Stagger Lee was a pimp. On Christmas Day, 1895, he shot and killed one William Lyons during a dispute which coincidentally, involved a white Stetson hat and politics (no gambling involved). The blast of Stagger Lee’s gun sent the story of that random underground bar scene murder into folksong immortality.
Here is the true story of Lee Shelton a/k/a Stagger Lee which has been pieced together by scholars, authors, eyewitnesses, and research.
I. ST. LOUIS THIRD WARD: 1895
In 1895, St. Louis' Third Ward ("The Bloody Third") was a very vibrant and rough part of town. It was filled with billiard rooms, brothels, gambling houses, theaters, and saloons. The Bill Curtis Saloon was located at 1101 Morgan Street in an area of the Third Ward called “Deep Morgan” and it had a nasty reputation. Today, Eleventh and Morgan is the home of Morgan Street Brewing.
Nearby Intersection 11th and Biddle circa 1900
11th and Morgan Today
Politics played a large role in Third Ward culture. Abraham Lincoln’s Republican party had historically held African American support. There were local night clubs (such as The Henry Bridgewater Club) which served as headquarters for the local Republican scene. William Lyons had strong connections to The Henry Bridgewater Club. However, some folks were disillusioned with the Republican Party and supported the rival Democrat Party. Lee Shelton was the president of the local Four H Club which supported the Democrats.
On December 25, 1895, Billy Lyons and his friend Henry Crump entered The Bill Curtis Saloon. Before doing so, Lyons asked Crump if he had a weapon - not because Lyons planned to use it, but because he knew the bar was a dangerous place. Crump handed Lyons a knife and the two entered the bar to the sounds of a rag time band playing loudly in the background.
Similar style saloon circa 1900
Later in the night, Lee Shelton, who the locals called “Stack Lee” entered the bar. Lee Shelton belonged to a gang of pimps called The Macks (the formal name was The Maquereau which is French slang for "pimp" - probably originating in New Orleans). He was wearing a pair of “St. Louis Flats”; shoes that had long toes pointed upwards. There were small mirrors on each toe tip which reflected light like a disco ball. He wore grey striped pants, a long black box-back coat opened enough to display a patterned red vest, and yellow embroidered shirt with a standing collar. He wore gold rings and held an ebony walking cane. Last, and certainly not least, he wore a stunning white Stetson hat with an embroidered picture of his mistress.
According to one witness, Shelton yelled “Who’s treating?” Unfortunately, for Billy Lyons somebody threw him on front street and yelled “This guy.” Lyons was a good sport though. By all accounts, he and Stack got along well drinking together and laughing; until, that is, the conversation turned to politics. However, there is another theory as to why the two men fell out of favor. Billy Lyons' step-brother, another patron of the rival Henry Bridgewater Club, shot and killed Lee Shelton’s friend three years earlier. Whether this is just coincidence, we will never know.
In the heat of the argument, Stack Lee grabbed Billy Lyons' derby hat and broke its form. Naturally, Lyons was upset and demanded payment for his ruined hat. Then, Billy Lyons grabbed Stack Lee’s Stetson hat and when Lyons refused to return it, Stack threatened to shoot him. Not only did Stack threaten, but he also pulled out and cocked his .44 Smith & Wesson revolver. Then, Lyons pulled out the knife he had in his pocket and said, “You cockeyed son of a bitch, I'm going to make you kill me.” Bang! William Lyons lay dying on the floor with a bullet in his abdomen.
Stack Lee brushed the dust off of his sleeve, stood over Lyon’s dying body and said calmly “N***** I told you to give me my hat.” He snatched his Stetson from Lyons’ grasp and placed it neatly back on his head. Then, Stack Lee calmly collected himself, picked up his ebony walking cane and exited the bar with his head high. He walked straight to his house and went right upstairs to sleep until the police banged down his door.
The December 26, 1895 St. Louis Globe Democrat reported:
II. LEE SHELTON
Lee Shelton was born on March 16, 1865 in Texas. He was thirty years old at the time he shot Billy Lyons. Shelton was light skinned and cross-eyed. He was not a tall man, only five foot seven. Not only was Shelton a pimp, but he was a also a club owner (The Modern Horseshoe Club) and a carriage driver. As a carriage driver, Shelton picked up fares from the river boats and directed them to the best women and booze in The Bloody Third. It is a sure bet that most of his customers ended up at The Modern Horseshoe Club.
Perhaps we will never know exactly how Lee Shelton got his nickname, but all theories seem to point to the name of a Mississippi River steamboat called “The Stacker Lee.”
The Stacker Lee was owned by the wealthy Lee family from Memphis. Some scholars say Shelton once worked on the boat. Others say that Shelton may have been the illegitimate son of one of the Lee family members (would have made for an odd name Lee Lee). Some scholars suggest that Lee Shelton ran a prostitution ring on the boat.
