In a conversation with Bascom L. Lunsford in Buncomb County N.C., 1964, I was told that Tom Dula was a civil was vet who received some land for his trouble. Tom caught a V.D. from Laura Foster and at the same time got her pregnant. All the time he had fallen in "love" with Ann Melton. The story says that he and Ann dug a hole to bury Laura, lured her to a mountain and Tom killed her with his knife. Tom Dula was also a fiddle player and the song lwas written as a confession published in the Statesville Gazette shortly before Tom was hanged. The song was naturally written in the fiddle style. Doc Watson probably plays the most accurate version, I guess.