AN AMERICAN BUSHRANGER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 303, 31 December 1878, Page 4

AN AMERICAN BUSHRANGER

The New YorTc Herald gives a short account oi : the career and execution of a miscreant named " Bill Longley," who received the richly-earned reward of bis crimes at Giddings, Texas, on the 11th of October. Texas has befn a aort of happy hunting ground for deeperatiofß for well nigh half a ceocentury, bat this fellow seems to have been the wcrat of all tie scoundrels who haunted it. He was only twentyBix years of age ; yet from the lime he wbb fourteen yenra of age be was a murderer, and this not always from provocation, but more frequently from 6heer love of wickedness. He seemed to lead a charmed life. When sixteen! he was pursued by a detaebment o(| United States cavalry, who discharged,, forty shots after him. A soldier closed with him, but his pistol went off, killing' the soldier, and he escaped. He was hanged by a body of regulars, and a* he did not seem to die quickly enough <or their taste, they fired two revolver shots at him. One struck a belt lined with gold piecep, the other shot cut two strands of the rope, and a lad coming up noon after cut him down and rescued him. More than once he made Bhem surrenders to enable cod^ federates to obtain rewards of lOOtf dollars and 1500 dollars offered for his capture. When the reward was secured, he contrived, with their con-; nivauce to get off. Of course \he cou!,d never settle anywhere, bb much because of his cwd restless disposition, as on account of the pursuit of justice. He wandered all over Texas and the adjoining States, travelling into the wild regions of the West, robbing, plundering, and mur[ dering as he went along. Once, while keeping a bar-room [for miners in tb.4 Big Horn Mountains, he and eight , companions went out on. a hunting cxl cursion and were caught in a snow-storm. Three of them were frozen to death, and he had to keep his bed for five months, but finally recovered. His laßt performance waa the shooting of a man named Anderson, who, he heard, had killed his cousin. He walked up to the man as he was working in a field and shot him dead. This was his thirty-second well-autbenticated murder. It was committed on the 31st off March, 1875,' but various delays and legal artiGces have prevented his execution till the other day, more than three years and a half after the crime. Oh the scaffold he conducted himself with some bravado; but he accepted the assistance of a clergyman, and made a abort speech which may be interpreted j^fi|. 4 espressing, regret for his awful deeds. acknowledged that he deserved his fate, and asked all to forgive him.