1. - press clip from the St. Louis Globe newspaper from 1895;
2. -
THE ST. LOUIS GLOBE DEMOCRAT, 1895
"William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday
evening at 10 o'clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and
Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon
were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had
been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion
drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of
which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon's hat from his head. The latter
indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew
his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to
the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and
coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the
Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his
wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Sheldon is
also known as 'Stag' Lee"
FOLLOW UP
Billy Lyons died from his wounds, and Stag Lee was tried for this
killing. The first trial ended in a hung jury amidst major political
controversy. He was convicted in the second trial, served time, and
died in the nineteen-teens.
THE SONG
This real-life incident soon became legendary in the South, and moved
into song -- and down the river to New Orleans, where the killer's
name became, variously, Stagolee, Stag-O-Lee, Stackolee or
Stack-A-Lee. The latter was the spelling on a Top 10 R&B hit in
1950 performed in two parts by a New Orleans singer in the Professor
Longhair style. Born Leon T. Gross, he was known professionally as
Archibald (and sometimes as Archie Boy). His musical re-telling of
the story might have been the end of the line chart-wise for old
Stag, if it weren't for the Korean War. Fellow Crescent City native
Lloyd Price had an auspicious start on the R&B charts, just two
years after Archibald. He scored six Top 10 hits in one year, from
1952-53, but his success was cut short when he was drafted by the
U.S. Army and sent to Korea. Lloyd wasted no time in forming a
military band, and toured Korean and Japanese bases until his
discharge in 1956. Part of his stage act involved the Lee and Billy
story, as Lloyd recalled: "There were hundreds of lyrics for the old
song, but no story. While entertaining the troops, I had put together
a little play based on it. I'd have soldiers acting out the story
while I sang it.". When he returned to civilian clothes, Lloyd
resettled in Washington, D.C. There he joined with an old buddy
named Harold Logan to form KRC Records, as a vehicle to re-launch
Lloyd's recording career. His song "Just Because" immediately put
him back in the Top 10 R&B, and crossed over to pop when the
record was released on ABC-Paramount (as part of their buy-out of
KRC). At this point, Lloyd became an ABC recording artist, and
returned to his New Orleans roots with a re-write of his old Army
skit, this time spelled "Stagger Lee". In Korea, Lloyd never thought
the playlet could be a hit record, but it soon became a sensation,
at one point selling nearly 200,000 copies a day -- and rapidly shot
to #1 on the pop charts. But Dick Clark wasn't happy about it.
Although Lloyd had appeared on "American Bandstand" and even Clark's
Saturday night show with the original version, Dick decided to end
the violence. The shooting and blood were too much for his teen TV
audience. Lloyd had no choice -- he had to go back into the studio,
and record a whole new, cleaned-up version of the story with --
believe it or not -- a happy ending! Stagger Lee and Billy actually
make up and become friends again; too bad Billy Lyons wasn't really
that lucky.
TOURISTS' NOTE
911 N. 12th Street, which was "Stag" Lee Sheldon's house, is still
standing, although it was recently boarded up and for sale; it's the
only house remaining on the block (directly across from the St. Louis
Post-Dispatch building). About 15 years ago, an alderman named Bruce
Sommer ran a restaurant there called the Sommer House -- with live
music, including old-time performers Cousin Curtis & the Cash
Rebates, and blues singer Tom Hall. Tom wasn't aware that he was
singing in Stagger Lee's old house.