Well they closed down the auto plant
in Mahwah late that month
Ralph went out looking for a job but he couldn't find none
He came home too drunk
from mixing Tanqueray and wine
He got a gun, shot a night clerk,
now they call him Johnny 99
Down in the part of town
where when you hit a red light you don't stop
Johnny's waving his gun around
and threatening to blow his top
When an off-duty cop
snuck up on him from behind
Out in front of the Club Tip Top
they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99
Well the city supplied a public defender
but the judge was Mean John Brown
He came into the courtroom
and stared poor Johnny down
Well the evidence is clear,
gonna let the sentence son
fit the crime
Prison for 98 and a year
and we'll call it even, Johnny 99
A fistfight broke out in the courtroom,
they had to drag Johnny's girl away
His mama stood up and shouted,
«Judge, don't take my boy this way»
Well son you got any statement you'd like to make
Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away
Now judge, judge, I got debts
no honest man could pay
The bank was holding my mortgage,
they taking my house away
Now I ain't saying that makes me an innocent man
But it was more and all this
that put that gun in my hand
Well your honor I do believe
I'd be better off dead
And if you can take a man's life
for the thoughts that's in his head
Then won't you sit back in that chair
and think it over, Judge, one more time
And let 'em shave off my hair
and put me on that execution line