Chilluminati Podcast - Episode 266 - "Wild Bill"

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

No not that Wild Bill, the other one. Mike, Jesse and Alex take a small roadtrip back to the wild west where serial killers were just...let go of. MERCH - http://www.theyetee.com/collections/chillumin...ati Special thanks to our sponsors this episode - IQBar - Text CHILL to 64000 HelloFresh - http://www.hellofresh.com/chillfree All you lovely people at Patreon! HTTP://PATREON.COM/CHILLUMINATIPOD Jesse Cox - http://www.youtube.com/jessecox Alex Faciane - http://www.youtube.com/user/superbeardbros Editor - DeanCutty http://www.twitter.com/deancutty Art Commissioned by - http://www.mollyheadycarroll.com

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, I'm Jillian. And I'm Patrick, and together we make the podcast True Crime Obsessed. If you love documentaries the way we love documentaries, you might be interested in our show because we recap all the documentaries that you're watching. We've covered just about every true crime case you can imagine. We're talking the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker, the Ted Bundy tapes. What else? The Turpent 13 with the amazing sisters who basically tell the story, the girl in the
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Starting point is 00:01:02 Hello everybody and welcome back to the Chiluminati Podcast, episode 266. As always, I'm one of your hosts, hosts Mike Martin joined today by the king and queen of England Jesse and Alex Death never comes for the monarchy We shall be everlasting And that makes Alex the king then Death never comes for the monarchy. We shall be everlasting here now. And that makes Alex the king then. King Charles the third. Congrats.
Starting point is 00:01:32 King Kronik the fourth. King Kronik the 420th. Boy. And I'm Her Majesty the 69th. We have Jesse phoning in all the way from England this week. It's true, it's true. He's in the middle of- The Chilumenarchy. The Chilumenarchy.
Starting point is 00:01:51 The Chilumenarchy. Oh, shit, is that our England branch? The Chilumenarchy. The Chilumenarchy. Do I sound okay? Am I coming in loud and clear? Yeah, you sound fine. You sound fine.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Yeah. He is joining us live from a balloon over London right now He is he is broadcasting to us via satellite and what's absolutely crazy is this room is very bright but if I were to open the window it is 1120 p.m. Here, so it's very dark unlike our patreon which is not dark. That's what keeps the lights on I don't know some of these episodes lately have been pretty dark Dude Alfred Packer still sitting with you and Alfred Packer
Starting point is 00:02:29 Fish Albert I finally know why I keep saying that because we covered him. He was a two-parter while less story a while back Still lingering it's been a while since I've done any into Albert Fish. I don't know man for some reason we're tainted by it You made me talk about eating poop or whatever and that's all I can think about now. Sweet sweet peanut butter. Little Reese's cups. Sucks. Not my words. Little Reese's cups. Okay. Uh, acolyte. Are you an acolyte? Are you a zealot? Are you a prophet or are you the chosen? What? Go find out. Just the fun tiers on our Patreon. Yeah, patreon.com slash July pod.
Starting point is 00:03:09 Do we start a cult I didn't know about? Am I? Yeah. It exists. You started one last week. You talked about the sex cult that people have openly willingly said they would join on the comment section of our episode. So. First off, I forgot about that. Second off, what a fun treat to come back to. Oh, did I just accidentally start a sex cult? Hello! Oh, hello, sex cult! Hello! Did you miss me? Anyway, you know the drill. Get a bunch of stuff on our Patreon in exchange for supporting us.
Starting point is 00:03:36 It keeps the show going. It keeps the show good. I'm about to put a bunch of new crap in the pipeline. We got a bunch of surprises coming up very soon And I think we're gonna watch some X files pretty soon, too Yeah, yeah, I think you see the next one the one after is X. Oh, you know what? Let's just call it the next one How about that? I think next one's supposed to be me. Oh, is that right? Oh, you got to pick the next one I mean, we'll just wait one more and I'll pick them one after no Neil Breen though I'm not doing Neil Breen for a while.
Starting point is 00:04:06 We're not. There's only really like one more Neil Breen movie that's worth watching. And then I'd say the rest are so bad. There is a single Neil Breen movie that's worth watching. But they're worth experiencing in your life. Yeah. But yeah, head over to Patreon. There's lots of bunch of freebies. You got the art by the always incredible Mel
Starting point is 00:04:24 Studio Molector. You got ad free episodes, you got the Rotten Popcorn Show, you got mini sodes, you know, you get a taste these mini sodes every Wednesday now here on the channel, or on the podcast feed, wherever you're listening to this. But real talk, there are so goddamn many because there is one that comes out literally every single time an episode comes out. So the the library of
Starting point is 00:04:50 things to listen to that you haven't heard before by the Chiluminati is vast. So go check it out. I don't want to say we have a live show coming right. We can say that can we tweet can we tease that we're doing a live show totally
Starting point is 00:05:01 tease that and I would say if you are curious about joining us in Chicago-le-Noir on December 20th for a live show that Friday night, I would say sometime around October 4th, you should prepare to buy tickets. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Like maybe exactly on October 4th, but like sometimes around, you know,
Starting point is 00:05:20 sometime around then. It's a nice generic. Yeah, just like a friendly tip from a friendly guy who may or may not run your sex cult. Yeah, and if, for legal reasons, definitely does not run a sex cult. But for tax reasons, maybe. Maybe.
Starting point is 00:05:35 A sex charity? It's at least religious. It's at least religious. Which means we have to meet at least once a week, so, all right, sex cult. Hey. Nice. Nice. Unlike today's episode, which cult. Hey. Nice. Nice. Unlike today's episode, which is not a sex cult.
Starting point is 00:05:48 Nice. Boo. Boo, boo, I know, I know. Boys, today's a fun one. It's just a one, it's a one-parter today. There's so many fun, crazy stories that come out of America's 1800 era, the Wild West era, that when I dip my toes back in, I am always surprised to find just a crazy dude
Starting point is 00:06:06 or a crazy person. Bell Star was the last one we talked about. She had an awesome story. Today, we're talking about a particular man that went by the name of Wild Bill, Texas Bill, a man by the name of William Preston Longley. I don't know if he's super well known out there. There's a good amount of information out there,
Starting point is 00:06:26 but he's not like fucking Bell Star or anything like that. BPL BPL. What's the I want to beats per lyrics. Bill Preston. No, I know. I know. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:38 OK. We're beats per lyric. Lyric beats per lyric. Yeah, I don't know. Thank God you're not in the music industry. You would turn that thing upside down. Not in a good way. Leerik. Beats per lyric? Yeah, I don't know. Thank God you're not in the music industry. You would turn that thing upside down. Not in a good way.
Starting point is 00:06:49 Yeah, that's why I'm in the comedy industry where I'm a laugh-a-minute. Can you imagine Beats per lyric? That would suck. Beats per lyric. That's like some Busta Rhyme shit. It's like wild style. Yeah, no, that's not good.
