Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 319 - The Bloody Harpes

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

How much do you know about America's first documented serial killers, The Bloody Harpes? Micajah and Wiley Harpe went on a crazy murder spree out on the western American frontier, starting in late 1798. The murdered men, women, children, and even babies. And they'd been bad, murderous men long before their final year of terror. They'd ran with a gang of river pirates, they'd been members of a Tory rape gang during the Revolutionary War. They went on raids with a band of Cherokee warriors. They LOVED to try and split a skull in two with a tomahawk. Their entire crazy true crime story told this week.  Bad Magic Productions Monthly Patreon Donation: This month we donated $15,029 to Guide Dogs for the Blind, with an additional $1,669 added to our Scholarship Fund! Guide Dogs for the Blind believes in connecting people, dogs, and communities to transform the lives of individuals with visual impairments.For more info - or to donate more yourself - please go to guidedogs.comGet tour tickets at dancummins.tv Get Scared to Death LIVE tickets at badmagicmerch.com  October  27th, 6P PST/9PM EST. True Tales of Hallow's Eve Horror TWO! Watch the Suck on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QmXlFXFUkyoMerch: https://www.badmagicmerch.comDiscord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard?  Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

We are the Harps. Those are words you never wanted to hear as a tale end of the 18th century if you were a person traveling along or living along the Natchez Trace. An early highway of sorts extending roughly 440 miles from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers. It meant one of three things. You're about to be robbed, about to be killed, or both. The name Harp struck terror into the heart to the settlers of the Appalachian Mountains, and rightfully so, they were vicious murderers and rapists who didn't seem to need much of a reason to take human life. They wouldn't hesitate to kill someone, if that person had something that they wanted. They also wouldn't hesitate to kill someone if that person just happened to irritate them, by doing something as harmless as snoring.

Frontier settlers readied their guns and weapons locks their doors and formed possees to protect themselves against the harps, and that often still wasn't enough to stop the harps often referred to as the bloody harps or the vicious harps. The name harp was synonymous with violence, death, terror and evil at the end of the 18th century at the western edge of the American frontier. Mikaeja and Wiley Harper considered the United States first documented serial killers. Calling themselves big and little harp respectively.

These two brothers left behind a trail of senseless bloodshed wherever they went. The harps weren't like most outlaws of their era. They didn't just, you know, hurt or kill people for their money, but they're good. They often seem to kill people because they felt like it. Maybe they enjoyed it. They typically didn't just kill their victims, they mutilated them. The signature mark of a heart murder was a disemboweled corpse filled with rocks, lying

in a river somewhere in the mountain wilderness, or someone with their head bashed in or nearly split in two by Tomahawk. The heart's murdered victims all over the place, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi, and that doesn't count additional places where they may have murdered innocent people during the Revolutionary War. In total, not counting the warriors, the heart brothers killed an estimated 35 to 50 men, women, children, and babies. Yes, babies. No one was safe when these two were around. Although their timeline and victim counting is a bit muddy, the harps were real people.

Their lives and many of their deeds documented by numerous contemporaries, and they also show up in genealogical records. This week, we did our best to sort through a lot of conflicting sources to determine who really were the harp brothers. Well, for starters, they weren't actually brothers, and their names weren't wily and macaque.

They were savage young men who first plundered, raped, and likely killed during the chaotic years the American Revolution when they fought on behalf of the British. They may have developed a considerable taste for violence during the war years, one they never stopped trying to satisfy when the war was over. This week I'll share what we've learned about the bloody harps, the chaotic world they lived in in a timeline of their shortened violent lives. Well, what's their lives could have been shorter in this historical true crime, both fact and fiction, point to these two guys being as bloody and vicious as it gets monstrous October You're listening to top.

Happy Monday, meet sex. Happy Halloween. Welcome back to the cold to the curious only. Welcome back this week. This is your first time. Wait a minute. It's not happy. I had a happy Halloween. Happy Halloween is is next next Monday, we're a week away from Halloween. I had that in my brain from writing about the next week's episode right before I sat down here. So if you know what I forget, I said about Halloween, but don't forget what I said about being welcome back to the Equality Curious.

This is your first time here, shut it down, get out of here. No one fucking invited you to be here, and you're not welcome. Are you still here? Okay, well, you know, I can't force you, I guess. I guess you can stay, but I do want you to shut the fuck up. No one likes it with the new guy. Shows up, starts yapping right out of the gate.

Maybe making fun of the host. For saying it's Halloween when it's not fucking sitting in the corner and just don't bother anybody. I'm the aircomman, some master sucker guy who kept running with a joke about tires and glued together winters last week that never really made a whole lot of sense, you know what I brought out the first time. And you are listening, time suck.

Hoping I had fun in Grand Rapids and New Holland Michigan last week with some fine disciples of the good God amway. But I'm guessing I didn't, because both those town suck. JK, no, I bet I had fun. Next up, it's Austin, Texas, I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy.

I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. I'm not going to be a bad guy. and to go to Dancoma.tv for a text with the 2023 spring dates as well. And I'll skip plug and knows this week.

I want to get to this story. But first, merchant charity. Take caution with this week's release as it is extremely shocking. New T based on SUCK subject 105, prototypical mad scientist, Nikola Tesla. Very cool portrait of Nikola, surrounded by currents of electricity. What an incredible mind he had, what an incredible weirdo he was. Head on over to badmagicmerge.com and check it out. Wish I could survive on his limited amount of sleep.

Another reminder that this month we donated $15,029 to the very sweet uplifting nonprofit guide dogs for the blind with the help of our Patreon patrons. Also edited additional $1,9 bucks to the scholarship fund. A guide dog's for the blind believes in connecting people, dogs and communities, transforming the lives of individuals with visual impairments to find out more or to donate. Go to guide dogs.com. And now it's topic time.

Please be quite listen, especially the brand new listers. Again, just please shut the fuck up. It bothers me that you're here. I can't stress that enough. No, today we're headed mainly to the brand new country of. Again, just please, shut the fuck up. It bothers me that you're here. Can't stress that enough. No, today we're headed mainly to the brand new country of the United States, a brand new frontier of the late 18th century, the area of present day Kentucky and Tennessee, a wild place, back then full of unexplored lands.

