It is derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad ''The Wexford Girl'', itself derived from the earlier English ballad ''The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be'' about a murder in 1683 at Hogstow Mill 12 miles south of Shrewsbury. This ballad was collected by Samuel Pepys who wrote about the murder of Anne Nichols by the Mill's apprentice Francis Cooper. Other versions are known as the ''Waxweed Girl'', ''The Wexford Murder''. These are in turn derived from Elizabethan era poem or broadside ballad, ''The Cruel Miller''.

What's the best answer to this question: was the song knoxville girl based on a true story?
yes