Before the federal marshals were formed in the judiciary act of 1789, law and order in the U.S. was the responsibility of the general public. Horseback posses would kick up dust in pursuit of criminals, often for days, and the variety of justice to be dispersed was up to the posse leader's creativity. It was during this time of disorganization that an outlaw could go undetected and even prosper in his or her trade for a lifetime if lucky enough. If there's no one there to see you, no one there to take you in and no posse large enough to catch up with you; there wasn't much that could be done to stop you.
It is during the late 1700s that we see a very new kind of criminal arise in the fledgling United States. Highwaymen and pirates were the direct result of a newly militarized generation who were sent back to relative poverty once the war of independence ended in 1783. These were people who knew how to fight, knew how to track, knew how to intimidate and knew how to kill, a skill set which would prove valuable to anyone adopting the life of an outlaw. Though these trained killers had been released back into the general public, their banditry and often deviant exploits were in the name of keeping themselves fed, clothed and sheltered. The war had left them as highly-trained combat experts with no work to go to, no home to go to and often a whole series of mental illnesses. However drastic and wild their actions, they did so out of a perceived necessity; there was a reasoning behind it. There were those that attacked and robbed in order to keep themselves afloat, and then there were the Harpe brothers.
In 1798, the U.S. was introduced to a criminal whose motivation was not for money or power, but human flesh. The Harpe brothers are regarded as America's first serial killers, and their nine-month kill spree which saw them through four states is now a thing of terrible legend. The story of the Harpe brothers is riddled with inconsistencies and this makes it very difficult to provide a definitive history of the pair, though through second-hand, certain categorical information, and even folktale, we can piece together some of a Frankenstein timeline that reads more like a horror story than a factual investigation. Simply put, the only reliable witnesses to the Harpe brothers' actions are long but worm food. This was the first instance where such a criminal, a serial killer, would become deep-seated in American folklore and thus made immortal through their heinous actions.
War of Independence
The two left Orange County in 1775, most likely in their early teens, to pursue work as slave overseers in Virginia. Already we see the two leaning towards a career in cruelty, but instead of finding a whip and a horse; they settled on guns and war. When the war of independence broke out in 1776, the two abandoned their overseer aspirations in favour of aligning themselves with the British army. It is largely alluded to that the Harpes weren't so politically inclined and only chose to join the Torys in order to reap the spoils of a terrible war; the sanctioned rapes, killings and burnings.
The cruelty of the Harpes during this period was even too much for their military superiors, who saw them as needlessly violent and perhaps even detected that the pair were only involved in the war so as to act out their sick fantasies. This disgust was never more evident than when Captain James Wood, their superior, shot and wounded Little Harpe as he attempted to rape a young girl. For long had the Harpes been riding with Tory rape gangs, kidnapping teenage girls and engaging in activities deemed unsuitable even by the most hardened of Tory warlords. It was here, perhaps, that the Harpes realized that their fun with the military was over. Now trained to hunt and kill, they would eventually use their new skills against those who taught them.
Captain James Wood's shooting of Little Harpe, though noble, would eventually prove to turn against him. By 1781, the Harpes had banded with a Cherokee Indian party and were raping and pillaging once more. They would eventually abduct and make a "wife" of James Wood's daughter, Susan Wood. James would never see his daughter again and she would eventually become instrumental in the Harpe's crimes and inhumanities.
Post-war, the spree begins
In 1798, a man's body is discovered floating in the Holston river in Knoxville, Tennessee. The man's chest is opened up wide and filled with stones, whether this was an attempt to keep him sunken or a mock burial rite is unknown. It would, however, prove to be the patent of many a Harpe killing for the next nine months. Not much is known about this man, other than his name was Johnson, and that he would be the very first victim of the Harpe brothers' killing spree.
By mid December, it was obvious that the Harpes had worked themselves into a frenzy, as their killings suddenly became more frequent. By December 13th, the pair had claimed three more victims on their journey through the Wilderness Road. However, the Harpes were as careless as they were violent and it wasn't long before the body of a man named Langford was recovered just off the path and identified by an innkeeper who knew that this was the work of the Harpe brothers. A posse was formed and it wasn't long before the Harpes and their wives had been found and captured to be trialed to the fullest extent of the law.
The nightmare of Southeast was far from over, as the Harpe brothers had escaped from their prison in Danville, Ky, just two months after their trial, leaving their pregnant wives behind them to rot. As soon as they had made their escape, the two were anything but thankful for their freedom, rather they were excited to continue their senseless bloodletting. Another two men had been viciously murdered by early April.
The posse that had been hunting the brothers found themselves at the cabin of Col. Daniel Trabue, a renowned hunter and pioneer, and wished for him to join their hunt, considering his expertise. Traube was willing to join the posse, but first needed to find his son, whom had been missing. It eventually came to light that Col. Daniel Trabue's 13-year-old son had been abducted and murdered by the Harpes, right under their noses. This was the first, but not last time that the Harpes would murder a child on their venture through the Southeast. Soon after, a $300 bounty would be placed on the brothers' heads and every posse and militia in Kentucky would be on their tails.
Captain Samuel Mason and Cave-In-Rock
Knowing that they were being hunted vehemently for reward as well as revenge, the brothers sought out shelter and joined a pirate gang operating out of Cave-In-Rock in Illinois. The Harpe wives had been released from prison at this point and had been ordered by a messenger to reunite with their husbands at the pirate hideout. The cave, located by the Ohio river, served as a perfect hideaway and vantage point for pirates to strike and plunder passing boats. The operation was run by a man named Captain Samuel Mason, another criminal and murderer born from a military history with the Americans during the War of Independence. Though they had fought on different sides, there is a greater history between Mason and the Harpe brothers that will be discussed later on in another article.
