Numerous others were killed when they objected to crooked card games run at the saloon. By October, 1868, Long had killed thirteen men and was suspected of killing another seven who died under suspicious circumstances. The violence became so prevalent that the townsfolk began to refer to the saloon as "The Bucket of Blood”  

Laramie City saloon in 1868 courtesy Denver Public Library

Meanwhile, a local rancher by the name of N.K. Broswell began talk of forming a vigilante group to put the trio out of business.

Long also was in the habit of moonlighting as a thief and on October 18, 1868 he attempted to ambush and rob prospector Rollie "Hard Luck” Harrison.  In the ensuing gunfight, Harrison was killed and Long was shot. Though wounded, he was able to make it home. While Long's fiancée treated the wound, he confessed to her what had happened and incensed, she told N.K. Broswell. Wasting no time, Broswell gathered up several men in the town and they stormed into The Bucket of Blood on October 28, 1868.

Seizing Long and the Moyer brothers, the mob dragged them to a partially finished cabin, where they began to string them up to the rafters.  But before he could be strung up Long asked the vigilantes to remove his boots. His last words were "my mother always said that I would die with my shoes on.”  He was hanged with his bare feet dangling.

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated December, 2008.