Lee Shelton was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with murder. Shelton retained a well-known St. Louis lawyer named Nat Dryden who claimed that Shelton shot Lyons in self-defense.
The first trial ended in a hung jury. There were three jurors who felt that Shelton should have been acquitted. No court records exist for the second trial. However, Shelton was admitted to the Missouri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City on October 7, 1897 with a 25 year sentence. He was paroled in 1909, but he returned to prison in 1911 after being charged with assault. At that time, Shelton was sick with tuberculosis and died shortly after returning to prison. He was buried in an unmarked grave.
III. BILLY LYONS
There is not much known about the life of William Lyons. There seems to be disagreement between an 1860 census and paper written by a scholar who studied St. Louis race relations. My research shows that, the 1860 census lists a William Lyons as being ten years old.
At that time, ten year old Billy Lyons lived with his father George Lyons a bookkeeper, and four other individuals: Marie Lyons (age 26) a boat chambermaid, Eliza Lyons (age 12), George Lyons (age 7), and Annie Lyons (age 22). A scholar places Billy Lyon’s birth as 1864 and identifies Marie Brown as being his step-mother. Marie had a son named Charles, who as noted above, killed one of Lee Shelton’s friends. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between.
At the time of Billy Lyons' death, his step sister Eliza was married to Henry Bridgewater who was the wealthy business man in The Bloody Third and owner The Henry Bridgewater Night Club. He also owned the St. Louis Black Stockings Negro League Baseball Club.
Billy's step-mother Marie and step-sister Eliza were very active in seeking to keep Lee Shelton behind bars. They wrote the prison commission several times demanding that he not be freed early.
Billy Lyons was not married. He did, however, have three young children. Their names were Florence, Marie, and Buddy.
Perhaps Billy had a girlfriend or was romantic with his children's mother. However, no sources seem to confirm that there was a “Delia” in the picture. Billy was 45 years old when he died- if you believe the 1860 census. Or, he was 31 years old if you believe his death certificate.
IV. THE LEGEND AND MUSIC
Scholars have asked … why? Why did this murder, one no different than hundreds if not thousands that have occurred in the dingy ranks of red-light neighborhood bars and bordellos in the late 19th and early 20th centuries draw such cultural attention? Believe it or not, Ph.d thesis papers have been written on the topic.
According to author Cecil Brown in his book Stagolee Shot Billy, the beginnings of the Stagger Lee (or Stagolee or Stack Lee or Stacker Lee) folksong spurred as a field holler sung on farms and plantations. Then, it poured over into southern prisons as a work song. The story survived because people passed it down. The label “Stagger Lee” took on a meaning of its own. People would comment “He’s just another Stagolee” or “there’s no shame in Stagolee’s game.” Cecil Brown posits that to understand why the legend spread, one must appreciate that Stagger Lee earned the respect of generations to come because he “wouldn’t allow anybody to touch his hat.”
Swagger, respect, bling, and power fuels the ethos of Stagger Lee. In a time when racism and oppression gnawed at the soul of society, the image of a member of an oppressed people possessing such swagger, respect, bling, and power was something to be idolized. This concept exists in modern times such as in the form of Ron O’Neil’s character Youngblood Priest in the 1972 film Super Fly.
Cecil Brown posits that the image of Stagger Lee’s swagger, respect, bling, and power is also an element of modern hip hop and gangster rap.
The story of Stagger Lee has been recorded about 325 times. Notable artists include, Mississippi John Hurt, Taj Mahal, The Clash, The Black Keys, Ma Rainey, Neil Diamond, The Grateful Dead, and perhaps … ZenDog. The earliest version is in instrumental recorded in 1923 by Waring's Pennsylvanians. Ma Rainey recorded the first version of Stack O'Lee Blues in 1926. Here is an interesting version recorded in 1926 by the Fruit Jar Guzzlers. My favorite, however, is Mississippi John Hurt's version of Stagolee.
With Stagger Lee we have another folk song which stems from a tragedy. A father of three young children was shot and killed for no reason other than wrath and pride. How can we sing and dance to that? Well, Hunter and Garcia were able to transform Stagger Lee from a song about human tragedy into one about love, revenge, and redemption. In pure folklore tradition Hunter and Garcia introduced us to Delia who took the law into her own hands and brought Stagger Lee to justice all in honor of her late husband. So, when we hear that guitar walk up and those lyrics, “1940 Xmas Eve with a full moon over town” we can dance, sing, and smile because we know this story has a happy ending.
I never knew that Stagger Lee had such deep meaning and was the subject of extensive scholarly study. Now, when we see movies or hear music depicting that swagger, respect demanding, sparkle and blinging, power type personality, we know that the ethos of that character was created on a cold Christmas night in 1895 when Billy Lyons grabbed Stagger Lee's Stetson hat.
