"The Boyfriends Death"

Direct quote, grammar and spelling intentional.

This happened just a few years ago out on the road that turns off 59 highway by the Holiday Inn. This couple were parked under a tree out on this road. Well, it got to be time for the girl to be back at the dorm, so she told her boyfriend that they should start back. But the car wouldn’t start, so he told her to lock herself in the car and he would go down to the Holiday Inn and call for help. Well, he didn’t come back and he didn’t come, and pretty soon she started hearing a scratching noise on the roof of the car. "Scratch, scratch ... scratch, scratch." She got scareder and scareder, but he didn't come back. Finally, when it was almost daylight, some people came along and stopped and helped her out of the car, and she looked up and there was her boyfriend hanging from the tree, and his feet were scraping against the roof of the car. This is why the road is called "Hangman's Road."

Recorded by Daniel Barnes at the University of Kansas, 1964. This is the first recording of "The Boyfriend's Death," although it had made the rounds in college dormitories and high schools since the invention of the automobile.