Starting point is 00:07:04 Yeah, BPL, otherwise known as Bill Preston Longley, William Preston Longley, is who we're talking about today. And this gentleman was born way back on October 6th of 1851. This was fucking forever ago out in Austin County, Texas, just west of Houston, known as Bill Longley or Wild Bill William Preston Longley in the mid eighteen hundreds was still the Texas around that time was still a relatively young state, kind of having gained independence from Mexico only about 15 years previous to that. And then it was annexed by the U.S. in 1845.
Starting point is 00:07:42 And his parents were Campbell Longley and Sarah Longley, and they were your typical family farmers at the time. They just had land. Brother and sister? No, they, his, no, no, she took his last, they got married. No, she did. No, she did. Campbell Longley and Sarah Longley.
Starting point is 00:08:00 I can't tell if that was like a roast of the farming community or like, I don't know what you're doing there I just I don't know. How long ago was this? 1851 not that weird not that out still pretty weird. It would've been cousins would be less weird brother and sister I feel like dire straits or we're having on that one Okay, but I just it sounded like that the same last name and I understand now what you meant by that But yes, yeah as as you were saying,
Starting point is 00:08:27 she yeah, they were just a typical family, a typical family of farmers at the time. They worked on the land like a ton of other settlers did, scratching out a living in the rough, often lawless conditions of frontier Texas. And Bill was the sixth of 10 children. Like mega middle child. Well, that's because they, you know, back in the, you had to birth your workforce for your farm at that point. Like you didn't have like a ton of money. You didn't have any people working for you.
Starting point is 00:08:54 You needed kids because even at like two or three years old, as soon as they can lift the rocks and move shit, that's what they were doing. However, we don't really know much about the specifics of all of his siblings. We don't know how many brothers or how many sisters he had. We have the names of a couple of them and that's about it. There's very little details even with his relationship with the siblings and his parents. And it's likely that as just one of the boys, he was probably just expected to take on a lot of family farm
Starting point is 00:09:21 responsibilities while he was growing up. This usually meant tending crops, livestock, uh, probably learning how to handle firearms at an early age, all that, you know, useful stuff for frontier West at the time. And again, as we talk about like a lot of people in around this time, you can keep in mind again, just to reiterate the kind of, uh, violence and upheaval that sort of shaped Texas around this time from the Mexican-American war to the Civil War, Native Americans. This place was violent all the goddamn time.
Starting point is 00:09:52 And this is what he grew up in. He grew up during the Civil War reconstruction. He was constantly exposed to tensions between southern Confederates and using unionists as well as the violence that erupted during this period. And obviously, Texas had a strong pro-Confederate sympathies, and so did our dear boy here, Bill. His early years were shaped by these racial and political divisions, and we'll end up seeing a lot of his victims end up being because of that.
Starting point is 00:10:18 Bill as a criminal is kind of, to me, what that bug assassin and Rick and Morty is where he's like, Oh, there I go killing again. Like just such as like, Oh, fuck. Every time he tries to almost try and get away from it. He kind of just like oops, killed somebody and gets away with it for very for far too long. So imagine I'm like, you know, I've never seen a Rick and Morty. Can you explain the bug assassin to me?
Starting point is 00:10:47 I mean, them that the audience don't know the name of it. Alex, do you know what I'm talking about? There's like a bug. There's like literally a space like bounty hunter assassin or hit man. And he's so nonchalant about it that when he when he kills people is like, oh, man, there I go killing again. And he just starts killing people. You know, I haven't seen all of Rick and Morty. I was maybe
Starting point is 00:11:06 maybe something you've seen that I haven't seen, which is rare. That's wild to me that I've seen. I haven't seen all Rick and Morty either. Like I've seen chunks of Rick and Morty in episodes that I just feel like I've seen a couple. I've seen a couple. I've seen a couple seasons maybe like obviously I've seen all of it. But like, imagine I'm one of the people who has Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how would you explain it? All right. Well, then I just say you casually,
Starting point is 00:11:27 accidentally finding his way back to murder. OK. All right. Is that just like you could have avoided it? Sure. Yeah. All right. Yeah. He and what is documented, what we do have documented here is that at a young age, not only was he violent, but he was wildly racist as well, as were common among many of the ex Confederate families that
Starting point is 00:11:48 backed the views of the Confederates. So this tension is all in the background as he's born and fucking growing up in the family, the Longley family themselves, despite their hardworking nature, seems basically unable to keep Bill in check or they just didn't care enough to. He was very much an independent person right when he was like able to walk away and speak. They didn't really discipline him very much. As far as we know, they mostly treated him from like as a farm worker and what weren't really there for him. But I mean, parents at that time,
Starting point is 00:12:18 that's not what they were doing. There was no emotional connection beyond. I raised my child until we can. And sending him out into the fields to till the earth. We know that his father, Campbell, was reportedly respected in the community as a farmer and held pro-Confederate views like many, but there's no record indicating whether he actively or encouraged or dissuaded any of Bill's more violent tendencies. And like many young men who grew up during the Reconstruction era, Bill became restless, rebellious.
Starting point is 00:12:48 The world around him being in flux, he kind of felt like he didn't really belong anywhere. And after his belief structure was brought down by the Union, he felt like he didn't really belong. And one of the, which moves us about, to him being 16 years old, We're now about 1867. And here is where we see Longley's first kind of act and not kind of his first act of true violence.
Starting point is 00:13:12 All the while while he's like a teen, he's getting into fights. He's getting into fist fights, fighting his siblings, fighting people in town, like many of the people we talk, but he doesn't kill anybody up until about 1867. And again, like I was saying, we just don't have a ton of documents about what his life was during his more younger teen years until he becomes a criminal. I would imagine the Civil War. Yeah. Well, yeah, but he was Civil War when he was,
Starting point is 00:13:37 so he's like 13, 12 or 13 when it starts, right? Still. When it ends. He didn't join the army. He wasn't part of that. He stayed at home. Right, but I imagine his family or people associated with him, especially in the South, especially in Texas.
Starting point is 00:13:49 That was absolutely. Yeah, huge thing. Yeah. So in 1866 or early 1867, we're not entirely sure when when he was about 15 or 16 years old, he and a group of his friends committed what is known to be his first murder, which involved killing one individual of three that they came across. Longley and a group of his friends were wandering
Starting point is 00:14:11 out on the fucking road, just going for a walk away from town when they saw three recently freed slaves coming down the road. These three were then ambushed by Longley and his friends by them pulling a gun on him and forcing all of them to move over to a dry creek bed. There in a moment of panic, one of the men, Green Evans, spurred his horse and tried to take off. And in doing so, that's what brought the gunshots
Starting point is 00:14:39 from Bill and supposedly his friends, and they hit and killed him. As he did. The other two jumped on their horses and ran. They did not chase him, but then they immediately began rifling through the pockets of, of green Evans as a, they ran off. Um, the other two people with him were Charlie Willis and somebody only known as Ned. We don't really know what his real name was.
Starting point is 00:15:02 They're all Ned the enigma. He did the enigma. Yeah, they got they took off. But yet they shot him dead. And then they immediately started rifling through his pockets while the other two escaped. And quickly afterward, Bill immediately took off. Now, the local government around this time did very little to find anybody who killed recently freed slaves.
