Stagger Lee

top frame
   
 

1910 - 1920

1911. The first published versions of the lyrics appear in The Journal of American Folklore.

1911, January 26. Shelton pistol whips and kills William Atkins while robbing his house.

1911, May 7. Shelton enters prison once more.

1912, February 8. Governor Herbert Spencer Hadley (Republican 1909–13) pardons Sheton under pressure from the Democrats.

1912, March 11. Lee Shelton dies of tuberculosis without having left the prison hospital. No notice of his death appears in St. Louis newspapers.


 
   
bottom frame