# The Ballad of Tim Evans

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ballad-of-tim-evans/736125>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 29, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ballad-of-tim-evans/736125 "2015-10-29T22:18:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-ballad-of-tim-evans/736125/1 "2015-10-29T22:18:02Z")

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_A Bucket Of Blood_ is playing on TCM right now. It’s one of my favourite films. Lots of good lines in it. One bit I particularly like takes place in a coffee house. A folk singer is singing [_The Ballad Of Tim Evans_](http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Ballad_of_Tim_Evans.htm). As he sings ‘Go down, you murderer, go down’, Walter Paisley furtively comes into frame.

First, I did not know the song was called _The Ballad Of Tim Evans_. I thought it was called _Go Down, You Murderer_ or something. Second, I didn’t know it was a real song. I thought it likely they made it up to fit the scene. But I looked it up, and it is a real song. Then I found out something else I didn’t know. It’s based on actual events.

[Tim Evans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Evans) was wrongfully convicted and executed for a crime he did not commit.

> [@](#):
>
> Three years after Evans’s execution, Christie was found to be a serial killer, who had murdered six other women in the same house, including his own wife. Before his own execution, Christie confessed to murdering Mrs. Evans. An official inquiry concluded in 1966 that Christie had also murdered Evans’s daughter, and Evans was granted a posthumous pardon.

See? You can learn things from watching low-budget horror films!