tom dooley

Impoverished Confederate veteran Tom Dula (Dooley), Laura Foster's lover and probable fiancé, was convicted of her murder and hanged in 1868. Foster was stabbed to death with a large knife; the brutality of the attack partly accounted for the widespread publicity the murder and subsequent trial received.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,


Hang down your head and cry.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Poor boy, you're bound to die!

I met her on the mountain,

and there I took her life.

I met her on the mountain,

and stabbed her with my knife.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Hang down your head and cry.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Poor boy, you're bound to die!

This time tomorrow,

Reckon where I'll be,

Hadn't been for Grayson,

I'd been in Tennessee.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Hang down your head and cry.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Poor boy, you're bound to die!

This time tomorrow,

Reckon where I'll be,

Down in some lonesome valley,

hangin' from a white oak tree.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Hang down your head and cry.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley,

Poor boy, you're bound to die!

Poor boy, you're bound to die