I met a little girl in Knoxville   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   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   And woke up in a fright      Saying, "Dear son, what have you done   To bloody up your clothes?"   I told my anxious mother   Was bleeding 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   Girl I loved so well