Murder Ballad Monday--Tom Dooley

Hello and welcome to Murder Ballad Monday. For 21 weeks, I researched different version of Child Ballad 10 (the folk song about a sister killing her sister out of jealousy and then the murdered girl’s bones being turned into a musical instrument that call out the name of the murderer) and then I spent ten weeks looking at prose versions that bore a similarity to Child Ballad 10. These “singing bone” tales were classified as ATU 780 The Truth Comes to Light in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Tale Type Classification system.

I decided to move back to musical forms of murder ballads and I thought I would begin with the one that really started it for me—Tom Dooley. My dear old dad worked very hard learning to play this ballad on the guitar and it was the first murder ballad I ever consciously remember hearing. I have a vague memory that my father told me it was based on a true story, but it has been interesting to research it myself since he is not here to tell me about it.

                                     

Thomas C. "Tom" Dula was a Confederate soldier convicted of murdering his sweetheart the (possibly) pregnant Laura Foster in 1866. The murder and subsequent trial received extensive newspaper coverage which turned Dula’s story into a folk legend. Many years later, a North Carolina poet Thomas C. Land wrote a song about Dula using the Appalachian pronunciation of Dula which was Dooley. (This confused me until I thought about how folks say the words Grand Old Opry where the final letter a in opera sounds like an ee). The first notable recording of this song was in 1929 and the Kingston Trio had a hit record with it in 1958. This was the version I grew up with and undoubtedly the one my dad was trying to play on his guitar.

Dula was quite a musician and had a reputation as a bit of a “lady’s man.” He was supposedly in a relationship with both Laura Foster and her married cousin Ann. Some articles I read say he was also having his way with Ann’s sister Perline. Some accounts say he contracted syphilis and blamed Laura, some accounts say she was pregnant and they were running away together. Another account says Ann was jealous of Laura and murdered the girl to punish Dula for his unfaithfulness. The truth is not known. But what is known is that Dula was hanged for her murder.

According to the North Carolina Visitor’s Center:

It was on the first day of May, 1866, that Tom Dooley rode through the streets of Statesville in a wagon. He sat on the top of his coffin on that bright and shiny day with his banjo on his knee, joking with the throng of people walking along. He picked his favorite ballad on the old banjo, laughing as the wagon neared the gallows. When the rope was placed around his neck, he joked with Sheriff W. E. Watson, "I would have washed my neck if I had known you were using such a nice clean new rope".

Asked in seriousness if he had any last words to say, Tom held his right hand and replied, "gentlemen, do you see this hand? Do you see it tremble? Do you see it shake? I never hurt a hair on the girl's head". The trap door was dropped.

So, who did kill Laura Foster? I don’t know, but the song will forever remain in our consciousness.

Here is a video of the Kingston Trio performing Tom Dooley. I have included the lyrics below if you want to follow along.

Lyrics: 
Throughout history

There've been many songs written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr Grayson, a beautiful woman
And a condemned man named Tom Dooley...
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley... must hang...

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die


I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Hadn't a-been for Grayson
I'd a-been in Tennessee

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Hangin' from a white oak tree

Hang down your head, Tom DooleyHang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

Poor boy, you're bound to die
Poor boy you're bound to die
Poor boy, you're bound to die...

 That's all for this week's Murder Ballad Monday. Stay tuned next week’s song.