Ep. 2 - Bloodlust of the Harpe Brothers

There are things out there that we can't explain. Serial killers have long fascinated true crime enthusiasts. We wonder what drives a human to hunt other humans. Is there really a compulsion there? A visceral need? Or do some serial killers just do it purely for the pleasure? Individuals who commit serial murder have been among us from the dawn of human history, but the actual term "serial killer" is fairly new. There are debates about who was the first to coin the phrase, but most people credit FBI agent Robert K. Ressler with popularizing the term in the late 1970s. The first serial killer is more than likely lost to history, being someone going back to ancient history. The first recorded serial killers in America seemed to have a real bloodlust and they were cousins. The Harpe Brothers.

John and William Harpe were Scottish brothers who decided to immigrate to America in the mid-1700s. This was a peak period of immigration for the Scots-Irish and many were coming for economic opportunities. The Harpes settled in Orange County, North Carolina with their wives and each had a son. Joshua, who went by the name Micajah, was born to John and William Jr., whom everyone called Wiley, was born to William. The cousins were inseparable and soon they were going by the nicknames Big Harp and Little Harp, with Micajah being Big Harp. Something was deeply broken in these two boys.

In 1775, the American Revolution was just getting started with colonial militiamen getting into armed conflict with British troops at Lexington and Concord. The Harpes had plans to travel from North Carolina to Virginia and work on a plantation as slave overseers, but the growing war seemed to offer better opportunities. They sided with the British and used the growing conflict to carry out their criminal activities. The Harpes joined a Tory gang and their activities included pillaging and burning and raping colonial patriots and their families. That final bit of criminal enterprise got Little Harp shot after their gang kidnapped four teenage girls in North Carolina and he attempted to rape one of the girls. The man who fired the gun was James Wood, a Captain in the Contintental Army. Wood and the Harps would meet again later. In October of 1780, the Battle of Kings Mountain took place. The Harpes joined up with a Tory militia that was led by British Major Patrick Ferguson. During this engagement, the son of Captain Wood, Frank, tried to shoot Big Harpe, but he missed. The cousins went on to fight in two more battles before the Revolutionary War was over.

A new era would begin for the Harpes as they joined forces with Native Americans. They left North Carolina and headed west of the Appalachians to Tennessee with the Chickamauga Cherokee. They ended up in a village called Nickajack, southwest of what would eventually be Chattanooga, Tennessee. Before this move though, the Harpes got revenge on Captain James Wood by kidnapping his daughter Susan. They also abducted a woman named Maria Davidson, who also went by the name Betsy. Both of these women were forced to be wives to the Harpes. At least that is what historical accounts claim, but we know from our vantage point that these were just kidnapped and brutalized women. One of the men with their group confronted the Harpes about what they were doing to these women. His name was Moses Doss and the Harpes killed him. The Harpes stayed at this Tennessee village for around thirteen years.It is believed that the women both became pregnant at least a couple of times, but those children didn't live and its believed the Harpes may have killed them.

An American militia raided Nickajack in 1794, but the Harpes had forewarning and abandoned the village before that happened. By 1797, the Harpes were in a cabin in Knoxville. Little Harpe had given up on the captive wife he had and married a minister's daughter, Sarah Rice. Big Harpe now had both Maria and Susan for himself. Some sources claim that Big Harpe officially married Susan and the cousins continued to share Maria. These cousins were horribly violent criminals, but up until this point, they had not gone on a murderous rampage yet. This was going to change. Like typical highwaymen, they began robbing people along traveling trails, but they rarely came away with much and they would leave the victims dead. They would hide their crimes by disemboweling their victims, filling the empty cavities with rocks and sinking the bodies in water. This made it clear that the cousins were simply killing just to kill. The first two victims were in Tennessee, one in Knox County and the other on the road first blazed by Daniel Boone, the Wilderness Trail. One of those victims was named Johnson and his body was found in the Holston River.

By 1798, the Harpes were in Kentucky and they claimed two more male victims, Paca and Bates, who had been traveling through from Maryland. They hoodwinked the men by convincing them that they would all be safer traveling together. Near the Cumberland River, they murdered a peddler named Peyton. After each of the murders, the Harpes would leave behind most everything the victim had in their possession, so the claims that this was just bloodlust seemed to be true. The next victim made that clear. A young slave was riding through with grain on a horse and when he met up with the Harpes, they slammed his head against a tree and left the grain and horse there. The group made a stop at the Pharris Inn and befriended a man named Stephen Langford and suggested they travel together for safety. This was becoming a part of their modus operandi. Langford was found dead a few days later by some cattle herders.

