"Vigilante Man" by Woody Guthrie, from his 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads, tells the story of the "hired thugs" who terrorized migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. The song vividly portrays the violence these so-called vigilantes inflicted upon those seeking a new life in California, even referencing the murder of Preacher Casy from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. It draws its tune from "Sad and Lonesome Day," popularized by The Carter Family. At its heart, the song is a stark protest against injustice and the exploitation of the vulnerable.