quote:
>>>Subject: Origins: The Story Behind The Long Black Veil
From: Joe Offer - PM
Date: 06 May 02 - 12:56 AM

Here's a quote from songwriter Danny Dill in Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy:
I got on a kick with Burl Ives songs-those old songs-but I didn't know any, and I had no way to find any at the time, or was too lazy to look. So I said, 'I'll write me a folksong' -an instant folksong, if you will. So I worked on it for months, and then it all came to me.
There's three incidents I've read about in my life that really please me. There was a Catholic priest killed in New Jersey many years ago under a town hall light, and there was no less than 50 witnesses. They never found a motive. They never found the man. Until this day, it's an unsolved murder. That always intrigued me, so that's 'under the town hall light.' Then the Rudolph Valentino story's always impressed me-about the woman that always used to visit his grave. She always wore a long black veil-now there's the title for the song. And the third component was Red Foley's 'God Walks These Hills With Me.' I always thought that was a great song, so I got that in there, too. I just scrambled it all up, and that's what came out.
-Danny Dill-<<<

OK Joe, now I'd have to think that the murder of a Priest in NJ with 50 witnesses would be as famous as the Kitty Genovese murder. So when did this priest get murdered and where? I figured, Catholic NYC guy that you are, you'd be the best fella to ask. You or Sinsull.