Strange Tales of True Crime

Soundcloud Track

There once was a gal from Galt
There once was a gal from Galt
She decided one day
To be on her way
With a knapsack, some chips and some salt

That woman been treated so bad
That woman been treated so bad
Her heart had turned cruel
Revenge was her fuel
Had something to do with her dad

Chorus:
What's left of that bloody rest stop
What's left of that bloody rest stop
What's left of that bloody rest stop
Only Pain

A stranger gave her the last ride
A stranger gave her the last ride
She had a big date
Near a rest stop at eight
Her bile was boiling inside

If only her sins could be blessed
If only her sins could be blessed
But her date had turned grim
Singing a dark devil’s hymn
Finally she found her some rest

Chorus

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Soundcloud Track

Crepuscular and gray,
But the station’s gold hide shimmers
Nothing else in sight
‘Cept a leafless old oak tree.
Looks like something in that oak.
Well it’s too dark to tell.
Went inside for a sandwich
No one can only live on grief

“Will you please pass the salt?”
The gal beside me asked
I said, “That’s bad for you”
She said, “So what?
I could sure use a lift
To that rest stop o’er the hill.”
I decided to oblige her
Despite the shakin’ in my gut

Chorus:
Strange trails into the dark blue night
Something in the oak that I just couldn’t see
Paying for my sins on the road to salvation
Detoured for awhile at the service station and the tree

A high lonesome moan
As I started up the Volvo
The cashier runnin’ out
With a shotgun and a scream
Couldn’t hit the side
Of an abattoir in daylight
Lucky thing for us
The good lord’s watchin’ it would seem

We didn’t talk a lot
On that road to retribution
But it felt good to be with someone
As I went runnin’ for the light
I left her at the rest stop
With her vinegar, chips and salt
And a few days later
Heard about the massacre that night

Strange trails into the dark blue night
Something in the oak that I just couldn’t see
Paying for my sins on the road to salvation
Detoured for awhile at the service station and the tree

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Soundcloud Track

Jimmy was a DUI who hadn't got caught
Thought he saw Bigfoot so he slammed to a stop
Pulled his rifle off the rack, leaped out of his truck
Things was kind of blurry, but still he took a shot

Mary was so tired of dancing double-shifts
Dirty money, sweaty men grabbing at her tits
Didn't see Jimmy's truck through the bourbon haze
Hit it going sixty, didn't even touch the brakes

Chorus
Just another strange tale of true crime
Just another nobody gone straight out of their mind
Couldn't tell the diff'rence t'ween the foul and the fair
T'ween what is real and what is not or why they should care

Miraculous! Amazing! Something kept her from all harm
As the glass and steel exploded she flew out of her car
She sailed right through the windshield and into Jimmy's arms
She fell into a coma and he fell for her charms

Meanwhile Jimmy's bullet was still flyin' through the air
Went right through a cheerleader, the Sheriff and the Mayor
Jimmy threw poor Mary in the truck, and sped away
But fifteen miles down the road, that truck went up in flames

Just another strange tale of true crime
Just another nobody gone straight out of their mind
Couldn't tell the diff'rence t'ween the foul and the fair
T'ween what is real and what is not or why they should care

Bridge
Let this be a caution, a moral and a lesson
You can't run away from the bad things that you done
If you leave a trail of victims along a bloody road
You just keep on goin', son, there ain't no goin' home

Now the ending of this story ain't as sad as these things go
Though it seemed like Mary's fate was sealed, it wasn't to be so
As Jimmy's truck was hit by a fiery lightning bolt
Mary was abducted by a shining UFO

Just another strange tale of another true crime
Just another nobody gone straight out of their mind
Couldn't tell the diff'rence t'ween the foul and the fair
T'ween what is right and what is wrong or who goddam cares

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Soundcloud Track

Pretty Nikki Swango, why you lying in the road?
Brown eyes fixed on the Minnesota sky
Between them, a bullet hole

Pretty Nikki Swango, loved a man named Ray
A stone-cold, third rate loser
It was kismet she would say

Pretty Nikki Swango lost the love of her life
At the hands of his own bother
And his own stubborn pride

Pretty Nikki Swango should have seen a better day
When she set on the bloody road
To make Ray's brother pay

CHORUS
Go low, go low
How far can you go
To find the roots of justice
Or the bottom of a hole

Go high, go high
Try to touch the sky
Just like Pretty Nikki did
On the day she died.

