December 15,1958

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, Hang down your head and cry
Hanged Man in Hit Tune

Out of the jukeboxes in almost every bar and candy store came the same three-part harmony plea of an old folk song imploring a gay blade headed for the gallows to hang his head in shame before the hangman fitted it through the noose. The pleas are 90 years too late, but the record sung by the Kingston Trio is one of the liveliest on the best seller lists. Tom Dooley is the title. The real-life reprobate all the singing is about was a Blue Ridge Mountain folk hero named Tom Dula who was hanged for murder in 1868. As impenitent Tom becomes the pride of Tin Pan Alley, which tinkered a little with the tune's lyrics , his reputation around Wilkes County, NC, is now getting gradually retouched to match his new eminence.

Tom Dula was a handsome young country fiddler, devoted to the jug, averse to the plow and a constant delight to the ladies. He went off to fight the Civil War with Zeb Vance's 26th Regiment and returned to resume his old ways, especially with the ladies. They were, in particular, Laura Foster and her cousin Ann Melton. One day in 1866 Laura was found in a shallow grave, Ann was accused but found not guilty, Tom was convicted after two trials.

Tom rode to the gallows on his own coffin and rambled on blasphemously for an hour when asked if he had any last words to say. When Ann Melton died, years later, she made a last-minute confession to her husband. The husband never revealed what it was, but around Wilkes County a lot of folk legend fanciers are sure that cleared Tom Dula.

A sprinkling of national sympathy for Tom has followed the song hit. The proprietor of a Galesburg, IL, bat took up a collection for the deceased Tom Dooley last month and ended up with a small tombstone and wreath that adorn his establishment. In Las Vegas a pair of disk jockeys stirred up a "Save Tom Dooley from the gallows" campaign which ended up in a petition to the governor of Nevada. All this has had it's effects back in Tom Dula's home territory too. Last week the North Iredell Post of the American Legion met at Statesville, NC, and some 35 members expressed their doubt that Tom was guilty. And Tin Pan Alley is not going to let Tom die with just one song. Ready to follow the hit song is one called Tom Dooley, Jr.