Bloody Bill Longley: The Mythology of a Gunfighter, Second Edition

Chapter 10 Shot Him Dead

114 Between July 1873 and Christmas 1874, there is no real record of Long­ ley’s whereabouts. We only have his story that, after being released in Austin, he killed a man in Frio County and then worked for Dr. McIver in Madison County. The 1877 account of his adventures found in the Galveston Daily News had him leaving Madison County, which is in East Texas northeast of Bryan, visiting his parents again briefly in Bell County, then riding on to old Fort Ewell on the Nueces River in LaSalle County, at the junction of the San Antonio and Laredo roads. The fort had been established in 1852, but abandoned in October 1854 when army troops there were transferred to Fort McIntosh on the Rio Grande above Laredo.1 Fort Ewell and Dog Town, forty miles northeast on the Frio River, became two principal stage stands between San Antonio and the Rio Grande. Fort Ewell was not much of a town, being principally occupied by Mexicans and a storekeeper known as Peg Leg Stuart.2 Long­ ley said that he was at Fort Ewell only a short time when he got into a fight with “a noted gambler named Dave Clark.” He said that he shot Clark “a couple of times” but did not kill him.3 Shot Him Dead Chapter 10 Shot Him Dead 115 After this, according to Long­ ley, he rode northeast back to Madison County where he again visited Laura McIver, presumably without interference from her desperado brother. He said that he then went on to the Sabine River, separating Texas from Louisiana. Near Logansport , in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, he said that a Negro had insulted an “old gentleman” in that neighborhood who was a friend of Long­ ley’s, and Long­ ley “killed him for accommodation.”4 There is some evidence that Long­ ley’s excursion to East Texas and this killing may have actually occurred, but in 1877, not 1873–1874 (see chapter 15). Moving southwest, into Angelina County, about fourteen miles from tiny Homer, which is just southeast of Lufkin, he said that he came upon a white man and a black man fighting. Their two wagons had collided, resulting in a broken wheel on the black man’s wagon. Long­ ley said that the infuriated black man “concluded to thrash the white man for his carelessness,” but Long­ ley, “feeling in a good humor and to stop the difficulty,” shot the black man once, breaking his neck.5 Once again, there is no corroboration of this incident. Continuing to move westward, Long­ ley said that he rode into Lovelady , in Houston County south of Crockett, near the Trinity County border, where he “cracked a negro on the head with a six-shooter.”6 Being broke, he said that he put up his horse in a raffle there, then bought two chances himself and “cast the first throw.” While other men were trying their chances, Long­ ley, with cash in hand, slipped outside and rode off on his horse.7 Long­ ley returned to his parents’ farm in Bell County, and every account seems to confirm that this was around Christmas of 1874. Fortunately, Long­ ley’s brother, Jim, sometime in 1936, penciled an account of what subsequently occurred, and that account is somewhat corroborated by accounts written by Bill Long­ ley himself. The following series of events is pieced together from those writings. Young brother Jim was set to turn sixteen on January 21, 1875, some four weeks off. He idolized his older brother and certainly was glad to see him ride up to the farmhouse. According to Jim, Bill told their parents that he was going to get married and wanted Jim to 116  Chapter 10 go with him, although who and when was not clarified by Jim in his account. Perhaps he still had Laura McIver on his mind. Campbell and Sarah consented and allowed Jim to go with him, although, given Bill’s lifestyle up to that point, there must have been some nagging concern for Jim’s welfare. Nevertheless, Jim said that the two rode off about 8 p.m. Christmas night in a misting rain, headed south.8 Bill later wrote that they left on New Year’s Day.9 Bill also claimed that, while he was at his parents’ farm, they heard about the death of his cousin, Little Cale Long­ ley, as the...