Pretty Nikki Swango, you took one last stand
And you pronounced God's vengeance
But God played a ringer's hand

Pretty Nikki Swango, why you lying in the road?
Brown eyes fixed on the Minnesota sky
Between them a bullet hole

Bridge
Some nights you can her cry
in the winds across the plains
A lonesome howl that breaks your heart,
and wraps your soul in chains
Some nights you can hear her,
when the clouds drift 'cross the moon
How bright she shines in the darkness,
like a beacon for the doomed

Pretty Nikki Swango, you took one last stand
And you pronounced God's vengeance
But God played a ringer's hand

Pretty Nikki Swango, why you lying in the road?
Brown eyes fixed on the Minnesota sky
Now finally they can close

CHORUS

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Soundcloud Track

You’ve made your big revenge
Now you can rest your fear
Be riding away from me
But since you’re right here

Take your filthy hands off my heart

Is this a dagger I see before me
Or just a demon to escape
So have you cleared your problems now
Or are you looking for the next rape

So now as you look around
Has anything now changed
Your sights your smells your sound

All deranged
All hopelessly stained

I don’t mind leaving now
And leaving you not dead
Find a way to be gone
And I won’t smash your head

Take your filthy hands off my heart

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Soundcloud Track

The people who like Chez Roux
Like to sit with a shot or a brew
And a french fry or crawdad or two or a bowl of fish stew
And Gravel Jeannie is one in command
With her Southern Comfort in hand
Because Janis was a fan and that goes for her too

Chorus:

But the truth before Eddie appeared
Was that no one had nothing to fear
As they sat at the Roux

Now Jeannie she has been around
The joint, and the block, and the town
And her embroidered jean jacket entertains those around
Her too.

She seen them all hundreds of times
The nice ones, the bores, and the slimes
But the one who just came in was a horse of a color real new

Chorus

Eddie was not much to see
Greasy hair and a rank smell or three
But something about him would bring Jeannie’s love
Right through

Like a Clay WIlson cartoon they were draped
Once they figured out each other’s shapes
And the hangers on said “get a room” in the tapes
We all knew

Then one day they had Eddie read
A poem he thought they might need
But the shouting drowned out with such speed
There was nothing to do

Jeannie piped up before she thought
“You’re a limp Dickerson” and swore like a sot
And Eddie hit her with all he had got
And stormed right through.

Chorus

And it turned out that Eddie won’t know
That he took her life with that blow
Then jumped off the Jackson Bridge to the river below
Just to spite all he knew

Chorus

And no one will forget that terrible night at the Roux

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Soundcloud Track

Bunnyman, Bunnyman, you can't catch me
Go back to your asylum, for some more shock therapy
You got an axe in one hand and a hatchet in the other
Please don’t kill my sister, my father and my mother
You come out when the moon is full, you come out when it's not
But if I find the sharpest knife, I can make you stop

Bunnyman, Bunnyman, go back to your tunnel
If you catch me or I catch you, then the blood will run, Oh!
'Cause I know something that you don't,
and something that you might
The darkest shadows always shine, in the darkest night
Are we brothers then or sisters, or enemy or friends?
Annihilation and extinction, is that how the story ends?

There's a train a'coming
I can hear it on the tracks
Oh, look! Somehow I've tied you down
And I'm not looking back
Tuck in your bunny ears
And pray to all who listen
While I wait to see your blood
Upon the tracks a'glistening

Bunnyman, Bunnyman, it's a cold night in Virginia
For the hunter and the hunted and the victim and the victor
Now I lay me down to sleep, I'll still keep one eye open
Though blurred with tears for something lost,
I still keep on hoping
Oh my, I didn't mean to sound so very sentimental
When I get my hands on you, I'll let you taste my petals

Bunnyman, Bunnyman, you can't catch me

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Soundcloud Track

"There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb"

They told her snitches get stitches
Just before they kicked her ass
And she hated that it hurt enough
To make her whimper and gasp

They left her bent and broken
But the ice grew in her veins
And the steel hardened in her spine
And she swore there'd come a day

She never would have ratted
She never would have squealed
But they'd left her little sister Pearl
With scars that would never heal

So, one by one she took them down
From the bottom starting up
The grifters and the bookies
And the goons on the lowest rung

If a whisper wouldn't do it
Then an icepick might suffice
A needle in the darkness
A heart as cold as ice

"There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb"

Through the made men and the capos
It was blood and double-cross
Like dominoes they fell before
She finally reached The Boss

He tried to bully and to bargain
And she laughed right in his face
And he began to rage at her
But she was not afraid

She gripped him by the throat
And in his ear, she whispered
Remember Pearl when you burn in Hell
As she drove the icepick deeper

"There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the blood of the Lamb
There is power, power, wonder-working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb"

