American Monsters: Samuel Mason and the Harp Brothers
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Sources:
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-harpes/#:~:text=Earning%20the%20dubious%20distinction%20of,Mississippi%20in%20the%20late%201700s. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-samuelmason/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_before_1900
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening.
Speaker 2: Now True Crime with a dash of the paranormal, the garish,
Speaker 2: the strange in the darkly comic, a podcast that's about
Speaker 2: more than just murder. It's my very own pocket dimension,
Speaker 2: home to a curated collection of bizarre and compelling stories,
Speaker 2: the unsolved, the unsettling, and the unbelievable. I cover it
Speaker 2: all just so long as it's kind of murdery. I'm
Speaker 2: back on the mic solo today and I've got quite
Speaker 2: a story for you. It's a story of pirates, serial killers,
Speaker 2: and millions in gold treasure hidden perhaps still out there
Speaker 2: somewhere today along the banks of the Ohio River in Illinois. Now,
Speaker 2: if you're anything like me, when you hear the terms
Speaker 2: serial killer or pirate, you don't think of frontiersmen, legends
Speaker 2: of the American Way. For pirates, it's shiver me, timbers,
Speaker 2: maybe some old salty brit who sounds like long John Silver.
Speaker 2: And serial killers are people like Jack the Ripper, John
Speaker 2: Wayne Gacy, or maybe TV's Dexter. Well, it's time to
Speaker 2: confound those expectations, because today I bring you a story
Speaker 2: from the decades surrounding the American Revolution featuring the Harp Brothers,
Speaker 2: America's first serial killers. Now, the Harps were wanton, slaughtering
Speaker 2: monsters who murdered everyone from American patriots to their own children,
Speaker 2: and they are thought to be responsible for at least
Speaker 2: forty murders. In fact, the murderer is evil they inflicted
Speaker 2: on the fledgling American Republic has rarely, if ever, been
Speaker 2: matched by a single individual or two, with the possible
Speaker 2: exception I guess of Samuel a little, but the Harps
Speaker 2: delivered a lot more general mayhem along with their murdering. Also,
Speaker 2: I mentioned Dexter a moment ago, the TV serial killer
Speaker 2: who kills serial killers, And although they were lacking in
Speaker 2: Dexter's noble intent or sense of duty, the hideous Harps
Speaker 2: had a extra moment of their own when one of
Speaker 2: their victims, River Pirate Captain Samuel Mason turned out to
Speaker 2: be a serial killer himself, with at least twenty murders
Speaker 2: to his name. Just these three men, this unholy trinity
Speaker 2: of pirates, bandits, and killers, were responsible for murdering at
Speaker 2: least sixty people in the two decades or so leading
Speaker 2: up to the dawn of the nineteenth century. And yes,
Speaker 2: of course I can't forget that one of the three
Speaker 2: left millions of dollars in unclaimed gold treasure buried somewhere
Speaker 2: along the banks of the Ohio River, treasure that might
Speaker 2: still be there now. Two articles by Kathy Alexander, written
Speaker 2: for Legends of the American West dot com were integral
Speaker 2: to putting this episode together. As always, you can find
Speaker 2: all my sources in the show notes. So today I
Speaker 2: bring you a story about an unholy trinity of American
Speaker 2: serial killers connected to buried treasure on the banks of
Speaker 2: the Ohio River. And also, by the way, there are
Speaker 2: witches involved. So hopefully I've piqued your interest. We've got revolution,
Speaker 2: pirate serial killers, buried treasure, and witches. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: what other elements I could possibly hope to find it
Speaker 2: a true story to get you excited. If you're not
Speaker 2: excited now, and if you're not excited now, you're probably
Speaker 2: listening to the wrong show. But if you know that
Speaker 2: you're listening to the right show, if kind of murdery
Speaker 2: is exactly your jam, then I ask you to please
Speaker 2: join me, as together we uncover what truths we can
Speaker 2: and solve what mysteries we may kind of murderies. Unholy Trinity,
Speaker 2: the serial killing trio behind the legend of the Ohio
Speaker 2: River Pirate treasure that's a mouthful starts now earning the
Speaker 2: dubious distinction of being the United States first documented serial killers.
Speaker 2: Mackayja Big Arp and Wiley Little Harp were murderous outlaws
Speaker 2: who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the
Speaker 2: late seventeen hundreds. Often referred to as the Harp brothers,
Speaker 2: they were cousins who generally passed themselves off as brothers.
Speaker 2: Their fathers were Scottish immigrants who settled in Orange County,
Speaker 2: North Carolina. Now Mckaja Harp was born to John Harp
Speaker 2: and his wife, while Wiley Harp actually named Joshua and
Speaker 2: was born to John's brother, William and his wife. Soon
Speaker 2: after the arrival of the Harps in America, they changed
Speaker 2: the spelling of their original name from Harp Harpe to
Speaker 2: just Harp Harp, like the instrument. Now growing up near
Speaker 2: each other, the boys soon took up the nicknames of
Speaker 2: Big and Little Harp, as Wiley was much smaller than Mcaja.
