Stackolee was a bad man, everybody knows

Spent a hundred dollars for just one suit of clothes

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

Stackolee loaded cotton, weighed five hundred pounds

Carried along a Gatling gun, that drug him to the ground

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

It was in a hustling b-joint where the Mississippi run

Stackolee killed Billy de Lyons with a smoking forty-one

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

The high sheriff asked the deputy, "How can it be

You can arrest everybody, but the mean old Stackolee?

He's a bad man, that mean old Stackolee."

And the deputy told the new sheriff, "Double up my fee

And I'll go get that outlaw, by the name of Stackolee

'Cause he's a bad man, that mean old Stackolee."

Gentlemen of the jury, what do you think about that?

Stackolee killed Billy de Lyons about a five dollar Stetson hat

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

Billy was in the card house and kneeling on the floor

Stackolee pulled the trigger of his red-hot forty-four

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

Billy said to Stackolee, "Please don't take my life

I've got three little babes and a darling loving wife

You're a bad man, your name is Stackolee"

"What do I care about your two little babes, your darling loving wife?

You done stole my brand new hat and I'm bound to take your life

'Cause you're a bad man, and my name is Stackolee"

Billy died in the sawdust, with his head upon the rail

Deputy took old Stackolee and he marched him off to jail

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

The judge said, "Mr. Stackolee, Mr. Stackolee

I'm gonna hang your body up and set your spirit free

'Cause you're a bad man, your name is Stackolee"

Stackolee on his gallows, his head way up high

Twelve o'clock we killed him, was all glad to see him die

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee

He was a bad man, that mean old Stackolee