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Big Harp Little Harp Sign
The first known serial killers in American history were the Harp boys. During the years of the Revolutionary War, the two cousins went on an indiscriminate killing rampage, killing anyone who got in their way. They killed infants, including their own, children, women and numerous men. They killed for the sake of killing.
by Doris Lane
Harp's Hill is near the Pond River in western Muhlenberg County, Ky., not far from Highway 62. There is a crossing in the road near Dixon named Harp's Head and one of the crossing roads is named Harp's Head Road. Some miles away, the precise location lost to time, there is a cave known as Harp's House. To tell how these places earned their names is to tell the story of Micajah (Big) and Wiley (Little) Harp, America's first known serial killers.
They passed for brothers, but were cousins, sons of brothers John and William Harpe, Scottish immigrants to Orange County, N.C. The boys were named William (Micajah/Big), son of John, and Joshua (Wiley/Little), son of William. Big Harp and Little Harp left home as young men in 1775, aiming to become overseers of slaves in Virginia. Career plans diverted by the American Revolution, the Harps instead became Tory outlaws in a gang that roved the North Carolina countryside, raping farmers' daughters, pillaging livestock and crops, and burning farmhouses. In the attempted kidnapping of one young girl by a Tory rape gang, Little Harp was shot and wounded by local Patriot Captain James Wood.
In 1780, the British took the Tory irregulars and their Cherokee allies into their ranks. The Harps fought under Tarleton's command at King's Mountain, near the Carolinas' border, in October; in the Battle of Blackstocks in November, and in January 1781 in the Battle of Cowpens. Shortly after Cowpens, the Harps left the army and joined up with their Cherokee confederates, taking part in the Indian raid on Station Bluff, now Nashville, Tenn. They soon returned to North Carolina, where they kidnapped Captain Wood's daughter, Susan, and another local girl, Maria Davidson. The kidnapped women would serve as wives to the Harps until the bitter end.
The Harps took the women across the Appalachians to the Cherokee-Chickamauga town of Nickjack, in the vicinity of what is now Chattanooga, Tenn. Along the way, a member of the gang, Moses Doss, objected to the brutal treatment of the women and the Harps killed him. The Harps, with their wives, lived in the Indian village at Nickjack for over a decade. In that time, they participated in British-backed Indian raids on Kentucky settlers west of the mountains, such as the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782. Later they took part in the Indian attack on Bledsoe's Lick in Tennessee. The night before the Americans finally wiped out Nickjack in 1794, the Harps received warning and managed to escape with their women before the battle.
While living at Nickjack, both women had given birth twice; each time, the fathers murdered their babies. Counted with Moses Doss, the four infanticides made five known killings before 1797, or so, when the Harps settled in a cabin on Beaver's Creek near the frontier capital of Knoxville, Tenn. On June 1, 1797 Little Harp legitimately married Sally Rice, the daughter of a local minister, bringing the number of Harp wives to three.
A Killing Rampage
After two killings, one in Knox County and one on the Wilderness Trail, the Harps left Tennessee in December 1798 for Kentucky, where they killed two traveling men from Maryland. The Harps liked to gut their victims and fill their stomach cavities with rocks to weight them down so they'd sink in a river.
When they stopped for breakfast on Dec. 12, 1798 at John Farris' Wayside House near the Big Rock Castle River, despite the thieving and killing along the way, the Harps were hungry and flat broke, filthy and bedraggled. But there was a kind and generous young man who was staying at the inn who invited them to be his guests at his table.
His name was John Langford. He was traveling from Virginia to pay a visit to a friend in Crab Orchard, Ky. A halfway house, such as Farris', was a place many travelers stopped and waited in order to join up with others heading in the same direction. It was wild and dangerous countryside and earned its name, The Wilderness. Two cattle drovers found Langford's mutilated corpse in The Wilderness two days later, when their cattle shied off Boone's Trace into the woods at the scent of blood.
The body was taken back to John Farris' Wayside House and the innkeeper pointed the way to the Harps and their women, who were apprehended outside Crab Orchard. All five were imprisoned, but the Harp men managed to escape, leaving their women to face justice alone. The Harps fled for the barely settled and ill-defined Henderson County, Ky. Eventually, the Harp wives were released, escorted out of town with three infants born in jail, and one gift horse among them.
As abused and frightened women are wont to do, they immediately swapped the horse for a canoe, traveled west along the Green River toward the Ohio River, and a reunion with the husbands Harp at a pirates' den called Cave-In-The-Rock on the Illinois side.
