With the death of Sheriff McMillan, the wily outlaw’s reward rose to $1,200.00 for his capture and the manhunts increased. A couple of weeks later on July 30, 1895, Bill robbed a man of fifty cents, which was an insignificant event by itself, but it gave the law his last known position. They brought in a special pack of tracking hounds from a convict farm near Montgomery, along with a one hundred man posse, but they lost his trail near Castleberry, Alabama. They were able to pick the trail back up the next day, but after a mile or so Bill turned and killed the lead dog of the pack and the hunt was called off.
Finally, on February 11, 1897 the railroad depot at Perdido was broken into and a box of meat was stolen. Shortly afterwards on March 1st, a store at McDavid, Florida was broken into and some canned goods and ammunition was taken. Unfortunately for Bill, he had broken his customary practice of always acting alone and paid the ultimate price for his mistake. It was at this time that Henry Caldwell, a recent partner of Bill’s, was sighted in the woods nearby and captured by T. J. Harlan. He was taken to Flomaton where he admitted to running with Bill for more than a year and told them that the famous outlaw was on the way to Perdido to meet up with him. He told them where to find the box of meat that he and Railroad had stolen at Perdido.
Based on this information, the posse went out and recovered the stolen merchandise shortly afterwards. On March 7th, the railroad agents took Caldwell to the Pensacola jail and were preparing to head for Perdido to lay in wait for Bill when a telegram arrived from the agent at the Atmore, Alabama Station that Bill had been shot and killed.
