Dichtneiging #39 - The Ballad of Captain William Coe (Engels)

Robber's Roost - Wayne Cooper

The story of the outlaw they called Captain William Coe

is one that not that many people really seem to know

and every single time there has been mention of his name

it became perfectly clear why he’s not worthy of the fame.

It was said that he’d been fighting as Confederate in the war

and that his lust for fighting had been growing more and more.

Then, afterwards, he started on a robbing spree with friends

and soon the men would settle down in so-called ‘No Man’s Land’.

Well, there the cattle rustling would become their main objective 

and doing it near Pueblo seemed to be the most effective.

Eventually they even went and stole themselves some sheep.

Just like with the cattle: for to sell them, not to keep.

One time he had the famous Charlie Goodnight on his tail.

Coe swore he’d kill the rancher, but the man was doomed to fail.

Someday they even met, but they were never introduced,

this big cattle rancher and the king of ‘Robber’s Roost’.

The army went to look for him when things got out of hand.

Some guys had just been caught, but not the leader of the band.

It turned out there was nothing William Coe could really do:

the law had gotten to him, way before he even knew.

They kept him in a prison cell to wait there for a trial,

but there were men with other plans and it took just a while

before they brought a visit to who was their prey to be

and took him out of town to leave him hanging on a tree.

The day after the incident his body would be found:

he hung beneath the tree with his knees touching the ground.

The hanging caused the death of this rustler of the plains.

His ways were surely awful, but his legend still remains.