Hi Kate!

I hope you'll keep us posted with your findings on the murder. I've been curious about it ever since I heard te Phipps Family's song about twenty-five years ago. Their version is similar to the first one in the DT. It has a final verse/chorus:

Then in came poor Pearl's mother
And turning to Jackson said
"You have killed my daughter,
Won't you tell me where's her head?"

"Won't you tell me where's her head?
Won't you tell me where's her head?"
Pearl Bryan's dead, can't find her head,
And Wallen (sic) and Jackson's hung

At the time I thought this ending was so bizarre and surreal I found it very funny. Now I'm older and I hope a bit wiser; I can see I was really laughing at the naive style of the song's author, which was still bad enough. With a daughter of my own, I don't think it's at all funny.

Nevertheless, gruesome murders have a fascination - think of the Maria Martin / Red Barn Murder, for example. If you haven't read it, I can recommend George Orwell's Decline of the English murder.

Maybe we should have a new thread on the subject?

Steve
^^