A story that could have come from the morning paper. The tune is from Wade Mainer and the lyrics from George Reneau. It was printed in Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Even though Sharp was collecting English traditional ballads, he included "Wild Bill Jones" which has no English antecedents and is obviously an American blues ballad, a 19th century conjoining of English broadside ballad tradition and African-American blues. The best known traditional source is Doc Boggs. It was also recorded by Roscoe Holcomb, The Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, Alison Kraus, The New Lost City Ramblers and others. I learned this from The New Lost City Ramblers.