It was a place for a fresh start and new opportunities just like the Oregon territory would be for settlers decades later. And like any lawless frontier land, it was also a place for bandits, murderers like Wiley and McCage of Harp to take advantage of hard working honest people trying to create a better life for themselves and a better future for their families. Before I share the dirty story of their despicable lives in today's timeline, I'll spend most of the first half of this week's episode setting the stage for the crimes they committed. I'll go

over the time and place where they took most of their victims' lives, discussing late 18th century American Western expansion, also share the details of the war that kicked off their bloodlust, the American Revolutionary War, and the events that led up to it, events the heart brothers lived through. I'll go over why they fought on the side of the British and how a savage style of fighting in the war and their southern portion of the colonies and hatred of British loyalists following the war helps set them on a course of leading such a savage lifestyle. All that and also, you know, they were just probably born psychopaths. Let's get to you, yawn.

While Frontiersman, we're carving communities out of the wilderness, the harps were making a good effort at slaughtering the meager population. As a quote from an article in the October 29th, 1972 edition of the Park City Daily News from Bowling, Green, Kentucky, harps operated in what was considered the western frontier during their lifetime, the land beyond the safety of the established colonial communities, unknown lands of the Appalachian Mountains, and even further west. They operate in the area of several present-day states such as Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi.

It killed people up and down, what was called the wilderness road along the Green River, and what was called the Barons, and all the way over to the infamous Bandit and River Pirate hideout of Cave in rock on the Ohio River. They were considered the most feared outlaws out of so many outlaws who prayed on travelers along the Natchez trace. Today, the Natchez trace is a roughly 440 mile historic forest trail. It sounds way too fucking long. Passing through three states.

I will not be hiking it. Starts a Nashville, Tennessee, ends like I mentioned a bit earlier And nachez mississippi small city of about 15,000 90 miles north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana The old nachez trades with historic travel corridor used by Native Americans European settlers and slavers and soldiers for many many years Local tribes mainly the Choktov and Chickasaw traveled the trace for centuries And British settlers traveled it for even longer than that They began using the path back in the ninth century over a thousand years ago. But after Christopher Columbus took the pilgrims and his Mayflower pirate ship to settle Alaska back in 1017. Anyone who just believed those last few senses made their history teachers so fucking sad.

Now the tribes of course had been using the trail for centuries before any Europeans ever set foot on it. They created it. They blazed the brush on the trail to create a clear path for their horses. First recorded to European to go through the trace was an unknown Frenchman. We traveled it in 1742 and he was not terribly impressed with the trail's maintenance. He wrote about the trail's miserable conditions. I get it. Maybe it's from a paris or somewhere. It's going to be hard for no trail cleared by a brush by hand just enough to allow horses to comfortably trot down it through the mud. You know, to compare to the flat wide cobblestone streets of a city like Paris, where stones were first laid way back in the 12th century. A little more rugged over on this continent at

that time. By the end of the 18th century, European settlers had begun establishing ends along the trace to serve food and provide housing for the increasing number of travelers, heading west to populate more and more of the continent, as the original colonies filled up with more and more settlers. This trail always bringing more and more fresh victims was where the harps would do a great deal of their senseless and brutal killing. Another area commonly used by the harps for hunting humans was the Cumberland Gap, a pass that took Western-minded settlers across the Cumberland Mountains, a smaller mountain range that's part of the larger range

of the Appalachian Mountains. Little town of about 500 people now sits at the Cumberland Gap at the Junction, a Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. An American colonial history that's notable past served as the first major passageway to make it through the lower Appalachians. First white settlers to cross the gap was a man named Gabriel Arthur.

It was captured by Shawnee Warriors in 1673. Warriors who, according to tales from contemporaries at that time, turned them into a skin walker. He's something a dark sorcery. And he still haunts the forest today feasting on the occasional appellation trail hiker, but not often, not feasting very often because he's super old and weak and very pathetic. Not a very good skin walker now. He's the kind you don't hear about very often the shitty kind. Once you can't really overpower their victims. We always hear about the powerful monsters. What about the weak ones, real old ones? The ones not good at their

jobs, right? Not everyone's good at their jobs, not even monsters. We always hear about very tough scary monsters, but they're sad, not scary. Bottom shelf feeble monsters too, and Gabe is now one of them. Gabe most of the appears as a really sickly, very skinny, dear man creature with a bunch of liver spots and shit,

and mangy patches of fur, and really fragile thin antlers. He can't even chase him anymore. His dear legs are too emaciated and brittle. He just kind of crawls, you know, he's so bad for him. Crawling through the brush, hoping to drink the blood of a weak tired hiker who maybe got hammered the night before, passed out on the ground and said, crawling back into the tent.

And even if that hiker has tough, you know, like neck skin, Gabe's not going to be able to feast because he doesn't have hardly any fucking skin walker teeth left. Maybe two, three shitty teeth left at this point. And they have cavities and they're loose in the gums. It breaks my heart. Gabe might not even be around anymore. Honestly, for his sake, I hope he is dead. According to my source in the fever dream where I was showing all this info, he was

really close to death when I started doing my research earlier this week. Or maybe none of that's true. Instead you can trust what literally all the sources say about Gabriel Arthur, that the Shawnee warriors who captured him, right, showed him mercy and let him go. Oh boy. Hey Dan, David Hatcher, children's here. Time soaked resident cryptidusologist, former University of Montana student, Go Grins. And what you said about the skin walkers does not line up with my own research. You're projecting the paradigm of human physical limitations onto a creature with supernatural powers

Which by definition means they're not confined by known abilities or biological constraints like the traditional aging process. David, yeah, yeah, I was kidding. That was, that was a joke. Oh, okay. I wish you would have made that more clear. David, like always, just go away outside in the hall. Yeah, okay, that's no problem. Real quick, I didn't understand my most recent

painstub this week, came from bare, evil, and corporate, and shut the fuck up, David, and get out of here. Oh, yeah, no, yeah oh no okay no need for yellow i'm gonna talk to the HR department I hadn't seen uh David in a while I thought it was uh thought it was gone thought it was fired but apparently he's back in the building anyway the Cumberland gap pass didn't fall in the common use for almost another century probably too many people getting eaten by skin walker Gabe when he was young and virile or not enough people were ready to head further west yet.

