THE MURDER OF WILLIE BLANKENSHIP
As sung by Nellie Bly Watkins
collected by, and © copyright 1999 W.J. Bethancourt III
1)

I met a little girl in Arkham
A town we all know well
And every Sunday evening
Out in her home I'd dwell
We went to take an evening walk
About a mile from town
She picked a stick up off the ground
And knocked me cruelly down.

2)

I fell down on my bended knees
For mercy I did cry
"Oh, darling dear, don't kill me here
I'm unprepared to die!"
She never spoke to me a word
But only beat me more
Until the ground around me
Was covered with my gore.

3)

She took me by my bloody head
And drug me 'round and 'round
And threw me into the river
That flows through Arkham town
She stabbed me with a big old knife
Full fifty times and more
And covered her arms to the elbows
All with my bloody gore 		4)

She shot me with her pistol and
She stabbed me with her knife
She told me with a little laugh
She would not be my wife
She shot me in the kneecaps then
I shed a bitter tear
And spoke again and I said to her
"You're angry with me, dear."

5)

She then hacked off my hands and feet
And most of my left ear
Chewed it up and ate it there
And said "Delicious, dear!"
She mashed my head with a big old rock
She kicked me once or twice
I answered feebly, with a groan
"That wasn't very nice."

6)

Go down, go down, you Arkham girl
With the dark and roving eyes
Go down, go down, you Arkham girl
You can never be my bride.
I heard her say as she skipped off
These words that broke my heart
"You were a pain, I am insane!
Now you and I must part."


The song is apparently part of the Danville Girl / Knoxville Girl ballad cycle. Another version with the roles reversed has been recorded by Patrick Sky on his definitive recording "Songs That Made America Famous." The album also contains another Miskatonic song, "Ramblin' Hunchback."

Alan Lomax collected quite a few of the Miskatonic ballads, but placed them in a locked box with the Library of Congress with instructions that it never be opened.