Man made infamous by Bob Dylan folk song dies

Rock musician Bob Dylan performs at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles in this May 5, 2004 file photo.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - William Zantzinger, a Maryland man who became the subject of 1964 Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, has died at age 69.

Zantzinger died on January 3, a representative from the Brinsfield-Echols Funeral Home in Charlotte Hall, Maryland, told Reuters on Friday. No cause of death was released.

He was made infamous by Dylan in the song that described the well-off tobacco farmer as a society dandy who "killed poor Hattie Carroll/With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger."

Carroll was a black woman, and her death became a civil rights-era flashpoint that was written about in news reports which Dylan relied on for his song.

But Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, said Dylan left out key details.

"This was really bad behavior, it's just that the whole story is so much more complex," Thompson said.

Zantzinger struck barmaid Carroll with a toy cane at a party and was later convicted of a manslaughter charge after she died. He received a six-month sentence.

But the 51-year-old woman had a history of heart problems and the cane left no mark. An autopsy report said Carroll died of a brain hemorrhage.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)