Early Virginia Explorer Thomas Walker was perhaps the next European settler to find the past and 1750. First to properly documents spread the word around. Quarter of a century later in 1775, famed American frontiersman, Daniel Boone blazed a proper trail to the Converland gap known as wilderness road after first crossing it over a decade earlier. Trail he would help car would serve as the pathway to the western United States for some 300,000 settlers over the next 35 years. Plenty of people again for the harps to hunt and brutalize. Boone's pioneering path led

to the establishment of the first settlements Kentucky,, including his name, Sake, Boone's Burrow, and the Kentucky's admission to the union as the 15th state in 1792. Boone first crossed the Cumberland gap on a hunting trip in 1767, authoring historian Robert M. Coates wrote of Daniel Boone in his 1930 book, The Outlaw Years, the history of the land pirates of the Natchez Trace. A book we leaned on heavily as the best source of reliable information on the Blahyharps. A coat set a boon. He blazed a history of his passage on the trunks of trees. He scratched his sign on boulders along the way and moved out silently into the wilderness. He blazed 14 places at the rivers, felled trees to make raccoon bridges across the creeks, thousands of other men abandoning the comfortable, prosperous east

came groping westward after him. And you also, maybe beat the shit out of that weak-ass fucking skinwalker Gabe, sending him spiraling into his current pathetic state of existence. Maybe he did, I don't know, I wasn't there, and you weren't either. Especially you new guy, you know, fucking dick about Daniel Boone. But for real though, Kamberland Gap was considered the gateway to the West and settlers came to the mountains and large numbers. The road was long and dangerous, full of outlaws waiting to take advantage of honest people

isolated from society and the law. Wilderness road followed Boone's initial trails to the great Smoky Mountains down the Watoga. Watoga, Watoga, there we go, Watoga, Watoga River. Didn't know that river was a river before this week to the juncture within the clinch mountains Path then forked Knoxville or north towards the Cumberland gap to send in the Kentucky both forks met up back in Nashville Considered a metropolis then with a thousand inhabitants by the end of the 18th century my how times have changed Thousand people that was a metropolis for this place and time really qualifies as a town now. That was a big city on the frontier of all kinds of Hawkfolk, Dockfolk, Hustle and Abustlin. I'll let people back then all over the course.

1790 census. So this is Kentucky's entire population. It only 73,077 people. Kentucky was actually technically a county of sorts, belonging to Virginia at that time. 77 people Kentucky was actually technically a county of sorts belonging to Virginia at that time. And the population in Tennessee known then as the Southwest territory less than half of that at 35, 791 1792 Kentucky's new state legislature. It had just become the 15th state on June 1st of that year designated money to improve the road. Turn it into an actual road of sorts Vermont beat Kentucky to become in the 14th state by just a few months. By 1796, the all-weather wilderness road was officially open to making wagon and carriage travel much easier. Also had the unintended consequence of making it easier for robbers and

murderers like the harps to attack travelers. Author Coats, introductory chapter on the trail, explains why settlers wanted to leave behind the cities and relative comfort of their lives in the east and entered the western mountain wilderness following his quote from a man who not only did he originally pass through the Cumberland camp and Wombu Cumberland Gaps, excuse me walked the wilderness road is a you know just get some reference from all this yet he may have ran with the heart brothers on many of their debatuous adventures will cite him frequently this episode along with coats uh... suck versus story and maybe a long time ago maybe he lives now maybe uh...

uh... couple hundred years old is mysterious character he's uh... sylvester ho barred it could be a twill pepper they came by the thousand also conditions of the who manage for the planes of blue gear snakebackers augusters I'll sort the conditions of men. Hooden anties from the plains of Bluegill, snakebatters, hog hustlers, shrimp petters from Hempfield,

swill, and succotash creep. Flute dealers and groundhog whiffers, maple barters and moonshine marries, tons of twitters from Buckeyes head and do drop midders from Chickasile Red. McKenzie's men for the war of discontent and rubies tavern girls from the Syracuse Snatch pit. By water and by land they came, by foot by hoof, by snowfall sleigh pulled by dwarf and goblin. Through the day

and night they toil and tribulated confiscated what they could to survive. Pine tree root and tabernacle grease. They wore what tapestry as settlement out of many things. Snail sail, nish, snail shells shoes, blackberry bramble bridges, even air banjo strings. Bank thing, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, bank, Because this real account sounds a lot like the shit I read to my ears. Fucking old pie near talk. I love it, but I'm often left thinking, uh, what in the hell are they saying? Real quick before I share the actual account, keep your ears appealed for old Sylvester Hobart, Ikebaud Twelpepper. I feel like he's not done telling tales today, not Bob Damn sat. Let's restart this music.

They came by the thousand, all sorts of conditions of men. Mountain ears from the Blue Ridge and yet can valley. Packed peddlers, traders, army men, disgruntled soldiers. The original settlers of Tennessee comprised a large number who fought their evolution. Farm boy, city men, men of all trades. Carpenters, hustlers, mechanics, men in bided, seeking solitude, crowd fearless men and men with heavy secrets to conceal. By water and by land they came hammering their way into the wilderness, pushing on toward the center river the dream of Mississippi that lay like a liquid spine in the

wilderness mist. They came pushing on along one fork or the other in the wilderness, swaddle them, wherever they went it touched them, wherever they settled it surrounded them. Facing wilderness is dark loneliness, it's strange menace. The bigger privatations it imposed and the sudden boundfulness it sometimes afforded. All men changed a little as if their nature's like their mouths were fed on the wild fruit it offered. Gradually as the settlers came pouring into the region, the dangers of the Indians diminished. But now that the very tide of immigration

brought a new peril to the wilderness, the river pirates who prayed on the traffic of the river, and the land pirates who infested the forest trails as traveling priests, their numbers mounted as trade grew richer, they became more powerful. On land, they were more fortunate still for here, the wilderness fed them, hid them, inspired them. It's dense king them, hid them, inspired them.

