The other night I attended a presentation by a folklorist doing mining songs and stories.

In chatting with him before the show he mentioned there have been studies done on a genre called "goodbye" or "goodnight" songs -- (yes, my CRS is nearly termninal!) -- apparently they were a cottage industry for broadsheet writers living near jails in times past.

They would produce what was supposedly a prisoner's last words before going to the gallows, and sell them on the streets shortly after the hanging. Of course the more notorious the prisoner/crime, the better the sales of these "ghost written" pieces.

Can anyone tell me the correct term for these songs, or point me to a site or source that discusses them ?    Thanks for your help.