Starting point is 00:15:23 They genuinely just kind of left it alone almost always. And but Bill still ended up kind of taking off and getting nervous about it, which to me speaks to him understanding that what he did, obviously was wrong, even though the hate and the racist and whatnot motivated his violence. I mean, you know, you don't kill people, right? Like, you don't fucking kill people. Yeah, you would think like you don't kill people, right? Like, you don't fucking kill people. Yeah, you would think like you don't kill people. You would hope that maybe he wouldn't kill anybody ever again.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Whatever the case, though, he took off after this kill. And right from this point at age 16 years old, Bill became a drifter. He immediately started drifting around Texas, kind of convincing himself that the law was after him, that they were going to get him when reality they give a fuck. Nobody was after him. But in his mind they were. And so he started wandering through Texas.
Starting point is 00:16:16 And what else do you do when you become a drifter in Texas other than gamble in a bunch of local saloons all the time? Which is what he did. Yeah, he became a gambler and met a man by the name of Phil Coe. Now, what we know about Phil Coe is that he took Bill under his wing and- Phil and Bill?
Starting point is 00:16:40 Phil and Bill all together, and it's kind of like a guide for him. He taught him how to gamble. He taught him like all the rules of the card games that they were playing. And he very much to kind of became Bill's tutor in the gambling world. We don't know much about him.
Starting point is 00:16:56 Like the Fox from Pinocchio. Yes, yes. Like the Fox Pinocchio is a great, that's a great comparison. I'm just trying to imagine a 16-year-old drifter, and I'm like, what does this guy up do? How does he drift? Where does he get this money?
Starting point is 00:17:10 How is he gambling at 16? I know you've seen these, but those videos that are either recolored or smooth of the early 1920s with the first video camera on the street, and you see these people, like kids, coming up to the camera and staring at it, they all look like they're in their 30s, and they're like 10 years old. So I imagine- That's what I was gonna say, yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:26 They're like little pinky blinders. Yeah, little muses. At 16, the man looks like he's middle-aged at this point. That's fucking, that is crazy that that's what's going on. And then these guys go out and fucking shoot someone. They shoot and then Bill particularly takes off. His friends don't take off with him. He just leaves.
Starting point is 00:17:42 He becomes a- Oh, was Bill the one who fucking robbed his dead body too? They all robbed his dead body, yeah. Him and all of his friends robbed his dead body, but Bill was the only one that kind of took off afterward. Now Phil Coe, what we know about him is also very little. We also know he, after the war, became a drifter in Texas. He became friends with a gunman called Bill Longley.
Starting point is 00:18:02 I mean, Will Longley, which is Will Bill and Phil. No, no, no, no. But he learned a Phil Coe specifically learned to gamble from another gunman by the name of Ben Thompson. So Ben Thompson taught Phil Phil taught Bill and Bill was under his wing for a few years there and hung out with Will. Yes, Will is will was a real bill will is all the premises is wild Bill. Other is on his wild bill.
Starting point is 00:18:25 Other than that, we don't really know much about Phil himself, but they he took Bill under his wing and taught him a bunch of stuff. However, Bill's time being a drifting gambler came to an end just under two years after it had began when he and his brother-in-law John Wilson and I say brother-in-law with air quotes because while he's noted as brother-in-law, John Wilson. And I say brother-in-law with air quotes, because while he's noted as brother-in-law, there's no record of Bill ever being married. So I don't know why he's called brother-in-law.
Starting point is 00:18:54 A sister? Maybe one of the sisters. We don't assume a sister. But there's no so there's no paperwork work attaching this man to any of the family members. But you're likely right. It's also Texas in the 1800s. I don't think there's a lot of paperwork anyway. Yeah, that's true. Like they hung out for a while and then they're like, you're my brother-in-law. It might have been because after after he was a drifter for a bit and hanging back out with this
Starting point is 00:19:15 John Wilson, his supposed brother-in-law, they made a decision they were going to get money. They were done working and wandering Texas in like trying to find these jobs and gambling. Instead, they were going to do what any person in the 1800s were going to do to get money fast. It was time for good old fashioned Texas crime spree. Oh, I thought they were gonna open a chicken restaurant. That's usually how this works. No, that would have been smarter if they had done that.
Starting point is 00:19:42 No, they went across Texas doing thing, committing a vast array of crimes. Robbery and intimidation were a huge part of it. Longley and Wilson reportedly were involved in the robbering settlers, stealing their livestock, other valuable items, as well as many outlaws at the time, they likely also targeted isolated homes or small settlements where they could take advantage of weak law enforcement or no law enforcement
Starting point is 00:20:05 during this reconstruction period and just fucking take things at gunpoint from people and Nobody was going to fucking stop them and obviously their violent tendencies are at least bills didn't really subside aside from killing this the the first person that he killed he also went on to be very violent toward African Americans doing all of this, including murdering another freed woman in Evergreen, killing a man by the name of Paul Bryce, all in very quick. They got into an argument. He pulled a gun, he shot them, he took what he could and he left. But it was only freed slaves that he seemed to be killing at least at this particular point. He was robbing all kinds of other
Starting point is 00:20:42 people, but he was only killing freed slaves. So he's a piece of shit and he's racist. Yo, yeah, he's a huge racist. He's a racist from the day he's born to the day he dies. Thank you so much to today's sponsor IQ Bar. Because of them, I actually eat something in the morning. Listen, I'm terrible at eating food when I wake up. I just have, I'm so tired. I don't want to cook. Cereal even feels like an effort sometimes and IQ bar when they're like, hey you want to try out our stuff and I was down I you know, I expected at least it to be like mediocre or something But instead they were freaking delicious, especially the wild blueberry
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Starting point is 00:22:26 Text chill to 64,000. That's chill to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Thank you again to IQ Buffer sponsoring today's episode. I imagine it's easier, like getting in his head, I imagine it'd be easier for him to kill a freed slave or a slave considering
Starting point is 00:22:48 that probably growing up where he did, they weren't necessarily considered people to him and so it was like to him not a big deal, which is why it was so easy for him to do it compared to like which is a messed up way to think but obviously I feel
Starting point is 00:23:01 like that's what he was thinking. Yeah, 100%. I agree with you and the only reason we know he killed, we usually killing a few people along the way is because we have a few pieces of documented evidence, but so little is just like, he probably killed more from the way he acted from my research. How could you ever even connect them if he killed other people? Right? Like there's no way to, especially if they're not documenting it in any way. But all this while, while he's committing this crime spree, he was building a reputation. And it's during this time he officially dons the moniker
Starting point is 00:23:35 of Wild Bill and Texas Bill. These are what he's being called by the settlers, he's robbing. Does the real Wild Bill already exist at this point? Or like what's the- There's a bunch of Wild Bills. There's like, there's a lot of- I'm of look this up wild bill. Hickok was when Good question like I feel like later
Starting point is 00:23:51 Yeah, that's a cock. Yeah. He oh, yeah, he was no earlier. Yeah earlier He was like, I'm Iron Man, dude. I'm Batman fact. In fact 1876 is when Wild Bill died. Yeah. He was like, I'm mind freak, Chris Angel, man. This is a different Wild Bill. He's not nearly as wild as actual Wild Bill, but he's also, like I said,
Starting point is 00:24:14 he's also got the more boring name, Texas Bill. It's like, okay. He just went with Wild Bill anyway. People were like, like Wild Bill? And he was like, yeah, yeah, that's me. That's what I'm, you know, that's what honestly probably was part of it, is like, Wild Bill was around and like, yeah, yeah, that's me. That's what I'm, you know, that's honestly, it probably was, was part of it is like he,
Starting point is 00:24:25 Wild Bill was around inactive during this time. So, and he was named with Bill or William. So yeah, it was probably really easy to take that. Wild Bill parody account. Yeah. Wild Bill was taken. Yeah. There are in fact, many versions of Wild Bill.
