The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153952   Message #3609291
Posted By: GUEST,Dalillama
13-Mar-14 - 12:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Norman Williams Homestead Murder ballad
Subject: Lyr Req: Norman Williams Homestead Murder ballad
I was reading a book called Wildmen, Wobblies and Whistle Punks, a collection of historical anecdotes about the Northwest, which were written by a local reporter from the late 'teens to the mid sixties. One of them is about the Homestead Murders, a case that happened out in the backcountry of Oregon in 1904. He mentions that a ballad was composed about the murders, and quotes two verses:
Oh, Williams built a fire/
And he throwed the bodies in/
He thought he'd covered up/
His bloody trail/

But he left a couple hairs/
A-buried in the ground/
And they hanged him at the/
Wasco County jail.


Does anyone know the rest of the lyrics to this song, or indeed any other information about it at all?