Speaker 2: The two left North Carolina in seventeen seventy five for Virginia,
Speaker 2: intending to find jobs as slave overseers. So the Harps
Speaker 2: were clearly a morally dubious duo from the absolute get go,
Speaker 2: since as very young men they set out to make
Speaker 2: their fortunes in their chosen career of being slave overseers. Yikes.
Speaker 2: But they never got to be the overseers they dreamed
Speaker 2: of being, because the American Revolution interrupted their career. Perhaps unsurprisingly,
Speaker 2: the pair sided with the British, but their interests seemed
Speaker 2: to be more in violence and criminal activities than in
Speaker 2: any sense of patriotic duty or reverse patriotic duty, depending
Speaker 2: on how you look at it, along with other like
Speaker 2: minded irregulars, which in this case I think can be
Speaker 2: shorthanded to along with other violent associopaths as opposed to
Speaker 2: like minded irregulars maybe a regularly low empathy quotient. I
Speaker 2: suppose the Harp brothers were guerrilla fighters for the British,
Speaker 2: thrilling in burning farms, raping women, and pillaging the American revolutionaries.
Speaker 2: When Little Harp attempted to rape a girl in North Carolina.
Speaker 2: He was shot and wounded by Captain James Wood. However,
Speaker 2: he survived. In seventeen eighty, the Harps joined the regular
Speaker 2: British troops and fought in several battles along the North
Speaker 2: and South Carolina borders. The following year, they left the
Speaker 2: army and joined a group of Cherokee Native Americans, raiding
Speaker 2: settlements in North Carolina and Tennessee and continuing their pillaging.
Speaker 2: It was clear that the Harps were not at all
Speaker 2: beholdened to some larger cause. They just were looking for
Speaker 2: opportunities to murder, rape and steal and set things on fire.
Speaker 2: And for psychos like mckaga and Wiley, a late eighteenth
Speaker 2: century war was a literal playground. The brothers decided to
Speaker 2: take revenge on Captain James Wood, who, as I had
Speaker 2: mentioned earlier, had previously shot and wounded Little Harp when
Speaker 2: Little Harp tried to rape a girl. For their revenge,
Speaker 2: they kidnapped his daughter, Susan Wood, and another girl named
Speaker 2: Maria Davidson and forced the women to become their wives.
Speaker 2: The Harp brothers, the brutalized women, and four other men
Speaker 2: began to make their way to Tennessee. During a trip,
Speaker 2: a man named Moses Dass had the audacity to be
Speaker 2: over concerned for the brutalized women. For his con he
Speaker 2: was killed by the Harps. The group then settled in
Speaker 2: the Cherokee Chickamuga village of Nikajack, located southwest of modern Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Speaker 2: For the next dozen years, the Harps, along with their
Speaker 2: quote wives, lived in the Native American village. During that time,
Speaker 2: both captive women became pregnant twice, and the fathers the
Speaker 2: Harp brothers cousins, killed their children. These guys were so
Speaker 2: messed up. After the British surrendered at Yorktown in seventeen
Speaker 2: eighty one, the Chickamugga and a breakaway band of Cherokee
Speaker 2: continued to make war on American patriots, and the Harps
Speaker 2: were only too willing to help them, fighting in the
Speaker 2: Battle of Blue Licks, Kentucky on August nineteenth, seventeen eighty two,
Speaker 2: and other more minor skirmishes. In September seventeen ninety four,
Speaker 2: the Americans planned to take the offensive against the Native
Speaker 2: Americans in Nikajack, but somehow the Harps got wind of
Speaker 2: the attack and fled before the Americans wiped out the village,
Speaker 2: The Harps and their women settled down at a new
Speaker 2: camp nearby, where they stayed for the next nine months,
Speaker 2: once again pillaging local villages in Tennessee. Then by spring
Speaker 2: seventeen ninety seven, they lived in a cabin on Beavers
Speaker 2: Creek near Knoxville. That same year, Little Harp married a
Speaker 2: local girl, a minister's daughter named Sarah Rice, and the
Speaker 2: other two women that had been living with them for
Speaker 2: years now became the wives again in quotes of Big Harp.
Speaker 2: Just over a year later, in late seventeen ninety eight,
Speaker 2: the Harps would begin their murder spree, one of the
Speaker 2: most violent in the nation's history. They first killed two
Speaker 2: men in Tennessee, one in Knox County and one on
Speaker 2: the Wilderness Trail. Then by December they'd moved to Kentucky,
Speaker 2: where they killed two traveling men from Maryland. Unlike most outlaws,
Speaker 2: they seemed more motivated by blood lust than financial gain,
Speaker 2: often leaving their victims disemboweled and filling their abdominal cavities
Speaker 2: with rocks and then sinking them in a river geez.
