Episode #46: The "Brothers" Harpe: America's First Serial Killers & the 1798 Zodiac Back

youaintawoofin
Nov 14, 2024
2 min read

11/13/2024: On today’s episode, Valerie covers the infamous Harpe brother/cousins. Widely considered America’s first serial killers, we follow their early years and eventual killing spree, leaving scores of bodies in their wake in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois. Rare was the traveler who met them on the trail and lived, be it a man, woman, child, or yes, even babies. Next, Amy Jo presents the astrology of 1798, we discuss the upcoming November 19th ingress of Pluto into Aquarius for the next 20 years, and we review the historic events that occurred from previous transits, like 1777-1798. We introduce the sign of Gemini and examine the Uranus return of the US, and what Uranus in Gemini can bring about. Lastly, we prepare for the upcoming full moon in Taurus during the Moon Moment.

Cover Photo: -A Drawing Illustration of Micajah Harpe & Wiley Harpe, the American serial killer and river pirate from the Inside Book Cover of the book, Spawn of Evil: The Invisible Empire of Soulless Men which for a Generation Held the Nation in a Spell of Terror by Paul Iselin Wellman, Doubleday & Co., New York, NY, 1964. (graphic by You Ain’t a’Woofin)

Historic Map : United States, 1798, John Russell, Vintage Wall Art
An artists drawing of the Harpe Brothers, Micajah left, and Wiley
The Boyle County Courthouse the Harpes escaped from in the winter of 1798—99. Courtesy of the Kentucky Historical Society
The Harpe brothers sought refuge from pursuing Kentucky regulators at the river pirate stronghold of Cave-In-Rock on the Ohio River, in the summer of 1799. After the murderous pair began to make a habit of taking travelers to the top of the bluff, stripping them naked, and pushing them off, the outlaw leader at the cave, Samuel Mason, forced the Harpe brothers to leave
The second Governor of Kentucky, James Garrard on April 22, 1799, issued a $300 reward for the Harpe brothers' apprehension and deliverance back to Danville, Kentucky, for trial.
Historical Marker
Killer Brothers: A Biography of the Harpe Brothers – America’s First Serial Killers (Murder and Mayhem)
Micajah "Big" Harpe and Wiley "Little" Harpe are the secondary antagonists of Disney's 1956 live action film Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, the prequel to Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. They are a pair of river pirates who are Samuel Mason's right-hand henchmen. They are based on America's first known serial killers of the same name.
Pluto's image taken by New Horizons on July 14, 2015, from a range of 22,025 miles (35,445 kilometers). NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
Pluto in Aquarius Graphic from Forever Conscious (facebook)
John Singleton Copley - Portrait de Madame John Stevens
Uranus in Gemini graphic from AstroBits Jay (Twitter)
Full Moon in Taurus graphic from fullcircleyogaschool.com