Starting point is 00:24:40 And what's even crazier is for a time people were calling Bill Clinton, Wild Bill. There's a Bill Elliott from NASCAR was Wild Bill. And what's even crazier is for a time, people were calling Bill Clinton, wild bill. There's a bill Elliott from NASCAR was wild bill wild bill just to keep using, I guess it's a name that love generic names. This random muck back then, you would think you would think they're all named after Hick, Hickok. And I would agree because most of them, at least from numbers I'm looking at now, although there's an ex-Mormon frontier murderer named Wild Bill who grew up in 1815. It's Wild Bill, man. Wild Bill's everywhere. He's immortal. He's reborn through many men. I mean, I guess if you're just like a kooky dude and your name is Bill, you're Wild Bill.
Starting point is 00:25:21 Yeah. Hopefully, Wild Bill is not only given to people who are murderers and maybe for just a crazy guy, you get to be known as Wild Bill, too. During this time in his crime spree that they'll go ahead, Jesse, would you find another one? No, just a lot of baseball players also have wild Bill, a lot like a lot of them. Yeah, there's a lot of wild bills out there. It wouldn't be this Bill's murders during this crime spree that would get him caught. The thing that got him caught is what got so many people caught back then.
Starting point is 00:25:48 He stole someone's horse, which is and they got caught doing it, which is always like a huge thing. Now, even get arrested. He escaped. But his reputation, not only of stealing the horse and harassing settlers, but his reputation of violence and murdering all these freed slaves eventually did pile up. And in March of 1870, the Union Military Authority put out a warrant for their arrest for a thousand dollar award for the capture of both Bill and John.
Starting point is 00:26:18 That's a lot. I admit to actually write down the money difference. One thousand. Yeah, that's a lot. That's an 18 seventy worth today. Oh, yeah. That's twenty four thousand dollars. That's that's an insane amount of money. It's been until back then that still would have gotten you so much further. Like it's like a huge amount.
Starting point is 00:26:37 That's how much of a reputation Bill built up in like a year of doing Texas. But he stuck with Texas. So he wasn't like leaving the boundaries of the state. He was just staying within his own state. And so the rumors were easier and easier to build. But this was like the first real time in Bill's life that the authorities were truly after him. And so Bill, and that was Bill's cue to get the fuck
Starting point is 00:26:58 out of town for the very first time. And so he did. He left Texas and decided to move further north north to avoid the authorities that were looking for him. And this is where he also parts with his brother-in-law, John. Now, Bill said that John died in 1870, but we have a historical records that indicate that he actually likely died in 1874 in Falls County, Texas. Regardless of what happened to John, Bill, eventually Bill would wander himself all the way up to Wyoming,
Starting point is 00:27:32 where he did what any other person in the 1870s running from the law would do, ending up in Wyoming. He became part of a gold hunting party in Cheyenne, Wyoming in May of 1870, the next get rich quick scheme. And their target was Black Hills, South Dakota, where they would throw in their lot in an attempt to make it rich extremely quickly.
Starting point is 00:27:52 And this entire journey where they head out to South Dakota for this gold mining expedition that Bill seemed genuinely excited about and was hoping that it would be his ticket to freedom lasted all of October, and it was a great time. Dakota for this gold mining expedition that Bill seemed genuinely excited about and was hoping that would be his ticket to freedom lasted all of under a month. When they got there, there was a treaty with the Sioux people that prohibited mining in the area and that part and their party was intercepted by the U.S. cavalry union and disbanded them instantly.
Starting point is 00:28:25 So they got there to South Dakota. Cavalry rolls up and goes, no, we can't do this. You're all gone. And that was it. That was the end of his. They didn't try to go anywhere else. They didn't try to go like in any other state. They're just like, that's it. And now Bill needed a plan fucking D.
Starting point is 00:28:41 So for Plan D, he decided on June 22nd of 1870 that he would enlist for a five year stint in the army joining up with Company B of the US 2nd Cavalry Regiment. You know, gold mining to the cavalry. Do you think he sees it as like a way to do crimes on the go? Or do you think he's like, gonna go be a good soldier boy? He's genuinely is in this moment, trying to be a good soldier person.
Starting point is 00:29:09 He's like, you know what? I'll do it like this. Like, I don't know if like, cause the cavalry rolled up and disbanded him. I don't know if he was like, genius. He just saw the man on a horse and was like, I'm just gonna go be them now. And it seems so kind of just like,
Starting point is 00:29:23 no thought put into it. It was within a week or two of them being disbanded that he joined. And so he joined up, got put put in the second cavalry regiment like you wanted. And he and his unit were stationed in Camp Stambo. And here he'd give his best attempt to live a straightened out life and commit. Never mind. Just kidding. He abandoned it in less than two weeks. Two weeks. Where's Camp Stambo? in commit nevermind just kidding he abandoned it in less than two weeks two weeks where's camp stambo uh i think it's uh stay where uh in south dakota south dakota is ohio sorry you're out in
Starting point is 00:29:55 ohio ohio mahoning county ohio is where camp stambo is and then so he made it all of two military yeah military base yeah so make sure like what could happen. I was in Wyoming territory. It's just like in that area. Probably someone yelled at him once and he was like, no, my friend got hired at blockbuster worked one shift and quit before the shift was over because it was so so sucking. That's that's that sucks. That's so I get it though. I've been there.
Starting point is 00:30:22 No, it wasn't like they were too mean They were just he to him. It was too rigid of a lifestyle too many rules He couldn't he literally couldn't hang Oh be a fucking like he couldn't go be an air duel and also be in the cavalry And so he abandoned them in two weeks and where else would he go? He fucking ran into the wilderness That was a he's like, you know what? Fuck this I'm out and he ran into the woods and he went to try and survive in the woods. Very similar to Boone Helm. Back in the day, we talk about him running into the woods.
Starting point is 00:30:51 I mean, where else are you going to go? To be honest, you can't just like leave the military when you want. Yeah. And unlike it's kind of comforting what that would like. Yeah. Like the idea that there was a time when you could just like, like, fuck civilization, got to go to the woods for a little bit and chill out out. I mean you can do that. It's called Canada. It's there I like it up there
Starting point is 00:31:14 I was gonna disappear one day and then Bigfoot sightings in Canada are gonna skyrocket 120% yeah Weed as your car. Today, Bigfoot spotted out a burger restaurant. Alex has got like nugs hanging from his beer in them. Nobody else can see him, but he's got like Boston Big Bean Boy on his shoulder. but he's got like Boston baked bean boy on his shoulder. Gotta give the b-boy a little bite. Thank you to today's sponsor, HelloFresh. I tell you at the very beginning, and time just keeps on marching.
