Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1887 — CHEATED THE GALLOWS [ARTICLE]

CHEATED THE GALLOWS

How Bill Langley, of Texas, Is £&id to Have Been Hanged Years Ago and Sti 1 Lives. [Fort Worth (Texas) special. 1 Campbell Langley, father of the once notorious and not yet forgotten Bill Langley, removed to Bell County, Texas, from near Lexington, Lee County, Texas, Iwehe years ago. During his lesidence in Lee and Bell counties he has been known as a well-to-do farmer and an upright citizen. Campell Langley to-day told a story to some of the leading citizens which, but for his well-known Christian character, wonld be put down as wildest fiction. He saystbat his son, Bill Langley, who was publ.clv hanged twelve years ago in Giddings. Lee County, by Sheriff Jim Brown, in tue presence of several thousand people, was not hurt at all, but was allow ed to escape. The father says when the Supreme Court and the Governor relused to intervene in Bill’s behalf a rich uncle in California came to the rescue with $4,000, with which he worked upon the sympathy of the sheriff charged with the execution of the sentence; that the friends of Bill were permitted to arrange 111 ngs so that when the drop fell the weight of the body fell upon the iron hoop supported by an appropriate body harness in such a way that he escaped physically unhurt. When he had draw’n h;s legs up and down two or three times the attendiug physicians pronounoed him dead, and he w,i6 turned over to his friends for interment. The coffin, which was actually buried, contained nothing but stones. SVhile the last sad riles wer - being pronounced, Bill Langley was well on his way out of the country. Ho has been living since his supposed execution in Nicaragua, where he has become a leading ciiizen and one of the largest land and cattle herders in Central America. Those who know Campbell Langley dc not hesitate to believe his story, which he now makes public only because Sheriff Brown, who officiated at the supposed execution, died in Lee County last week.