Hauptman ter dood gebracht
Title
Hauptman ter dood gebracht
Subtitle
De vermoedelijke ontvoerder in zake Lindbergh's kindje is in de gevangenis te Trenton (Amerika) op Zaterdag 4 April door middel van den Electrischen stoel terechtgesteld.
Synopsis
Hauptmann, Lindbergh abductions, electric chair.
Digital Object
Image notice
Full size images of all ballad sheets available at the bottom of this page.
Image / Audio Credit
Amsterdam MI: Lbl Moormann M305. Nederlandse Liederenbank
Set to tune of...
't Plekje bij den Molen
Transcription
There in faraway America,
In the New World-land,
There someone committed a murder without mercy,
Yes even without all shame,
And seldom one then finds the man,
The Underworld is large,
Where the Judge in such a crime,
Comes upon difficulties
Refrain for each couplet.
There in hovels
Wherein they sheltered
There lies the danger
Of murder and swindle
Whom you have to watch,
With grief/sorrow flip over,
There in those hovels
There harbours a great danger
So there was, for quite some time,
A man who was heavily tortured,
Whom people accused of a crime,
So cruel and so bad,
He had kidnapped a sweet, small child
To which the world looked up,
And all of America was touched,
Because it already lay dead.
And the underworld did not sit still,
Brought the court under pressure
Yes even the father of the child,
Left America afraid,
[right column]
Because his other child too
Was threatened,
They fled to another country,
Where nothing had been misdone.
That is how it goes in America,
In all sorts of crime
The justice puts people in displeasure,
Because of all kinds of disputes,
The last ‘strength’ now was to force a man,
Through pain,
That Hauptman had not done it
But that he knew more about it.
So the justice there is continuously
Misled by vagabonds.
To, by tampering and capital,
Still win some time.
And the more the Judge fails,
The more confused it then becomes
So that there then a great crime,
Starts to resemble a novel.
Now the justice has put an end to it,
Hauptman had to die,
His death sentence was already delayed
Which keeps enlarging his sorrow.
Innocent, he says, I sit now
Upon the electric chair.
Goodbye my wife, my sweet small child.
I am liberated from this bustle.
In the New World-land,
There someone committed a murder without mercy,
Yes even without all shame,
And seldom one then finds the man,
The Underworld is large,
Where the Judge in such a crime,
Comes upon difficulties
Refrain for each couplet.
There in hovels
Wherein they sheltered
There lies the danger
Of murder and swindle
Whom you have to watch,
With grief/sorrow flip over,
There in those hovels
There harbours a great danger
So there was, for quite some time,
A man who was heavily tortured,
Whom people accused of a crime,
So cruel and so bad,
He had kidnapped a sweet, small child
To which the world looked up,
And all of America was touched,
Because it already lay dead.
And the underworld did not sit still,
Brought the court under pressure
Yes even the father of the child,
Left America afraid,
[right column]
Because his other child too
Was threatened,
They fled to another country,
Where nothing had been misdone.
That is how it goes in America,
In all sorts of crime
The justice puts people in displeasure,
Because of all kinds of disputes,
The last ‘strength’ now was to force a man,
Through pain,
That Hauptman had not done it
But that he knew more about it.
So the justice there is continuously
Misled by vagabonds.
To, by tampering and capital,
Still win some time.
And the more the Judge fails,
The more confused it then becomes
So that there then a great crime,
Starts to resemble a novel.
Now the justice has put an end to it,
Hauptman had to die,
His death sentence was already delayed
Which keeps enlarging his sorrow.
Innocent, he says, I sit now
Upon the electric chair.
Goodbye my wife, my sweet small child.
I am liberated from this bustle.
Composer of Ballad
Rombouts, F.
Date
Collection
Citation
“Hauptman ter dood gebracht,” Execution Ballads, accessed October 4, 2024, https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/1263.