Stagger Lee

Negro bad man who, according to the ballad, shot and killed Billy Lyon (Lion, Galion) in a barroom brawl (some say in Memphis and some say in St. Louis) for stealing his ""Magic Stetson." Legend says... that this magic hat for which Stackalee sold his soul to the Devil, enabled him to assume various shapes, from mountains to varmints, to walk barefoot on hot slag, and to eat fire. When he got too ornery for even the Devil to stand, the latter caused him to lose his hat and his magic, via Billy Lyon, and ultimately burn in hell.

Stacker Lee, for whom many Negro children along the Ohio and the Mississippi were named, was one of the four sons of Captain James Lee, founder of the Lee Line, and was celebrated for his prowess with the ladies as well as steamboats. The packet Stacker Lee (nicknamed "The Stack," "The Big Smoke," "Stack O'Collus," and "Bull of the Woods" and noted for its size and speed) plied between Memphis and Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Vicksburg. The original Stagolee is said to have been a stoker or rousabout on this boat, also the son of a woman who was chambermaid or cook on this or another of the Lee boats; and the ballad is said to have been composed on the leves, where it was sung.

It was in the year of eighteen hundred and sixty-one
In St. Louis on Market St. where Stackalee was born.
Everybody's talkin 'bout Stackalee.

It was one cold and frosty night
When Stackalee and Billy Lyons had one awful fight
All about an old Stetson hat.

Stackalee got his gun; Boy, he got it fast!
He shot poor Billy through and through; the bullet broke a lookin 
glass. 
Oh, oh, Lord, Lord, Lord

Stackalee shot Billy once; his body fell to the floor.
He cried out, "Oh, please, Stack, please don't shoot me no more.
Oh, oh, Lord, Lord, Lord.

"Have mercy," Billy groaned. "Oh, please spare my life;
I've got two little babies and an innocent wife."
Oh, oh, Lord, Lord, Lord.