And every Sunday evening out in her home I’d dwell

We went to take an evening walk about a mile from town

I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down

She fell down on her bended knees for mercy she did cry

Oh Willie dear don’t kill me here I’m unprepared to die

She never spoke another word I only beat her more

Until the ground around me within her blood did flow

I took her by her golden curls and drug her round and round

I threw her in the river that flows through Knoxville town

Go down, go down you Knoxville girl with the dark and roving eyes

Go down, go down you Knoxville girl, you can never be my bride

I went back to Knoxville got there about midnight

My mother she was worried and woke up in a fright

She said Son, oh son what have you done to bloody your clothes so

I told my anxious mother I was bleeding at my nose

I called for me a candle to light my way to bed

I called for me a handkerchief to bind my aching head

I rolled and tumbled the whole night through as trouble was for me

Like flames of hell around my bed and in my eyes could see

They carried me down to Knoxville, they put me in a cell

My friends all tried to get me out but none could go my bail

I’m here to waste my life away down in this dirty old jail

Because I murdered that Knoxville girl, The girl I loved so well