"The Vicious Long Point Murder"

[davidhanners]

So here's a new one, the first one I've written in awhile. It's based on a true story, an attempted train robbery a couple of miles west of my hometown that happened back in 1875. It was unusual in that the two robbers were wearing custom-made suits of steel armor. Although several people were arrested for the crime over the following days and weeks, all either had alibis or went to trial and were acquitted.

The killers were never caught. There is a belief in some parts that the killers may have been the James brothers, based on the physical description of one of the men. And the brothers' whereabouts at the time of the attempted robbery has not been clearly pinned down by historians, so they could've been in the area; they were known to hang out in the region.

I'm sure there'll still be some tweaks to the tune, and I may figure out some way to increase the tension near the end. Insights and suggestions welcome.....


THE VICIOUS LONG POINT MURDER
by David Hanners

The eastbound express slowed to a stop
Just before midnight
Milo Eames was the engineer
On the Vandalia train that night

Two men with pistols jumped up to the cab
Robbery was their intent
Milo Eames did as he was told but
They still shot him dead

chorus:
Did you hear 'bout the murder
The murder at Long Point
The sheriff can search the whole Wabash Valley
But I'm thinking it was the James boys

These weren't just any robbers
No, there was something unique
Each man wore custom-made steel armor
In the light of the cab, my, how it gleamed

John Burke was the express agent
Alone in the baggage car
Everything valuable was in that safe
That he alone did guard

The robbers used guns, axes and picks
Trying to get to that safe
But the car's oak walls denied them
So they gave up and made their escape

They vanished into thin air
'Least that's how it seemed
But the sheriff vowed to bring them in
For the murder of Milo Eames

(chorus)

A search party tracked two men for a week
Through the black swamps of the Embarras
But when they got caught they had alibis
Which they amply expained to the law

On July 12 a funeral train
The kind fit for a king
Left Terre Haute for Effingham
Carrying the body of Milo Eames

Time dragged on, days turned to months
Months turned to a year
They never brought those men to justice
For killing that brave engineer

(chorus and end)

[davidhanners]

Here's the first major re-write, and the way I debuted the song last night at the open mike at the Coffee Grounds. The song seemed to have gone over well, although it was a full house and the place was kind of noisy. I'd still like to cut another verse or two to make the song shorter, but there are certain elements to the story that have to be communicated and I haven't figured out how to tell all those elements with the song being any shorter.

So here it is:

THE VICIOUS LONG POINT MURDER
by David Hanners

The eastbound express slowed to a stop
Just before midnight
Milo Eames was the engineer
On the Vandalia train that night

Two men with pistols jumped up to the cab
Robbery their intent
Milo Eames did as he was told but
They still shot him dead

chorus:
Did you hear 'bout the murder
The murder at Long Point
They'll search the Wabash Valley end to end
But I'm thinking it was the James boys

Jim Snavely, the brakeman, looked at the robbers
Could not believe it was real
Each man was wearing custom-made armor
Forged from the finest steel

John Burke was the Adams Express agent
Locked in the baggage car
Some money and gold was in that safe
That he alone did guard

The robbers used guns, axes and crowbars
Trying to get to that safe
But they were denied by the car's thick oak walls
So they gave up and made their escape

(chorus)

A posse tracked two men for a week
Through the black swamps of the Embarras
But both men had solid alibis
Which they amply expained to the law

On July 12 a funeral train
Eight cars fit for a king
Left Terre Haute for Effingham
With the body of Milo Eames

Time dragged on, days turned to months
Months turned to a year
They've yet bring those steel men to justice
For killing that brave engineer

(chorus and end)

[Cornflake]

David, I like songs that tell a story and I like this one. I wonder if it might need a summing-up verse...not necessarily "the moral to this story" but something that conveys why you're telling us about this event. What hits me is that the engineer died for nothing. You might consider pointing to that as you conclude. (Or not.)

A nitpick: you talking about killing that "brave" engineer but unless I missed something, he displayed no bravery.

[davidhanners]

I've thought about the summing-up issue, and haven't really figured what to sum up. The crime remains unsolved. From the articles I've read on the incident, there's no indication of just why the robbers shot Eames since, as the song notes, he did what they told him to do. Then again, stories of Eames' cooperation may have been something Snavely came up with just to make the whole thing sound worse.

