| William Preston Longley Wild Bill |
| Back To Texas July, 1873 Longley is arrested in Kerr County, by Sheriff J.J. Finney and taken to Austin county to collect the reward. After holding Longley for a period of days the money had not been paid so Finney released him. He was supposedly paid off by some of Bill's kin. Bill and his brother showed up in Lee county at the home of there uncle Caleb Longley. Caleb's son had allegedly been killed by William Anderson and Caleb wanted revenge. On March 31, 1875 Anderson was killed by a shotgun blast while plowing a field and Longley and his brother headed North into Indian Territory. In July James, Bill's brother returned to Bell County where he was aquitted of having had any part in the Anderson murder, but Bill was a wanted man. November, 1875 Longley killed George Thomas in McLennan County and later in January, 1876 killed William Shroyor in Uvalde County in a stand up gunfight. Febuary 1876 Longley was working in Delta County as a sharecropper for Reverend William R. Lay, whom on June 13, He shot and killed while Lay was milking a cow. Wild Bill was captured later in July at Parish, Louisiana by Nacogdoches,County Sheriff Milton Mast and was returned to Lee County Texas to be tried for the murder of William Anderson. Longley promply began writing letters to the newspapers telling them about his life and claiming to have killed 32 men. On September 5, 1877, He was found guilty of killing one of those men and sentenced to hang. He was held in the Galveston County jail while waiting for the Court Of Appeals to affirm his conviction which was returned in March , 1878. On October 4, 1878 after being baptized into the Catholic church James Madison Brown led Bill Longley to the steps of the gallows were Longley having a sense of humor, told them to repair a board before they went up the steps. Said that He would hate to trip and break his neck. Climbing to the top Longley looked out over the crowd of over 4,000 people who had come to see him hanged and said "I see a good many enemies around and mighty few friends" before He was hanged. |
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| Born Oct 6, 1851 Mill Creek Texas, William Preston Longley would live to be known as one of the first true Gunfighters of the Old West. Longley by his own count said that he killed 32 men during his life. A lot of these men were freed slaves. The state of Texas after the Civil War was dominated by carpetbaggers, who came South and West to take advantage of any and everyone after the war. People of the defeated Confederate States were still angry and had a right to be. The war had ended but after Lincoln was killed things got bad for the South. All law enforcement was under the rule of the military and the carpetbaggers usually had their hands in the law as well. To make matters worse the Governor E.J. Davis at the time created a state police which was made up of mostly blacks who had just been freed. These men former slaves now free with the law behind them were armed and dangerious. Capt. Jack Helm, for instance, was accused of murdering prisoners; he was discharged, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Others committed crimes for which the charges were dropped as soon as headquarters was advised. The local people were furious, and the blacks new it which just added to the anger of the whites. |
| After the shooting Bill like many other young men in the west became a drifter. He was in Arkansas, Kansas, Wyoming and the Black hills at one time, claiming that he loved the fact there was no law in the territory. Every man was his own man he said and the weak did not survive. While in the Black Hills, Longley was reported to have killed numerous newly freed slaves and rode with Cullen M. Baker where he killed a black man by the name of Brice. Splitting up with Baker according to Bill He rode north where he killed a trail driver named Rector, fought indians, killed a horse thief called McClelland and shot a soilder at Fort Levenworth. In 1870 Wild Bill, as he was becomming known inlisted in the U.S.Calvary where he promptly deserted. He was captured and sentenced to two years, but after about six months was returned to his regiment where he deserted a second time. Bill heading back to Texas by way of Kansas where He claimed to have killed Charlie Stuart and another Black man. A reward for Bill was posted by the military for the amount of 1,000.00 |
| Look at those deadly eyes This man was bad to the bone. |
| In 1866 Bill's family moved to the small town called Old Evergreen. Bill was sixteen years old at the time and already wearing a .44 cal. pistol and knew how to use it. Bill and his father, Campbell were in town one day, when one of the black policemen who had been drinking came riding down the street waving his gun, cursing some of the local towns people. Bill trying to keep his cool stayed quite until the man cursed his father. Bill was young at sixteen but growing up during the Civil war he resented the blacks like most others. Bill steped foward and told the man to lower his gun. The lawman wasn't aware of how dangerous this young man was. Instead of lowering the gun He started to point it and Bill's .44 roared knocking the man out of the saddle. Bill had killed his first man. The local's not wanting to be bothered by any of the so called law that was now running Texas carted the body away and said nothing of the killing, making Young Bill more or less a local hero. |
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