I met a little girl in Knoxville

A town we all know well

And every sunday evening

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 I knocked that fair girl down 

She fell down on her bended knees

For mercy she did cry

"Oh Willy, dear, don't kill me yet

I'm unprepared to die"

She never spoke another word

I only beat her more

Until the ground around me

With her blood did flow 

I took her by her golden curls

And I dragged her 'round and 'round

Throwing her into the river

That flows from Knoxville town

Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl

With your dark and roving eyes

Go down, go down, you Knoxville girl

You can never be my bride 

I started back to Knoxville

Got there about midnight

My mother, she was worried

She woke up in a fright

Saying, "Dear son, what have you done

To bloody up your clothes?"

I told my anxious mother

That I was bleading in my nose 

I called for me a candle

And I called for me a bed

And I called for me a handkerchief

To bind my aching head

I rolled and thrashed the whole night through

All horrors I did see

The devil stood at the foot of my bed

Pointing his finger at me 

They carried me down to Knoxville

And put me in a cell

My friends all tried to get me out

But none could grow 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