“On the Banks of the Ohio” is a 19th Century murder ballad, in which Willie asks his love interest to take a walk down by the Ohio River. He knows she is in love with someone else but gives her the option to choose him or die. She pleads with him for her life, but in his extreme jealousy he stabbers her, killing her, and then has remorse for “killing the only woman (he) loved, because she would not be (his) bride.”