The Kentucky frontier had gone on alert after the Langford killing and the Harps's subsequent escape from the law in Danville. Kentucky Gov. James Garrard ordered out a posse after the Harps. The posse caught up with the Harps in a cane field in Central Kentucky, but the posse members were too afraid to try to capture them, allowing them to get away through the cane.
In disgust, one of the posse members, Henry Scaggs, went to the home of Col. Daniel Trabue, a Revolutionary War veteran and wilderness pioneer, who lived near the present Columbia in Adair County, to report the posse's cowardice.
As Scaggs sat in Trabue's house discussing the critical situation, Trabue's young son's dog, covered in blood, came limping into the yard. The dog had left the house earlier with Trabue's 13-year-old son, John, who had been sent along the old buffalo trace to borrow some flour and seed beans from a neighbor. About two weeks later the boy's body was found, decomposed, dismembered, and dumped in a sinkhole. The seed beans were there, but the flour was gone.
In response to the boy's murder, the governor issued a $300 reward on each of the Harp heads.
In the reward notice issued at Frankfort, Ky., Micajah Harp was described as being about six feet tall, as robustly built with an erect carriage, about 32 years old, with short black hair growing low on his forehead. He wore "a striped nankeen coat, dark blue woolen stockings, leggins of drab cloth and trousers of the same as the coat." Wiley was "very meagre in the face…looks older but really younger, and has likewise a downcast countenance. He had on a coat of the same stuff as his brother's, and had a drab surtout coat over the close-bodied one."
Moving north, the Harps killed a man named Edmonton, a settler named Stump, and, upon reaching the Potts Plantation near the mouth of the Saline River, they killed three men sitting around a campfire. Meanwhile, the posse, out after the Harps on their race across the state, summarily hanged some dozen criminals along the way, and ran a host of outlaws out of Kentucky. They stopped just short of Cave-in-The-Rock, on the Illinois side of the Ohio River, or they might have had the Harps that day.
This limestone opening in a bluff above the Ohio River at its junction with the Saline, was a well-known natural landmark throughout the 18th century, a rest stop for river travelers migrating west. Beginning in the 1790s and until the 1830s, it was home base to an entire corporation of river pirates. In 1798, the most famous among them was Samuel Mason, a Revolutionary War veteran turned river bandit. His large sign outside invited weary travelers to "Wilson's Liquor Vault and House for Entertainment." His unwary victims were beaten and robbed in the cave, and sometimes they lived to tell about it.
Mason's favorite prey was the slow-moving flatboats laden with produce for Natchez and New Orleans. Pretending to be local pilots guiding the boats through shallow parts of the rapidly flowing and eddy-ridden Ohio, the pirate/pilot would steer the craft onto a shoal, where Mason's gang would pick it clean and take the goods to market themselves. With the arrival of the Harps and their three wives and three babies, the relatively non-violent ways of the river pirates took a murderous turn. After a few Harp games of taking travelers to the top of the bluff, stripping them naked, and throwing them off, they were politely asked to leave.
The final stretch of slaughter took place soon after this, in July 1798, when the Harps returned to Eastern Tennessee. The victims included a farmer named Bradbury; a man named Hardin; a boy named Coffey; William Ballard, who was cut open, filled with stones, and dumped in the Holston River; James Brassel, with his throat ripped apart on Brassel's Knob; John Tully, father of eight. On the Marrowbone Creek in south central Kentucky, John Graves and his teenaged son, out planting crops, had their heads axed. Moving toward Logan County, the Harps came upon a little girl, whom they killed, as they did a young slave on his way to the mill. Once in Logan County, near today's Adairville, near the Whippoorwill River, they butchered an entire migrating family asleep in their camp, but for one son who survived.
Stopping at a spot on land owned by Samuel Wilson on the Mud River near Russellville, they rested, thinking what to do to escape the posse in close pursuit. (The clearing in which the Harps rested later became a staging ground for Methodist revivals.) Sally's four-month-old daughter was fretful, perhaps hungry. Big Harp took the baby from her mother's arms, swung her by her tiny ankles, and brained her little head against the trunk of a tree.
Still, the killing continued.
A man named Trowbridge who'd gone for salt at Robertson's Lick, his torso hollowed out, loaded with stones and sunk in Highland Creek; Maj. William Love, an overnight guest at the Stegall home in Webster County, who snored; the Stegall's baby who cried; Mrs. Stegall who screamed when she saw her infant's throat was slit. Gilmore and Hudgens, returning from the salt lick with their hounds, came upon the Harps. Pretending to be the posse, the Harps accused the two men of being Harps, arrested, and executed them. As they prepared to kill settler George Smith, near where the Harps were living in the cave that came to be known as Harp's Home, the posse rode in.
