Gee, folks, I hate to muddy the waters here --BUT:

AUNT MOLLY JACKSON said, on the tapes she made for the Library Of Congress' Archive Of Folk Song, that she had written the song and that she, Aunt Molly, was the actual Pistol Packin' Mama. It was on one of two LP records of her music and remembrances. One LP was actually those Library Of Congress tapes put out in the 1960s. Also, there was a good Folkways Records issue of Aunt Molly Jackson telling her historical insights with JOHN GREENWAY singing her songs. The song recounted an incident where she had packed a pistol to right a wrong done to a friend there in her part of the Appalachian mountains. Her husband, Bill Jackson, as I recall it, was involved somehow too.

She said that Al Dexter had taken the song, re-written it EXTENSIVELY, and run off with the proceeds into the sunset.

Art Thieme