I'm the man their gonna hang for killing Billy Joe
But there's a whole lot more to the story than they know
Listen to my side of it and I think that you will see
The reason that I killed the boy that made a fool of me

There was a girl named Mary Anne
And Mary Anne meant all the world to me
We planned to get married
We set the date the wedding was to be

But I walked up to her house one night
And out there on the front porch they sat
And then I swore he'd never get away with that

Billy Joe took Mary Anne and went up to the dance hall one night
They didn't know that I was standing back there in the shadows out of sight
They sat down at a table and she smiled as he gave her hand the pat
And then I swore he'd never get away with that

I swore he'd never get away with breaking my heart
I knew that there was just one way to keep them apart

Everybody says his mother begged him
Not to take his guns to town
He should have listened to her
She knew that I was gonna shoot him down
I'll be hung tomorrow just because I had to kill that little rat
But I swore he'd never get away with that
And Billy Joe didn't get away with that