Murder Ballad: Omie Wise Another in the long line of traditional murder ballads “Omie Wise” is another with a tragic back-story. Omie Wise being courted by a lovely fellow named John Lewis who told Wise to meet her at Adam’s Springs where Lewis convinced her to skip town with him and start a new life. Then he decided to kill her. Although, not before Wise begs for her life and reveals she is pregnant and, quite understandably, pleads with Wise to not kill their baby. Lewis being a unmerciful man, ignores her pleas and drowns her in a nearby river. This seems to be a pretty literal retelling of the tale of the tragic figure of Naomi Wise, an orphan girl from Randolph County in North Carolina. She was taken in by a local family and soon became involved with Jonathan Lewis. Naomi, being an orphan girl, was not the stuff mothers’ dreamed of and Lewis’s mother recommended he see Hettie Elliott instead, who was from a much more financially sound background. Lewis decided it might be best just to keep seeing both of them. In April 1808 ,Wise, having uncovered Lewis’s affair with Elliott, disappeared. Her body was soon found in a nearby river, badly beaten and pregnant. It would take seven years before Lewis saw trial and then, despite plenty of evidence to condemn him, he was acquitted. On his deathbed he apparently confessed to the murder.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 03:42:05 +0000
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