Worldwide, America has produced the most serial killers; The U.S. Is reported to have identified and recorded 3,0204 serial killers. The idea of freedom attracted the good and bad, being that even at a young age America had a high amount of serial killer. With the lengthy list of identified serial killers America has, many people believe the erroneous statement that Herman Webster Mudgett aka H.H. Holmes was the first ever American serial killer. The first American serial killers were a duo called the Harpe Brothers. Their proven death toll was 39 people, but it is very likely that they killed more than 50 people, 2 of the deaths were reported to be their own children. The “Harpe brothers” were actually first cousins from the 18th century who killed men, women, and children; because of their gruesome murders at the time were Americas first identified and recorded serial killers which paved the way for other serial killers like H.H. Holmes.
So much of the information about the Harpe Brothers is untruthful and sometimes just made up completely. The first common myth about the pair is their relationship towards each other, they were cousins not brothers. Micajeh Harpe earned the nickname “Big Harpe” because of his tall and muscular build, while Wiley Harpe, who was born with the name Joshua Harpe, earned the nickname “Little Harpe” because his average build compared to his cousin. Their parents were Scottish immigrants who came in and settled in North Carolina, but because they were loyalists, they were hung by their patriot neighbors. Following in their parents’ footsteps they to fought for the English where they fought in multiple battles, they would sometimes raid the homes of patriot. Their service though, was more about the violence then the actual act of patriotism.
The cousins would later leave the army and join a Cherokee Indian tribe that would raid Patriot properties in North Carolina and Tennessee. Little Harpe was shot and wounded by Captain James Wood while he was attempting to rape a woman in North Carolina, because of this, the two cousins went out for revenge and kidnapped his daughter Susan Wood along with another woman named Maria Davidson. These women were raped, beaten, and had played the role of wives for the cousins. The “wives” eventually both had a baby and these children were killed by their fathers. During this time, they were living in the Cherokee-Chickamauga village of Nickajack, they would stay here for another 12 years. The cousins would move due to a Patriot attack against the village which would result in the village getting wiped out completely, after fleeing the attack just in time they would live in a cabin with the “wives” in Beavers Creek, in the same year, 1797, Little Harpe would marry a minister’s daughter named Sarah Rice.
127 our experts are availableright now
In 1798, their murder spree began. The cousins killed a man named Johnson after being driven out from a small town near Knoxville, Tennessee. Johnson was found floating in the Holstein River with his body slit open and stuffed with rocks. Jon Musgrave goes into details of the murder by saying,” The Harpes got away with that murder, in part because authorities believed the establishment’s owner and his brothers-in-law who were present that night had something to do with it.”. Their streak continued when they killed Paca and Bates, two Marylander travelers, after that they killed a Virginian named Stephen Langford who had kept showing off his silver coin. His body was found, and the nearby innkeeper already knew who was to blame. On Christmas in 1799 the Harpes were imprisoned, they escaped on March 16 and left the Harpe women there since they were all pregnant. Nevertheless, they continued their murderous streak. They killed a man close to the future Edmonton and another man on the Barren River. They also killed Col. Daniel Trabue’s 13-year old son in, from there, they headed towards Cave-in-Rock.
They would be met up by their “wives” who all got their freedom back. On April 22nd, there was a $300 bounty on the Harpes, during that time they went to seek haven from Captain Samuel Mason; there they would kill at least 3 more people. The Harpes also joined Captain Mason and his pirates, during one of their attacks, the cousins decided to take the last survivor to a cliff where they made him strip, tied him to a blindfolded horse and ran the horse of the cliff. The horrific scene had made the pirates kick them out. After a few weeks, their streak resumed, they killed a farmer who was named Bradbury, another man named Hardin, and on July 22nd killed Chelsey Coffey young son.
On July 29th they killed James by pretending to join him looking for themselves, after this they would go on to kill a man named John Tully. The cousins would go on to kill John Graves, his son, a young black boy, a young white girl, the family and servants of two Trisword brothers, William Love, Mrs. Stegall, the Stegall’s four-month-old boy, and Big Harpe would even kill his or his brother’s child. A judge who was born in 1793 named James Hall wrote about the cousins in his 1828 “Letters from the West” saying,” A savage in their blood-a deep rooted malignity against human nature, could alone be discovered in their actions. They murdered every defenceless being who fell in their way without distinction of age, sex, or colour.
All their murders had caught up to them, a group of residents had hunted down and found the pair. Little Harpe escaped but Big Harpe ended up being decapitated, he ended up having his head put between two roads which are now commonly known as Harpes Head. The Carolina Gazette wrote “He confessed the killing of Mr. Stump on Big Barren; he also confessed of their killing 17 or 18 besides; they killed two men near Robertson Lick, the day before they burnt Staple’s house”. Little Harpe went back to Samuel Mason, a couple years later Harpe and his friend cut off his head for the reward money but ended up getting recognized. He escaped them but got caught by another group who ended up hanging him.
Traces of the Harpes can still be found in pop culture today, the story of the Harpe “brothers” have been portrayed in multiple movies. The cousins were even portrayed in a Walt Disney television series called Davy Crockett and the River Pirate. Their effect doesn’t just end in pop culture, they were thought to be what early America represented more specifically regions like North Carolina where they had one of the biggest issues with outlaws. Today, the cousins are seen as a warning, leaving behind a horrific record and a long list of strict laws to make sure crimes like that are never repeated.
The Harpe brothers were 2 cousins who left an odious stain on the fabric of America. They were murderers who robbed, killed, raped, and terrorized settlers from North Carolina and Tennessee. The cousins were America’s first identified and recorded serial killers who had the death toll of 39, which included their children, but could really be as much as 50.
