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

Chapter 3 Murdering, Robbing, and Ravishing

25 By Long­ ley’s scenario, he left Washington County in the spring of 1869 and headed for Arkansas. At some point, as he reached the Texas-Arkansas-Louisiana border area, he said that he fell in with a Tom Johnson, whose family lived in Lafayette County, Arkansas, just east of the Texas state line where Texarkana is located. Johnson was allegedly a “noted horse thief” and a member of the gang of terrorists led by the notorious Cullen Baker. When Long­ ley asked where he might find accommodations that night for himself and his horse, Johnson invited him to his father’s farm.1 Cullen Montgomery Baker was known as the “Swamp Fox of the Sulphur,” leading a band of cutthroats all over northeastern Texas, western Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana. Repeated raids on blacks, on white supporters of the Union, and on Union troops themselves , dealing death and terror, led Union army troops in the area to focus on his gang, in addition to other marauding groups. Allegedly, Baker’s family had been molested in some fashion by blacks, leading Baker to desert the Confederate army in order to seek revenge. Recruiting a band of desperate men, Baker achieved considerable Chapter 3 Murdering, Robbing, and Ravishing 26  Chapter 3 statewide notoriety for his gang’s bloody deeds, leading to the continuing manhunt for him.2 Long­ ley said that he went with Johnson to the family farm to put up there for the night. Before morning the farmhouse was quietly surrounded by a group of vigilantes who were trying to do something about the violence, beginning with Tom Johnson. According to Long­ ley, he and Johnson were seized, and the crowd suspected that Long­ ley was a criminal colleague of Baker and Johnson. The two prisoners were taken about a mile from the farm where their hands were tied. The mob then placed ropes around their necks and promptly hoisted them from the same tree. As Long­ ley described it, the knot of the rope caught under his ear and he was well on his way to being strangled when one of the mob, a man named Jones, announced his intention to shoot the dangling scoundrels before someone came along to cut them down. Jones’ first shot supposedly hit a money belt containing gold that Long­ ley was wearing. His second shot cut two strands of the rope by which Long­ ley was suspended, and the ball passed through his jaw and broke a tooth. Apparently shots were pumped into Johnson also. The vigilante group promptly left and the rope holding Long­ ley broke, dropping him to the ground. A thirteen-year-old younger brother of Johnson came out from hiding, cut the ropes from Long­ ley’s neck and hands, helped revive him, then led him to a spot near the Johnson farm. Tom Johnson was dead when he was cut down, according to Long­ ley. Long­ ley took about three weeks to recuperate, he said, and he was ready to ride again. Baker and some twelve men came to the farm and wanted to avenge Johnson’s death, and Long­ ley was recruited to ride with them.3 One author has Long­ ley a willing recruit, Baker spending days in the forest teaching Long­ ley how to handle his pistols.4 Long­ ley joined the band on raids, and he alleged that, in the course of these activities, the gang captured Jones, the man who had wounded Long­ ley while he was hanging by his neck. The unfortunate prisoner was hoisted by his Murdering, Robbing, and Ravishing 27 neck to the very same tree, and Long­ ley claimed that he fired four or five shots into the doomed man.5 Long­ ley also claimed that he stayed with Baker and his gang about six months, during which he participated in the killing of seven men with the other desperadoes, but he humbly declined to take any credit for the deaths.6 It has also been alleged that Long­ ley became a key lieutenant in Baker’s gang, often leading a smaller group on raids, then retreating to the safety of some swamp. Finally, Long­ ley decided it was time to return home, and he said that he left Baker’s gang for Washington County. While this makes for a thrilling story, and the hanging episode would lead to a long-standing myth about Long­ ley...