I met a little girl from Knoxville a town we all know well

And every Sunday evenin’ inside her home I dwelled

We went to take an evenin’ stroll about a mile from town

I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down



She fell down on her bended knees for mercy she did cry

"Oh Willard dear don’t kill me here I’m unprepared to die

"She never spoke another word, I only beat her more

Until the ground around me with it her blood did flow



I grabbed her by her golden curls and drug her round and round

Throwing her into the river that runs through Knoxville town

Go there go there you Knoxville girl with dark and rollin’ eyes

Go there go there you Knoxville girl you can never be my bride



I went back home to Knoxville, it was around midnight

My Mother she was worried and woke up in a fright,

Oh tell me son what have you done to bloody your clothes so,

I told my anxious Mother, I was bleeding at my nose.



I rolled and tumbled the whole night through, my dreams were livin’ Hell

And then they came from Knoxville to carry me to jail

I’m here to waste my life away down in this dirty old cell

Because I killed that Knoxville girl, that girl I loved so well