© 1984-2007 Shadows of the Past, Inc.
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Text & Drawings by Floyd D.P. Oydegaard
Just prior to his hanging, Bill Longley was asked how he had managed for so long to avoid death and capture and said, "Because I never had any confidence in nobody." He saw a "good many enemies around and mighty few friends." After 32 killings he wrote a last note to a girl that said, "Hanging is my favorite way of dying." He died at 27 years of age in Texas, 1877.
Clay Allison once said after killing a man whom he had taken to dinner with the intention of making him his 8th victim, "I didn't want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach." A man with a colorful career at being a fast gun, he met an inglorious end when a wagon wheel rolled over and broke his neck in Pecos, Texas July 1, 1887.
Wyatt Earp stated that trick shooting didn't decide a gunfight. It was an axiom among gunfighters that a man who won a shoot-out was the man who took his time. "Shooting at a man who is returning the compliment means going into action with the greatest speed of which a man's muscles are capable, but mentally unflustered by an urge to hurry or the need for complicated nervous and muscular actions which trick shooting involves." He died a healthy 81 in Los Angeles, California, January 13, 1929.