Wikipedia states that this is part of a broader genre of “sweetheart” murder ballads. I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with that there. In no culture do we murder our sweethearts. Murdering a love interest is a sure sign of pathological narcissism. NOT LOVE.
Here’s Doc Watson’s version. The oldest recorded version is by Grayson & Whittier in 1929.
There’s also a couple of video documentaries that discuss the story at the root of the song, linked below:
2. Terry Helton’s documentary, part 1
Terry Helton’s documentary, part 2