After a chase, the posse left Big Harp's body on Harp's Hill, took his head to the crossroads, Harp's Head, and displayed it there on Harp's Head Road, attached to an oak tree, for the sober contemplation of passers-by. Before dying, Big Harp confessed to 20 murders, probably not counting the babies. Estimates are as high as 40, but usually around 30.
The three captive Harp wives lived on: Sally Rice returning to her family in Knoxville, remarrying, and migrating west with her new husband and her father, by way of Cave-In-The-Rock; Maria Davidson, called Betsey Roberts, marrying, moving to Illinois and raising a large family; Susan Wood becoming a weaver, raising her surviving daughter in Tennessee, and dying there.
As for Wiley, Little Harp, he rejoined the pirate Mason at Cave-In-The-Rock for about four years, when he showed up in Natchez with Mason's head for the reward money. Little Harp was recognized, hanged, cut down, and decapitated, his own head impaled along the side of the Natchez Trace outside Old Greenville in Mississippi Territory, as a warning to outlaws.
At least that is one story of the end of Wylie Harp, and it makes a good ending to the story of The Harps, Big and Little.
E-mail Doris Lane: email@example.com


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VANCOUVER - Five protesters face charges after a group of people staged a noisy disruption at Vancouver hearings into the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
Three men and two women managed to sneak into the hearings on Tuesday despite efforts by the federal review panel to limit access, said Vancouver Police Sgt. Randy Fincham.
Police believe a visitor who was there with someone scheduled to speak at the hearing allowed the protesters access to the hearing room around 11 a.m.
"The demonstrators when they entered the hearing, they began moving through the hearing room, blowing whistles and causing a ruckus and interfering with the hearing that was taking place," Fincham said in an interview.
"The members of the joint review panel that were conducting the hearing asked the five demonstrators to leave the building, as it is a private hearing.
"The five demonstrators refused to leave and they were subsequently arrested by the police ... for assault by trespass."
Three men and two women were expected to be released Tuesday afternoon, if they met conditions for release, Fincham said.
Police have an enhanced presence at the hearing site, he said, and will continue to maintain a presence until eight days of scheduled hearings are complete.
One woman was arrested on Monday night, after she managed to evade security and get into the lobby of the hotel during a mass demonstration marking the first day of hearings in Vancouver.
The nationwide Idle No More movement merged with ongoing protests against oil pipeline projects proposed for British Columbia, to bring about a thousand people out for rally in the city's Victory Square on Monday night. Police say about half of them marched to the hearing site.
Fincham said one group of protesters was aggressively taunting police and tried to gain access to the hotel, but only the one woman managed to get into the lobby.
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"She was arrested and taken to jail," Fincham said, adding that she was released later that night.
Protest organizer Maryam Adrangi said the demonstrators arrested Tuesday don't support the hearing process.
They went into the hearing room to reveal T-shirts emblazoned with anti-pipeline slogans, and they taped off the room as a "climate crime scene."
In particular, pipeline opponents are angry that the review panel is not hearing evidence about emissions from the Alberta oil sands and the greater issue of global warming.
"They are following how this is becoming increasingly less democratic and they went in there to expose that they aren't going to let unjust legislation stop them from having their voices heard," Adrangi said.
She cited petitions, protests and several municipal motions -- including one from Vancouver -- that oppose both the Northern Gateway project and a plan by Kinder Morgan to more than double the capacity of its existing TransMountain pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver.
"There have been endless ways that people have said no, so if the public was genuinely being heard then this project would have already been scrapped," Adrangi said.
A company spokesman said the hearing interruption was "disappointing."
"These proceedings are intended to give voice to British Columbians and some individuals saw fit to interrupt that process," Enbridge spokesman Todd Nogier told reporters outside the hearing room.
He said the review is a very important process for a key project.
"It's a very important issue for British Columbians, a very important issue for all Canadians."
If approved, the almost 1200-kilometre-long twin pipeline would carry about 525,000 barrels of petroleum per day from Alberta to the B.C. coast for shipment by tankers.
Community hearings were held previously in Victoria, and a one-day hearing is scheduled in Kelowna later this month.
The panel is limiting access to the hearings room to participants.
"Given the large urban nature of Victoria and Vancouver and previous protests held in both locations regarding the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project, the panel has decided that it will limit access to the hearing room," stated a directive posted on the panel website.