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Starting point is 00:33:04 if you go to hello fresh comm slash free chill That's one free breakfast item per box while your subscription is active Yeah, that's free breakfast for life just by going to hello fresh comm slash free chill Thank you again to hello fresh America's number one meal kit Unfortunately for bill he didn't have the luck or maybe the talent to make it very far in the wilderness. For all Boon Helms dumb fucking almost dying in the wilderness, he had a weird uncanny ability to get away for weeks still. And then when he was just about to die, he would be found unlike him where he barely made it two days before they caught him and brought him right fucking back. And he was in these two days, just about two days and he was caught in not making very
Starting point is 00:33:49 long shitting around doing nothing. And then the cops showed up and he was like, fuck, you got they have horses and he did. I imagine he didn't do what Boone helm did, which is literally run to the thick of the woods. He probably stuck near like familiar areas. This is a man who drifted from saloon to saloon and didn't really like try to live out in the wilderness like Boone Helm did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:09 It me like, boy, this is a stupid like to everyone on the internet, just bear with me. For a guy who ignoring the terrible racism and the fact that he's a murderer and the fact that he's a criminal and all the other like at his base core, he just seems like a restless kid who has something he's working out, but like he can't sit still. He can't commit to anything. He like everything he's doing, even even the things that lead to crimes are like, I just want to get some money, man. And I just want to like make it. If anything, there are a lot of people that have that mentality of like, if I could just get the magic pill that would make this happen or make me do this thing. He has that except to the 1800s. And it leads to a lot of truly terrible things. And obviously his background isn't great,
Starting point is 00:34:57 but like there is something happening here where he just can't sit still because either he rejects authority or he thinks he's smarter than everyone else or he like, I don't know, has narcissism. Yeah. I would love to know what a real psychologist makeup of this guy, because there's parts of him where I'm like, yo, I see that in people just today. We're saying start a job and then by the end of the first shift, you quit just too, too to and just to anti-human to like continue giving it your your your your your what do you call it? Labor your labor? Yeah. And you throw that in the mix of like a Civil War soup in reconstruction era. Union soldiers coming in and replacing all the you know, yeah, absolutely. Like, it's fucking disaster for like it's a disaster for somebody like this guy. It's fucking disaster for like it's a disaster for somebody like this guy. But again, he had a farm. He had a like, yeah, it's weird because everything he could have led an absolute normal life where he had everything in theory was
Starting point is 00:35:54 given to him. Like he could live. It's a weird vibe that he had everything there and he still went out looking again. That's definitely psychology. I'm sure again, psychologists when land and nail, but like he had everything given to him and he went out and sought drama. Yeah. And angry all the time. Yeah. And that's what got him.
Starting point is 00:36:14 And I don't know if that's cause he was six of 10 or whatever he was or 12. I don't, I don't know if he was cause it's a farm life and he thought it was boring. There's definitely something there going on beneath all the like terrible things he's doing where he just cannot settle. And he had again, he had everything. It wasn't like he was a star or whatever, like we would think by today's standards, but he had a life, he had a farm, he had a family that I think loved him? Question mark. I don't know. Maybe we love love as much as one could love in the 1850s as broken as people as they probably were. Not to say that in an insulting way. It's just a different time they raised in a different way. There was different expectations of children at the time that we now know are bad for kids like
Starting point is 00:37:00 developing minds. But yeah, I mean, like they probably did love him too. But you know, they also probably still subjected him to a lot of hard labor and punishments or whatever. I mean, he definitely had the vibe of like a kid who grew up hearing some really racist shit. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know. So, yeah, he was brought back. He got caught. They court martialed him and he was sentenced to the most old timey punishment of all time.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Two years of hard labor at Camp Stam-Bow with an actual ball and chain attached to his leg. Awesome. I love that. This is like the perfect like old timey punishment. Like a book, like a Coen Brothers character. Yeah, and he served his full two year sentence. And after it was done, obviously he wasn't forced
Starting point is 00:37:40 back into the military and he did not rejoin the military. Yeah, Jesse, were you gonna say or ask questions? No, I love that the military and he did not rejoin the military. Yeah, Jesse, we're going to say or ask questions. I love that the one commitment he got of anything is that he was forced to do it. And then afterwards, he was like, I'm out. I can't I can't. Yeah, he fucking left. Why? I may even broken him more mentally. Who fucking knows?
Starting point is 00:37:59 Honestly, you would think that two years being forced to do a thing would break him a little bit, but no, clearly not. Yeah. Uh, and now he is. So we're about two years later. He's about 20, 21 ish right around that age. And, uh, he after he left his prison sentence, he went back to doing what he did best. Drifting and do that best. Let's be real. Was he good at that? He got found in the woods after two days. Yeah, I don't think he was good at that.
Starting point is 00:38:28 Yeah, he stuck to, he needed to stick to the roads. He was a city. He was a city boy. He wasn't a wilderness boy. So he started wandering again and was back to gambling and saloons for a few months because right after that in 1872, though we don't have specifics, we do know that he went back to stealing horses at the very least.
Starting point is 00:38:50 He started nabbing horses from people. The worst possible crime that you can imagine. Yeah, yeah, essentially at that time. You get killed for that at this era. Yeah, just the worst possible, most risky, lowest yield crime possible. Yeah, but he actually did a good job at not getting caught because other than we knew he was stealing horses,
Starting point is 00:39:08 we actually don't really know where he was for the rest of 1872. But by February of 1873, he had returned to Texas, very specifically Bastrop County. And we know that because there are criminal records of him being accused of murdering another freed slave Over a very small dispute that he got over with them And this was in line with long lease pattern of targeting African Americans during the reconstruction era
Starting point is 00:39:36 While specifics about this particular individual that he murdered or the circumstances beyond an argument aren't well documented It was another crime that was at being added to his very big growing criminal reputation. Mind you, that was still in existence from him running from Texas in the first place. So he sells a rap there. Uh, and following that accusations Longley then left that County and returned to Bell County, Texas, where his family farm was, where he lived with his father, Campbell Longley,
Starting point is 00:40:05 and the rest of his family. We don't know how much contact Longley had with his family during his criminal years. I'm gonna guess zero or close to zero. I doubt they were sending letters back and forth, but he didn't spend a ton of time at the family farm after he went back. He more treated Bell County as a temporary refuge
Starting point is 00:40:24 and a place to lay low. And it's from this moment on as well that Bill also starts using fake names. He starts anytime he's out, people ask him his name, he starts giving fake, just fake identities. So he's harder to catch because he clearly had intents to keep fucking doing crimes. Summer of 1873, to keep fucking doing crimes. Summer of 1873, Mason County Sheriff J.J. Finney managed to actually arrest Longley for the murder that he actually committed back in Bastrop County when he first came back to Texas. Finney, aware of his growing notoriety, actually took him to Austin
Starting point is 00:40:59 to collect on that reward that was offered by the state and federal officials. So he's fucking even if you have both, he had one. So we thought he was at least going to get 500 bucks for this. Maybe he'll get 1000 when he brought him to Austin, brought him to the federal prison and whatnot. The federal military essentially gave him the run around. They the money wouldn't come up. They never had it.
