Flatt And Scruggs Last Public Hanging In West Virginia Lyrics

Last Public Hanging In West Virginia Lyrics

Rock of ages cleft for me



Now that could be the voice of John F Morgan in the Ripley jailhouse singin'
hymns



Well ol' Johnny might just be singin' hymn this mornin'



Cause this is gonna be a hangin' day for him



Now people say that Johnny was a bad man and that he had a name for bein'
mean



He cut a hatchet one cold weary morning he killed two children and the widow
Green



By a thousand people gathered there in Ripley invited by the sheriff Jay O
Shimm



Havin' fun and drinking moonshine liquor and listenin' to ol' Johnny singin'
hymn



The day don't call in Ripley West Virginia the scaffold stood in silence in a
field



Johnny kept on singin' in the jailhouse waiting there to eat his final meal



Then rumor started flying through the gathering



That John F Morgan might get his reprieve



The people started yelling toward the sheriff



Afraid they'd miss for all they come to see



But Jay O Shimm the sheriff of Jackson County



Afraid that such a thing could have been done



Said I said there was gonna be a hangin' and I still mean it there's a gonna be
one



They led John Morgan from the Ripley jailhouse



And he rode through the happy laughin' crowd



But when John Morgan stepped upon the scaffold



They grew quiet when he lift his head and bowed



They listened to the preacher say the last words



They fixed the news and tied John Morgan's hand



The signal came and someone sprang the dead's rout



And sent John Morgan to another land



The last public hanging in old West Virginia a true story written in this
song



On the sixteen of December in fifteen ninety seven



John F Morgan paid the price of doing wrong