Its dance cane breaks, ate them, and ambush Cade. They were the terror of the great trails of the Natchez Trace. Hair and the two mad harps, mason and mural, one by one, they rose to power, and had their period of dominion over the wilderness country. Their words creatures the bitter fruit of the same wild seed

that bred the pine ares. They reflected, but in more savage fashion, the same ruthless audacity and fierce, implacable energy with its loneliness inspired and their more honest fellows. I mean, for real though, didn't that actual historical passage about the kind of folks heading west into Tennessee and Kentucky sound pretty similar to the bullshit I met? Let's talk about the revolutionary war bit now the heart brothers seem to get their first taste for violence during this war and will use the backdrop of this war to do a lot of horrible shit

the hearts lived in the american revolution the chaotic post war period followed when the u-s was trying to establish its government and first set a loss the hearts were the children of scottish immigrants and like many of their fellow immigrants they were loyal to the british crown during the war, an estimated 15 to 20 percent of the population in America were loyalists. Most loyalists were office holders serving the British Crown, clergymen, Quakers, pacifists, landowners, or wealthy merchants. Loyalists never came together as a group to serve the army, but a lot of different individuals joined the British army or formed guerrilla militia units. New York alone furnished a total of around 23,000 loyalist soldiers during the war.

Highland Scott would immigrate to America overwhelmingly favored the king over the revolutionary cause. It's surprising, right? What's for me? For a nation that had won its independence from England in the early 14th century and it fought numerous wars to protect this independence, such loyalty probably seems bizarre to many of us today. Scotland has had a long history of engagement with England on much more complex levels

than just a resistance to English depression we often hear about, especially in pop culture, right? A resistance portrayed, for example, in films like Mel Gibson's Braveheart, Fridaum! But around the time the harps immigrated to America, McCagion, Wiley Harvestvest fathers, both born in Scotland, even some of the most patriotic scots

were looking to England for guidance. Scotland in the late 17th century was compared to England underdeveloped, and often a backward nation. Looking south, most scots saw centralized state relative stability, Newtonian science, political philosophers, greater enfranchisement and after 1689, a constitutional circumscribed monarchy.

The desire to be a part of all this overall was strong, and in 1707, Scottish parliamentarians realizing that the nation's wealth could not permit her to compete in colonial ventures on the European stage against England, signed the Treaty of Union, which unified the parliaments of Scotland and England. As Treaty of Union opened up English markets to Scottish traders who now made a shit load of money. Scotland was largely spared the same levels of taxation seen in England. And as a result, many Scots economically benefited greatly from the union under the navigation

acts. The series of laws passed by the British parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade, which so frustrated American traders. Scots were permitted to carry on trade with British colonies without paying the tariffs associated with foreign states. The biggest beneficiary was Glasgow, which overtook centers like London and Liverpool to become Britain's leading tobacco port by the 1770s. So basically the time of the American Revolution, Scotland's relationship with the British crown

was the best it had ever been. They were the crown's golden child. And when the American colonists decided to revolt against the motherland, uh, Scottish immigrants were not too fucking happy about it. They saw the colonists as ruining what was a very good new thing for them. But the Americans didn't just revolt out of nowhere, of course. The American revolution was caused largely by the aftermath of another war, the seven years war, aka the French and Indian war, the Seven Years War, aka the French and

Indian War, the last from 1754 to 1763. This war was, I know those aren't, I know those aren't seven years there. The war was a part of an ongoing imperial global struggle between Britain and France. Each country seeking to expand their spheres of influence in the new world and also elsewhere just around the globe. I'm going to all this in a lot more depth back in episode 147 on the Revolutionary War, a religion released back on July 8, 2019, going to give a much more summarized synopsis here now. During the Seven Years War, the French and their Native American allies fought against the British, American colonists, and the Iroquois Confederacy of upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania. By 1753, Great Britain controlled

the 13 original colonies, colonies on the East Coast, beyond that lay new France, large colonies stretching from Louisiana through the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes all the way to Canada. But the border between Britain and France wasn't clearly defined, and that haziness would of course lead to conflict as settlers fur traders a center from both sides looked to settle contested lands. In the early 1750s, France expanded into the Ohio River Valley, and that expansion brought them directly into conflict with British colonists, also expanding into the valley, considered that land to belong to them. In 1754, the French built Fort Duquesne, where the Alleghenian, oh boy, Manangala, Manangahela,

there we go. Alleghenian Manangahila rivers joined to form the Ohio River. This was a strategic location that the British wanted and felt was rightfully theirs. I'm 1754 to 1755. The French won a series of battles against general George Washington. Yes, that George Washington and governor William Shirley of Massachusetts. Yes, that William Shirley, uh, kidding to bet with emphasis on that second one. Does anyone outside of a few history buffs have a fucking clue who William Shirley was?

You could have told me just about any name for the governor of Massachusetts at that time, and I would have just not had a long. Governor Ronald McDonald's, all right, all right, maybe that's where that name came from. Governor Dewey T. Bagger, huh, unfortunate name, but funny, carry on. Anyway, when news of Washington's failure reached British Prime Minister Thomas Pellam Holes,

he called for retaliation. Pellam Holes enemies and the cabinet then made the news of retaliation public, which alerted the French, good job, Dickweeds. Now Britain forced a declared war. 1755, Governor Shirley expelled hundreds of French settlers in Acadia, those Cajun swamp folk ancestors. We spoke of in the Ronnie Joe fragile buttole episode out of Nova Scotia and off to other British colonies. British then sent general Edward Braddock to the colonies to command their forces and Braddock alienated, uh, native allies and the colonial leaders refused to cooperate with him.

Fucking Braddock not well liked. In July 13th, 1755, the unpopular Braddock died in an ambush and the war fell into a stalemate for a few years in North America. But in 1756, the French captured a menorca in the Mediterranean, Little Island taken from the Spanish by the British in 1708. 1757, the war having started up again overseas. The British now defeats the French in India. Meanwhile, back in North America, British commander, Lord London or Lord Louton, failed in

several key battles against the French and their native allies in Nova Scotia, 1757 future prime minister, current chief executive of the British treasury will impede borrowed a large amount of money to finance the war. He paid Prussian mercenaries to fight on the European front and reimburse the colonial settlers to provide volunteer soldiers. July of 1757, the British won a significant battle at Lewis Borg. A month later, they stole a French fort. In November of 1758, British general John Forbes captured Fort Ducaine, renamed it Fort

Pitt. The British then took Quebec in September of 1759. Montreal also fell to the British in September of 1760. The French now lost their last major city in Canada. French government now attempts to start peace negotiations, but prime minister William Pitt wanted the French to seed Canada as well as the other, as well as excuse me, other commercial concessions. There we go.

