lin sallied forth,
Was scarcely known to fail,
And in ten days had the assassins
All safely placed in jail.

George Ellis, William Neal and Craft,
Some were Kentucky's sons,
Near neighbors to the Gibbons' house
And were the guilty ones.

In this here dark and bloody ground
They were true types indeed,
Of many demons dead and dam'd
Who fostered that same greed.

A hellish greed of lust to blast
The virtuous and fair,
To gratify that vain desire
No human life would spare.

There Emma Thomas lay in gore,
A frightful sight to view;
Poor Fanny Gibbons in a crisp,
And Bob, her brother, too.

Bob was a poor lame crippled boy,
Beloved by everyone;
His mother's hope, his sister's joy,
A kind, obedient son.

At that dread sight the mother's grief
No mortal tongue can tell.
A broken heart, an addled brain,
When all should have been well.

Both her dear children lying there,
Who once so merry laughed.
There stiff and stark in death they lay,
Cut down by Ellis Craft.

That dreadful demon, imp of hell,
Consider well his crime;
Although he was a preacher's son,
Has blackened the foot of time.

--Peyton Buckner Byrne

This ballad was composed by Peyton Buckner Byrne of Greenup, Greenup
County, Kentucky. He is in error in writing the name of Emma Thomas; the
murdered girl's name was Emma Carico. The tragedy occurred in the early
'80's in the mill town of Ashland, Boyd County, Kentucky, which adjoins
Greenup County. The town of Greenup was formerly called Hangtown because
of the many hangings which occurred there in the days of the Civil War.
Peyton Buckner Byrne was a schoolteacher in that County and one of his
scholars, Miss Tennessee Smith, supplied this copy of the old
schoolteacher's ballad. Ellis Craft is buried on Bear Creek in Boyd
County, not far from Ashland where he committed the crime.

THE MORAL OF THE BALLAD

There's a sad moral to this tale.