Speaker 2: Next up, a man named John Langford, traveling from Virginia,
Speaker 2: to Kentucky, turned up dead, and a local innkeeper pointed
Speaker 2: the authorities to the Harps. The criminal pair was then pursued, captured,
Speaker 2: and jailed in Danville, Kentucky, but they managed to escape
Speaker 2: when a pose was sent after them. The young son
Speaker 2: of a man who assisted the authorities was found dead
Speaker 2: and mutilated. On April twenty second, seventeen ninety nine, the
Speaker 2: Governor of Kentucky issued a three hundred dollars reward on
Speaker 2: each Harp's head, which inflates up to about seventy three
Speaker 2: hundred dollars today. Fleeing northward, the Harps killed two men
Speaker 2: named Edmonton and Stump. Then, when they were near the
Speaker 2: mouth of the Saline River, they came upon three men
Speaker 2: who were encamped and killed all three. The pair then
Speaker 2: went to Cave In the Rock in southern Illinois, the
Speaker 2: stronghold of a river pirate named Samuel Mason. In the meantime,
Speaker 2: the pose aggressively pursued them, but unfortunately stopped just short
Speaker 2: of Cave In the Rock. Along with their three wives
Speaker 2: and three children, the Harps hold up with the Samuel
Speaker 2: Mason gang, who preyed on slow moving flatboats along the
Speaker 2: Ohio River. Earlier in his life as an honorable man,
Speaker 2: Samuel Mason served as a militia captain in the American Revolution. Later, however,
Speaker 2: that later being a little before and around the time
Speaker 2: that the Harps camped with him, he would turn pirate
Speaker 2: on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and lead highwaymen along
Speaker 2: the Natchez Trace Trail. However, although the Mason Gang could
Speaker 2: be ruthless, even they were appalled by the actions of
Speaker 2: the Harps. After the murderous pair began to take travelers
Speaker 2: to the top of the bluff, strip them naked, and
Speaker 2: throw them off the bluff, the Mason gang asked them
Speaker 2: to leave. The Harps returned to eastern Tennessee, where they
Speaker 2: continued their vicious murder spree in Earnest. In July seventeen
Speaker 2: ninety eight, they killed a farmer named Bradbury, a man
Speaker 2: named Harden, and a boy named Coffee. Soon more bodies
Speaker 2: were discovered, including William Ballard, who had been disemboweled and
Speaker 2: thrown in the Holton River. James Brassel, whose throat was
Speaker 2: viciously slashed, was discovered on Brassel's knob in Kentucky, and
Speaker 2: another man named John Tully was also found murdered. In
Speaker 2: south central Kentucky, John Graves and his teenage son were
Speaker 2: found dead with their heads acted, and in Logan County,
Speaker 2: the Harps killed a little girl, a young slave, and
Speaker 2: an entire family asleep in their camp. In August, a
Speaker 2: few miles northeast of Russellville, Kentucky, Big Harp killed his
Speaker 2: infant daughter by bashing her head against a tree because
Speaker 2: the baby wouldn't stop crying. Big Harp would later say
Speaker 2: that that was the only one of all the murders
Speaker 2: he committed that he regretted cheese these Harps. That same month,
Speaker 2: the man named Trowbridge was found disemboweled in Highland Creek,
Speaker 2: and when the Harps were given shelter in the Steegle
Speaker 2: home in Webster County, the pair killed an overnight guest
Speaker 2: named Major William Love, as well as Missus Steegle's four
Speaker 2: month old baby boy, whose throat was slit when it cried.
Speaker 2: When Missus Steegle screamed at the sight of her infant
Speaker 2: being killed, she too was murdered. These guys are just
Speaker 2: like the absolute worst. What the hell? The killings continued
Speaker 2: as the Harps fled west to avoid the Posse pursuing them,
Speaker 2: which included Moses Steegel, who who his family, as I
Speaker 2: just mentioned, the Harps had killed earlier in the month,
Speaker 2: while the Harp brothers were preparing to kill yet another
Speaker 2: settler named George Smith. The Posse finally tracked them down
Speaker 2: on August twenty fourth, seventeen ninety nine. When the Posse
Speaker 2: called for their surrender, the two sped away, but Big
Speaker 2: Harp was shot in the leg and in the back.