Finally, on Christmas Day in 1798, the Harpes were captured along with the three women with them. All three women were pregnant and two gave birth in prison. While awaiting trial, the cousins escaped, leaving the women behind. All three were acquitted of any wrong doing and they eventually caught up with the Harpe Brothers in what could only be deemed some kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Or perhaps it was a real fear that the men would be able to find them and kill them, so more like the Battered Wife Syndrome. Shortly thereafter, the body of Johnny Trabue, thirteen-years-old, was found dismembered near a grist mill in Kentucky. Frederick Stump, Jr.'s body was found disembowled and full of stones in the Barren River after that.

The Harpes made their way to Illinois and hid out in a cave that was the hangout of river pirates called Cave-In-Rock. The cave sat along the Ohio River, which made it the perfect spot for plundering flatboats. A man named Samuel Mason set up a tavern and gambling parlor in the cave. He was a thief and used the enterprise to lure travelers in off the river. If those travelers were lucky, they only ended up beaten and robbed. Mason and the Harpes became fast friends, although several of the other pirates at the cave thought the Harpe Brothers were too violent, which really says something. Mason was a big man like Big Harpe and he killed for both bloodlust and profit. The cave is said to be quite haunted. Disembodied anguished cries are heard and shadows move about. And one couldn't help but wonder if one particular victim of the Harpes is one of those voices being heard. Their depravity had reached such a level that with this particular victim, they stripped him naked, tied him to a horse and drove them both over a cliff where they fell 100 feet. Because of this act, the other members of Mason's gang kicked the Harpe Brothers out of the cave.

The Harpes headed back to Knoxville and continued their serial murders. In July of 1799, they killed a farmer and another man and then they killed a boy named Coffey and stole his rifle. Next was a man named William Ballard, who was disemboweled and weighed down with stones. At a place called Brasel's Knob, the cousins happened upon the Brasel Brothers, James and Robert, and asked if the men wanted to join their posse hunting the Harpe Brothers. This was a new tactic and it worked. The Brasels headed off with the Harpes and soon found the Harpes accusing them of being the wanted men. Robert managed to get away, but when he returned with some other men, they found James beaten and dead after having his throat slit. There seemed to be no stopping the Harpes. They next killed John Graves and his teenage son, a little girl who was picking wild berries, a male slave and the entire Trisword family, which included ten people.

The cousins needed a place to hide at this point and they knew an acquaintance, Moses Stegall, had a house in the area. When they arrived, Moses wasn't home but his wife and four-month-old baby were. There was also another man there named Major William Love. The wife invited the Harpes to stay for dinner and gave them a room. Major Love was axed in the head during the middle of the night because he was snoring loudly. The baby started crying and it was killed as well. Mrs. Stegall screamed and was killed as well. The Harpes set the house on fire and ran. When Moses Stegall arrived home, he was distraught. He organized a posse and they found the Harpes' Camp. The Harpes ran, but the posse caught up with Big Harpe and he was shot, but not killed. Moses grabbed him by the hair and cut his head off. The head was then placed on a pike in a tree and the area was called Harpe's Head for years. The women who had been with the Harpes were once again placed on trial and acquitted. They didn't try to find Little Harpe.

Little Harpe fled to Natchez, Mississippi and he met up with Samuel Mason. The Natchez Trace Parkway became a favorite hunting ground for Little Harpe and Mason. This was a dangerous road that traveled through boggy swamps and heavily wooded areas, making travelers easy prey for animals and violent humans. One of the most famous people to die here was Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. The official story was that he committed suicide, but I believe he was murdered. Along the trail were several taverns to give travelers a much needed break. At the end of the parkway sat the King's Tavern. This rustic bar still stands today. I've been inside the tavern. Many claim that it is haunted and I myself have an experience there with what I believe was a female spirit. The owner shared several weird experiences with me as well and even showed me a video from their security cameras of a small fridge behind the bar having its door opened by something unseen when no one was in the building. This was a favorite hangout for Little Harpe. 

