Last Public Hanging in West Virginia

Recently, I was talking to one of my picking buddies about different musicians and songs. We frequently swap CD's and thoughts on them. He asked me if I had listened to Dave Evans before. I had not, so he played one of his songs for me. The title of the song is the same as that of this post. I found it to be very interesting, and I was taken by the narrative styling of it, as well as the story in general, so I decided to do a little research on it.

I found that the song is entirely historically based, and even more interesting than the song. Check it out.

http://www.wvculture.org/history/crime/hangingofjohnmorgan01.html

This is quite a little piece of history to say the least. The incident sparked a wide variety of reaction, but most significantly a moral reevalution of capital punishment and the manner in which it would be carried out. I'll leave it to you to form your own opinions on the matter, but I think that you will find the story extremely interesting.

As for the song, you can see the lyrics here. It was written by the great Tom T. Hall. This is the Flatt and Scruggs version, but it is largely the same as far as I can tell. As for the Dave Evans version, you can find out about it here. Check it out.