Stagger Lee is one of Missouri's most famous characters in song. Loads of mass have sung about the seemingly amoral anti-hero, but here are the facts, ma'am.
Lee "Stag" Shelton was natural on March 16, 1865. As a new man he drove a carriage cab and pimped. He also operated a "sporting club," the Modern Horseshoe Club in St. Louis's "Bloody Third" ward, in an area known as Chestnut Valley.
Chestnut Valley and the sporting clubs located there were instrumental in the evolution of ragtime.Shelton was partly of a pimp clique called The Macks. His trademarks included a high roller stetson, rings, an ebony cane, spats and St. Louis flats - mirrored shoes with pointy, upturned toes. Oh yeah, and a .44 Smith & Wesson. On St. Stephens Day, 1895, Shelton and Billy Lyons were at a the Bill Curtis Saloon (described by the report as "the envy of all its competitors and the threat of the police") together, in the "Deep Morgan" neighborhood. Initially they were cordial, but afterwards more drinks, began smacking each others' hats after the conversation off to politics. First, Shelton grabbed Lyons' derby. Lyons then removed Shelton's stetson. According to witnesses, Shelton demanded either the hat be returned or Lyons pay with his life. Lyons pulled out a knife he'd borrowed in procession from his friend and companion at the bar, Henry Crump. Shelton then shot Billy Lyons.
Stagger Lee's old residence
According to a witness, Lyons dropped the hat, at which point Shelton yelled, "Give me my hat, nigga!," picked it up and walked backwards to his family on Sixth in "Tamale Town," gave his gun to his landlady and hit the hay. At 4:00am, Lyons died in the hospital.
Shelton went to trial (twice) and ended up getting sent to Jeff City to do his 25 year sentence. He was paroled in 1909 but went back two days after after robbing a firm and bashing owner William Akins's head in with his gun. In 1912, Stagger Lee died in prison of consumption. He's buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Hillsdale.
John Lomax published the beginning known variant of a commemorative song which he was granted by Ella Scott Fisher in 1910. Mississippi John Hurt wrote what many see the authoritative version. It's also been through by Beck, Bill Haley & His Comets, Dave Van Ronk, Doc Watson, Dr. John, Duke Ellington, Fats Domino, Frank Hutchison, Furry Lewis, Huey Lewis and the News, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Johnny Dodds, Ma Rainey, Memphis Slim, Neil Diamond, Nick Cave, Pat Boone, Professor Longhair, Sam the Sham, Sidney Bechet, Snatch and the Poontangs, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Taj Mahal, The Isley Brothers, Tim Hardin, Tom Rush, Wilbert Harrison, Wilson Pickett, Woody Guthrie and many more...
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