The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87510 Message #1634536
Posted By: Abby Sale
24-Dec-05 - 11:34 AM
Thread Name: happy? – Dec 24 (Delia's Gone)
Subject: happy? – Dec 24 (Delia's Gone)
Delia Green, age 14, was shot and killed by Moses "Coony" Houston, age 15, in the Yamacraw section of Savannah (characterized by a local historian as "poor, black, and violent") at about 11:30 pm on December 24, 1900. She died Christmas afternoon in her bed at her home. She had been receiving Coony's attentions for several months, but when Coony claimed her as "his girl" she denied it. This enraged Coony, who shot her without saying another word. Cooney served 12 1/2 years then was paroled October 1913 by Governor John M. Slaton (the same governor who eventually commuted the death sentence of Leo Frank to life imprisonment, after which Frank was lynched [thanx John Garst]
("Delia's Gone" ['Tony shot his Delia, / 'Twas on one Christmas night;'] is the same song filtered through the Bahamas as "Delia" ['Delia was a gambling girl, she gambled all around.'] per Ballad Index.