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DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery)
DigiTrad:
FLOYD FRAZIER
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DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) DigiTrad: FLOYD FRAZIER |
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Subject: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Jan 18 - 06:33 PM This is an edited DTStudy thread, and all messages posted here are subject to editing and deletion. This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread. Search for other DTStudy threadsFloyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) [Laws F19]DESCRIPTION: Floyd Frazier kills Ellen Flannery and hides her body. A search is started after her orphaned children are found crying. Her body is discovered, and Floyd is arrested. He confesses to the crime; the singer hopes he will be hangedAUTHOR: unknown EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (catalogued by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax) KEYWORDS: homicide children orphan HISTORICAL REFERENCES: May 21, 1907 - Reported death date of Ellen Flanary May 19, 1910 - Scheduled date of the execution for Floyd Frazier for the murder of Ellen Flanary (ee NOTES) FOUND IN: US(Ap) REFERENCES (4 citations): Laws F19, "Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery)" Combs/Wilgus 68, pp. 155-157, "Floyd Frazier" (1 text) Roberts, #31, Floyd Frazier" (1 text, 1 tune) DT 735, FLOYFRAZ Roud #695 NOTES: Roberts, pp. 333-334, was given a lead by one of his informants which led him to discover details of the case. Ellen Flanary was "a widder with five or six children," according to a local official. Frazier, it is believed, tried to rape her, then murdered her and partly covered her body with rocks. He was tried twice and sentenced to death both times. The account in Roberts does not reveal any of the evidence against him. Although the excerpt printed by Roberts says Frazier was supposed to die on July 9, 1909, I found an online copy of a Whitesburg, Kentucky newspaper (May 26, 1910), which says that he was hung on May 19, 1910. He was still in his early twenties, reportedly having been born in 1886. Roberts reports that, contrary to the song, he never confessed. Supposedly three thousand people witnessed the execution. Earlier editions of this Index reported a date for the song of 1909, but did not reveal where I found that date. My guess is that it was someone's error for the date of Frazier's trial. The date is barely possible, since the longest versions (Combs's and Roberts's) don't actually refer to the execution, but I very much doubt it. - RBW Last updated in version 4.2 File: LF19 Go to the Ballad Search form Go to the Ballad Index Instructions The Ballad Index Copyright 2017 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle. NOTE: This book starts with a hundred folk songs, then several dozen tales, jokes, and riddles. The items identified as folk songs are indexed. Only a few of the tales -- those which I could instantly identify with songs -- were indexed. Here are the lyrics we have in the Digital Tradition, taken from Combs & Wilgus. Corrections in italics. FLOYD FRAZIER Come you people of every nation, And listen to my mournful song; I will tell you of a circumstance, Which happened not very long. And ought to hang-ed be, For the killing of an innocent woman, This world may plainly see. He killed poor Ellen Flannery, And hid her in the woods, And made a quick return To wash away the blood. He crept into his cabin, And lay there all night, Believing his crime was hidden From everybody's sight. She had five little children, From door to door they run, To look for their poor mother But yet no mother come. Their little hearts grew hungry, At last they fell asleep, To rise up in the morning To cry and mourn and weep. The night it passed away, And the morning it did come; Her neighbors all did gather, To see what there was done. They searched all round her cabin, Went wandering up and down; At last Joseph Williams found her, And she was deadly wound'. They found her poor body lying Mouldering on the ground; The rocks piled upon her, They weighed sixty pound. They took her to her house, And there not long to stay, And then unto the graveyard, Until the Judgment Day. The people all did gather To see her dreadful wounds; The sight it was the greatest That ever has been found. She suffered in great mis'ry, In trouble and in pain; I hope her soul is in heaven, Forever there to reign. This young man was arrested, And rushed into the jail; The jury pronounced him guilty, They did not allow. him bail. He owned that he did kill her, And all that he had done; I think his case is dangerous, He has all the risk to run They carried him to Pineville, And there awhile to dwell; I'm afraid the crime he's committed Will send his soul to hell. This song came to me By day and by night; I think it is right to sing it In this vain world of delight. DT #735 LawsÿF19 @murder From Collected from Margaret Green of Smithsboro Kentucky filename[ FLOYFRAZ SOF apr97 The version in the Digital Tradition is Laws F19, #68 in Folk-Songs of the Southern United States (Folk-Songs du Midi des Etats-Unis), by Josiah H. Combs, edited by D.K. Wilgus Page 155, ©1967 by the American Folklore Society. The song was collected (1909?) from Mrs. Margaret Green, Smithsboro, Knott County, Kentucky. Originally published in 1925 in Folk-Songs du Midi des Etats-Unis. Except for a few minor OCR errors, the Digital Tradition lyrics are an accurate transcription of the lyrics in the book published in 1967 by the American Folklore Society. |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Jan 18 - 07:11 PM The song was indexed for the Traditional Ballad Index by Robert B. Waltz (RBW). Added in version 4.2.
