the U.S., Harris became one of the last great buffalo hunters. He moved to San Antonio where he served for a short time as a policeman then became a gambler. He and partner Ernest Hart opened the Green Front Saloon. Harris liked San Antonio with one of his few enemies being Ben Thompson. Thompson held a grudge, believing Harris had cheated at one of his own games.

Thompson rode into San Antonio on July 11, 1882. Drunk, he stormed into the Green Front Saloon and challenged Harris to a shootout in the street. Harris grabbed a gun and waited for Thompson in the saloon behind some venetian blinds. Thompson, spying Harris in hiding, fired first, his bullet finding Harris’ right lung. Another shot and Harris staggered to his room upstairs and died that night in 1884. Thompson, city marshal of Austin at the time, resigned his post then was acquitted on self-defense.

              Bill Earhart
Born in Jack County, Bill Earhart was an itinerant cowboy who, in 1883, moved to New Mexico with two friends, Jim and Clay Cooper. In 1888 Earhart became involved in a squabble with John Good, a rival of the Cooper boys whom Earhart was working for. A range war between the Goods and the Coopers erupted. John Good's son was killed that August allegedly by five men near Las Cruces. Though a long shootout took place, the only two casualties were horses. Finally a settlement was agreed and Earhart went back to Texas. In 1896 Earhart was killed in a saloon fight in Pecos.