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It was at a party that they met,
Much like Romeo and Juliet.
It was love at first sight,
But neither could see their future plight.
Charlie was strong and he was tall.
Frankie was pretty and she was small.
She had long golden hair,
And at it Charlie liked to stare,
Frankie set her cap for him at once,
And Charlie was no dunce.
He knew it well.
He could easily tell.
Of all the girls in his date book
She exceeded them all in her good looks.
He for her the fiddle played.
He late at night at her house stayed,
And he did not work a lick
At checking his animal traps.
But he didn't give a rap.
Many months weni by
Filled wiih many a sigh.
They spoke the sweet nothings of love,
And thought it must be like heaven above.
Until one day he proposed lo her,
And that's when she said to him, "Sir,
Will you be true and love me only?
Will you never let me be lonely?"
He answered, "I will be true, Ma'm,
And all the other girls just as soon scram."
The marriage would have gone on fine,
But Charlie on other women did pine.
When he was away with some floozy,
Frankie stayed at home with the baby
He claimed he was away checking his traps,
But with other women he was takig naps.
One night Frankie caught him in the act.
With a woman he was getting in the sack.
Charlie used to come in drinking,
And on her beat and he all stinking.
She said to herself, "He'll never beat me again,
And I will face him with his sin.
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His infidelity I will redress
And demand that he confess."
Charlie one night came in drunk
And smelled just like a skunk.
When Frankie faced him with his hanky panky,
He pulled a shot gun on little Frankie.
She picked up the sharpened axe,
And rushed around to face his back.
He said, "Put down that contraption"
But she held on for all his yapping.
Until he turned, staggered, and fell
Into the axe. He let out a yell.
She saw what she hard done.
And to him she did run.
But it was too late to save his life.
His life ended in this bloody strife.
Oh, the future she did dread.
Without Charlie her life would be dead
Her mother and brother first discovered the deed.
To dispose of the body was the next need.
It was the brother who took the axe in hand.
They would not be able to find him anywhere in the land.
For he would the body cut up and burn,
And not a trace would the sheriff discern.
But old Jake Collins in the fireplace found grease
And bones, which he took to be those of the deceased.
Fast to the sheriff did Jake Collins go
To share the evidence, which he was glad to show.
The sheriff was quick to put Frankie in jail,
And there was no one who could afford her bail.
The trial was more than once delayed
While Frankie in a dirty cell in Morganton stayed.
She attempted to escape during a night in May
Dressed as a boy on a wagon filled with hay.
She was captured and locked up again.
She certainly would have to pay for her sin.
She was found guilty at the trial in 1832.
The granting of a pardon was rejected, too.
Finally, she was hanged on a hill in Morganton in 1833.
She never figured this was the way it was to be.
Her name has come down in Burke
County history
But what really happened is still a mystery.
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