Long Black Wait, what?

Lefty Frizzell's hit Long Black Veil has always been one of my favorite country songs. Has that perfect haunting sound of old country, the kind you can't imagine hearing unless it's pitch black outside and you're sipping whiskey. (Same goes for Robert Johnson or Hank Williams.)

On a whim I checked it out on Wikipedia and while the narrative has always been pretty obvious I've never seen it spelled out so clearly:

It is told from the point of view of a man falsely accused of murder and executed. He refuses to provide an alibi, since on the night of the murder he was having an affair with his best friend's wife, and would rather die and take their secret to his grave than admit the truth. The chorus describes the woman's mourning visits to his grave site, wearing a long black veil and enduring a wailing wind. 

Umm, I don't wanna be a dick but does this guy REALLY think his friend's wife is gonna be able to keep her trap shut about the affair for the next coupla decades? In a tiny, everybody-knows-everybody- town? WHERE SHE'S CONSTANTLY VISITING HIS GRAVE IN A LONG BLACK VEIL??!?!?!

I mean for fuck's sake....

...still love the song tough.