Curtis' looking high, Curtis' looking low,
He shot poor Delia down with a cruel forty-four.
All the friends I ever had are gone.
Subject: Delia From: jfgarst@home.com (John Garst) (via Michael Gray) Date: 2000/06/10 Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote.blues When I told John Cowley I had found Ella Speed, he said, "Well, go find Delia. You live in Georgia, and Robert W. Gordon wrote a letter saying that Delia was killed in Savannah. His papers are lost, so we don't have his interviews with Delia's mother or the detective who investigated the case, but this ought to be enough information for you to find it." So it was. I got around to looking seriously for it after lunch today, and within two hours I had it. Delia Green, age 14, was shot and killed by Moses "Coony" Houston, age 16, in the Yamacraw section of Savannah (characterized for me by a local historian as "poor, black, and violent") at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve, 1900. She died early Christmas morning in her bed at her home. She had been receiving Coony's attentions for several months, but when Coony claimed her as "his girl" she denied it. This enraged Coony, who shot her without saying another word. -- John Garst Greil Marcus Real LIfe Top 10 (Salon)
