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

Chapter 13 The Last of “Pea Time”

156 The murder case against Jim Long­ ley, arrested in August 1875, was severed from that of his brother. His lawyer asked for a change of venue, likely because of hard feelings in Lee County about the murder of Wilson Anderson, and the court agreeably transferred venue of the case to the district court in Fayette County at La Grange. Jim was released on a high $5,000 bond, his father, Uncle Cale, and H. C. Jones acting as sureties.1 Still on the move, Bill said that he left Uvalde County about January 20, 1876, ten days after Shroyer was killed. Riding with three unidentified men, he rode east. Approaching Castroville, in Medina County west of San Antonio, the three men revealed that one of them had a brother in the jail there for killing a Mexican. Concluding that Long­ ley was “a pretty solid sort of fellow, one who would do to tie to,” they asked him if he would help them get him out. Long­ ley said that they offered him $250 and that he reluctantly agreed, provided that he was in charge of the operation. According to Long­ ley, the three men stayed outside of Castroville, instructed by Long­ ley to come into town in an hour and meet him The Last of “Pea Time” Chapter 13 The Last of “Pea Time” 157 at a certain “beer joint,” which was about a hundred yards from the county jail. Long­ ley rode into town and went into the place to have a few drinks. He had been there about thirty minutes, he said, when the Medina County sheriff came in. Valentin Vollmer, a native of Bavaria, had been a farmer until he was elected sheriff in December 1869. An election for the office was to be held in a few weeks on February 15, 1876. He was also the tax collector.2 Long­ ley invited the sheriff to join him and have a drink, which he did. While they sat at a table and talked, Long­ ley’s three companions rode into town, hitched their horses, and came into the beer joint. Vollmer looked at Long­ ley’s clothes and surmised that he was from the Rio Grande region. Long­ ley said that he told the officer that he was a special officer from Uvalde County and on the trail of an outlaw named Jack Bolt. According to Long­ ley, he had returned to Uvalde, after killing Shroyer, to return the warrant and Sheriff Dolan had given him some additional warrants, including papers on Bolt, King Fisher, and John Wesley Hardin. He said that Vollmer reached over and took the papers out of Long­ ley’s breast pocket and noticed that one of the warrants was for a man who fit the description of a man he had in jail, the same man that Long­ ley and his companions wanted to release. Long­ ley asked the sheriff, he said, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble to let him take a look at the prisoner out of curiosity. The sheriff agreed and they started for the jail. They stepped outside into the dark, and Long­ ley said that he unhitched his horse and led him as he and Vollmer walked to the jail, discussing where he could stable his horse for the night. At the jail they were greeted by the jailer, who gave the keys to the sheriff. Once inside the jail, Long­ ley supposedly whipped out his pistol and ordered Vollmer to unbuckle his gun belt, which he did. Long­ ley’s three companions then entered the jail. The alarmed Vollmer asked the meaning of this, and Long­ ley said that he told him it was just a little joke and that he would not be harmed as long as he remained quiet and followed instructions. Long­ ley agreed not to turn out the other prisoners , and he had the sheriff change places in the cell with the man they 158  Chapter 13 wanted. The released prisoner strapped on the sheriff’s pistol and rode off behind one of his three friends. The five men rode together until about midnight, then stopped in a thicket to rest for a few hours, having a good laugh. Long­ ley said that he then rode on alone.3 There is no corroboration of this incident in Medina County records. On February 15, perhaps because the...