NOTES (from Waltz): Roberts, pp. 333-334, was given a lead by one of his informants which led him to discover details of the case. Ellen Flanary was "a widder with five or six children," according to a local official. Frazier, it is believed, tried to rape her, then murdered her and partly covered her body with rocks. He was tried twice and sentenced to death both times. The account in Roberts does not reveal any of the evidence against him. Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index bibliography about the Roberts book. NOTE: This book starts with a hundred folk songs, then several dozen tales, jokes, and riddles. The items identified as folk songs are indexed. Only a few of the tales -- those which I could instantly identify with songs -- were indexed. In the meantime, here's a link to an excerpt of the Roberts book: (click here) Apparently, an alternate title of the Roberts book is Up Cutshin and Down Greasy: Folkways of a Kentucky Mountain Family Can anybody help locate the Library of Congress recordings that are listed in Roud? I can't find them. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: GUEST Date: 13 Jan 18 - 09:28 PM The reason the hanging took place later then ordered he escaped an ran to Florida |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Jan 18 - 02:35 AM There's an interesting collection of newspaper clippings on this story at http://traildriver.com/web%20content/projects/appalachia/native%20kentucky%20ballads/036%20floyd%20frazier/036%20floyd%20frazier.html:
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Jan 18 - 02:56 AM More information at Lost Creek Medicine Show:
Ellen Flannery, Letcher County's Lady in WhiteThe first (legal) hanging here in Letcher County was connected to one of it?s most famous murder cases which also happens to be one of our most famous hauntings. Floyd Frazier was hanged on the gallows where the old Whitesburg High School now stands on May 19, 1910 for the murder of Ellen Flannery. For the last century Ellen is said to be spotted occasionally near where she was killed, seeming to try and get back home. On May 21, 1907 Ellen Flannery, the widowed mother of five children, sent her two eldest children to town on errands and went out to pick greens for supper. The children returned from town to find that their mother had not returned. When night fell, they were still alone. They spent the night by themselves and the next morning neighbors learned of Ellen missing and a search party sat out to look for her. Among the search party was 21 year old Floyd Frazier. Frazier was said to have been mildly mentally handicapped and had been sweet on Ellen. Taking the lead, he led the party to a creek bank, then announced their was no need to check down in the creek, she wasn?t there. Other party members insisted on checking, and there they found the body of Ellen Flannery. Several large stones, some weighing up to 65 pounds, were piled on top of her in an effort to conceal her body. Her throat had been slashed and their was bruising on her head. Also her skirt had been torn off and placed beneath her body. Nearby lay the mess of greens she had collected along with a blood trail leading away from the scene. A fence close by had bloody handprints on it from someone climbing over it. Following the trail, large footprints were found in the mud with an unusual number of tacks in the heel. Following the footprints they found a knife, and under another pile of rocks, Ellen?s bonnet. Suspicious of Frazier who had led them straight to the body, police went to his home where a shirt was found with blood on the sleeve that had been scrubbed. He had several scratches on him as well. When a pair of shoes belonging to him were found that contained an unusual number of tacks in the heel that matched the footprints, Frazier was arrested for the murder. Sentenced to be hanged, his mother and several others testified at the trial that Floyd didn't have the mind of an average person and was known to fly off in a rage for no apparent reason. Word spread around town that Frazier's mother disapproved and was even jealous of his love for Flannery, and some said she even told him to kill her. Ellen Flannery's ghost has been seen walking in the head of Pert Creek and along Pine Mountain that joins the hollow. Witnesses have seen her apparition walking near the spot where she was killed, perhaps trying to get back home to her children. I've visited the site where Ellen was killed, as well as her gravesite on ghost hunting trips. While we didn?t capture any concrete evidence, we did hear strange sounds like gravel crunching but there were no cars. Was Ellen or Floyd walking down the road by us? There are many stories of drivers seeing a woman in white while crossing Pine Mountain. Maybe this is the spirit of Ellen Flannery, eternally searching for her way back home. To view the lyrics to an old mountain ballad about Floyd and Ellen, hit this jump. For an old Mountain Eagle article on the hanging, check out this link (click). There's a lot of interesting information on this case in a book called Slender Is the Thread: Tales from a Country Law Office. Court record information on this case is at The Southwestern Reporter, Volume 124, page 797 |
