The writer and singer is Bob Dylan, of course. A lot of people don't find his voice all that appealing, but for my money, he wrote songs that only he could sing. And the story of this song is interesting, and local to Baltimore.
On February 9, 1963, a rich snotty young man named William Devereux "Billy" Zantzinger, 24, went to the "Spinsters' Ball" at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore. This is the sort of ridiculous debauched activity that used to pass for society life here. Zantzinger was from Charles County, tobacco country in Southern Maryland, where segregation was still very much in practice. He was every bit the sort of person you would expect to have a middle name like Devereux, and he was drunk, and he was strutting around with one of those stupid bamboo canes they used to hand out at carnivals and fairs as consolation prizes for those who couldn't quite master the art of tossing darts.
Hattie Carroll, age 51, was a barmaid at the Emerson, mother of ten (or nine, according to the Washington Post article in 1991. Working a shift that night, she encountered Zantzinger, who had got himself all drunked up before the ball at the Eager House, another swank spot downtown, and then lurched over to the Emerson, barking out drink orders all along the way.
In the most awful disgusting language, Zantzinger ordered Hattie to bring him bourbon and hit her with the cane when she did not produce it in a trice. He hit her on the head and shoulder as she ran away in tears as the "B" and "N" epithets poured out of his foul mouth. He also hit his wife with the cane.
It wasn't five minutes later that Ms Carroll fell against a coworker, saying, "I feel deathly ill, that man has upset me so." Her speech thickened and her arm became numb as she collapsed and was taken to Mercy Hospital.
Within eight hours, Hattie Carroll was dead. The autopsy revealed that she was arteriosclerotic (had hardening of the arteries) and had high blood pressure and an enlarged heart, medical factors that some lawyer used to help Zantzinger more or less get away with it. The cause of death was established as a brain hemorrhage.Initially, Zantzinger was charged with homicide, but upon discovery of Ms Carroll's underlying medical conditions, the charges were changed to manslaughter and assault.
His trial was moved to Washington County in Western Maryland, and concluded on August 28, 1963. Zantzinger was found guilty of manslaughter and assault, and given a six-month sentence. Conveniently, the six-month big allowed him to avoid spending time in the state prison system, where his presence might have not been welcomed by the other inmates. He was also made to pay the Carroll family $25,000 blood money.Dylan recorded the song on October 23, 1963 for his third album, "The Times They Are A-Changin' " (probably the most prophetic title for any album anywhere!). It was the last purely-acoustic folk record of his career.
Fresh out of the hoosegow, Zantzinger forsook tobacco farming for real estate. Apparently bent on being a worthless scoundrel to the end, he bought up some shabby houses, charged rent for them from poor black farm workers in Charles County, and lost the houses when the county foreclosed on them for unpaid taxes he owed.
Even though he no longer owned the houses, he kept on taking rent from his hard-luck tenants. He even had the gall to sue some of them when they failed to come up with the rent for houses he did not own. Dylan didn't write about it, but Zantzinger was arrested anew, convicted, and put in prison for 19 months , plus some time in work release and a fine of $50,000.
William "Billy" Zantzinger left this earth for parts unknown on January 3, 2009, He was 69.
Remember his first conviction for the Carroll manslaughter/assault, and the trial ending date of Aug 28, 1963? Remember what else happened that day?
This:
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