Speaker 2: The Posse soon caught up with him and pulled him
Speaker 2: from his horse. As he lay dying, he confessed to
Speaker 2: twenty murders, and mister Steegel slowly cut off his head
Speaker 2: while he was still conscious, which, considering that Big Harp
Speaker 2: had slit Steegle's baby's throat just for crying, as brutal
Speaker 2: as that sounds, I have a hard time blaming him. Later,
Speaker 2: Big Harp was hanged on a pole at a crossroads
Speaker 2: near Henderson, Kentucky. For years, the intersection where the pole
Speaker 2: stood was called Harp's Head. In the meantime, while the
Speaker 2: Posse was otherwise occupied exacting terrible vengeance, terrible and deserved
Speaker 2: vengeance upon Big Hearp. Wiley Harp escaped and rejoined the
Speaker 2: Mason Gang pirates at Cave in the Rock. And the
Speaker 2: mention of the Mason Gang pirates is a convenience segue
Speaker 2: because it's time now, I think, to take a little
Speaker 2: break from the Harp story and talk about a man
Speaker 2: whose own story is nearly as incredible, though not nearly
Speaker 2: as horrible as the Harps, and that would be Pirate
Speaker 2: Captain River Pirate Captain Samuel Mason. Now, I'm sure you've
Speaker 2: guessed by now when I mentioned at the top that
Speaker 2: this story included three serial killers. I'm sure you guessed
Speaker 2: that the first two were the Harp brothers MCAJA and
Speaker 2: Wiley Harp. We know how Macaja died, beheaded and hung
Speaker 2: up at Harp's head in Kentucky. Last we heard Wiley
Speaker 2: escaped the posse and went to hole up with the
Speaker 2: Mason Gang at Cave in the Rock. So before we
Speaker 2: hear the rest of Wiley's story and how it intersects
Speaker 2: with Samuel Mason, I think it's time that we give
Speaker 2: Mason a spotlight of his own. Samuel Mason was born
Speaker 2: in Norfolk, Virginia, to a distinguished family on November eighth
Speaker 2: seventeen thirty nine and raised in Charlestown, West Virginia. He
Speaker 2: married Rosanna Dorsey in about seventeen sixty seven, and the
Speaker 2: couple would eventually have eight children. In seventeen seventy three,
Speaker 2: he moved his family to Ohio County, West Virginia, and
Speaker 2: during the American Revolution, he became a captain of the
Speaker 2: Ohio County Militia of the Virginia State Forces. In January
Speaker 2: seventeen seventy seven, he was given command of Fort Henry
Speaker 2: on the Ohio Frontier in present day West Virginia. In
Speaker 2: the summer of seventeen seventy seven, while colonial soldiers to
Speaker 2: the east were fighting the War for Independence, Mason feared
Speaker 2: attacks by the Native American allies of the British. On
Speaker 2: August thirty first, seventeen seventy seven, he was proven correct
Speaker 2: when a band of Native Americans from several eastern tribes
Speaker 2: attacked the fort. Initially, they fired on several men who
Speaker 2: were outside the fort rounding up horses. When Mason heard
Speaker 2: the shots, he gathered fourteen militiamen and rode to their rescue. This, however,
Speaker 2: was exactly what the warriors had hoped for and quickly
Speaker 2: ambushed the rescue party, every last man except for Captain
Speaker 2: Samuel Mason. The captain, however, was severely wounded and escaped
Speaker 2: death by hiding behind a log. He was soon rescued
Speaker 2: and recovered from his wounds to command Fort Henry for
Speaker 2: two more years. In seventeen seventy nine, he moved to
Speaker 2: Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he bought a five hundred acre farm.
Speaker 2: In July of seventeen eighty one, he was elected Justice
Speaker 2: of the Peace and was named an associate judge just
Speaker 2: a few months later in seventeen eighty two. Mason appeared
Speaker 2: to be successful as he paid taxes on his five
Speaker 2: hundred acre farm two horses, four cows, six sheep, and
Speaker 2: four slaves. So what happened to cause American Revolutionary Fort Henry, captain, gentleman, farmer,
Speaker 2: justice of the peace and judge a series of descriptions
Speaker 2: that could not possibly be more upstanding law and order
Speaker 2: pillar of the community. What happened to cause Samuel Mason
Speaker 2: to become a notorious serial murdering river pirate? Where the
Speaker 2: heck did he hide all that gold treasure? And how
Speaker 2: exactly beyond occasionally harboring them at Cave in the Rock.
Speaker 2: Does his story intersect with those bloodthirsty pieces of human garbage?
Speaker 2: The harps never fear will be answering all those questions
Speaker 2: here today, starting with how did such a pillar of
Speaker 2: the community wind up becoming a river pirate? What the
Speaker 2: heck happened? The answer is debt. Debt happened. Mason was
Speaker 2: struggling financially, and he became deeply indebted. After having been
Speaker 2: repeatedly accused of being a thief, he made his way
Speaker 2: from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. In seventeen eighty four, his Pennsylvania
Speaker 2: farm was sold at a sheriff's sale to pay for
Speaker 2: part of his debt. The following year, in seventeen eighty nine,
Speaker 2: the Pennsylvania court sent a man to Kentucky to collect
Speaker 2: the remaining debt, but that man was unsuccessful. By the
Speaker 2: early seventeen nineties, Mason was set up at Red Banks,
Speaker 2: now known as Henderson, Kentucky. Later, he moved downriver to
Speaker 2: Diamond Island, where he began to engage in criminal activity.
