ALLAN--here's another version of a song you mentioned as folk:

Today, in the town of Haiffa in Israel, a man named Joseph (all they knew about him) ran looting through the streets and shot Mayor Newton dead before he, himself, was killed. Digging into his past they found that his mother had once lived in a convent in Barcelona, Spain. Also that Joseph had once worked on a farm! The caption under his photo read: "Haiffa lootin', Newton shootin', son of a nun from Barcelona, part-time plowboy, Joe !"

Art Thieme

No tune--but now a "folktale". The beat goes on...