The following article is was brought as column in Binghamton Sunday Press written by Hank Hancock. It was published on November 30th 1958 in connection with the release of The Ballad of Tom Dooley by The Kingston Trio. Hancock (actually Carlyle A.) grew up in Binghamton, and he was about 28 when he wrote his column in the local newspaper. At this time, he was also employed by a local TV station, but later he left the journalist business to be insurance and investment advisor. He died in 2012. The columns doesn't add much to the story, but is interesting in its own way, bnecause of it's misunderstandings, like making Ann Melton a wealthy woman.
The wording of Column were as follows:
This has been a rough week for" toms". My fat little clan devoured upwards of 24 pounds of tom turkey (all but tomorrows soup de jour).
An even
sadder fate has sailed another "Tom." Mr. Dooley has been dangling from a white
oak tree for the better part of a month now. What's refreshing about Tom's
miserable plight is that, surprisingly, the nation's best selling disc Is being
hummed, whistled and ENJOYED by almost everybody, not just the rock and roll
set.
The Kingston Trio's hit ditty Is a dyedin-the-wool authentic folk song, rooted in a late 19th Century North Carolina murder episode, sufficiently unsavory to discourage even Pete Gunn (more about him later). Thomas C. Dula (Dooley) was a dashing,ne'er-de-well banjo twanger who had established a goodly battle record for the Confederacy at Gettysburg. Back home in Happy Valley, Wilkes County, N. C, he became enamored of Tarheel socialite Mrs. Anne Melton, very wealthy,very beautiful and very' married.
Never one to disappoint a loyal fandom, Tom Dula also bestowed favors upon 18-year-old Laura Foster, an okra patch cutie. A subsequent glaring Indiscretion by Mizz Foster so angered Dula that the finger of suspicion swiveled in his direction when Laura mysteriously disappeared from Happy Valley. When Laura's body, complete with a set of a fatal knife wounds, was discovered on a wooded mountain, Dula, Jack Keaton and Bob Cummings also did disappearing acts.
A month later Cummings (the "Mr. Grayson" of the song) herded captives Tom and Jack from their hideout in Tennessee back to Wilkes County. Tom Dula was tried for murder amid such violence of opinion that the trial was moved to neighboring Iredell County. Ex-governor Zeb Vance waxed eloquent In his role as Tom's defender, but Dula was convicted, re-trled, and re-convicted.
On Friday, May 1, 1868,Tom Dula was hanged in Statesville, N. C, and the sordid tale gathered cobwebs for 90 years. The fall of 1958 finds Tom Dooley again in the stark shadow of the white oak tree, thanks to the Kingston Trio.
"It's Interesting to note that the threesome neatly divides the solo spoils in the 3 minute 1 second course of the ballad.One member intones the initial story line, another sings lead through the body of the song, and the third man's theme is the doleful closing
. . . "poor boy, you're bound to die."