Speaker 2: By seventeen ninety seven, he moved his headquarters further down
Speaker 2: to Cave in the Rock on the Illinois shore. By
Speaker 2: this time he had gathered several followers who openly based
Speaker 2: themselves at Cave in the Rock. Here, Mason and his
Speaker 2: men would warmly welcome riverboat travelers to rest and eat. However,
Speaker 2: while these visitors enjoyed their hospitality, Mason's men checked the
Speaker 2: visitor's supplies and goods for anything of value. If they
Speaker 2: found something, they'd wait until the next day, and when
Speaker 2: the visitors continued down the river, they'd rob them as
Speaker 2: they made their way around the bend. As I previously mentioned,
Speaker 2: while at Cave in the Rock, Mason and his men
Speaker 2: briefly harbored the notorious Harp brothers, who were perpetually on
Speaker 2: the run from the law. We've already discussed at length
Speaker 2: the various horrifying ways in which the Harps were two
Speaker 2: of them the most brutal outlaws of the time, and
Speaker 2: they distinguished themselves as America's first serial killers. While as
Speaker 2: for the Mason gang, although they could be ruthless, even
Speaker 2: they were appalled by the actions of the Harps, especially
Speaker 2: when the two psychotic cousin brothers began to make a
Speaker 2: habit of taking travelers to the top of the bluff
Speaker 2: above Cave Rock, stripping the travelers naked and throwing them
Speaker 2: off the bluff. This was the last straw for Mason,
Speaker 2: who asked the brothers to leave. In the summer of
Speaker 2: seventeen ninety nine, the Mason gang itself was forced to
Speaker 2: leave Cave in the Rock when they were attacked by
Speaker 2: a group called the Exterminators. Sounds like a Sylvester Stallone movie,
Speaker 2: which in some ways is not terribly far off. The
Speaker 2: Exterminators were a group of vigilante bounty hunters led by
Speaker 2: Captain Young of Mercer County, Kentucky. In response to repeated
Speaker 2: attacks by the Exterminators, Mason moved his operations downriver and
Speaker 2: settled his family in Spanish Louisiana. Mason and his men
Speaker 2: became highwaymen on the Natchez Trace Trail in Mississippi, robbing
Speaker 2: and killing unsuspecting travelers. You've likely deduced this by now,
Speaker 2: but the trio of serial killers in the title of
Speaker 2: this episode were the Harp Brothers and Mason himself, who,
Speaker 2: during his career as an outlaw, was credited with twenty
Speaker 2: or more murders, mostly of unsuspecting travelers that he and
Speaker 2: his gang robbed. Now I know there may be an
Speaker 2: impulse to refer to someone like that more as a
Speaker 2: bandit than a serial killer. However, Mason did have a
Speaker 2: consistent MOO, a consistent target profile, and essentially all the
Speaker 2: other requirements to refer to his repeated murders as serial killings.
Speaker 2: Even if he was ostensibly killing for personal enrichment, he
Speaker 2: was killing over and over the same type of person
Speaker 2: in the same manner, which made him America's third, I suppose,
Speaker 2: or second serial killer. If the Harps were a ma
Speaker 2: Arka's first serial killers one, two, three, that makes Mason
Speaker 2: number three. All right. So there he is with his
Speaker 2: gang on the Natchez Trail in Mississippi, robbing and killing
Speaker 2: unsuspecting travelers. When in April of eighteen oh two, Mississippi
Speaker 2: Governor William C. C claiborne was informed that Samuel Mason
Speaker 2: and Wileye Harp had attempted to board the boat of
Speaker 2: Colonel Joshua Baker between Yazoo and Walnut Hills now Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: The governor responded by ordering Colonel Daniel Burnett, with fifteen
Speaker 2: or twenty volunteers to track down Mason and his men
Speaker 2: a reward of two thousand dollars was offered for their capture.
Speaker 2: This was a heftier sum than it perhaps sounds like
Speaker 2: at first, as two thousand dollars in eighteen oh two
Speaker 2: is roughly equivalent to forty nine thousand dollars today. Although
Speaker 2: dozens of men searched for the Mason Gang, the outlaws
Speaker 2: continued with their evil deeds. Along the Natchez Trace. They
Speaker 2: struck a caravan of travelers with such horrific brutality that
Speaker 2: in response, another posse of residence and a few bounty
Speaker 2: hunters were raised to go after them. The posse quickly pursued,
Speaker 2: learning that Mason and his men were hiding less than
Speaker 2: a mile west of the trace near Rocky Springs, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: When they came upon the Mason Gang's camp, they found
Speaker 2: that it had been hastily abandoned. Though the outlaws trail
Speaker 2: was fresh, most of the posse chose not to follow,
Speaker 2: instead remaining at the camp searching for any hidden loot
Speaker 2: that the outlaws may have left. However, a few men
Speaker 2: did continue pursuit, but ultimately abandoned the search when they
Speaker 2: lost the gang's trail. Later Spanish officials were more successful
Speaker 2: in January eighteen o three, they arrested Mason, four of
Speaker 2: his sons, and several other men at the Little Prairie
Speaker 2: Settlement now Carruthersville in southeastern Missouri. Mason and his family
Speaker 2: members were taken to the colonial government in New Madrid, Missouri,
Speaker 2: where a three day hearing was held to determine whether
Speaker 2: Mason was a pirate. Although Mason claimed that he was
Speaker 2: simply a farmer who had been maligned by his enemies,
Speaker 2: the presence of seven thousand dollars in currency and twenty
Speaker 2: human scalps in his baggage see serial killer convinced the
Speaker 2: Spanish he was guilty. Mason, his family, and the other
Speaker 2: men then boarded a boat to New Orleans, where they
Speaker 2: would be handed over to the American governor in Mississippi Territories.
