Micajah and Wiley Harpe
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Micajah "Big" Harpe (1768 - 24 August 1799) and Wiley "Little" Harpe (1770 - 8 February 1804), collectively known as The Bloody Harpes, were a pair of murderers, highwaymen and river pirates considered the earliest known serial killers in the United States of America (a mantle often erroneously given to H. H. Holmes). Loyal to the British crown during the American Revolutionary War, they became outlaws after the war and were active in the Appalachian Mountains. Infamous for their bloodlust and completely motiveless violence, with at least 39 deaths attributed to them, they were both eventually tracked down by vigilante groups in 1799 and 1804 respectively and executed.
Biography edit
Details of the Harpes early lives are largely unknown, but both were born sometime in 1768 and 1770 (possibly under the names Joshua and William Harper). Accounts differ as to whether they were born in Scotland and emigrated to North Carolina or if they were born there to Scottish parents. They are thought to have worked as slave overseers around 1775.
The Harpe brothers took the side of the British during the American Revolution. According to eyewitness accounts, they joined a Loyalist "rape gang" which took advantage of the war to raid Patriot homesteads, rob them, rape the women, murder all inside and burn the homes to the ground. One of the group's main enemies was Captain James Wood of the Continental Army, who wounded Little Harpe during the Battle of Kings Mountain. The Harpes retaliated by abducting his daughter Susan and two other girls, Sally Rice and Maria Davidson, who they took as their wives and repeatedly raped. Captain Wood was able to rescue a fourth girl, but the other three women remained in the captivity of the Harpes, who dragged them round the country with them wherever they went. Maria Davidson was also forcibly renamed "Betsy" and all three women were forced to go by the name "Roberts" in compliance with the Harpes aliases of "Micajah and Wiley Roberts". The Harpes lived in the Cherokee village of Nickajack until they abandoned it during the American Indian Wars shortly before a raid by the American militia.
Sometime in 1797, the Harpes began their crime spree in the village of Beaver Creek, near Knoxville. They were accused of stealing a neighbour's horses by a man named Johnson. They attempted to flee but were quickly captured. As they were lead back to Knoxville, they managed to escape. Later that night they visited a groggery, where they found Johnson and seized him. He was later found in the river, soaked in urine, ripped open and weighted down with rocks. This would later become a trademark of the Harpes crimes.
The Harpes quietly left Beaver Creek before they could be arrested and fled northwards into Kentucky. They began killing people, seemingly out of bloodlust rather than for any particular reason. Many of their victims were killed through their trademark method of cutting them open and weighting them down with stones. After four murders - a peddler named Peyton, two Marylanders named Paco and Bates and traveller John Langford - the Harpes and their three wives, all of whom were pregnant, were apprehended by a posse. All were imprisoned in Danville State Prison, but Micajah and Wiley escaped after two months. Soon after, the son of Colonel Daniel Trabue, a member of the posse that had apprehended them, was found cut open and weighted down with stones in a river.
Governor of Kentucky James Garrard placed a $300 bounty on the Harpe brothers, who fled further north, killing and mutilating at least five people before reaching the Ohio River. They and their wives, by now acquitted and released from prison, joined up with a river pirate gang lead by Samuel Mason, who preyed on slow-moving flatboats on the river. However, Mason soon came to hate the Harpes due to their excessive brutality. After an incident in which a survivor of an attack was captured by the Harpes and tied to a horse which was then forced to run off a cliff, Mason expelled them from the gang.
Following their expulsion from the Mason Gang, they murdered several dozen people in quick succession. One particular incident involved the Harpes pretending to be members of a posse chasing after them to gain the trust of their victims before beating them to death. Other victims were axed in the head or killed through their usual method of disembowelment and weighting down with stones. Also during this time, Micajah Harpe killed one of his own infant children by smashing it to death against a tree because its crying irritated him. This was the only crime for which he would later confess remorse. In Logan County the Harpes killed an entire family and their slave in their sleep after coming across their camp.
In August 1799 the Harpes attacked the home of a man named Moses Stegall. Stegall was not home, but his wife, their four-month-old son and a guest named William Love were present. When the baby began crying, one of the Harpes slit his throat; Mrs. Stegall then screamed and was also killed. The Harpes then killed Love before burning down the house. After this crime, yet another posse was formed to hunt them down by John Leiper and Moses Stegall. The posse tracked the Harpes until 24 August, when they came upon Sally Harpe, who pointed them in the direction of Micajah Harpe and his wives. They soon caught up and demanded his surrender. Harpe attempted to ride away and was shot through the leg by Leiper. He then turned and took aim at Leiper, but Leiper returned fire and shot him through the spinal cord. Harpe kept riding for several feet before Leiper caught up, pulled him from his horse and beat him into submission before forcing him to confess his crimes. When Harpe recounted the murder of the Stegall family, Moses Stegall lost his temper and used his knife to slowly cut off Harpe's head while he was still conscious. His head was later mounted on a spike on a spot which is now named Harpe's Head. All three Harpe women were released without charge and later went on to live normal lives.
Wiley Harpe, however, was able to evade Leiper's posse. He was able to re-join the Mason Gang under the alias "John Sutton" and remained a member until 1803, when the authorities captured the gang. Harpe, Peter Alston and Mason escaped, although Mason was wounded. Harpe and Alston, seeing an opportunity to gain money, killed Mason, decapitated him and brought his head to the authorities in order to claim his bounty. However, a man from Kentucky was present and recognized Wiley Harpe, at which point both Harpe and Alston were arrested. Both were convicted of murder and hanged the following year. Their heads were cut off and mounted on poles post-mortem.