Talt Hall

DESCRIPTION: "Come all you fathers and mothers And brothers and sisters all, I'll relate to you the history Concerning old Talt Hall." "He shot and killed Frank Salyers." Hall is taken and condemned to die. He writes to bid his brother farewell. He regrets his acts
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908
KEYWORDS: homicide punishment execution crime
FOUND IN: US(Ap)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 62, pp. 157-158, "Talt Hall" (1 text)
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 198-199 "Talt Hall" (1 text)
Roud #4102
NOTES [108 words]: Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates reports that "Talt Hall, [a] native of Kentucky... was hanged in Virginia toward the end of the nineteenth century" and that "he had on his conscience more than twenty assassinations." Cohen adds details: He was born around 1846 in Tennessee and executed in 1892 by hanging. Supposedly he was tried three times for murder before a jury finally was courageous enough to convict him.
Cohen adds a report that the song was written by a ten-year-old named Uriah N. Webb. I do not know how firm this conclusion is, so I have not listed Webb as the author.
This song is item dE42 in Laws's Appendix II. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CW157

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