I met a little girl in Knoxville  A town we all know well  And every sunday evening  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  She woke up in a fright  Saying, "Dear son, what have you done  To bloody up your clothes?"  I told my anxious mother  That I was bleading 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  The girl I loved so well