His case received media attention after he was placed on life support for a drug overdose two days before his scheduled execution.

The New York Times said that the medical personnel who treated Long "found themselves in the odd situation of trying to restore to good health a man with only two days left to live.

In 1986, Long confessed to killing three women in Lancaster, Texas; he was convicted of capital murder and sent to death row.

While Long's confession in the West Texas fire was found to lack credibility, it sparked new interest in the validity of Ernest Willis's conviction for the crime.

He was placed on a medically supervised flight back to death row in Huntsville on December 8, and he was executed that day as scheduled.

He began regularly drinking alcohol around that time, and he subsequently abused illicit drugs, including heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine.

[5] On September 19, 1986, after being expelled from an alcohol rehabilitation program in Little Rock, Arkansas, Long was hitchhiking when 37-year-old Donna Sue Jester gave him a ride and allowed him to stay at her home in Lancaster, Texas.

[10][11] Based on crime scene evidence, police officers believed that Long killed Donna Sue and Dalpha Jester first.

[9] The night of the murders, Long was arrested for drunken driving in Leon County, Texas, about 100 miles south of Lancaster.

[nb 2][7] While he was in police custody, Long granted an interview to The Dallas Morning News in which he confessed to killing the three women in Lancaster.

[3] Rogers, who died in 1983 after his mobile home was set on fire, had angered Long by accusing him of misuse of a company vehicle.

Long had been arrested shortly after the Bay City fire, but a grand jury had found insufficient evidence for an indictment.

He said that Texas seemed to fairly dispense the death penalty, and he indicated that he was "pretty much ready to call it a day" because of his demented personality, saying that he did not belong in society.

[11][3] Long's attorneys built their defense around his history of psychiatric problems, including schizophrenia, and his reported head injuries.

He said that he retrieved the hatchet on the day of the murders because he thought the three women in the Jester home were conspiring against him and trying to jeopardize his relationship with Owens.

[3] Psychologist William Hester testified for the defense, stating that Long was likely psychotic – and may have been hallucinating from alcohol withdrawal – at the time of the crime.

[3] Testifying for the state, psychiatrist James Grigson said that Long had antisocial personality disorder, which he said was not considered a mental disease or defect.

[3] While the court was in session on February 4, Long stood up and yelled to the jury that he was guilty and that he never wanted to advance the insanity defense in the first place.

[18] Three years after arriving on death row, Long gave investigators a three-hour confession in which he admitted to starting a 1986 house fire that killed two women in the West Texas town of Iraan.

Billy's cousin, Ernest Willis, had already been found guilty of capital murder in connection with the fire, and he had been sentenced to the death penalty in 1987.

[19] Willis's appeals lawyers spent several years looking for evidence to support Long's version of the events.

According to author Welsh White, Long's confession was probably untrue, but it was "the catalyst that precipitated the massive investigation that resulted in Willis's exoneration.

That same day, state officials arranged a medically supervised transport from Galveston to Huntsville via airplane so that he could be executed as scheduled.

[1] Having found no relief from appellate courts, Long's attorneys asked for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles; this request was also denied.