Here's a pertinent post from Art from another thread:

Thread #7829   Message #47539
Posted By: Art Thieme
01-Dec-98 - 06:01 PM
Thread Name: Ben Dewberry's Last Ride
Subject: RE: Ben Dewberry's Last Ride

Andrew Jenkins was a fellow who went under the name of Blind Andy or Blind Andrew Jenkins. Harlan Daniel told me a long time ago that he was pretty sure Jenkins had written "The Hanging Of Charlie Birger" which was recorded by Vernon Dalhart. Jenkins would sell his songs to singers for $5.00 sometimes. He almost always had a verse at the end of his songs making a moral value judgment and/or a religious link.
Art

Hi, Art-
I was going to ask you to post the lyrics to "The Hanging of Charlie Birger," but I found it. Can you post what's different in your version of the song?

This is from American Murder Ballads and their Stories, by Olive Woolley Burt (1958, Oxford University Press, pp 214-216):

During the days of Prohibition a new kind of outlaw was spawned— the modern gangster who sought to control the illicit liquor traffic, vice, and gambling, and thus to build up a fortune from crime. By this time Tin Pan Alley had discovered the bonanza offered by folk songs, especially those about outlaws, so Tin Pan Alley was turning out ditties about Pretty Boy Floyd, Dillinger et al. Although there are a number of professionally produced songs, they do not belong in this collection. One, however, which I received through the good offices of Harry E. Pratt, state historian of Illinois, seems to be less commercial than most.
The Birger gang fought the Shelton boys for the control of the bootleg traffic in southern Illinois and succeeded in driving them out of the area and down into East St. Louis. After several years of operations, during which murder was never permitted to interfere with profit, Charlie Birger, leader of the gang, was convicted and hanged on April 19, 1928, for the murder of the mayor of West City. The 'Death of Charlie Burger,' (sic) as the ballad is called, indicates that even the rather new-fangled gangster can find a minstrel to recount his story.

THE DEATH OF CHARLIE BURGER
(Attributed to Carson Robison)

I'll tell you of a bandit
Out in a Western state,
Who never learned his lesson
Until it was too late.
This man was bold and careless,
The leader of his gang,
But boldness did not save him
When the law said, 'You must hang.'

This bandit's name was Burger;
He lived at Shady Rest,
And people learned to fear him
Throughout the Middle West.
'Twas out in old West City
Joe Adams was shot down,
And then the cry of justice,
'These murderers must be found.'

Then Thompson was captured
And turned state's evidence.
Burger was found guilty,
For he had no defense.
He asked for a rehearing,
But this he was denied;
In the county jailhouse
To take his life he tried.

On the 19th day of April
In 1928,
Away out West in Benton
Charles Burger met his fate.
Another life was ended,
Another chapter done;
Another man who gambled
In the game that can't be won.

The Ten Commandments show us
The straight and narrow way,
And if we do not heed them
Sometime we'll have to pay.
We all must face the Master,
Our final trial to stand,
And there we'll learn the meaning
Of houses built on sand.

The Shelton boys, rivals of Charlie Birger's gang, also have won the attention of the minstrel. 'The Death of Carl Shelton,' by a Fairfield, Illinois, singer, tells of the killing of one member of the gang by an unknown assassin, on October 23, 1947, but I have been unable to locate the ballad.*


American Murder Ballads and their Stories, by Olive Woolley Burt (1958, Oxford University Press, pp 214-216)

Woodbox Gang recording here (click)
Pushin Rope Recording here (click)

*But we have "The Death of Carl Shelton," thanks to Art and Ruthie.