Chiidhood for the day

Rico says his father used to sing this song all the time:

Tom Dooley's real history (and his real name) is here:

Thomas C. Dula (22 June 1845 to 1 May 1868) was a former Confederate soldier, convicted of murdering Laura Foster. National publicity from newspapers such as The New York Times turned Dula's story into a folk legend. Although Laura was murdered in Wilkes County in North Carolina, Dula was tried, convicted, and hanged in Statesville. Considerable controversy surrounded the case. In subsequent years, a folk song was written (entitled Tom Dooley, based on the pronunciation in the local dialect), and many oral traditions were passed down, regarding the sensational occurrences surrounding Laura Foster's murder and Dula's subsequent execution. The Kingston Trio recorded a hit version (above)  of the murder ballad in 1958.
Tom Dula was born to a poor Appalachian hill country family in Wilkes County, North Carolina, most likely the youngest of three brothers, with one younger sister, Eliza. The young Dula grew up, attended school, and "probably played with the female Fosters", Ann (later Melton) and her cousins Laura and Pauline.
As the children grew up, Tom and Ann apparently became intimate. Ann Foster's mother found Ann and Tom in bed together when Ann was only fourteen years old. Three months before his eighteenth birthday, on 15 March 1862, he joined the Confederate Army. Dula served as a private in Company K in the 42nd North Carolina Infantry Regiment until the war ended in 1865.
There is evidence Dula was literate, as according to accounts at the time, he wrote a fifteen-page account of his life as well as the note that exonerated Ann Melton. His literacy is highly unusual given his station in life and the harsh poverty of his upbringing. Tom played the fiddle and was considered from a very young age to be a "ladies man". Contrary to newspaper accounts at the time, Dula did not serve in Zebulon Vance's 26th North Carolina. Also rumors that he “played the banjo” in the army band for the Colonel's benefit and entertained Colonel Vance with his antics were false. These were often cited as the reason that Vance was so quick to lead the defense of Dula during the trial. It seems more likely that Governor Vance simply believed in Dula's innocence or thought that defending a Confederate veteran in the high-profile case would be politically beneficial.
Additionally, Dula did not survive the war completely unscathed, as folklore, oral tradition, and a few modern writers have held. Instead, he suffered various injuries throughout the course of the fighting. Moreover, each of his brothers died in the war, leaving Tom as his mother's “sole remaining boy”.
There is some evidence in primary sources that Dula used his musical talents during the Civil War, as on his Confederate muster card number seventeen, he is listed as a "musician" and a "drummer".
Before the war, Ann Foster, a local beauty, married an older man, James Melton, who was a farmer, cobbler, and neighbor of both Ann and Tom's. Melton also served in the Civil War and fought in the battle of Gettysburg. Both he and Dula were taken prisoner and at the end of the war returned home. Shortly after arriving home, Dula resumed his relationship with Ann. Given his reputation as a libertine, it did not take Dula long to also resume an intimate relationship with Ann's cousin, Laura Foster. Folklore suggest Laura became pregnant shortly thereafter, and she and Dula decided to elope. On the morning she was to meet Dula, about 25 May 1866, Laura quietly left her home where she lived with her father, Wilson Foster, and took off on his horse, Belle. Laura was never seen alive again.
While it is not certain what happened that day, many of the stories that have grown out of the folklore implicate Ann Melton. Some believe Ann murdered Laura because Ann was still in love with Dula, and was jealous of Laura because Dula was marrying her. Others believe that Dula knew or suspected that Ann had murdered Laura, but because he still loved Ann he refused to implicate her after he was arrested and took the blame for the murder. Ultimately, it was Ann's word that led to the discovery of Laura's body, leading to further speculation as to Ann's guilt. Ann's cousin, Pauline Foster, testified that Ann had led her to the site of the grave one night to check that it was still well hidden.
Witnesses testified in court that Dula made the incriminating statement he was going to "do in" whoever gave him "the pock" (syphilis). Testimony indicated Dula believed Laura had given him syphilis, which he had unknowingly passed on to Ann. The local doctor testified that he had treated both Tom and Ann for syphilis with blue mass, as he did Pauline Foster, who was in fact the first to be treated. Many believe that Dula may have caught the disease from Pauline and passed it on to Ann and Laura.
Laura's decomposed body was found with her legs drawn up in order to fit in a shallow grave. She had been stabbed once in the chest. The gruesome murder, combined with the low murder rate, and numerous rumors that circulated in the small backwoods town, captured the public's attention and led to the enduring notoriety of the crime.
Dula's role in the murder is unclear. He fled the area before Laura's body was found, after locals accused him of murdering her. Under the assumed name Tom Hall, he worked for about a week for Colonel James Grayson, across the state line in Trade, Tennessee. Grayson would enter folklore as a romantic rival of Dula's, but this was not true. It was simply an incorrect inference drawn from the lyrics of the song and became more widespread as the facts of the case were largely forgotten. Grayson did, however, help the Wilkes County posse bring Dula in, once Dula's identity was discovered.
Following Dula's arrest, former North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance represented him pro bono, and always maintained Dula's innocence. He succeeded in having the trial moved from Wilkesboro to Statesville, as it was widely believed that Dula would not receive a fair trial in Wilkes County. Dula was convicted and, although given a new trial on appeal, he was convicted again. His supposed accomplice, Jack Keaton, was set free and, on Dula's word, Ann Melton was acquitted. As he stood on the gallows facing death, Dula is reported to have said: “Gentlemen, do you see this hand? I didn’t harm a hair on the girl’s head”. On 1 May 1868, he was executed nearly two years after Laura's murder. His younger sister and her husband retrieved his body for burial.
In 2001, Tom Dula was "acquitted" of all charges after a petition was sent around Wilkes County and to the county seat. This action was unofficial and had no legal force.
Subsequently, much legend and folklore arose around the tragedy and the life of Tom Dula. Not the least of these tales has Dula surviving the war without a scratch, and Governor Zebulon Baird Vance making use of Dula’s supposed talents with a banjo for his own personal entertainment. Both Dula’s and Vance’s accounts, as well as Dula’s own military record, show this legend to be untrue; it persists nonetheless.
A popular myth holds that while Dula was fighting in Virginia, Ann, apparently despairing of ever seeing Tom again, met and married an older farmer, James Melton. In reality, Ann married James Melton in 1859, three years before Tom left for the war, though it's unclear whether or not that actually changed the nature of Tom and Ann's relationship.
Another popular myth claims Ann confessed to the murder on her deathbed. According to hearsay, Ann confessed she killed Laura in a fit of jealousy and begged Tom, who still had feelings for her, to help her conceal the body. People who live in that area still tell stories that on her deathbed Ann saw black cats on the walls and could hear and smell bacon frying.

Rico says there's no more complicated love story than an in-bred Southern love story...