Speaker 2: So to clarify, they were captured in a part of
Speaker 2: Missouri that was Spanish territory at the time, and then
Speaker 2: they were to be transported via boat to Mississippi to
Speaker 2: be handed over to American authorities. Note. If it were
Speaker 2: up to me, I'm not sure I would put the
Speaker 2: nation's most notorious river pirate on a boat when I
Speaker 2: was transporting him. As a prisoner, but hey, it wasn't
Speaker 2: up to me. So they got on a boat in
Speaker 2: New Orleans and they were supposed to be handed over
Speaker 2: to the American governor in the Mississippi Territory. However, in
Speaker 2: one of the least surprising developments of this story, while
Speaker 2: being transported, Mason and Wiley Harp Wiley being Little Harp,
Speaker 2: who at this point had rejoined the Mason Gang and
Speaker 2: was a member of the gang using the alias John Sutton.
Speaker 2: While Mason and Wiley overpowered their guards and fled, and
Speaker 2: although Mason was shot in the leg, he made good
Speaker 2: his escape, his escape from the authorities. That is more
Speaker 2: on that in a moment. When Mason escaped, Governor William C. C.
Speaker 2: Claybourne immediately added an additional five hundred dollars reward for
Speaker 2: his recapture, making the total reward twenty five hundred dollars
Speaker 2: or close to sixty two thousand dollars today. This was
Speaker 2: an absolutely staggering amount of money, and it prompted Wiley
Speaker 2: Harp aka Little Harp aka John Sutton, current member of
Speaker 2: the Mason Gang, along with another man, to attempt to
Speaker 2: bring in Mason's head and claim the reward in September
Speaker 2: eighth three. So there you go. Good reasons not to
Speaker 2: harbor the Harps or be friends with the Harps. They're
Speaker 2: happy to kill you for the reward money. Many historians
Speaker 2: believe that Samuel Wolfman Mason was in fact yet another
Speaker 2: victim of Wiley Harp. So there you go. That's the connection.
Speaker 2: Besides hanging out and robbing together between the Harps and Mason.
Speaker 2: The Harps, well one of them. Wiley actually killed Samuel Mason,
Speaker 2: the runner up for America's earliest serial killers, but other
Speaker 2: historians assert that Mason actually died from the leg wound
Speaker 2: he received when he was shot escaping the authorities alongside Harp,
Speaker 2: and the question of how exactly Samuel Mason died has
Speaker 2: never been definitively settled. He was either murdered by Wiley
Speaker 2: Harp in an attempt to retrieve the reward money, or
Speaker 2: he died from an infected leg wound when escaping with
Speaker 2: Wiley Harp, So one way or another, in a certain sense, anyway,
Speaker 2: Wiley Harp had something to do with Mason's death. So anyhow,
Speaker 2: when Mason died, Wiley and the other man cut off
Speaker 2: his head and brought it into the authorities and tried
Speaker 2: to collect that whopping twenty five hundred dollars reward. However, cunning,
Speaker 2: cruelty and a pension for violence doesn't necessarily correlate directly
Speaker 2: with intelligence. And as you may have suspected, and as
Speaker 2: Wiley and his partner should have suspected, they were both
Speaker 2: recognized by the authorities. I mean, after all, Wiley was
Speaker 2: one of the most notorious killers of the time. He
Speaker 2: was recognized by the authorities, arrested, tried in federal court,
Speaker 2: found guilty of piracy, and hanged in Greenville, Mississippi in
Speaker 2: early eighteen oh four. There would be no bounty money
Speaker 2: for Wiley Harp. His only reward for killing and beheading
Speaker 2: and delivering the head of notorious River pirates Samuel Wolfman
Speaker 2: Mason was a quick and much deserved death at the
Speaker 2: end of a rope, and so the ultimate fate of
Speaker 2: American founding serial killer fathers mckaja Big Harp, Wiley Little Harp,
Speaker 2: and Samuel Wolfman Mason, Notorious River Pirate, had been decided.
Speaker 2: As you'll likely recall with a shiver, mckaja died when
Speaker 2: he was beheaded by Posse member Moses Steegel in seventeen
Speaker 2: ninety nine, Stiegel, who was avenging the murder of his
Speaker 2: infant son, killed by the Harps for the grievous sin
Speaker 2: of refusing to stop crying. This was an infant. As
Speaker 2: for Samuel Wolfman Mason, he was beheaded by Little Harp.
Speaker 2: He either died from the infected leg wound that resulted
Speaker 2: from the gunshot he received while escaping from the Spanish
Speaker 2: riverboat in eighteen oh three and was then beheaded by
Speaker 2: Wiley Little Harp because Harp wanted to collect the mass
Speaker 2: of reward, or he was killed by Harp and then beheaded.
Speaker 2: But whether he died from the infected gunshot wound or
Speaker 2: by Harp's hand, I tend to think it was the latter.