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Subject: ADD Version: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 25 Jan 18 - 09:47 PM The Leonard Roberts book finally arrived (and it's a good one). Here's the version Roberts collected: FLOYD FRAZIER 1. Come all you blessed people From every nation fair, And hear the circumstances Of what Floyd Frazier done. 2. He killed poor Ellen Flannery And he knew that he had done wrong, He prayed for it to rain And wash away the blood. 3. Oh, she had seven little chillern From door to door they run, They's crying for their mother, Yet no mother never come. 4. Their little hearts were hungry And they all did fall asleep, The morning waked them breaking But no mother never come. 5. He crept into his cabin There for to stay all night, He thought his crime was hidden From everybody's sight. 6. Fare-you-well, Floyd Frazier, Ask God what you have done, You killed an innocent woman, But you've got the race to run. 7. Floyd Frazier used to be a young man And the girls all knowed him well, They hugged and they kissed his cheeks, They bid him now farewell. 8. They took him down to the jailhouse, They locked him in a cell, He killed an innocent woman And sent his poor soul to hell. Notes: 31. Floyd Frazier (Laws F 19) The only evidence Laws had for placing this ballad in tradition was a text in Combs, Folk-Songs du Midi (pp. 155-157), plus a recording from Kentucky titled 'Ellen Flanary,' and four from Virginia. When it was sung to me in 1952 by Dave, he said, 'It happened over here in Letcher County on the Pine Mountain Road, and her body was hid behind a big log. The old rotten log is laying there yet. A girl made up this song and went around to the jailhouse and sung it to him. He said, 'Let me out of here and kill her and then I don't care what you do with me.'' In due time I made my way to Letcher County and found a man, Mr. J. C. Day of the county clerk's office, who gave the following information: 'I was justice of the peace at the time of the hanging of Floyd Frazier in 1908, 1910, somewhere in there. It was the biggest crowd of people ever to come to Whitesburg, 'cause that was the only legal hanging in this county 'a man was took out of jail and hung before that and a colored feller later. 'Ellen Flanary, a widder with five or six children, was out pickin' greens in the early spring. Floyd must have tried to rape her and then thought he had to kill her - he never confessed. He covered her up with rocks behind a log - I weighed them for the court - 250 pounds, left just her feet sticking out. They took him horseback to Bell County for safe-keepin'. He broke jail and went to workin- down there - never changed his name. First jury was hung, eleven for hanging him. Got a jury from Knott County and they sentenced him to hang. He got an appeal. Next jury was from Floyd County and they sentenced him to be hung. I went with him to the court records and found entries for this case from 1908 to 1909. The last paragraph may suffice here, the order from the Floyd County jury verdict:
Source: Sang Branch Settlers: Folksongs and Tales of a Kentucky Mountain Family, #31, page 123. By Leonard Roberts, ©1974 by the American Folklore Society. |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: GUEST,Ghost walker Date: 11 Jan 19 - 11:46 AM Does anyone have a recording of this ballad? I've seen the words, but have not idea of the tune. |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 11 Jan 19 - 01:55 PM Good question, Ghost Walker. I included a link above for the Roud listing (click) for this song. Roud shows several recordings at the Library of Congress under the titles "Floyd Frazier" and "Ellen Flannery" (with various spellings), but does not give links to those recordings. Every time I wish for an improvement to Roud like links to field recordings, my wish is fulfilled in a reasonably short time. So, I'm going to wish really hard for this. In the meantime, I'll find the links and post them here when I find them. The Library of Congress search page for audio recordings is https://www.loc.gov/audio/, but my searches aren't finding the recordings. I'll keep working. Can somebody help? -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Nerd Date: 14 Jan 19 - 02:21 PM Here is a fragmentary version from the Library of Congress, which will give the tune at least one singer knew: https://lomaxky.omeka.net/items/show/464 I'll see if I can find any more. |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Nerd Date: 14 Jan 19 - 02:28 PM The Halpert recordings are not online, so the one Lomax recording (above) is the only one currently available online from the Library of Congress. But others can be listened to on site. |
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Subject: RE: DTStudy: Floyd Frazier (Ellen Flannery) From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Jan 19 - 11:40 PM Thanks a lot, Nerd. To me, the melody sounds like "Texas Rangers." |
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