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The legend of Tom Dula (pronounced and often spelled Dooley ) is a myth. The convicted murderer of Laura Foster in 1866 becomes, for romantics, the tragic lover who went down singing on the way to the scaffold.
Despite strong circumstantial evidence and Dula s confession, diehard sympathizers believe that Dula had been innocent. He d professed his innocence in a one-hour speech before hanging.
A new, original musical about Dula s life, scheduled to open at Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville in August (2010), goes even further, pinning the killing on someone else. Legends are the point of the play, titled, The Ballad of Tom Dooley. It begins with 1930s musicians picking up the story lines through ballads.