Speaker 2: Either way, he was definitely beheaded by Wiley Harp. And
Speaker 2: again that's the connection besides doing crimes together between Mason
Speaker 2: and the Harps, he was the serial killer victim of
Speaker 2: the serial killing Harps, a law dexter, and then of
Speaker 2: course Wiley Harp was hanged for river piracy in eighteen
Speaker 2: oh four. So although Mason was the river pirate and
Speaker 2: the Harps were just serial killing monster outlaws, it was
Speaker 2: Wiley Harp who was hanged for river piracy and Mason
Speaker 2: who was killed by the Harps, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: You get it. It's just all a little jumbled, not
Speaker 2: quite the outcome one might expect. Now we've covered the lives, crimes,
Speaker 2: and deaths of the serial killing trio, the Unholy Trinity,
Speaker 2: if you will, But we've got a couple more important
Speaker 2: things promised things to cover. One, what became of that
Speaker 2: Ohio River pirate treasure? Two? What about that witch that
Speaker 2: I teased you with in the show notes and at
Speaker 2: the beginning of the last episode. And then, in case
Speaker 2: you're curious, because I know I am, what about the
Speaker 2: Hart brothers three wives, Big Harps, two wives and Wiley's wife,
Speaker 2: the women that they outraged and forced to become their wives,
Speaker 2: or at least fill the role of their wives. What
Speaker 2: about their story? What became of them? Well, it's time
Speaker 2: to cover all of that, starting with the pirate treasure.
Speaker 2: Cave in the Rock, where the Mason gang had their headquarters,
Speaker 2: is on the northern bank of the Ohio River, right
Speaker 2: by the Illinois Kentucky border, a couple miles south of
Speaker 2: a place called Love's Corner. It is now a state park,
Speaker 2: in Hardin County, Illinois. Cave in the Rock had been
Speaker 2: used for thousands of years by Native Americans, but is
Speaker 2: known better in Anglo history for the many outlaws at Harvard.
Speaker 2: In addition to the Mason Gang and the Hart Brothers,
Speaker 2: other famous outlaws known to have hidden out at Cave
Speaker 2: in the Rock were highwaymen James Ford and Isaiah Potts,
Speaker 2: several counterfeitters, and the post Civil War bandit Logan Belt,
Speaker 2: as well as others. In this fifty five foot wide cave,
Speaker 2: which leads a short distance into the bluff, it's said
Speaker 2: that over one million dollars worth of stolen loot, gold, cash,
Speaker 2: and counterfeit bills changed hands between seventeen ninety and eighteen
Speaker 2: thirty alone. In eighteen hundred, the Mason Gang was rumored
Speaker 2: to have hidden a large stash of gold in Cave
Speaker 2: in the Rock, but Mason was killed before retrieving it.
Speaker 2: In addition to the gold allegedly hidden by Mason, more
Speaker 2: catches of gold and silver are said to be hidden
Speaker 2: along the cliff face. Now, if the hidden treasure itself
Speaker 2: isn't enough of a legend, Cave in the Rock is
Speaker 2: also said to be haunted, but that's another story. Let's
Speaker 2: stick with the pirate treasure here. The most persistent legend
Speaker 2: that it's hidden somewhere in cave in the rock. But
Speaker 2: there's another legend that says that Mason's cash is hidden
Speaker 2: near Rocky Springs, Mississippi, the area where Samuel Mason and
Speaker 2: Wiley Harp had their hideout well raiding the Natchez Trail
Speaker 2: in the early eighteen hundreds. After having made a large
Speaker 2: robbery on the trace, they returned to their campsite. This
Speaker 2: is Mason and Harp, and although they often carried their
Speaker 2: stolen loot on the backs of a couple mules, they
Speaker 2: knew at the time that they were being aggressively pursued
Speaker 2: by law enforcement, so this time they decided to bury
Speaker 2: their cash near the camp and retrieve it later. However,
Speaker 2: neither Samuel Mason nor Wiley Harp would be able to
Speaker 2: retrieve the treasure because, as you know, they would both
Speaker 2: be dead. Mason killed by Harp, Harp hanged for showing
Speaker 2: up with Mason's head and trying to collect the reward.
Speaker 2: According to this legend, there are said to be some
Speaker 2: seventy five thousand dollars in stolen gold and silver coins
Speaker 2: buried somewhere between the old church and the cemetery of
Speaker 2: Little Sand Creek. It would be hard to look for today,
Speaker 2: as the land is either privately owned or belongs to
Speaker 2: the National Park Service. There's another tale that Samuel Mason
Speaker 2: buried a very large chest, a chest that was some
Speaker 2: seven feet long. He buried it four miles northwest of Roxy, Mississippi,
Speaker 2: and the chest is supposed to be full of stolen valuables,
Speaker 2: including gold, coins and jewelry, which was allegedly buried near
Speaker 2: an artesian well on the Reaber Dove Farm. If the
Speaker 2: story's true, this catch has never been found yet. More
Speaker 2: tales say that mason Lute was hidden in Stack Island, Mississippi,
Speaker 2: also at the ghost town of Tillman, Mississippi in Claiborne County,
Speaker 2: and that there's as much as two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars somewhere near one of the gang's favorite drinking spots,
Speaker 2: the Colbert Tavern and Inn on the Natchez Trace near Bissel, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: So if you want to go treasure hunting, you've got
Speaker 2: yourself multiple starting points. Just make sure you don't break
Speaker 2: any laws or get attacked by any angry landowners or
Speaker 2: other treasure hunters. While you're at it, I hate to
Speaker 2: fear for your safety. All right. Now, it's time to
Speaker 2: find out what happened to the Harp's wives and what,
Speaker 2: if anything, that has to do with both witches and ghosts.
