Sam Bess was born in Indiana,
it was his native home.
And at the age of seventeen,
young Sam began to roam.
Sam first came out to Texas,
a cowboy for to be.
A kinder hearted fella you'd
seldom ever see
Sam used to deal in race stock,
one called the Denton Bear
He matched her in scrub races
and took her to the fair
Sam used to coin the money bars
and spend it just as free
He always drank good whiskey
wherever he might be
Sam left the Collins Ranch
in the merry month of May
With a herd of Texas
cattle the Black Hills far to see
Sold out in Custer City
and then got on a spree
A harder set of cowboys
you'd seldom ever see
On their way back to Texas,
they robbed the UP train
Then split up in couples
and started out again
Joe Collins and his partner
were overtaken soon
With all their hard -earned money,
boys,
they had to meet their doom
Sam made it back to Texas,
all right side up with care
Rode into the town of Denton,
with all his friends to share
Sam's life was short in Texas,
three robberies did he do
He robbed all the passenger mail
and express cars too
Sam met his fate in Round Rock
July the 21st
They pierced poor Sam with rifle balls
and emptied out his purse
Poor Sam is a corpse
and six foot under clay
And Jackson's in the bushes, boys,
a -tryin' to get away
Jim had borrowed Sam's good gold
and didn't want to pay
The only shot he saw
was to give poor Sam away
He sold out Sam and Barnes
and left their friends to mourn
Oh, what a scorchin' Jim will get
when Gabriel blows his horn
Yes, he sold out salmon barns
and left their friends to mourn
Oh, what a scorchin' gem we'll get
when Gabriel blows his horn
Perhaps he's got to heaven,
there's none of us can say
But if I'm right in my surmise,
he's gone the other way