And the peace negotiations failed. And then King Charles, the third of Spain offers to aid his cousin, French king Louis the 15th and the war and they joined forces. Obviously, as I'm sure many of you, uh, history buffs can recall as a tag team wrestling duo. Sunday Sunday Sunday. Tonight in the Baltimore Colonial Civic Center auditorium, we have a true royal rumble. King Chuck and King Louis take their dainty little blue blood soft ass doll hands

that have never known a single minute of manly work into the cage against combat veteran George Dollar Dollar Bill, Y'all Washington and some other wigs fort and waste coating stocking where motherfuckers like Don suck my Yankee headcock for men fighting for the right to impose their version of manifest destiny We'll tell you the whole seat but you'll only need the edge For real though, uh King Charles III of Spain offers to eight his cousin French King Louis the 15th in the war And they formed the family compact in August 15 1761 Then Spain announces that they will fuck Britain shit up if the war doesn't end before May 1st

1762 that move was meant to subdue Britain into ending the war but not so much Instead the British declared war on Spain in January on January 4th 1762. That move was meant to subdue Britain into ending the war, but not so much. Instead, the British declared war on Spain in January 4th, 1762, backfire. For the rest of the war, Britain focuses on capturing both French and Spanish land and other parts of the world. They take the French Caribbean islands, Cuba, the Philippines, they force their foes to surrender rather than be annihilated. In February of 1763, France, Britain, Spain, all signed the Treaty of Paris to end this war. The British get Canada from France and Florida from Spain.

France keeps the Sugar Islands and the West Indies. Spain ends up with Louisiana and Cuba. And now the Mississippi Valley North America is open for British expansion. Britain is one. So how did that all help lead to the Revolutionary War? It didn't. I have no idea why we just went over any of that. Sometimes I just say pointless shit, because I like the sound of my own voice.

It did help lead to the Revolutionary War. Here's how England borrowed from British and Dutch banks to finance the war, which doubled their national debt. King George III argues that since the war benefited the colonists so much, they should you know, fucking pay for it. And I have to admit, there is some logic to that argument. George also decided to send army units to the colonies to protect the new territory, which required even more money. And he wanted the colonists to pay for that as well, since the protection was for them. Also some logic there. But many colonists did not see this logic. They were pissed. They probably ran around with powdered

wigs all the skew because it put them on right when they were angry and frustrated. The spewds over frontier policy and paying steep post-war taxes led to colonial discontent and planted the seeds for the American Revolutionary War. Taxes. Always got to be careful with taxes. Not enough taxes in the government can't properly manage the nation and provide necessary services like law enforcement, transportation, infrastructure, public education, and military to protect citizens from foreign invasion, etc. But too much taxes and the citizens will eventually revolt and overthrow the government. In addition, not caring for new taxes, Americans were also unhappy because they resented the increased authority Britain was imposing with a larger troop presence.

They've been left alone for years before the war and allowed to establish local governments, but now the army is interfering with their normal routines. So what taxes specifically pissed them off the most? There were many, here's some of the biggest, in 1765, British parliament passed a stamp act, which was the first internal tax directly levied on Americans to pay for the increased troop presence. It required that many, excuse me, that many printed materials in the college had to be produced on stamped paper produced in London.

Carrying an embossed revenue stamp, printed materials included legal documents, magazines, playing cards, newspapers, many other types of paper used throughout the college had to be paid in British currency, not colonial paper money. This tax was met with anger. This tax legitimately super annoying. This is fucked up making Americans buy British paper. It's not like they had Amazon prime back then. They were making Americans weighed on paper, you know, potentially they had to be sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and said, I just letting them make their own little short-sighted seeming to not understand how upsetting this was going to be. Then the

town shend acts of 1767 pissed call in the off further. These were taxes on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea to help pay the expenses involved in governing the American colonies. The tea act of 1773 seemed to be the tax straw that broke the columnist back. This tax granted the British East India company tea tea. Wait, a monopoly on tea sales. There we go, British East India tea company. A monopoly on tea sales in the American colonies in an effort to save the struggling company. Also fucked up, not letting colonists grow their own tea, instead making them buy from a

British company at a much higher price. To me, this is kind of like forcing Americans to buy big farmer products to treat depression if they need medicine, instead of letting them, I don't know, grow their own magic mushrooms, proven to also be effective and treating major depressive episodes. Scythalcy� mushrooms are exponentially cheaper with fewer side effects. Or it's like the American government allowing big farmers to sell citizens' dangerous addictive and expensive opioids to treat pain, but not allowing medicinal marijuana in many states, like my state of Idaho, to also treat pain.

So that's cool. Are we actually more free because we fought against the British or is the same old bullshit that colonists fought against in the Revolutionary War still going on today, but now our masters live on this side of the link. Anyway, American colonists lacked representatives in parliament, which made them even more pissed off. Colonists felt like they didn't have the same rights as citizens in Britain. They didn't have a voice in deciding what taxes should be imposed upon them, that whole

taxation without representation situation. The mob has began to attack loyalist politicians in 1765, large crowds and Boston attacked It should be imposed upon them that whole taxation without representation situation. The mob has began to attack loyalist politicians in 1765, large crowds in Boston attacked Andrew Oliver and Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. They broke into Hutchinson mansion, ransacked the place, stole money, jewelry, destroyed all kinds of property. And instant, it's a colonial violence began to occur on a somewhat regular basis, such as the 1770 Boston massacre.

