There should be a blue clicky to the Niles's "Judas" thread, but I don't know how to do one.

Bronson's refusal even to catalog Niles's melodies seems like a telling indictment by a world-class ballad scholar. I don't know of any ballad scholar who has risen to Niles's defense.

Niles Center, you're uniquely placed to deal with this entire problem.
Of course, for most people, the song's the thing. But since Niles's own behavior ultimately raised the question of truth in representing both what he collected and what was the entire nature of Southern Appalachian tradition (which seems to me to be far more poignant in Niles than in Sharp, for example) no serious biography can afford to evade the matter.

Enquiring minds just want to know.