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Soundcloud Track

Weren’t no one to see
The epic dive at the bridge
No one left to be
Things almost went south
Guess I got out of that by
The skin of my teeth

Rat’l snake o’er yonder
Spiders crawl under my bed
Belly of the beast
Took a big detour
I missed the blood soaked day by
The skin of my teeth

Nothing after me
But my own damned shrieking soul
Far as I can see

Fine’ly understood
No more running, no more hope
Watching the sky blue
No redemption from
The lousy close calls and some
Broken down haikus

Nothing after me
But my own damned shrieking soul
Far as I can see

Fine’ly understood
No more running, no more hope
Far as I can see
Got out just in time
I missed the final judge by
The skin of my teeth

The lousy close calls
The skin of my teeth

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Soundcloud Track

I met her at a barn dance,
Whole lotta cloggin’ goin’ on
She was runnin’ from her sins;
I was runnin’ too
They say a first sight love
Don’t really stand a chance
We’re gonna blow up that notion
Like a big ole balloon

Chorus:
So dance to the good times
And dance around the bad
Our love’s gonna carry us through
Mistakes may be made
But we’ll dance past the sad
Dancing to the grave together
My darling, me and you

Bridge:
May your way be humble, May your love be true
May you glide and not stumble from a past so blue

Yes, there were crimes of passion
And maybe of neglect
The pride of fools,
The sorrow and the knife
Gonna try to wash out
The salt in the wound
With a fierce dedication
To a new kind of life

So dance to the good times
And dance around the bad
Our love’s gonna carry us through
Mistakes may be made
But we’ll dance past the sad
Dancing to the grave together
My darling, me and you

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Soundcloud Track

[Intro]
I see, I see a beautiful blaze,
Shining In the rearview mirror
As the rest stop burns to the ground
I feel, I feel sick to my stomach,
and I need a beer-or
Then I hear that crazy toe tappin’ sound

[Verse]
Hangin’ low at the disco farm
Waitin’ for the coast to clear
Feelin' the poundin’, watchin’ the road
With the burnt out vape and the fear

Don’t seem like a place
you might easily find
Where the cows and the donkeys roam
Can’t see no New York City skyline
On this road so far from home

[Chorus]
Ole Dirty Mac Knife cuttin’ up the floor
In the ee yi, ee yi devil’s holio
And on this floor he had some chicks
Girls and boyos, girls and boyos

Fidgety frantiky cluckin’ and dancin’
With Booga Lucy and the Wide Receiver
Is it heaven or hell?
Hear the old church bell.
The late great disco death ball fever

[Bridge]
Where’d all these people come from?
Gonna take me another twirl
One last glide in the middle of nowhere
With a pocketful of hope and a pearl

[Verse]
Just one more hustle, one more bump
I think I’m really feelin’ it now
But I’m not gonna let my guard go down
Can’t wake up in the old hoosegow

Yeah one for the road,
‘nother funky chicken,
Think I’ll finish with the bus stop slam
Pass me a popper and a little bit of salt
I’m tearin’ out tonight, still stuck on the lam

Chorus
Ole Dirty Mac Knife cuttin’ up the floor
In the ee yi, ee yi devil’s holio
And on this floor he had some chicks
Girls and boyos, girls and boyos

Fidgety frantiky cluckin’ and dancin’
With Booga Lucy and the Wide Receiver
Is it heaven or hell?
Hear the old church bell.
The late… great… disco…
death ball… fever

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Soundcloud Track

Behold the kiss of the black widow lover
She always has the hunt in her blood
You think you’re controlling her outside the covers
But you’re the one who dies where he stood

She takes her time as she moves you into place
She keeps an eye on the goal, the time, the space
But when it’s time to move, you’ll taste…

The totally unique kiss of the spider woman
Your policy and hers are tied
You’ll take another look before you know
she’s not quite human
But not before her web’s cast wide

She takes her time as she moves you into place
She keeps an eye on the goal, the time, the space
But when it’s time to move, you’ll taste…

One two three four five
What chance to stay alive
Six seven eight nine ten
In the joint and out again
A b c d e
A year more and she’s free
To be

The completely formed shiny black widow
Spinning her way down to that next prey
And emerging just in time
from the middle of the shadows
Again

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Soundcloud Track

Was I your Samson, or just a stupid con
I thought I was so smart with all I had on
Were you my Delilah, or just following your fear
You made it out in time to see all you had was gone

You seemed so unaware, so simple and so sweet
You flattered me a little, you always stayed discreet
But I never could quite trust you, couldn’t tell why
But it wasn’t quite real until the blue boys on my street

Oh, but I felt so sure
When lust would stop me at the door
Oh, how could I ever see
The kind of plan you had for me

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Soundcloud Track

There’s something in the oak tree
It looks like a plow blade
But how can a plow blade
Be stuck there that high?
It looks big and heavy
All spotted with stains
Did the tree lift it up
Or did it fall from the sky?

