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The Brother's First Brush With Crime
When the brothers, actually cousins, were kids, they watched as their parents were tortured and hanged for their loyalists' affiliations during the beginning times of the Revolutionary war. Overall Lesson The main overarching lesson of this topic is the significance of this case. The Harpe Brothers are classified as America’s first-ever known serial killers. They set the example for the modern day. They gave us a title and reputation to fit it. It brought about a discussion in early America. -
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The Harpe's First Strike
Sometime during the early 1780s, Micajah and Wiley Harpe kidnapped and horrifically abused two women by the names of Susan Woods and Maria Davidson. -
The Beginning of a Lifetime of Killing
The brothers are kicked out of a town for allegedly stealing livestock. They kill and mutilate a local named Johnson in retaliation. As quoted, "Johnson’s mutilated body was found floating in the Holstein River, his chest cavity ripped open and filled with rocks. The grim manner of the killing would prove to be a regular Harpe Brothers’ calling card." The Scotsman -
Breaking Free
The brothers and their wives are captured and imprisoned; two months later, they escape and join the Samson Mason Gang’s notorious Cave-in-Rock with $300 bounties placed on both. They kill multiple more people, including a 13-year-old boy. -
Stopped Dead in his Tracks
After taking shelter in a Webster County, Kentucky farmstead run by a woman named Mrs.Stegall, they killed her four-month-old son and then her when she discovered the body. After Mr. Stegall returned to find his family dead, he and a posse chased after the brothers. The husband caught up and shot Micajah "Big" Harpe before quickly decapitating him. -
The End of an Infamous Duos' Career
Wiley “Little” Harpe escaped to kill another day, surviving a few more years of killing by himself. However, that ended when he was recognized after trying to bring the head of another felon named Samual Mason in for a bounty. He was then executed by hanging.