Starting point is 00:41:24 And his captor, the sheriff, Finney, got so fucking frustrated with the feds that he literally freed longly and let him go. Yeah, yeah. They brought him to Austin, spent a few days trying to get the money. The feds weren't giving him the money. So he's like, fuck it. You're not going to give me what I'm owed. You're free. That's what he did.
Starting point is 00:41:44 Only shit. And he's not a bounty hunter. This guy is a Mason. He was Mason County Sheriff. He wasn't even a bounty hunter. He was a fucking sheriff. It's just the luck stat that is like what defines the cowboy serial killer. He's like his luck that is so high that like three unbelievably impossible things happen. And then that's how he's able to like do a reign of terror. I'm just shocked no one shot him. The sheriff?
Starting point is 00:42:10 No. Oh, Bill? Bill has at this point gone around just murdering. He has stolen horses, which again, as Alex said, probably doing this time way worse than actual murder for a lot of people, at least what they thought. And then he has, he has run from being in the cap. You would think someone would have shot his ass. The fact that he hasn't been shot and killed is mind blowing to me. I think a part of it too is just, again, do people really know what he looks like? Like if you Like, unless you've heard someone describe him to you, or there's a picture that's decent,
Starting point is 00:42:48 the minute he grows a beard or shaves his beard, he's gonna look different. Like, people don't... We don't have the internet back then. Like, how do you warn three counties over about this guy before he gets there? Like... Draw a really good picture?
Starting point is 00:43:02 And then you gotta get it there before he gets there. Fly it by eagle? gets there fly it by eagle He has ended by American Eagle that guy that's I that's how it's gonna work. Yeah. Yeah, but anyway, uh, yeah He just literally like you said luck's dad and then we just fucking like fuck it. Bye. Bye. Goodbye now There is rumor, but there is no evidence of that there it may have been Longly a Bill's uncle Alexander press Preston, who lived in California that bribed the sheriff to free Bill.
Starting point is 00:43:33 But that's the that's nothing more than rumor. That's just but it's out. So wait, this dude has connections like that. That's all I know of that connection as well, which is why I'm like potentially potentially connections and he's still, which is why I'm like. Potentially, potentially, yeah. Potentially connections. And he's still like, God, I hate him so, like this guy sucks. Like not in like, he's like a, like, oh boy,
Starting point is 00:43:53 I better kill little birdie shoot or whatever. Like it isn't, this guy isn't fun either. And or character, yeah. Just a shitty little guy. Yeah, his luck sucks, I hate that for him. I hate that about him. It's so, like this isn't exciting to be like, oh wow, what's this guy do?
Starting point is 00:44:10 What's he gonna do next? He's gonna eat someone? Like, no, this dude's just like, I'm a piece of shit and I cruise through life. I don't have to pay for anything. La la la la la. Yeah. And he then gets to spend two years free.
Starting point is 00:44:23 He's just not getting getting caught back to stealing horses back to grabbing people. There is suspicion that he killed people during that time, though we don't have any particular evidence or names of specifics. And he would get to keep doing that until March 31st of 1875, where he's now like 22, 23 years old. And this is one of the more notable and well-documented murders of all time, not of all time, but of his life, because it was a personal murder. During his in 1875, he killed his childhood friend, Wilson Anderson, with a shotgun.
Starting point is 00:44:57 He the murder was reportedly instigated by Longley's and Longley being Bill, his uncle, Caleb Longley, who blamed his nephew's childhood friend Anderson for the death of his son, Cale Longley. So Caleb urged his nephew Bill to seek revenge on Wilson Anderson, and he complied by taking a shotgun to Anderson's head. You need to go over that again?
Starting point is 00:45:26 No, it's as convoluted and stupid as it sounds. I'm just, it's... This is somebody he spent a ton of time with as a kid. Not like just like, he was his friend. Just blasted him. Blew his head off because his uncle said that he killed his son. He's just a sociopath.
Starting point is 00:45:43 Yes, he doesn't care. He just murdered him. Exactly, exactly. That's what I'm submitting. I'm telling you. He doesn't like injustice. And that's fair. I don't either.
Starting point is 00:45:55 Hey, I'm Jillian. And I'm Patrick. And together we make the podcast True Crime Obsessed. If you love documentaries the way we love documentaries, you might be interested in our show because we recap all the documentaries that you're watching. We've covered just about every true crime case you can imagine. We're talking the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker, the Ted Bundy tapes. What else?
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Starting point is 00:46:28 or wherever you listen. This is like one of his only childhood friends and it was motivated by an external, by family loyalty and vengeance. It's just really fucking weird. And after he killed him, he fucking fled again. He just ran northward. This time accompanied by one of his brothers, James Stockton Longley.
Starting point is 00:46:47 Now, James was later tried for the murder of Anderson, the kid fucking blew his head off of the shotgun, but he was acquitted of that, which is why it was indicated that Bill was the sole perpetrator of this particular crime. And following this incident, a brand new reward was posted for Bill Longley's capture, and he became even more of a target for law enforcement. Very wild Bill. An extremely wild Bill. Under increasing pressure from law enforcement, Longley fled from place to place and used several aliases to avoid arrest over this time.
Starting point is 00:47:20 Unstable Bill, out of control Bill, Bill the guy you don't mess with Bill. You think he had like a, like he's professional Bill when he needs like to like something legally? No, no, no, he was professional William. Oh, fuck, you're right. I didn't even think about that. Of course that's what he would be fucking called. So yeah, he flew, he fled again,
Starting point is 00:47:39 and under the pressure, he's like just trying to avoid all these people. Eventually while he was on the run though, he found himself an actual job, a real job that isn't crimes. Tell us what this job was, please. He worked on a cotton farm. Mm hmm. Very exciting.
Starting point is 00:47:58 He didn't last very long. Really? Yeah, I know. I know. We're looking. He lasted about two months because in November of 1875, he ended up killing somebody that he got into a fight with on the farm that he got into a verbal argument with them, which turned into a fist fight, which then turned him, him beating him to death. Beating him to death?