You say you’re all right
You just want to be free
Have you forgotten how strong, strange and cruel
The skin of trees can be?

I stare at the tree trunk
I see so many stories
I gaze into the bark
As it stands against the sky
I stare at it dreamlike
Its crazy beauty
It’s tougher than our skin
And it isn’t made of lies

You say you’re all right
You just want to be free
Have you forgotten how strong, strange and cruel
The skin of trees can be?

I hear that oak titmouse singin’
I see Galileo cogitatin’
I watch the Buddha finally
Able to see
I cry for the ghosts of strange fruit
I pray for the end of hate
So many hours at the filling station
And the old oak tree

You say you’re all right
You just want to be free
Have you forgotten how strong, strange and cruel
The skin of trees can be?

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Soundcloud Track

Little Dorothea
Was born bad they say
And there was nothing good in her life
To make her change her ways

She learned her lessons on the streets
And in the slam for five
The only thing she really learned
Was how to fight to survive

Dorothea had a twisty tongue
No tail to tall to tell
A movie star, a Rockette,
An Egyptian from Israel

She married her a sailor
And when he went to sea
She set to drinking and a’whoring
And living wild and free

Chorus:
Landlady, Landlady
Please don't make me go
I know you want my government check
But don't lay me in that hole

All I ever wanted
Was a place to lay my head
Now I lay me down to sleep
I'm scared I'll wake up dead

Verse:
The last time that he beat her
She finally left for good
To start herself a brothel
In a nicer neighborhood

When her rivals blew the whistle
She sought a different trade
She saw the lonely and the lost
And knew her bed was made

One more husband did the trick
As she refined her game
To become the belov’d arbuela
‘Said from Mexico she came

Respectability suited her
A sweet old lady’s mask
And she began to care for those
Such easy marks at last

Chorus:

Verse:
And finally, a dream come true
A house to call a home
For the wayward and the wounded
If they were all alone

Dorothea got so good at it
The money kept on comin’
But finally there came a time
When she did the wrong one in

Bridge:
Way down in the dark we go
Way down below we go
When Mrs. D tires of tending us
She'll send us down below

When it’s time to take your medicine
There ain’t no saying “No”
You drift away into your dreams
And wake up down below

Verse:
One after another,
She just couldn’t stop
And as the suspicions grew
Her boarders began to talk

There came at last a final day
When she knew that she was damned
At her door stood the Sheriff
with a shovel in his hand

Dorothea played the innocent
With all who came her way
And while they all weren’t looking
She split for L.A.

She soon found another mark
In a low-down L.A. dive
But she’d lost her touch and he made her
So finally justice did arrive

She’d made herself a fortune
And now she found her fame
As the lethal landlady
Now Santa Muerte was her name

Bridge:

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Soundcloud Track

Rattler in the lunch box
Or maybe P B J
No way to know
What I’ll get today

Smile or a frown
Slap or a caress
Can’t find a way
To save this mess

Chorus:
Pretty pretty lunch box
Wonder what’s inside
Every time I call your name
You try to hide

Standing at the corner
Of heartbreak and whine
Lookin’ for a way out
Any hope I can find

Cobra in the lunch box
Or pastrami on rye
A kiss on the lips
Or a bite on the thigh

Loud cacophony
Or a simple sweet song
Should I say I’m sorry
Or say so long

Pretty pretty lunch box
Wonder what’s inside
Every time I call your name
You try to hide

Chorus

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Willie De Sacra devotes this year’s work to murder, mayhem and mystery; pulp, noir, true crime and strange tales with all the tragedy, sorrow, hopelessness, absurdity, jealousy, suspense, retribution, redemption, longing and regret that lies therein. The gamut of human relationships and emotions, colored by a single act or a lifetime of evil. Woven with threads from the back-woods grotesqueries and tall tales of the Strange-But-True magazines and Fortean oddities.

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The four members of the Willie de Sacra songwriting collaborative, Wm Fuller, Spence Kimball, Gary Sears and Jack Hastings, have been performing in various combinations for a large number of years. *Strange Tales of True Crime* is their twelfth FAWM project.

In alphabetical order:

• William Fuller
• Jack Hastings
• Spencer Kimball
• Gary Sears