Here are the lyrics and audio for "Don Brown is Dead," an original true crime bluegrass ballad by Lannie Dietle. This mournful ballad was written to honor the lives of three western Pennsylvania murder victims — Wallace Coulson, Katie Lumley, and Victor Dillaman — all killed by Donald Leroy Brown in the 1960s. It also marks the eventual end of the killer's life. Enjoy the free lyrics, historical notes, and streaming audio below.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Don Brown is finally dead!
He shot dear Wallace Coulson
Four times in the head.
Heading to a birthday party
That Wallace never made,
With one little girl a-wonderin'
Why Wallace never came.
Wallace was an old man
Walkin' down a country road,
And he's still here in the memories
Of the children that he knowed.
Another neighbor kid
Grew up and had a son,
And in honor of old Wallace
The boy is named Coleson.
A hard scrabble farmer,
His voice forever hushed,
But Wallace, he survives
In the lives that he touched.
One kid he affected
Was the boy I know as me.
If not for Wallace Coulson
I'm not sure who I would be.
Don Brown, he went to jail
At the age of twenty-three.
They locked him in a cell,
And they threw away the key.
Don Brown killed Katie Lumley.
He stabbed that girl to death.
After years and years of lyin'
He finally did confess.
Katie, she is still missed now,
Her family forever sad.
Thinking what that monster did,
It really makes me mad.
In a way, his life, it ended
At the age of twenty-three.
That was the last time
Don Brown was ever free.
Katie, she still lives on
In her family's memory,
And she stays forever young
In their lovin' reverie.
Don Brown, he went to jail
At the age of twenty-three.
They locked him in a cell,
And they threw away the key.
He killed Victor Dillaman
By beatin' him to death.
After years and years of lyin',
He finally did confess.
Victor was a customer
On Brown's delivery route.
He was partly paralyzed,
And Don still took him out.
Don Brown, he went to jail
At the age of twenty-three.
They locked him in a cell,
And they threw away the key.
Now that Don Brown is dead
I hope his soul was never saved,
And it would make me oh so happy
To dance upon his grave.
Yeah, it would make me oh so happy
To do a jig upon his grave.
Thoughts on writing this true crime bluegrass ballad
Attending the auction of a 1967 murder victim
As a kid, I loved and collected books. One day my father took me to the estate auction of a man who had been murdered near Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania in 1967. While there, I bid on and won an auction lot of old books. Among the books were original copies of the 1864 book "Soldier's National Cemetery, Gettysburg" and Amos Judson's 1865 book "History of the Eighty-Third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers." The content of those two books changed my life by turning me into a history buff.
Research led to the name of the murder victim
Between the pages of the books, I found photographs of two Civil War soldiers. For decades I wondered who the soldiers were. In 2007, I began to research the two men, and created a web page about them. Several individuals found the web page and provided extensive information about the two soldiers and their patriotic extended family. Other individuals provided information about the murder victim Wallace Brooks Coulson, whose estate auction I had attended. In 2022, I learned that a high school classmate of mine named his son in honor of Mr. Coulson.
Newspaper articles inspired the song lyrics
In early 2026, I received a tranche of newspaper articles about the murderer, Donald Leroy Brown, and his three victims, and I heard from a sister of the youngest murder victim. I also found a 2004 article from the "Pocono Record" that was updated in 2011. Those newspaper articles inspired the "Don Brown is Dead" true crime bluegrass song, and provided many of the details the song recites. A few months after the song was published, I heard from a relative of Victor Lee Dillaman, the first murder victim of Donald Brown.
An instrumental memorial for the murder victims
"Victor, Wallace, and Katie" is a bluegrass instrumental version of the "Don Brown is Dead" ballad, and was created in remembrance of the three murder victims, as a memorial to their lives.
L. Dietle
This photo of Donald Leroy Brown in handcuffs was taken at the Mercer County, Pennsylvania courthouse, where he was facing a murder charge.