Members of the public are able to listen to submissions in another location. The hearings are also being streamed live on the panel website.
Fincham said Vancouver Police will continue to have an enhanced presence at the hearings.
The panel held final hearings earlier in Edmonton, Prince George and Prince Rupert, where company experts and interveners answered questions under oath.
Those hearings will resume in Prince Rupert next month, and the panel must submit its recommendations to the Environment Minister by the end of this year.

subset: commoncrawl


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Allstone Group 21" x 15-3/4" China & Brazil Amberstone Natural Boulder Granite Stone, Single Bowl Bathroom Vessel Sink V-VNRAMS-S-#018
Amberstone Natural Boulder Granite is new to our collection and comes from China & Brazil, Offering extreme hardness, polished with Blue Sodalite Inlay coloring to make the kitchen more beautiful and will add warmth and history to the home. This single basin sink has a unique shape that will bring elegance to your Bathroom ambiance.
Features of the Amberstone Natural Boulder Granite single bowl vessel sink:
Model V-VNRAMS-S-#018
Size: 21" W x 15-3/4″ D x 5-3/4″ H
Stone: Amberstone Natural Boulder Granite
Color: Blue Sodalite Inlay
Style: Rustic Vessel, Natural boulder Sinks
Shape: Irregular
Finish: Polished
Style: Single Basin, Above Counter
Origin: China / Brazil
Weight: 75 lbs
Stone Care
Caring for a stone sink is not nearly as complicated as cleaning manufacturers would have you believe. In fact, you probably have all you need in your home already: dishwashing soap and bleach.
The finish of these stone sinks is achieved by hand polishing with diamond grinding pads. Sealers and chemicals are not added to enhance or protect the natural stone products. Due to the density of most stones, sealers simply aren't required; with the exception of sandstone which is typically porous and soft, therefore, the use of a good stone sealer is recommended.
Acidic foods can dull or etch a highly polished stone, even when stone sealers are used. For this reason, all kitchen sinks come with a honed, or slightly dull, interior finish to neutralize the effects of acidic foods.
Cleaning directions: For general cleaning, we recommend Dawn dishwashing soap. For tough stains, bleach works great and will not harm your stone (including marble).
Warranty/ Limited 1 Year Guarantee
Allstone stone sinks are guaranteed against defects in material and workmanship (not breakage) for a period of one year from the date of installation. The Allstone Group will replace or repair such items that may prove to be defective. The Allstone Group does not assume liability for labor charges, removal or reinstallation expenses, freight or postage, injuries, or incidental or consequential damages resulting from a defective product. Any product problem which results from abuse, misuse, improper installation or maintenance, hardware, proximity to bodies of salt water or accidental damage, are not covered by any warranty set forth.


text: Roberts admitted at the end of last month that he had no time-frame on a return and that the club's medical staff had "exhausted everything they can to try and make it right". Royals boss Brian McDermott had a more positive outlook on the player's situation and had been hopeful of having him back available for the Barclays Premier League run-in. "I think Jason said himself that we have to wait and see day to day," McDermott said last week. "He was out on the training pitch with the physios the other day and was kicking a few balls around, so he is in a much better place than he was a couple of weeks ago." Second-bottom Reading have won just five times in the league this season heading into tomorrow's crucial home clash with third-bottom Aston Villa. The experienced forward spent six years with Blackburn before joining the Royals in January 2012. He was a key player for the Berkshire club last term, netted six goals as the Berkshire club won the npower Championship title. Press Association The 35-year-old announced on Twitter on Friday evening that his recovery had not gone to plan and that going under the knife looked to be his only choice. "Injury Update…Rehabilitation has not been successful…seems at this point Surgery is our only option..meaning my Season is over! #gutted", he posted. "Everything that could have been done has been done..but..the most important thing is P.L. Football for Reading FC next Season…". Veteran Reading striker Jason Roberts expects to undergo hip surgery which will rule him out for the rest of the season.


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The Spaniard says the Gunners lack the psychological strength of their Premier League title rivals and admits he would be willing to look elsewhere in search of silverware
Santi Cazorla insists Arsenal must develop a stronger mentality if they want to win trophies – and hints he will leave if they fail to do so.
A four-game winless run in the Premier League has relegated the Gunners from title contenders to battling with Everton to qualify for next season's Champions League.
All the while the club's nine-year trophy drought goes on, and Arsenal will face Wigan Athletic in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final at Wembley knowing anything less than winning the tournament will be a failure.
