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In 1833 Mrs. Frances Silver was hanged in Morganton, North Carolina, for the ax murder of her husband Charles. For a century and a half the case has lived on in newspapers, pamphlets, memoirs, petitions, legends, a Sharyn McCrumb novel, plays, a ballet, documentary films, websites, and folksong scholarship. Did Frankie have cause to act or hope of justice? The Ballad of Frankie Silver explores the case through the singing and stories of Bobby McMillon and the comments of North Carolina Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Gray and others.