Two versions (both fragments; A with music) from Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Vol. II (1948, pp. 117-118):

                  BAD LEE BROWN

   Scarborough (On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs, 1925, pp.87-89, 243) reports a very similar piece, and Sandburg (American Songbag, 1927, pp. 310-311) found a related item in Fort Smith, Ark. See also the "Bad Man Ballad" which Lomax (American Ballads and Folk Songs, 1934, pp. 89-91) "learned from a tongue-tied Negro convict at Parchman, Mississippi."


                         A

   Sung by Miss Billie Freese, Joplin, Mo., Apr. 17, 1922. Miss Freese learned it from her boy-friend, a native of West Plains, Mo.

         Last night I was a-makin' my rounds,
         Met my old woman an' I blowed her down,
         I went on home to go to bed,
         Put my old cannon right under my head.

         Jury says murder in the first degree,
         I says oh Lord, have mercy on me!
         Old Judge White picks up his pen,
         Says you'll never kill no woman ag'in.

                         B

   Contributed by Mr. Robert L. Kennedy, Springfield, Mo., May 3, 1934. Mr. Kennedy says that the song was popular in Springfiled fifty years ago.

         Don't know whether to hang you or not,
         This killin' women jest nachelly's got to stop!
                . . . . .
         Here I is bowed down with shame,
         Got a number instead of a name,
         Forty-nine years in prison for life,
         All I ever done was to kill my wife.