Brady had a little .25
Kill a man about a half a mile.
Duncan he had a big .44
Well, he laid old Brady on the barroom floor.
Cause he's been on the job too long.

Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles, "Been on the Job Too Long," Paramount 3210, recorded October 1929. Similar verse in Leadbelly's recording "Duncan and Brady."

John Hardy come tipping down the street one day
With a .44 gun in his hands
Kill me a man at the Shawnee Camp
But they slapped John Hardy down in jail
Slapped old Johnny back in jail.

Says I don't want your fifteen cents
With your quarter in my change
All I want is my .44 gun
Gonna shoot out another man's brains,
Gonna shoot out another man's brains.

Clarence Ashley, "Old John Hardy," Columbia 15654-D, recorded 14 April 1930.

Compare

Asked my captain for my fifteen cents
Throw the time away
All I want is my .44 gun
Go out till Judgement Day.

Dink Roberts, "John Hardy," Folkways CD 40079, "Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia," recorded 21 February 1974.