Starting point is 00:48:19 With his fists. Yeah, just like fucking just beat him until he died. What the fuck? Yeah, yeah. Then he, that mean he fucking took What the fuck? Yeah. Yeah. And he that mean he fucking took off from the farm at that point. And not long after he found himself in another murder in that same month. He ended up killing another man by the name of George Thomas,
Starting point is 00:48:37 who was reportedly just one of his hunting companions, who he also then got into a fistfight with, which then escalated to him shooting him. How does a man have friends? Like real talk. I don't know. I don't know. How does he, you think things would spread between the different groups and be like,
Starting point is 00:48:52 that guy kills his friends, dude. Like he's no good. Like why, what about him says that's the man I want to hang out with? I don't know, man. No Twitter to stop you from learning these fucking facts. No Instagram stories, I guess. Yeah. And this was another just petty grievance, hot temper that just boiled over
Starting point is 00:49:13 right into deadly violence. And after you killed law, after you killed Thomas rather, he fucking took off as fast as he could. He just ran another pattern of evading justice. And he would remain that way for essentially another full Fucking year until January of 1876 where he became involved in another death Where he ended up getting into a gunfight with another outlaw by the name of Lou Schreuer in Uvalde County, Texas and this actually began as
Starting point is 00:49:43 Bill attempting to ambush Lou Schreuer, who sought just to kill him. He was so bad at ambushing that a gun fight broke out. Yeah, he tried to ambush another criminal outlaw and failed. Well, not failed. He technically succeeded, but he didn't do it cleanly. And the situation quickly got turned into a gunfight where Shroyer did shoot Longley's horse out from under him, but in response Longley shot Shroyer dead. I again must state it seems like he's failing upward and I hate this. That's not what it always is.
Starting point is 00:50:17 Everything about this dude sucks so much. As to the motivation to why he wanted to ambush Lou Schreuer, there's debate that some say it was just like a petty rivalry between two different outlaws that were operating on the same turf. Or some say a dispute kind of just kind of bubbled up between the two of them naturally, territorial, or even betrayal that they were working together at one point. Whatever the case was, all we know is it ended up in a fucking very public gunfight where Schreuer ended up getting killed. It's just fucking crazy.
Starting point is 00:50:50 And he took off. Dude, sorry, what sucks? Yeah, sorry. Let that sink in, I guess. You tell me like this other dude had no friends. We're like, we got to get vengeance. We got to hunt him down. The fact that people are just like that crazy guy, let him go. He's wild. Well were like, we gotta get vengeance. We gotta hunt him down. Like the fact that people are just like, that crazy guy let him go. He's wild.
Starting point is 00:51:08 Well this time, insane to me. This time he did not run to another town. This time he pulled the boon helm and ran into the wilderness this time. He went deep into the woods and. Where he lasted two days. He actually lasted a decent amount of time. How long is decent?
Starting point is 00:51:25 Less than a year. Okay. But about six or seven months ish, if I'm doing my math correctly here. Because we would then see him pop up again. While he was still attempting to lie low, he ended up turning to sharecropping around this time. And he found work on another farm and brought himself out of his like wilderness hiding by working with a farmer by the name of William R. Lay who was also a preacher out in East Texas and he actually for a while long Lee seemed to settle into this more stable life of being a
Starting point is 00:52:00 sharecropper and just being a farmer until trouble soon arose when he found himself in a rivalry with the farm owner's own nephew for the affections of a young woman. Longley's violent. Yeah, no, a young lady they both liked. And Longley's nature sort of resurfaced when he beat up his rival, which led to him being an actual brief imprisonment. He didn't kill him, but he beat the fuck out of him. Longley blamed William Lay for his imprisonment, believing that Lay was the one responsible for his troubles.
Starting point is 00:52:36 And on June 13th, 1876, Longley rode to Lay's farm where he found the preacher milking a cow. Longley then shot Lay with a shotgun. Because he was only put in prison for a little bit. It wasn't, he didn't kill anybody. He beat somebody up. He was like, eh, a couple nights, let's get it over with. And then went back and was like,
Starting point is 00:52:54 I'm gonna kill the owner and shot him. Which, you know, kind of foul follows the pattern of this particular guy. He's just playing Red Dead Redemption and like getting a high bounty and then painted off at the post office. I mean, kind of five stars, five stars cops run right to five stars every time. And then just runs off to the post office extremely quickly.
Starting point is 00:53:15 And after he killed lay long lead, then took off again to the wilderness, deciding, you know what? It's the outlaws life for me, baby. This is what I was made for. This is what I'm going to do. Fuck trying to make an honest living. Let's just do what I'm clearly good at doing. And so he traveled off to Grayson County, Texas where he
Starting point is 00:53:34 would meet up with two of his friends, Jim and Dick Sanders where they were also imprisoned. And what did he do? He can't be a criminal all by yourself. He broke his boys out of fucking prison. What in he do? He can't be a criminal all by yourself. He broke his boys out of fucking prison. What? In 1876, he helped his two friends, Jim and Dick, escape from jail.
Starting point is 00:53:51 The exact circumstance of the jailbreak are not super well documented, but it's clear that he took part in freeing them completely. He just broke them out. I don't know how he did it. I wish we had the details. We just know that they fucking, all three of them got out of there. I don't know how we did it. I wish we had the details. We just know that they fucking all three of them got out of there. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:54:07 I guess he didn't blow up a wall. He must have just like when somebody was sleeping or he was able to squeeze through the bars. I don't fucking know. But now they're a posse of three and so to speak. And as they were escaping, they immediately bumped into Deputy Matt Shelton, who shot him dead. The end. They tried to arrest them and long lean his companions shot
Starting point is 00:54:31 him in the head with a shocker. No, no, they disarmed the deputy and continued running. They took his gun and then they ran. That's it. What the fuck? I don't know why they didn't kill the deputy at that point. You figure, but no, no, he just, they disarmed him. Just like input a game shark code real quick, transferred it from his inventory to their inventory.
Starting point is 00:54:54 Yeah. And now he's like, oh, what? Looking confused at his empty hands as they run off on their, on their, I imagine on horses. They ended up fleeing out to Louisiana regardless. They finally left Texas, went to Louisiana and continued this pattern of evading capture. Though, again, the details of how he specifically escaped is kind of lost. Again, he wouldn't pop back up until a full year later on June 6, 1877.
Starting point is 00:55:20 And by mid-1877, after years of committing murders, theft, evading law enforcement, not only across Texas, but Wyoming and the little counties in between, he, Bill Longley, would finally be captured. After his long history of narrowly escaping capture, he had been on the run and hiding in De Soto Parish, Louisiana under the alias of Bill Jackson. Like, Phil Jackson? No, Bill. He It's true. Take Phil Jackson. No, Bill. He stuck with his first name, Bill.
Starting point is 00:55:48 Bill Jackson changed his first name at all. I don't know why. All right. Phil Jackson would have been better. And his criminal career had come under increasing pressure from law enforcement because we're looking at a decade of crime where he's just been getting away at this point. And his crimes are starting to become famous and that's a problem for law enforcement.
Starting point is 00:56:08 And a substantial reward was posted for his capture once again. And finally, on June 6, 1877, Longley was surrounded and arrested without incident in Nacogdoches County by Sheriff Milt Mast and two other deputies. Milt Mast? Milt, yes, Milt Mast, M-I-L-T-M-A-S-T-B. It's like addiction exercise.
