William Preston "Wild Bill" Longley (October 6, 1851-October 11, 1878) was a western gunfighter and outlaw who, second only to fellow Texas gunfighter John Wesley Hardin, was one of the most wanted outlaws responsible for killing over 32 men. October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). ... 1851 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... October 11 is the 284th day of the year (285th in leap years). ... 1878 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Categories: Stock characters | Stub ... Butch Cassidy, a famous Western American outlaw An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, meaning literally outside of the law. ... John Wesley Hardin. ...

Born in Austin County, Texas to Campbell and Sarah Longley, Longley grew up in the post-Civil War era during Reconstruction in Evergreen, Texas developing a hatred for Union soldiers as well as black and northern "carpetbagger" law enforcement officials. Although much of Longley's past has been disputed, based mostly on the claims of Longley himself, around December 10, 1866 Longley, at the age of 15, reportedly killed a black state police officer who, by his account, had asked him to identify himself in an "arrogant manner". Longley later killed another black state police officer and a Union sergeant before joining Cullen Baker's Confederate Irregulars looting farms and other homes in the Texas countryside. {See The Handbook of Texas which reports his first murder December 20, 1868-killing a black man by the name of Green Evans and also reports no evidence he killed a Union soldier in Yorktown Texas. Also the Texas State Police was not formed until 1870. {See entry Texas State Police}. In Febraury 1870 he did kill a black man named Brice}. Longley, by now a wanted man, left the gang after a year where he became a hired gun traveling for several years from the Rio Grande to the Black Hills region and as far west as the Wyoming Territory. Returning to Evergreen in 1875, Longley killed Wilson Anderson who had been thought to have murdered a cousin of Longley's. Captured by Sheriff Milton Mast and deputy Bill Burrows near Keatchie, Louisiana in 1877, Longley was taken to Giddings, Texas where he was tried and convicted of murder on September 3. Longley wrote an appeal to the Texas Governor angrily asking why he had been sentenced to death when Hardin had been sentenced to "only twenty-five years" however the governor did not respond. On the day of his execution Longley was said to have stated before a crowd of 4,000 "I see a good many enemies around, and mighty few friends." before he was hanged on October 11, 1878. Following his death Longley's biography "The Adventures of Bill Longley" by Henry C. Fuller became one of the best selling novels in Texas. Austin County is a county located in the state of Texas. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the... In the history of the United States, reconstruction was the period after the American Civil War when the states of the breakaway Confederacy were reintegrated into the United States of America. ... A cartoon threatening that the KKK would lynch carpetbaggers, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Independent Monitor, 1868. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... Cullen Baker, was a desperado whose gang killed hundreds of people, including many former slaves, after the American Civil War. ... The Handbook of Texas is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1868 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Union has several meanings. ... A soldier is a person who has enlisted with, or has been conscripted into, the armed forces of a sovereign country and has undergone training and received equipment (such as a uniform and weapon) to defend that country or its interests. ... Texas State Police. ... Texas State Police. ... The Rio Grande flowing in Big Bend National Park Known as the Rio Grande in the United States and as the Río Bravo (or, more formally, the Río Bravo del Norte) in Mexico, the river, 3034 km long, rises in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, USA, flows... The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is somewhat of a geological anomaly. ... Wyoming Territory was an organized territory of the United States that was existed from 1868 until its admission to the Union as the State of Wyoming in 1890. ... Giddings is a city located in Lee County, Texas. ...

Resources

• Bartholomew, Ed Ellsworth. Wild Bill Longley: A Texas Hard-Case, Frontier Press of Texas, Houston, 1953
• Fuller, Henry Clay. The Adventures of Bill Longley, Galveston Daily News, Nacogdoches (Texas), September 16, 1877
• Sifakis, Carl. Encyclopedia of American Crime, Facts On File Inc., New York, 1982

External links

• Handbook of Texas Online: Longley, William Preston
• LONE STAR LEGENDS: Wild Bill Longley - A Dangerous Man in Dangerous Times
• Wild Bill Longley
• Lone Star Diary - The Story of a Texas killer...This "Wild Bill" was no hero by Murray Montgomery
• Bill Longley Does Not Get Along Well With Others - A Visit to the Giddings City Cemetery by John Troesser