It was a high summer night along the Ouachita Where in a town named Mammoth Hill A boy was found at Times Picayune said Left headless by the cotton gin mill John Law was slow so the road ran free From the swamps of Louisiana to the hills of Tennessee Then on to the Carolines where it brought hard times To many a family
One Otis Ray Stone weren’t nobody’s fool He had the look of a righteous man By day he plied his trade as a teacher While by night getting blood on his hands For thirty five years running high on the loose Two steps ahead of the hangman’s noose Indeed, it seemed Otis Ray Stone would never atone For what he done to many a poor youth
Yet the long arm of justice reaches far From the banks of the Ouachita to the highest star Like the hour hand on the wall Like a snail creeping at a dead crawl One fine day in some mysterious way Justice finds us all
It finds us all
Many years hence on a Death Valley Road While jackin’ up his broke-down car Came hell on wheels that left Otis Ray Lying flat on the hot burnin’ tar For three long days, not a drop on his tongue Suffering every crawler ‘neath the desert sun And old Otis Ray screamed while a crow picked his eyes clean Before his dying was done
The long arm of justice reaches far From the banks of the Ouachita to the highest star Like the hour hand on the wall Like a snail creeping at a dead crawl One fine day in some mysterious way Justice finds us all
Now, the mortal remains of Otis Ray Stone Were never made manifest ‘Cause what a crow had done to both his eyes Ten buzzards did to the rest And all that was, was a blot on the land A heap of grey dust in the shape of a man And the last of Otis Ray was finally swept away By the blowing sand