When the group of nine British soldiers shot five people out of a riding crowd of three or four hundred who were abusing them verbally and starting to throw shit at them. There was the December 1773 Boston Tea Party when protesters boarded ships belonging to the British East India company and through chest of tea into the ocean. I've heard of it. Soldiers soon forced martial law all over the colonies in response, which further increased tension between the colonies into crown. British parliament passed a course of acts beginning in March of 1774 as punishment for rebellions in Boston and response colonial delegates forming the first continental Congress. Meet in Philadelphia on September or in September 1774 to voice their grievances against

the crown. They'd announce taxation without representation and the maintenance of the army without their consent, they declare their rights to life, liberty, property, assembly, trial by jury, a revolution is brewing. Word of this makes it back to the British crown. And on April 18, 1775, British soldiers marching to Concord, Massachusetts to seize the colonist arms to prevent an uprising but too late, motherfuckers. Very next day, the colonial forces and British forces fight in the battles of Lexington and Concord, officially starting the Revolutionary War. The Second Continental Congress now quickly meets in Philadelphia,

votes to form an army. They elect General George Washington as Commander in Chief. Why would he chose? Well, if you forgot, he had the heaviest balls. For centuries, military leaders around the globe were chosen only based on whose balls were the heaviest back when the world made sense. George had a little over 16 pounds of nuts, not counting dick, just nuts. There was no question he should lead. God had clearly chosen him to lead men with smaller balls, often much smaller in the battle. Now the other guy just felt like George was a great military leader and we do the best job. How boring. The colonial and British armies now meet again

in the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, considered the first major battle of the war. British win this battle, but also took over twice the casualties as the Americans and that inspired the early patriots to keep fighting. A bunch of other battles are then fought after this, both sides win, blues and shit. The Americans wouldn't have to feel good enough about their future to form the continental Congress and sign the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, document the chains and nations history forever. Then in 1777, the continental army defeats the British, the battle of Saratoga, the French joined the war in 1778. British commanders decided to launch a campaign in the South where the harps lived. On the southern front of the war, fighting continued guerrillas style far

more savage and personal than anything fought in the north. And the harps are believed to have engaged in many of these savage acts. There was a harsh atmosphere of violence in the South as gangs, of revolutionaries and loyalists attacked one another, even towards the war's end while peace negotiations were going on. Even after the war was over, the loyalists were concerned about protecting themselves and felt like they had to fight back. Loyalist captured in battle where often treated as traitors and usually executed. The war down south was brutal. And when a many incidents, Loyalist forces murdered a pregnant woman while she slept. Above her canopy, they wrote in her own blood, thou shalt never give birth to a rebel

in her own blood, thou shalt never give birth to a rebel in her own blood. Oh, shit. In another incident, Loyalist commander, Thomas Brown ordered the hanging of 13 rebels in his stairwell. He wanted to watch him die while he laid in bed and recovered from some battlefield injuries. So that's what he did. That's pretty good. Finally, in October of 1781, the war virtually comes to an end when general Cornwallis is surrounded and forced to surrender the British position at Yorktown, Virginia. Two years later, the Treaty of Paris makes it official. America is independent. During and after the war, approximately 100,000 loyalists will flee to Canada and estimate

a three to four percent of the population. Most of the loyalists settled in Nova Scotia, the British government also helps black loyalists resettle in Canada since they were promised emancipation for fighting in the war. About 3,500 black veterans will settle in New Brunswick. States past laws forbidding loyalists from holding office, disenfranchising them and confiscating or heavily taxing their property. Founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and John J. were adamant that loyalists should be punished severely after the war.

Loyalist soldiers were treated as, again, treasonous citizens, punished in court, loyalists who fled the country prohibited from returning despite guarantees and peace treaties. Loyalist hatred would not die down until after 1788 when the new American government formed after the ratification of the American Constitution. Remaining state laws against loyalists wouldn't be fully repealed until after the war of 1812. The bloody harps will be dead by then, while they lived, these vicious loyalist outlaws lived as despised men for most of their lives. They grew up witnessing so much violence and hatred between loyalists and patriots.

They saw men get away with evil, lawless behavior, and it seems like they wanted to join in and take things even further in that direction. Instead of being repulsed, it seems like they might have been inspired. So let's dive into a timeline now of their shitty lives from beginning to end. And go over some revolutionary war era history. None of us were ever taught in school. Right after today's mid show, Spots are Break. Now let's dive into this insanity. Shrap on those boots soldier, we're marching down a time-sug timeline.

Quick note before I begin sharing all this timeline info. If you read five sources on the harps, especially the several books written about them, you're going to get five different versions of their story, often with different dates, sometimes wildly different dates, and very different spins on their deeds and characters. A lot of speculation presented as fact by numerous sources, putting this all together, it soon became very apparent that no one knows for sure what these two shitheads actually did for much of their lives. As is often the case when we've covered subjects from the American Wild West and this frontier

tale, certainly Wild West adjacent, even though it all happened nearly a century before, most Wild West legends were made. There were a lot of tall tales being told at this time about figures like the Harps. Not a lot of serious historical journalism being done. People that lived in places like where the Harps were killing people weren't generally the scholarly type. It tended to be a lot more interested in living

until the next day. Then they were in recording that day's history, more interested in making sure they knew how to live off the land instead of learning how to read and write and such. And when folks did write shit down during this era, in this area, it was almost never long graphic narratives about the dirty deeds of the likes of the heart brothers. Most of the people who are the, you know, most literate back then were very godly folk. They weren't writing about true crime. That would have been seen as a terribly distasteful at best, very sinful, legally obscene at worst.

So, I just wanted to say that up top. And I want to add that I'm not going to give a lot of multiple dates for events, you know, for this source to that. There's just too many inconsistencies that are ruined the story. On each event, I just picked a date that seems to me to be the most agreed upon and then moved on So if the dates I give don't line up with other dates You've read about or heard about you know regarding the same story. That's why and if that bothers you Well, then I guess we can talk more about it when I show up in your fucking bedroom in the middle of night

We're in a hockey mask and carrying a very big sharp machete I tell you like to handle disagreements with people, because it's fucking funny to me. Ha, it's funny to me to do that. And it was not funny to you, and I guess I'll fucking slash your fucking head off your neck. All right, I'm glad that's settled now. I feel calm, I can begin.

In late 1750s, two of the most wicked men in early American history were born, Roy Disney and Pat Sejek. Mm. Or, Makage on Wiley Harp. Yes, that's correct. Makayja Harp was born in 1748, Wiley Harp born in 1750. Makayja, most likely born in Scotland shortly before his family crossed the Atlantic, while Wiley, likely born in Orange County, North Carolina, where the two would grow up.

The Harps weren't really named, Makayja and Wiley. They weren't brothers. They were first cousins, their dads or brothers. McCay John Harps' real name was Joshua, born to parents John Harp and Mrs. Harp, no name given to her in sources. If you had any siblings and you likely had so many not listed in sources. Also, at first I thought that the name McCay Joe is such a weird name for Joshua to pick. I'm like, I've never heard of that name before.