There is a story that claims while they sleeping at the tavern, a baby started crying and was inconsolable. Little Harpe came into the room and took the baby from the mother, grabbed it by the ankles and slammed its head against the wall, silencing the baby forever. Whether the story is true or not, the Harpes killed their own children with one narrative claiming that Big Harpe slammed the head of his baby against a tree because it wouldn't stop crying. It was said that was the only murder he regretted. So this legend may be a carry over from those stories. Whatever the case may be, the King's Tavern does have as part of its hauntings, the sound of a baby crying. An owner of the tavern named Yvonne Scott and her daughter Danny have both shared stories in which they heard the cries of a baby coming from the attic when there were no babies in the place. The apparition of a male wearing a dark jacket with a black string tie and top hat over red hair has been seen and photographed. Although there are no photos of the Harpes, people claim that this is Little Harpe, particularly because he had distinctive red hair. The reasoning is that the dark figure is very menacing and evokes fear in those who have seen it.

When a reward was offered for Samuel Mason in the amount of $2,000 in 1804, Little Harpe and another man cornered Mason and cut his head off. They then went to collect their reward. A person in the crowd that gathered to see the head, recognized Little Harpe and he was arrested and placed in the territorial prison in Natchez. He was tried and sentenced to hang, which was carried out in February 1804. His head was cut off and placed on a stake on the Natchez Trail as a warning to other criminals. The Natchez prison that was Little Harpe's last home, had been built in 1789. It was eventually razed and replaced by a three-story building that housed Baker McDowell Hardware. In 1926, City Bank and Trust Company decided to remodel the building as a new home for the bank. The bank eventually became Deposit Guaranty Bank and closed sometime around 1988. In the early 90s, a restaurant named The Pompous Palette opened up in the building. This building is haunted and many believe that it is Little Harpe's spirit. Employees at the bank and restaurant complained of having their hair pulled or their shoulders getting grabbed violently. A head bank teller was once locked in the vault when he was closing up one night. Thankfully, he was rescued shortly thereafter and everyone was bewildered as the vault door was too heavy to just close on its own. The restaurant only remained open for a year. All the activity with plates being dumped and food thrown around forced them out of business.

There is another legend connected to the Harpes, specifically Big Harpe. There is an area of the Natchez Trace that was home to the Mound Builders of Mississippi. This section between Tupelo and Houston came to be known as Witch Dance. The name was inspired by tales of witch covens practicing their craft in this area. The witches would dance and it was said that wherever their feet touched the ground, the vegetation would die. And that grass would never grow in that spot again. Big Harpe was at Witch Dance with a Native American guide who told him about the legends. Big Harpe jumped from dead spot to dead spot and dared the witches to come out and fight him. He didn't believe the ridiculous story and indeed nothing happened. But after Big Harpe's head was put in the tree on a pike, it is said that a witch came by and took the head away, grinding it into a powder and making it into a potion. Now when people visit Witch Dance, they hear disembodied laughter. Is that the witches, Big Harpe or maybe just the wind coursing through the nearby bushes and trees.

Big Harpe may not be at Witch Dance in the afterlife, but there are those who claim that he is Harpe's Head. The Cincinnati Enquirer from August 13, 1905 claimed that the ghost of Micajah Harpe was haunting the scene of his execution by the posse. It reads, "For many years the rumor of the appearance at this spot of the ghost of Micajah Harpe had, at intervals, been current, but attracted little attention. Recently, however, a party of ladies and gentlemen returning at nightfall from a picnic passed near the spot, and to their horror and dismay they saw the ghost of Harpe gliding around and around the historic stump. It was seen distinctly by more than 20 persons, many of whom were of mature age and of cool and unimaginative temperament. The testimony of these witnesses, they being competent observers and of impeachable veracity, could not be doubted; at least to the extent that they firmly believed in the reality of the apparition." The writer of the article went on to claim that he had actually seen the apparition himself, spoken to it, gotten some answers in return and watched the phantom fade away.

The Harpe Brothers were some of the most violent criminals to have ever lived and their murders, which numbered at least forty people, certainly places them on the serial killer list. They eventually paid for those crimes and one has to wonder if their spirits are still paying here in the afterlife, trapped in some kind of way.