Bill Williamson (1866-1911) was an American outlaw of the Wild West who was notably associated with the Van der Linde Gang. After the gang's dissolution in 1899, he became the leader of his own outfit, and he was later killed during the Mexican Revolution.
Biography[]
Williamson in 1899
Bill Williamson was born as Marion Williamson in 1866 to a Scots-Irish family, the son of an alcoholic father. Embarrassed of his first name, a common male name in his family, he assumed the nickname "Bill", and he joined the US Army and served in the 15th Infantry during the wars with the Native American tribes on the frontier of the American West. On 27 December 1892, he was dishonorably discharged for deviancy and attempted murder, and he became a rough-drinking outlaw; at one point, he was even robbed by a cross-dresser. In 1894, he tried to rob the famed outlaw Dutch van der Linde, but Dutch simply laughed at the attempt and instead offered Williamson a place in his gang. For the next five years, he committed several crimes across the frontier as a gang member, and, in 1899, he and the gang were forced to flee to the Rockies in Colorado after the Blackwater massacre. Later, while at Clemens Point, Williamson, Dutch, and Arthur Morgan were deputized by Sheriff Leigh Gray, and they helped him in his fight against the Louisiana Raiders. He and Karen Jones later mastermindded the robbery of the Valentine, Nebraska bank, and he also organized his own stagecoach robbery with Morgan and Tilly Jackson. After the ill-fated New Orleans bank robbery, Bill and several other gang members attempted to escape to the South Pacific, only to be shipwrecked on Guarma, where they took part in a revolution against the US-backed dictatorship. After returning to the USA, he took part in one last train robbery, and he sided with Micah Bell against Arthur Morgan and John Marston, accusing them of no longer being loyal to Dutch.
After the dissolution of the Van der Linde Gang, Williamson formed his own gang and remained at large. By 1910, he and his gang moved to Fort Mercer in New Mexico, a derelict former US Army garrison. His gang became the dominant new outlaw gang in the American Southwest, so the FBI forced John Marston out of retirement to help hunt down his former friends. Williamson's men wounded Marston when he approached Fort Mercer alone and implored Williamson to surrender, but Marston survived and was taken in by rancher Bonnie MacFarlane. Williamson had MacFarlane's barn burned in revenge for her helping John. Later, Marshal Leigh Johnson from Armadillo and his deputies, helped by Marston, ambushed Williamson and his men after they massacred several people at Ridgewood Farm, and Williamson's right-hand man Norman Deek was captured and later killed by his own men. Williamson fled to Mexico a day before Marston and his allies stormed Fort Mercer and killed all of his gang members there.
Williamson found refuge with the dictator Colonel Agustin Allende in Nuevo Paraiso, where he rejoined his old friend Javier Escuella (a Mexican bandito allied to Allende). Mexico was in the throes of the violent Mexican Revolution, and John Marston travelled to Mexico and agreed to help Allende in exchange for Allende handing over Escuella and Williamson. When Marston discovered from rebel leader Abraham Reyes that Escuella and Williamson were in league with Allende, John joined the rebels and stormed Allende's villa at Escalera. Allende and Williamson attempted to escape in an armored stagecoach, but Marston and Reyes killed the bodyguards. Agustin pushed Williamson out of the carriage and attempted to trade his life for his own, but Marston shot both of them dead, cementing Reyes' victory in Nuevo Paraiso.