But look at into it, while not common in the last 100 years. Pretty popular in America for its first few centuries. There's a neighborhood in Plymouth, Massachusetts called Mikaija Heights, pond near it called Mikaija pond, a little on an unincorporated community in West Virginia called Mikaija. It's actually a misspelling of the boys of a boy's name of Hebrew origin, meaning who is like God. Well, not Mikaedra Harp. Hope not. Mikaedra Harp represents God.

We are fucked. Wily Harp, real name William, not a huge change there, a born-to-parents William Harp and Mrs. Harp, and no name given to her in-sources either, really kind of illustrates women's cultural value compared to men back then, might as well have listed their wives' names as Avjon and of William. Somewhere between 17 16 16 16 63 brothers, john and William Harp, leave the west coast

of Scotland with their wives, settle in Orange County, North Carolina. I know that date doesn't match up with the birth dates. I listed earlier, but again, these dates are all over the place. Time range rough estimate given by historians through the politically tense atmosphere of the time historians believe that these folks change their names from Harper to Harp to gain favor with American neighbors. That is true. How fucking ridiculous that one letter would make that much of a difference.

Did you say your name was Harper? Are you fucking kidding me? You Scottish scum. What Harp are? No, it's harp. No dirty ar. It's clearly an English name, not a Scottish name. You need a minute?

How can we have a thick Scottish accent? The accent situation makes it even more ridiculous to me. Like even if the one letter did change a name from Scottish to English, although both names historically can be either Scottish, English or even Irish. But if the one letter changed origin You would still sound super Scottish right the same amount Scottish Well, I don't know whatever the reason their name changed these harp cousin dipshits grouped together and they were best friends And they supposedly considered themselves brothers

Early in their adolescence they started calling themselves big harp and little harp referring to their obvious size difference Micaheja was a big big big dude, one modern biographer, taken into account some old descriptions of them. Says that Micaheja was over six feet tall as an adult, weighed over 200 pounds, which was a massive dude in those days, and very muscular, extremely strong, dark curly hair,

widely described as being considerably thinner, quite a bit shorter, and listed as having unruly red hair They were both easily recognizable figures especially when they showed up together and it seems like Wiley Excuse me, it seems Wiley at least must have been pretty ugly. I mean no man is described as having unruly red hair And it's being handsome like at least 99 times out of 100 they're not especially not in those frontier times If you an image search for these two illustrations of them are never flattering. They look like a couple motherfuckers

from a slasher flick or a zombie movie, right? Couple backwoods in red Scottish savages, big ol' lumpy heads, BDIs, super high foreheads, and honestly they look a lot like myself. They look a lot like me with smaller eyes and a little bit bigger foreheads and longer hair, okay? I have a lot of Scottish blood and I feel like I have pretty Scottish features.

And overall, I do accept that we're not the most attractive people. These two frontier days, hillbillies had my Frankenstein head but not my Scandinavian eyes and drawings. They had little rat eyes. And you know, they didn't have access to modern beauty products like scissors

and face lotion and soap. So imagine me with more hair, Curlier hair, big, bushy, unkept beard, a little bit uglier, a lot dirtier, a tiny-ear-ice, and you probably have a pretty good depiction of big harp. And then re-imagining me is being starved and shrunk quite a bit, and a decent amount of uglier,

with a bunch of Bozo-Uncom Clown Hair, and you get little harp, kind of like a smaller groundskeeper, Willie, from the Simpsons. According to a couple different sources, Wiley, almost called him Willie there, was the brain to these two, like a two-man operation, while Makage was the muscle. Both men loved violence.

And this spring in 1775, the harp bros left North Carolina for Virginia. Makage, yeah, anyway, they wrote off to. left North Carolina for Virginia, Mikaija. Yeah, anyway, they wrote off to find jobs as slave overseers, perfect occupation for a couple of satis. But then American Revolution, the American Revolution interrupted those plants. The harps, as I mentioned up top, were loyalists who sided with the British. Most sources don't seem to think they actually really gave a shit about which side they fought

on. Fighting for the British has gave them the most chances in their area to burn farms, steal people shit, rape vulnerable women, do some wanton murder. They did a lot of all that. Multiple sources referred to them being a part of a Tory rape gang. I had to stop when I came across that phrase and look further into it. I was like, were Tory rape gangs actually a real thing? Yeah, yes, that they were. Rarely talked about when the horrors of the Revolutionary War are discussed, but they absolutely were. Sadly war and rape have always gone hand in hand.

More and more reports coming out of Ukraine almost every day now. Many reports of Ukrainian women being raped by occupying Russian soldiers. And back in the Revolutionary War, there were many reports. Many eyewitness accounts of bands of Tories, what the loyalists were often called, going full plunder on those fighting against the crown of America. Nathaniel Green, famed a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. George Washington's most trusted general, in fact, would use the term ravished as almost

everyone did back then when he was referring to people getting raped. And he wrote to Governor Nicholas Cook of Rhode Island on December 21, 1776 about what he saw in New Jersey when the British Commander-in-Chief William Howe and his men and many Tories tore through the area. He wrote, Men slaughtered, women ravished, houses plundered, little girls not yet ten ravished, mothers and daughters ravished in presence of husbands and son who were obliged to be spectators to their brutal conduct. Howe's army ravages or howe or house army ravages exceeded all description.

And there are tons of additional historical accounts much like that one. With this aspect of the war rarely talked about by historians. It wasn't just the Tories, doing the raping either. Sexual violence towards women was all too common during the American Revolutionary War on both sides. British soldiers often rape the women living on the property they destroyed when American soldiers fighting for general Washington entered communities full of loyalists, same shit went down, Tory women and girls raped by those fighting for or adjacent to the continental

army. Countless incidents of rape and sexual violence during the war and it seems like the bloody harps, they broke away from the actual fighting with the British army during the war to run around as part of this rape gang. Some group of pieces of shit taking advantage of the chaos of the war to get away with being sexual predators. Around this time, while the harp attempted to rape young Susan Wood in North Carolina, but continental army captain James Wood listed as her father in most sources, shot and wounded

him. Unfortunately, he was able to scramble away and survive the gunshot In early 1800s interview with James Wood confirms all this would confirmed that the heart brothers joined a band of men loyal to the British crown This group really just wanted to exploit a legal vacuum created by the war Right, they just wanted to rape and pillage around the countryside according to wood Wiley had already raped at least three teenage girls before Wood stopped him from raping his daughter Susan. And in some sources, Wiley not done with Susan after this now by a long shot. 1778, their reports that the harps were still fighting in battles alongside the British Army along the north and South Carolina borders.

