TWICE HANGED - ONCE DEAD

Bill Longley has a date with the gallows at sunrise in Giddings, Texas. The sheriff offers the condemned man his life for the money from his last bank robbery. Longley accepts. Now, using the name, JB, he vows to start a new life, never again to be a wanted man. Life throws many obstacles in JB’s path. He kills again, each shooting being forced upon him. Along the way JB is wounded, rescues one women, falls in love with another, works for the Pinkerton Agency and becomes friends with Bat Masterson, the Earp brothers and Doc Holiday. JB finds it easy not to be recognized but hard to escape the law of the gun.

When the lid to the coffin was opened, Longley sat up and faced a cocked six-shooter.

"What the hell you pointing that gun at me for, Sheriff?"

     "I’ve been thinking , Bill, thinking hard.  I need to be sure you don’t look like William Longley when you ride out of here.

     "I told you I’d let the undertaker cut up my face. So why the gun?"

     "I know, Bill. I just don’t want to have any doubts after you ride away. Just consider what I have to do as being better than another hanging."

JAKE STILLWATER

Jake Stillwater returns from the Civil War and discovers his wife and two daughters are dead , his farm destroyed. He meets Rufus who also lost everything in Sherman’s sweep through Georgia. They decide to go to Texas, find some land, gather a herd of wild longhorns and start a new life. Jake and Rufus encounter Tall Buffalo, who is first an enemy then a friend. Later, Jake obtains work for himself and Rufus on the Crown ranch and with a crew of men gather a herd of longhorns. The herd is stolen and Jake and his men follow the rustlers, a band of merciless Comancheros, to the Pecos River.

  Jake waits until the Comanchero leader reaches the middle of the river then steps from behind a tree, his Henry leveled  on the chest of the rustler. "Hold it right there, Major. Put your hands on your saddle horn where I can see ‘em. One of your men reaches for his gun, you won’t hear the second shot."

  Major Peoples pulls back, shock, surprise, then a sign of recognition on his face. His hands finds his saddle horn.

  "Jake Stillwater? Well, well, what can I do for you, here in the middle of the Pecos River?"

     "Look out, Jake!" Charlie cried out.

During the gunfight most of the Comancheros are killed but some of Jake's men pay    the ultimate price, some horribly.

A year later Jake trails one of the first herds to Kansas, encounters Indians and storms in the Indian Territory, loses then recovers part of his herd from the storm and the Indians.  There is also disappointment when Jake and his men reach the stock yards in Kansas.

When Jake returns to the ranch he discovers that the Army is going to kill Tall Buffalo by hanging, a death that will prevent Tall Buffalo's sprit escaping from his body.    Jake vows to let his friend die the way of a warrior and to do so, Jake must kill his friend in battle.