As for calling Eames brave, I don't know that he did anything that might be considered courageous, but it seems like a typical period thing to say about someone killed by train robbers.

I've also thought of seeing if there's a way to work my grandfather into the song. He actually knew Frank James. In his later years, Frank James worked as a race starter, and my grandfather worked summers as a jockey. He was a small guy.

[Cornflake]

Maybe you should consider a verse on how there are lots of unanswered questions in the universe and here's one more. I think it needs something at the end to give the story some point. There are lots of directions you might take.

This reminded me of Four Rode By, which Ian and Sylvia did. The bandits act like bandits and they get hung. The final verse tells us how one of the bandits' relations killed a lot of Germans in WWI. "It's wild old family."

Pretty Boy Floyd ended with the wonderful lines about how some rob you with a sixgun, some with a fountain pen.

[Marshall]

I liked the re-write except for the last stanza. So far the shiny steel suits are just a novelty. Might be nice if they were a metaphor for something.

I think its quite appropriate for the narrator to refer to Milo as brave. (Boy, is Milo Eames a great period name. Jim Snavley too. Somehow you expect a guy with the name Milo Eames to be an upright kind of guy. Jim Snavely might be expected to be more of a shady character.)

Tying your grandfather in to Frank James would be cool; especially if he "remembered" some shiny piece of steel or something. (Of course that'd be stretching the truth.)

Somehow I want to hear a moral. (or some meaning to the story). Even if it's just how fickle the finger of fate can be. Was Milo married ? Do we know something about him that makes this more personal ? I suppose some of the charm is how true the the original acount it is. It seems to be missing a punch line. "There but for the grace of God" or something.

[Cornflake]

Trust Marshall's reactions more than mine. But we seem to concur in wanting something to tell us why we should attribute some significance to the story.

[davidhanners]

Thanks for the comments. I do think I need to figure out some better way to end the song. As it is, it "ends," while it needs to resolve in some way.

Not only was Eames married, but his wife was pregnant when he died, I just noticed in the article that I cribbed the song from. How I missed that, I have no idea. But something like that should be mentioned in the song.

And I have to make a correction in the lyrics. Re-reading the article, I see that Snavely was the fireman, not the brakeman.

The funeral train carried Eames' casket and 500 mourners. Eames' parents lived in Effingham, so that's where he was buried.

One of the odd aspects to the story is how the authorities kept arresting and charging anyone and everyone, but all were eventually cleared. The article mentions eight suspects by name or profession who were arrested, and also says "other suspects were detained" and questioned and then eventually freed.

The James-Younger gang knocked over a bank in Mississippi and a train in Kansas in December 1874, then was curiously inactive for the next 19 months. They next hit a train in Missouri in July 1986 (a year after the Long Point attempt) and got away with $15,000. They hadn't been considered suspects in the Missouri train robbery until a gang member ratted the boys out to police.

[Cornflake]

"The James-Younger gang knocked over a bank in Mississippi and a train in Kansas in December 1874, then was curiously inactive for the next 19 months. They next hit a train in Missouri in July 1986 (a year after the Long Point attempt) and got away with $15,000."

Man, those guys were long-lived!

[davidhanners]

The 1986 iteration was a planned "reunion tour," but the big names didn't participate. A couple of the bit players in the original gang took the gang out on tour and used the original name. Jesse and Cole sued, and the new group was forced to use the name "James-Younger Revisited."

[loopysanchez]

Sounds like you've got a good direction for fine-tuning this one, David.

One thought I had is, the word "amply" just doesn't seem to fit the feel of the lyrics. It just sounds a little sterile to be used in a song about a 19th-century train robbery and murder. I'd just drop it and say "But both men had solid alibis/Which they explained to the law". Don't know if that would totally kill your meter, though...

And while rhyme scheme is a matter of personal taste, I can see where some listeners might be put off by the mix of non-rhyme, forced rhyme, and true rhyme stanzas. (Never seemed to hurt Paul Simon though, so what do I know?) ;D