Cazorla admits he has still not found what he was looking for when he swapped Malaga for north London in the summer of 2012 and, at 29, says he is prepared to move again in search of silverware.
"I want titles and that is why I came to Arsenal," he told Sport360. "Every football player wants to win titles. We've gone many years without winning one.
"And if not, what I'll look for in my next destination is to have the chance to win."
On the subject of a winning mentality, Cazorla added: "That is what makes it different at other clubs.
"You've a good example in Manchester City who signed Fernandinho, [Alvaro] Negredo … or even Manchester United with [Robin] Van Persie and [Juan] Mata.
"Arsenal know what they need next season, but it's almost impossible to win a title if we haven't got these kind of things."
Cazorla also refused to rule out the possibility of returning to Spain, where he had previously enjoyed the interest of Real Madrid while at Malaga and Villarreal.
"I don't want to close doors, but nowadays I've a contract with Arsenal for two more seasons," he continued.
"When I'm turning 31 I'll evaluate myself and I'll choose the best option. In which case, I would be delighted to come back [to Spain]."


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The last year for me has been a roller coaster ride of discovery and adventure. I have experienced so many new places and done so many new things that I have felt my life, and thereby myself, far richer for it. Returning to the UK therefore held a degree of trepidation for me. Will, by returning home, my life just return to the way it was before? Was the last year of my life to turn into a mere spike of interest in an otherwise unremarkable existence?
In thinking these thoughts it occurred to me that the only way this could happen would be if I were to let it. If I chose to return home to Brighton, pick up my freelancing career and generally continue where I left off then it would be something I would forever regret. Discussions with Ian led to us deciding to move to a new city, London, and for me to decide to return to full time work, but for an exciting startup, onefinestay.
And yet, even after that, I started to worry that, once settled, I would stagnate once again. I therefore decided that in order to encourage imagination, aid exploration of my new hometown and generally just to make life interesting, I would endeavour to do one new thing a week from here on.
That may be visiting a new place, attending a new event ( and by that I mean something outside of the kind if events I usually attend) or to try a new hobby. I shall be blogging about these new things both here and on a tumblr site I have set up, fluffzaldvisits.tumblr.com.
With that in mind, if anyone has anything that they feel I should try, or would like me to try and report back, feel free to post it either here or on the tumblr site.


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Beauty Products That Work Better With Heat or Cold
Hot 'n Cold: Products That Work Well With Heat or on Ice
Sometimes getting the most out of your beauty treatments just requires a little change in temperature. Storing certain products in the refrigerator can help them last longer, for instance. On the other hand, adding heat to some items can enhance their benefits. Find out which products to put on ice and which to ignite when you read more.
- Don't allow the searing Summer temperatures to melt your favorite wax-based makeup (like lipstick). Store your products in a cool place, like the refrigerator, to avoid molten messes. If this advice comes too late, however, you can also use cool air to revive your liquefied lipstick. Pour the remainder in a travel-size container and then solidify it in the fridge.
- Store your eye creams in the refrigerator to help minimize puffiness upon application. The cooling sensation is just what you need to shrink under-eye capillaries and aid in reducing the appearance of dark circles.
- Keep your toner and hydrating sprays in the crisper. When you go to spritz, the coolness will not only be refreshing, but will also help to temporarily tighten the skin.
- When it comes to oil-based hair treatments, scrubs, and body oils, heating them up can help you achieve a more even application. Just run the product under hot water to create a soothing spa experience.
- Add a few degrees to your next five-minute conditioning routine by wrapping a towel around your head. You can also use a shower cap to lock in your body heat and intensify the moisturizing effects.
- Ever noticed how your nail technician rubs the polish between his or her palms before your manicure? The reason is this warms the lacquer just enough to prevent lumps from forming. But don't shake, because then you might come out with a bubbly finish.


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Dover Dog Beds
Whether you have a particular one of the many Dover dog beds available in mind or you need help deciphering all of the options out there for types of Dover dog beds, Pet World is definitely the place to come for any needs you might have for Dover dog beds. Dover dog beds come in so many shapes, sizes, and colors, you will have so much fun choosing. We have a whole section of the store dedicated to a variety of Dover dog beds. Do you have a special feature you are looking for Dover dog beds to have? Ask us here at Pet World and we would be happy to help you find exactly which of the Dover dog beds best suits your needs. Your dog is important to you, and your dog deserves the best Dover dog beds available, in comfort, size, and shape.