Mason and his gang welcomed the two into their ranks and taught them the ways of pirating, or at least their strain of piracy, which varied from inviting weary travelers into their cave to full-on assaults on cargo boats. The Harpes spent less than a month in Illinois and at Cave-In-Rock, but managed to clock up at least three murders by this point, shooting and looting campers on their way towards Mason's cave. As is tradition with most pirate gangs, celebrations were held inside the cave after a particularly successful attack. Not contented with these celebrations, the Harpe brothers' sadism reared its ugly head once again and they decided to make their own fun with the sole survivor of one of the pirate's robberies. Taking the man to the hill above the cave, they tied him to a blindfolded horse and had it run off the side of the cliff. The pirates' celebration ended as they heard the crash at the mouth of the cave and saw the mangled, suffering horses dying and kicking its legs.
Though barbaric themselves, even the pirates saw this as a complete betrayal of their code. Samuel Mason, though no angel himself, ordered the two to leave and to take their wives with them. Though this would not be last time the Harpes would see Mason and his gang.
The final stretch
Perhaps sensing that their days were soon to be numbered, the Harpe's sadistic spree turned into a daily routine in an attempt to lap up as much bloodshed as they could. From Black Oak Ridge to Henderson County, the Harpes murdered at least ten more people, three of which were small children, and one of which was Big Harpe's own infant child. Among the victims were a father and son by the name of Brassel, whom the Harpes had tricked into believing that they were themselves members of a posse on the trail of the Harpes. Eventually, the brothers took their joke to the next possible extreme and began accusing the father and son of being the escaped Harpes. They subjected the father to a merciless beating on the dirt road toward Brassel's Knob, while his son managed to escape and seek out help.
Feeling as though they had thrown the posse off their trail, the Harpe family decided to rent out a cabin by Canoe Creek, Henderson County. It is during this time in Canoe Creek that the locals began to spy on the new tenants, suspecting them of being the Harpes. However, even after the alarm was raised when the brothers attempted to attack one of their neighbours, there was still not sufficient evidence in the eyes of the landowners to convince them that this was the notorious, outlaw family. Perhaps noticing that they were being watched, the Harpes would order their wives to meet them far away from the cabin where they could continue their journey without being caught.
On their way to meet their wives, the Harpes ran into a man named James Tompkins, who they convinced that they were travelling preachers. Tompkins, obviously quite charmed by the deceptive Harpes, invited them to his home for supper, where Big Harpe would mockingly bless their meal. This is an extremely odd instance in the Harpe story, as they would leave the Tompkins house without harming anyone, rather the simply stayed with the man and enjoyed their meal. Big Harpe, upon hearing that Tompkins had run out of gunpowder, even gave Tompkins a cup full of his own. Though the three would enjoy a harmless meal together, that very gunpowder that Big Harpe gave to Tompkins would prove vital to the closing chapter of the Harpe story.
Seeking out further shelter, the Harpes arrived at the home of a friend named Moses Stegall. Though he wasn't present, his wife offered them a bed as long as they didn't mind sharing with another, a man named William Love. By the early morning, the Stegall house would be a pile of smoldering wood, Mrs. Stegall, her infant child and William Love all murdered and left inside. This would mark the end of the Harpe's nine month killing spree, with an enlarged and infuriated posse on their trail and a betrayal on the part of Little Harpe's wife.
The posse, now including Moses Stegall among other locals, had found the Harpe camp. Little Harpe's wife was the only one present and, perhaps for fear of her life, pointed the posse in the direction of Big Harpe. Within one day of swift pursuit, the posse had caught up with Big Harpe and ordered him to give himself up. Not the type to go down without a fight, Big Harpe rode on with the bloated posse in pursuit. John Leiper, a member of the posse, had his horse sprint ahead of the posse and he was soon riding right behind Big Harpe. Harpe had already suffered bullet wounds to the leg and was bleeding heavily, though he could sense Leiper behind him and took aim. Leiper would beat Harpe to the punch however, and Harpe would take a round to the spinal chord from the very gun he had loaded for James Tompkins two days previously.
The dying Harpe could go on no longer and he was eventually pulled from the back of his horse where he met the ground with a thump. It's not clear as to why he decided to confess his evils to the posse, whether he was genuinely guilty or simply wanted to provoke the family members of his victims, but it all became too much for Moses Stegall, who beheaded Big Harpe with his hunting knife and left it in a nearby tree as a message to other murderers and highwaymen.
Little Harpe would be found two years later and executed after rejoining and attempting to betray Samuel Mason and his pirate gang.
The Harpe wives went on to re-marry, live quite respectable lives and build a brighter future for their children.
The Harpe brothers, even in the early days of American liberation, displayed all of the hallmarks associated with the psychology of a serial killer. They were skilled actors, deliberate liars and excitable sadists. Their victims were chosen for sport, they were men, women and children, all of them were played with mentally before being slaughtered. They did not kill for financial gain, they did so only for their own excitement. The Harpes are essentially the very blueprints for this new brand of criminal in the United States; the pleasure killer. Though their history is hazy and riddled with inconsistencies, the Harpe's tale was still harrowing enough to be carried down by word of mouth from generation to generation, cementing them as the very first killers to shock the United States.
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