So I’m discussing 1950s horror comics with my wife – like you do – and I was telling her about one I read that involved confidence men who got hold of Confederate treasury currency plates and started forging Confederate money for the antiquities trade. They got caught, they killed the guy who caught them, his ghost (I think) killed them, etc. etc. And she goes Isn’t there a Charlie Daniels song about an old evil guy who got robbed of his jars of money and then his ghost killed the robbers, and you can still hear their screams and his laughter?
And I said, Well, there’s an HP Lovecraft story called “The Terrible Old Man” which is about an old evil guy with talking bottles who some people tried to rob, and then they disappeared because he pretty obviously killed them with magic.
Turns out we were both right. Here, read and listen for yourself.
Legend of Wooley Swamp, Charlie Daniels
It’s not a one-to-one correspondence, but I’m pretty sure Charlie at least read that story once. I say that without criticism, mind you. Inspiration is where you find it.