Last Public Hanging In West Virginia Chords by Dave Evans

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Can't you see it?
Can't you hear it?
John F.
Morgan in the Ripley jailhouse
singing hymns
Well, I guess old Johnny just might be singing those hymns this morning _ because you see today
Will be a hanging day for him
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Able [C] St.
John Morgan [F] was a bad man _ _
That he [C] had a name for [F] being mean
_ [Bb] Well, he took and hide you one cold [F] dirty morning
How
killed two [Bb] children and the [F] witty grin
_ _ Well, he killed two [Bb] children and the [F] witty grin _ _ _
_ _ 5,000 [C] people gathered [F] there in Ripley
_ Body by [C] the sheriff J.
[F] Holt Shinn
_ _ [Bb] Give the hot and fun drinkin [F] moonshine liquor
long
_ _ Listening to [Bb] old Johnny singing [F] him
_ _ Listening to [Dm] old Johnny [F] singing him _ _ _ _ _ _
But the day dawned cold in Ripley, [F] West Virginia _ _
_ Scaffold stood silent in a field _ _
[Bb] Yeah, Johnny kept on singing [F] him in that jailhouse _ _
Waiting there [Bb] to eat his final meal _ _
Waiting there to eat his final meal _ _
_ _ _ _ But a rumor started [C] flying through the gathering
_ That John F.
Morgan might get [F] a break free
Well [Bb] the people they started yelling for [F] the sheriff
_ _ Free dead men, [Bb] why don't they come [F] to see?
_ Free dead men, [Bb] why don't they [F] come to see? _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Yeah, but J.
Holt Shinn [C] the sheriff of [F] old Jackson County
_ Afraid that such [C] a deed could [F] have been done
_ [Bb] Well, he said I meant there's gonna be [F] this hanger
_ _ I still mean [Bb] there's gonna [F] be one
_ I still [Bb] mean it there's gonna [F] be one
_ _ _ _ _ Well the little John Morgan from his Ripley jailhouse
He rode through [C] that highway [F] life and cried
_ [Bb] Yeah, but when old Johnny he stepped upon [F] that scaffold _ _
They grew quiet when he tipped his hat and bow
_ [Bb] _
[F] They grew quiet when he tipped his hat and bow _ _
_ _ _ _ Oh, they listened to [C] a preacher say the last word
_ They fixed that noose they tied John [F] Morgan's hands
_ [Bb] Well, the signal came someone [F] strong and deaf and proud
Oh, sent John [Dm] Morgan to some other land
_ Oh, sent John [Bb] Morgan to [F] another _ land _ _
Well, [Bb] the last public hanging [F] carried no West Virginia
[Bb] It's a true story written in [F] my song
[Bb] On the 16th of December back [F] in 1897
_ _ _ _ Morgan paid [Bb] his price for [F] doing wrong
_ Johnny Morgan [Bb] paid the price for [F] doing wrong _ _ _ _ _
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