Lyr Req: Jim Wainwright murder ballad

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jim Wainwright murder ballad
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 18 Dec 04 - 06:06 PM

I found some information about the Wainwright murder at the following websites, but nothing about a ballad:

Ancestry.co.uk (1)
Ancestry.co.uk (2)
Genforum
Rootsweb

The Library of Congress has a large collection of 19th Century Song Sheets which you can search and view online, but I found nothing by searching for Wainwright or Rockwell. It would help if we knew the title of the song, or a distinctive phrase from it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jim Wainwright murder ballad
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:33 AM

No such ballad is found in Burt's American Murder Ballads and Their Stories.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jim Wainwright murder ballad
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:05 AM

Google comes up with nothing for "Big Bill Estelle" although it finds lots of people named "Bill Estelle."

Maybe refreshing this thread will help.

Subject: Jim Wainwright murder ballad
From: GUEST,NJ librarian
Date: 09 Dec 04 - 11:56 AM

We are looking for the words to a ballad that was written in 1884 about the murder of Jim Wainwright by Elson Rockwell. It occurred in Toms River NJ in that year.

According to the local paper, "It was sung as a ballad by Big Bill Estelle, and reprinted in Pamphlet form, and sold on newsstands all over the country" However, I can find nothing either in this library's collection, nor in the New Jersey Historical Society. Would anyone on this forum be able to help us?

Pat W.