Starting point is 00:56:32 Alliteration was all the rage back in the 1800s. Everyone was in on it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Milt Mast. Milt Mast. Yeah, so Milt Mast actually fucking caught him. The arrest took place while Longley was residing quietly. And unlike many of his previous escapes and violent altercations, for whatever reason,
Starting point is 00:56:51 in this moment, Longley didn't even try to run. He didn't resist nothing. He literally just fucking gave up. And the reasons as to why Longley didn't put up a fight are actually not clear. There's a lot of speculation, but maybe it could have been just by this time. He may have realized that his luck was running out everywhere. He's running out of places to go.
Starting point is 00:57:10 People were starting to know his name. The money reward was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and he just didn't really have anywhere else to kind of run to that already didn't know who he was. And so, and I'm sure being under the alias, Bill Jackson didn't really help him very much either, but he was finally arrested where he'm sure being under the alias Bill Jackson didn't really help him very much either. But he was finally arrested where he after being arrested, he would return be returned to Texas to face justice for his crimes. In particular, he was tried for the murder of Wilson Anderson, his friend who had killed about two or three years earlier
Starting point is 00:57:40 at this point as part of personal revenge plot by his uncle in the murder. The murder of Anderson was one of the most personal and notorious killings in Longley's career as Anderson again had been his best friend. And that's really why they had the most details on this murder in particular. So that's like how they were able to fucking get him and the trial in Lee County Court went well for everybody but Bill with the specific charge of murdering Wilson Anderson.
Starting point is 00:58:06 The trial did not take long. There was significant amount of evidence and witness testimony against Longley, and the brutality of Anderson Anderson's murder coupled with Longley's extensive criminal history over 10 years left little room for doubt regarding that this man was fucking guilty. And so following his trial,
Starting point is 00:58:23 Longley was sentenced to hang for Anderson's murder. This was not surprising. Obviously, this is kind of just like what they did with these kinds of criminals. But at this time, what we do know is that Longley had often boasted about killing 32 men by this point in his life. But when asked historians that if they believe that number, they think the number is much closer to about 10. Longley's probably blustering about how much he how much of a violent
Starting point is 00:58:51 criminal he is. But he's still 10, somewhere around 10 people is like a horrible, heinous individual. And he was after being sentenced to death, death, his defense attempted to appeal the conviction in the hopes of securing a reduced sentence or even just Overturning the verdict but appeal appeals were a common tactic at the time still kind of fucking are obviously Aspect but this was a high profile case. This was entertainment at the time 1877 moving into 1878 capturing one of the most notorious criminals around that time at least for these people People were fucking there every day at court
Starting point is 00:59:24 His appeal was denied in March of 1878, confirming the original sentence of hanging that would be carried out. There would be no clemency, despite his notoriety and the efforts of his defense. Longley was denied clemency, his violent history and the nature of his crimes kind of made him a target of law enforcement over the years, he became an embarrassment to law enforcement. So he kept getting fucking away. And so this time, they really made sure
Starting point is 00:59:45 he would not get escape. Waiting for you to be like, however they were out of rope that day. So no hanging would occur. Actually kind of the, yeah, go ahead, no, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. You can't say actually kind of the what?
Starting point is 01:00:00 Kind of the what? Kind of the opposite. On October 11th of 1878, Bill Longley was executed by hanging in Giddings, Texas, just a few miles from his childhood home in Evergreen. He was like home was right backyard. Great. And his hanging didn't go well for him in that he didn't die instantly. And he struggled for a very long time. Great. Good. OK.
Starting point is 01:00:21 Died. I'm all right with that. This this hanging drew a huge crowd of people like there was a mass crowd watching eager to witness the end of this guy. He was going to slip out of the fucking ropes and land on a horse and ride off into the fucking sunset. And there are some reports that longly remained defiant until the very end. And I think there were some people that probably were expecting. How is he going to get out of this one?
Starting point is 01:00:42 How what not though? He reportedly also expressed some regret for his crimes in the days leading up to the execution. Now he regrets being caught. Exactly correct. According to some accounts, Longley reportedly told the crowd that he had been unfairly treated by the law and that he was not guilty of all the murders attributed to him.
Starting point is 01:01:01 And that he'd be running for president. Yeah, nowadays. However, his final statements did not change the outcome. Longley was hanged in Giddings, a place where now there's an actual burial and historical marker. You can look up right now where even today, people like, so there are like flowers on his grave sometimes. It's wild.
Starting point is 01:01:21 His grave became a point of interest for historians and visitors over the legacy of the old West But he would have he actually was fucking killed and it wasn't pleasant and that on October 11th of 1878 would mark the short but violent and the short but violent life of Bill at 1878 he was a little about 30 almost like maybe a little over a little on under 30 years old. And just from the get the boy was fucking violent and he met his very violent end. And like I said, the Wild West is filled with little stories of these people who live very violent.
Starting point is 01:02:01 Yeah, yeah, it's all very violent. But it's like, that's what's fascinating about the Wild West is how many people like this guy existed, these people that live these 20 or 30 year lie lives, but like were like a flash in the pan of violence, crime and all kinds of crazy shit. Some cannibalism as we've talked about, but he's like a great example in my opinion of these people who just like lived town to town murdering and there were hundreds of these people out there at the time. That's why I became priority post Civil War for the expansion towards west because of all the little towns and things going on out there. There was no real law or
Starting point is 01:02:39 government authority and yeah, sure. There was a lot of like if the government's there, we can make more money but also they were like yo we need lot of like, if the government's there, we can make more money. But also they were like, yo, we need, we need like someone to get the military out there, put people out there. Yeah, it was, it was not a great place to be if you didn't have any way to protect yourself. But that, boys, ends our short tale here. I'm not sure it's a fucking full episode, but not a multi-parter. So in my mind, it's short, short story of Bill Longley, a.k.a. Wild Bill, Texas Bill, crazy Bill, insane Bill, Bill Jackson, and all kinds of other dumb.
Starting point is 01:03:14 Bill Jackson, the better name he should have taken. That's it for us today, boys. We're out of here. Thank you all so much for listening. We're off to patreon.com slash Illuminati pod. Do a little mini-sode as we always do. We appreciate you, we love you. And Alex is taking the reins next week. I'm very excited.
Starting point is 01:03:29 What? He's married now, so he's got nothing to do anymore. He's just bored. My big burden is through. All I have to do is choke him up now. Yes, anyway, we're off. Thank you guys so much. We appreciate you, we love you.
Starting point is 01:03:42 Goodbye. Bye. Anyway, me and off. Thank you guys so much. We appreciate you. We love you. Goodbye. Bye Anyway Me and my wife were sitting outside indulging on our porch one night enjoying ourselves I needed to go to the bathroom So I stepped back inside and after a few moments I hear my wife go. Holy shit get out here So I quickly dash back outside. She's looking up at the sky in awe I look up to her and there's a perfect line of dozen lights traveling across the sky. So Hey, I'm Jillian.
Starting point is 01:05:04 And I'm Patrick. And together we make the podcast True Crime Obsessed. If you love documentaries the way we love documentaries, you might be interested in our show because we recap all the documentaries that you're watching. We've covered just about every true crime case you can imagine. We're talking the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker, the Ted Bundy tapes. What else? The Turpent 13 with the amazing sisters who basically tell the story, the girl in the picture. Yes.
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