William Preston Longley, known as Bill Longley, was born in Austin County, Texas, on October 6, 1851, and was executed in Giddings, in Lee County, on October 11, 1878, at the age of 27. He was convicted of one killing: the murder of Wilson Anderson in Lee County in March 1875. A Lee County jury found him "guilty of murder of the first degree" and the court set his punishment at death. The Texas Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment on July 1, 1878.
Longley's name is attached to a much larger number of deaths, in Texas counties from Bell and Bastrop to McLennan, Uvalde and Delta. None of those produced a conviction. Some were alleged by the military of the day, and the largest figures came from Longley himself.
By 1853 his family had moved to Evergreen, in Washington County, a farming community just north of what became Giddings. He attended school there and worked on the family farm. After the Civil War he joined other young men in terrorizing newly freed Black Texans, and a first killing is attributed to him in December 1868, when he was seventeen. In 1869 and 1870 he was accused, with another man, of further killings in south central Texas, and the military offered a $1,000 reward for the pair in March 1870. These were accusations. No trial or verdict in any of them is on record.
In June 1870 he enlisted in the United States cavalry and deserted soon afterward. He was captured, court-martialed and sentenced to two years at a post in Wyoming Territory. He served about six months, was returned to his unit, and deserted a second time on June 8, 1872. In July 1873 a county sheriff took him into custody in Kerr County and brought him to Austin for a reward; the reward was not paid and he was released.
In March 1875, in Lee County, Wilson Anderson died. Longley was charged with his murder, and a co-defendant was jointly indicted with him on the accusation of being present and aiding him. Longley left Texas for Indian Territory afterward. The co-defendant was not tried with him.
On June 6, 1877, a Nacogdoches County sheriff took Longley into custody in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. He was returned to Lee County, created by law in May 1874, to stand trial for Anderson's murder.
Longley was tried alone. The jury found him "guilty of murder of the first degree," and the court fixed the punishment at death. The conviction was entered on September 3, 1877.
Longley's case went to the Texas Court of Appeals, which the 1876 constitution had created to hear appeals in all criminal cases. On July 1, 1878, the court noted that the record contained no statement of the facts, so it could examine only the sufficiency of the indictment and the correctness of the instructions to the jury. It held that the indictment did not need to allege express or implied malice, and did not need to specify further particulars of the offense. The jury instruction had assumed that the offense took place in March 1875; no objection had been made at trial, and the court found no prejudice. The judgment was "in all things affirmed."
Longley was executed in Giddings on October 11, 1878. A state historical marker for him, erected at Giddings, was in temporary storage as of October 2024.
Reconstruction in Texas ran from 1865 to about 1874, years of widespread violence against freed people. Federal troops, the Freedmen's Bureau courts and a state police force all operated in the period, and Democratic control returned in January 1874. Longley's early record falls in these years, and his conviction came after them, under the 1876 constitution's new appeals court.
Further deaths were attributed to him in McLennan County in November 1875, Uvalde County in January 1876 and Delta County in June 1876; he was never tried for any of them. While waiting for trial, Longley wrote letters to a newspaper claiming 32 killings, and shortly before his execution he put his total at eight. Both figures are his own claims. Many of his other stories, including a ride with a known outlaw and service with a Shoshone chief, are uncorroborated or unlikely.
October 6, 1851: born in Austin County, Texas.
December 1868: first killing attributed to him (not tried).
March 1870: military reward offered for him and another man.
June 1870: enlists in the United States cavalry and deserts; deserts again June 8, 1872.
March 1875: death of Wilson Anderson in Lee County.
November 1875 to June 1876: further deaths attributed to him in McLennan, Uvalde and Delta counties (not tried).
June 6, 1877: taken into custody in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana.
September 1877: Lee County jury finds him "guilty of murder of the first degree"; sentence of death.
July 1, 1878: Texas Court of Appeals affirms.
October 11, 1878: executed in Giddings.