Longley thought about escaping, once writing young brother Jim about a plan to bribe his guards and flee the country.
I see a good many enemies around me, and only a mighty few friends.
Sarah Longley died in April 1890 at age 68, and the story of the many lives of Bill Longley died outā¦for nearly 100 years, at least.
He returned to Texas and Bell County, where his parents had moved, and claimed that he worked as a cowboy in Comanche County and what was then Brown County, allegedly killing a black man and engaging in a gunfight at the Santa Anna Mountains in Coleman County.
This led to chilly relations with the Lay family.
Born in Austin County, on October 6, 1851, William Preston Longley was the sixth of 10 children produced by Texas Revolution veteran Campbell Longley and his wife, Sarah.