Gino Vannelli - The Long Arm Of Justice Lyrics

It was a high summer night along the Ouachita
Where in a town named Mammoth Hill
A boy was found at Times Picayune said
Left headless by the cotton gin mill
John Law was slow so the road ran free
From the swamps of Louisiana to the hills of Tennessee
Then on to the Carolines where it brought hard times
To many a family

One Otis Ray Stone weren't nobody's fool
He had the look of a righteous man
By day he plied his trade as a teacher
While by night getting blood on his hands
For thirty five years running high on the loose
Two steps ahead of the hangman's noose
Indeed, it seemed Otis Ray Stone would never atone
For what he done to many a poor youth

Yet the long arm of justice reaches far
From the banks of the Ouachita to the highest star
Like the hour hand on the wall
Like a snail creeping at a dead crawl
One fine day in some mysterious way
Justice finds us all

It finds us all

Many years hence on a Death Valley Road
While jackin' up his broke-down car
Came hell on wheels that left Otis Ray
Lying flat on the hot burnin' tar
For three long days, not a drop on his tongue
Suffering every crawler 'neath the desert sun
And old Otis Ray screamed while a crow picked his eyes clean
Before his dying was done

The long arm of justice reaches far
From the banks of the Ouachita to the highest star
Like the hour hand on the wall
Like a snail creeping at a dead crawl
One fine day in some mysterious way
Justice finds us all

Now, the mortal remains of Otis Ray Stone
Were never made manifest
'Cause what a crow had done to both his eyes
Ten buzzards did to the rest
And all that was, was a blot on the land
A heap of grey dust in the shape of a man
And the last of Otis Ray was finally swept away
By the blowing sand