They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed   With a rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head   O poor Mary Bellows      She'd grown up hungry, she'd grown up poor   She left her home in Arkansas   O poor Mary Bellows      She wanted to see the deep blue sea   She traveled across Tennessee   O poor Mary Bellows      She met a man along the way   He introduced himself as Richard Slade   O poor Mary Bellows      Poor Mary thought that she might die   When she saw the ocean for the first time   O poor Mary Bellows      She checked into a cheap little place   Richard Slade carried in her old suitcase   O poor Mary Bellows      "I'm a good girl, sir" she said to him   I couldn't possibly permit you in   O poor Mary Bellows      Slade tipped his hat and winked his eye   And turned away without goodbye   O poor Mary Bellows      She sat on her bed and thought of home   With the sea breeze whistling all alone   O poor Mary Bellows      In hope and loneliness she crossed the floor   And undid the latch on her front door   O poor Mary Bellows      They found her the next day cuffed to the bed   A rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head   O poor Mary Bellows      So mothers keep your girls at home   Don't let them journey all alone   Tell them this world is full of danger   The shun the company of strangers   O poor Mary Bellows   O poor Mary Bellows