Pearl Bryan (III) [Laws F3]

DESCRIPTION: Pearl Bryan appeals to Jackson for help; he is not interested and, with (Alonzo) Walling, cuts off her head and abandons the body
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: homicide abandonment
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Feb 1, 1896 - Discovery of the headless body of Pearl Bryan, killed along with her unborn child by Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling, near Fort Thomas, Kentucky
Mar 20, 1897 - Execution of Jackson and Walling
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Laws F3, "Pearl Bryan III"
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 105, "A Fatal Acquaintance" (2 texts, but Laws considers only the B text part of this ballad; the A text may belong with Pearl Bryan II)
DT 755, PERLBRY3
ADDITIONAL: Anne B. Cohen, _Poor Pearl, Poor Girl!: The Murdered-Girl Stereotype in Ballad and Newspaper_, Publications of the American Folklore Society, Memoir Series, Volume 58, University of Texas Press, 1973, p. 56, "Pearl Bryan III" (1 text)
Roud #2213
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Jealous Lover (I), The (Florella, Floella) (Pearl Bryan II) (Nell Cropsey II) [Laws F1A, B, C]" [Laws F1], particularly the "B" subgroup of Pearl Bryan ballads
cf. "Pearl Bryan I" [Laws F2]
cf. "Pearl Bryan IV"
NOTES [106 words]: To tell this song from the other Pearl Bryan ballads, consider this first stanza (from Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio):
In Greencastle lived a maiden
She was known the wide world o'er;
She was murdered by Scott Jackson
Whom she fondly did adore.
Comparison with Eddy's other text (which also lacks a melody) would seem to imply that the two could be one -- but Laws separates them, so the Index does the same. Anne Cohen also splits them. Cohen says that, of her 165 Pearl Bryan texts, she found only six of this, so it wasn't particularly popular.
For background on the Pearl Bryan murder see the notes to "Pearl Bryan (I)" [Laws F2]. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: LF03

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