Speaker 2: On the day Big Harp was killed in August seventeen
Speaker 2: ninety nine, the Harp's wives were left at the camp.
Speaker 2: The three women, each having one child, were taken to
Speaker 2: Henderson and placed in an empty blockhouse. On September fourth,
Speaker 2: all three were charged with being parties to the murders
Speaker 2: of Mary Steegel, her infant son James, and Captain William Love.
Speaker 2: They were bound for trial in Russellville, but were tried
Speaker 2: and released in October. Thank goodness, it seems so unfair
Speaker 2: to treat those women who had been essentially kidnapped and
Speaker 2: repeatedly raped as accomplices. Sally Rice Harp returned to Knoxville
Speaker 2: to be with her father. She later married a highly
Speaker 2: respected man and raised a large family. Susan Wood stayed
Speaker 2: in the Russellville area, where she lived a respectable life
Speaker 2: and died in Tennessee. As for Maria Davidson, by then
Speaker 2: going by the alias of Betsy Roberts. She married a
Speaker 2: man named John Huffstutler in September of eighteen oh three.
Speaker 2: By eighteen twenty eight, they'd moved to Hamilton County, Illinois,
Speaker 2: where they raised a large family and lived until they
Speaker 2: died in the eighteen sixties. The Harp's wives were not
Speaker 2: the only ones who changed their names following all the
Speaker 2: atrocities committed by the Harps. In fact, many of the
Speaker 2: Harp family members changed their names so as not to
Speaker 2: be connected to the heinous, violent murderers. So, I know
Speaker 2: that's not a lot of detail, but essentially, at least
Speaker 2: to some extent, the Harp's three wives seemed to have
Speaker 2: lived more or less happily ever after. So something small
Speaker 2: to be thankful for there. Now, what about the witches?
Speaker 2: What about the ghost what's going on with that? Right? Well,
Speaker 2: with the violence surrounding the vicious Harps, it's really no
Speaker 2: surprise that a ghostly legend is attached to them. In particular,
Speaker 2: the notorious mckajah Big Harp, who I'm sure you'll recall,
Speaker 2: was beheaded by Steegel, avenging his infant son and wife. So,
Speaker 2: in addition to terrorizing the States, of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois.
Speaker 2: The Harps were often known, and we've talked about this too.
Speaker 2: Have traveled along the nach Just Trace trail through Mississippi,
Speaker 2: now between Tupelo and Houston, Mississippi. Yes, there's a Houston, Mississippi.
Speaker 2: There's a place called witch Dance. A witch dance has
Speaker 2: been steeped in mystery for centuries. It was not only
Speaker 2: the home of the mound builders of Mississippi, but it's
Speaker 2: also said to have been used by a coven of
Speaker 2: witches who would gather for nighttime ceremonies. Lore has it
Speaker 2: that wherever the witch's feet touched the ground during their dances,
Speaker 2: the grass would wither and die, never to grow again.
Speaker 2: At some point before his death, Mcaja Big Harp was
Speaker 2: traveling along the Natchez Trace with a Native American guide
Speaker 2: who showed him the bare spots on the ground and
Speaker 2: told him the legend of the witch dance. Big Harp
Speaker 2: only scoffed at this and began to leap from spot
Speaker 2: to spot, daring the witches to come out and fight him.
Speaker 2: Of course, nothing happened, at least not then. Eventually, Big
Speaker 2: Harp returned to Kentucky, where the posse tracked him down
Speaker 2: in August seventeen ninety nine. After he was decapitated and
Speaker 2: his head placed in a tree. The skull was said
Speaker 2: to have been removed by a witch, ground into powder
Speaker 2: and use his a potion to heal a relative. Words
Speaker 2: soon got around, and when travelers retold the story along
Speaker 2: the trace, they would swear they could hear cackling laughter
Speaker 2: from nearby bushes and trees. So the revenge of the
Speaker 2: witches for the disrespect of mckayjah Harp was to steal
Speaker 2: the head from his corpse and grind it into a potion.
Speaker 2: And to this day, if you walk through witch Dance
Speaker 2: on the Natchez Trail, you can hear the ghosts of
Speaker 2: those witches cackling, pleased to have exacted their revenge on
Speaker 2: Mackajah Harp. I for one, would like to personally thank
Speaker 2: those witches, and with any luck, they are still tormenting
Speaker 2: the souls of both Mackayja and Wiley. Side note. Macaja
Speaker 2: Harp's head was actually taken twice. First it was taken
Speaker 2: by Stiegel in vengeance, and then it was taken by
Speaker 2: witches who grounded up into a healing potion. I'm Zevan
Speaker 2: Odelberg and this has been kind of murdery.
Speaker 1: If you like the show, please subscribe, review and tell
Speaker 1: your friends. You can find us on social media at
Speaker 1: kinomurdery or email at kinomurdery at gmail dot com
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