The Death of the Harpe Brothers The Harpe brothers—Micajah Harpe (alias Joshua Harper, later called “Big Harpe”) and Wiley Harpe (alias William Harper, later “Little Harpe”)—occupy a dark preeminence in American criminal history as the nation’s first recorded serial killers. Operating from 1797 to 1799 across the frontier expanse of Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and the infamous Natchez Trace , the cousins embarked upon an unchecked spree of gratuitous violence, claiming the lives of at least thirty-nine individuals, though their actual toll likely exceeded fifty. Their killings—unprovoked and devoid of material incentive—epitomized violence as a pathological end in itself, a phenomenon alien yet native to the lawlessness of America’s western frontier. In 1799, while evading capture, the Harpes—accompanied by their three abducted “wives” and a brood of children—found temporary asylum at the home of Moses Stegall in Kentucky. Also present was Major William Love, an...