Most reports their battle sightings came from Frank Wood's son of continental army captain James what Frank would be interviewed by mid 19th century historian T. Marshall Smith many years later for his book published in 1855 legends of the war of independence and of the earlier settlements in the West. Frank told Smith that he personally saw a while he fighting three battles. He said on three occasions I saw him and twice we met in battle. He was as you know belonging to Lieutenant Tarleton's command and I went with General Morgan. At the battle of cow pens I saw him and I we met in battle. He was as you know, belonging to Lieutenant Tarleton's command. And I went with General Morgan at the Battle of Cowpans. I saw him and I'm sure he saw me. What he managed to keep out of my way till we took a hundred prisoners to the number of 500 red British and tor, red British and Tories. But again, he got off with the retreat of Tarleton. On October 7th, 1780, the harps and also their fathers fought in the battle of King's Mountain,

one of the few major battles of the war, waged entirely between fellow countrymen, Patriot militia versus Torrey militia. The Patriots won in the lopsided victory, but the harps managed to escape with their lives. After Kings Mountain, Wiley and McCage returned to Orange County with their dads, and then around shortly after they got back by 1779 at the latest, all the exact death date is unknown, a vigilante group of patriots murdered the heart brothers parents. Their fathers and mothers allegedly tortured, hanged for treason for their crimes of supporting the British crown. I'm sure that just further fueled the heart brothers' violent ways.

They were already raping patriots wives, mothers and daughters, and while sources never get specific, they allude to a lot of harps, a lot of harp killing, excuse me, during the war, probably killing a lot of the men that stood between them and the women they wanted to rape. And now these men have revenge to further motivate them to do more killing and raping. My cage and wild, you're orphan now no longer tied to Orange County, North Carolina. They began to head west, bring their violent ways towards Kentucky and elsewhere. Illinois historian John Musgrave told the Scotsman for an article about the harps. This devastating personal tragedy would leave the orphaned harps dangerously embittered with the world and set them down a path of fortuitous butchery and depravity.

I think they realized early on they were not part of the elect and decided if they were going to hell they might as well make a grand entrance. The viciousness of all but the civil, the viciousness of the all but civil war in the Carolinas during the American Revolution didn't help and certainly led them away to the wilderness and the less than civilized norms they lived out over the next couple decades. Also war still not over. November 20th, 1780 the harps serve in the Tory militia under the command of Lieutenant

Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton's British Legion at the battle of Blacksocks Excuse me, Black stocks as Frank Wood son of continental army captain James Wood mentioned earlier and the harps also served in the battle of cowpins on January 17th 1781 is woodstated Then in early 1781 the harps abandoned the British army and joined up with the group of Cherokee start rating settlements north Carolina and Tennessee Probably more rapin, probably some more murder. As band of Cherokees taught the harps how to use the Tomahawk, and that would be one of their favorite weapons, if not their favorite weapon later in life,

especially for Makage, or for Big Harp. You do a lot of fucking Tomahawking. On April 2nd, 1781, the bloody harps spotted fighting alongside 400 Cherokee warriors during the attack on bluff station at Fort Nashville. Now Nashville known as the Battle of the Bluff. This group nearly destroyed Fort Nashville, they're in most of the men's station there out of the fort, then cutting them off from retreating back into the fort.

A small band of men who remained inside and a few able to make it back, held the fort, forts women helping to save them, apparently by letting a bunch of dogs trained as guard dogs out to join in the freight. Praise Mojangles. During the fight, many of the Cherokee left the battlefield with horses. They'd stolen before it was over. Had they stayed, they might have destroyed the fort. Colonel James Robertson, who fought in this fight, was interviewed about it and said,

thank God for giving the Indians a love for horses as it saved the lives of many of our men. And the grid of these dogs their fierce attacks on the indians cause them to run from the battle idea or not say what may have happened had they not been trained to warn us of danger and attacking repelled unions that did attack us i think i've ever heard about a fucking frontier battle where dogs play such a important role uh... one of their victims injured in this battle with james leaper leaper was possibly related to John Leaper, a member of the posse that will later kill

Makaja and dramatic fashion in 1799. Leaper, Makaja allegedly hated each other for years prior to John helping kill Makaja for some unknown reason. Well, maybe their hatred began at this battle. June of 1781, Makaja and Wiley decided to get some revenge on Captain James. Would the man who shot Wiley Harp as he attempted to rape his daughter Susan, the man who already wanted to enact more revenge on them, I guess the bloody harps now kidnap Susan. And they kidnapped a young woman named Maria Davidson as well.

These women are then forced to become the harps wives, but in most sources, sex slaves would be a more apt description for the role they'll play. According to most sources, Marie and Susan are sexually physically and emotionally abused by the harps for years after this. Susan forced to become a cage's wife. Maria forced to become wildies. Susan and Maria posed as sisters while they're traveling together. Susan was older and described to one 19th century accountant, rather unflattering terms.

They didn't pull any punches back then. She described as quote, rather tall, raw-bone, dara-caron eyes, and rather ugly. Right? Maria was blonde, blue-eyed, gay-tempered, a perfect contrast with her sister. Also, allegedly, Maria was basically shared by the heart brothers.

Susan may have been as well. This is all true, how fucking savage. Imagine something dude tries to rape you. Your dad shoots that motherfucker. He manages to scramble away. And then around five years later, she'll us back up and kidnaps you turned you into a sex late. My God. Also, how badly do James would now want to kill this guy early on after they were kidnapped, a man named Moses Dost expressed concern

for those battered women tried to help him and the harps killed him before he could do so harps took their wives far away from their homes, decided to settle in the Cherokee, Chick a Magwa village of Nika-Jack located near Chattanooga, Tennessee. They settled with the same Cherokees had been fighting alongside previously. They'll stay in this village for the next 12 years, doing God knows what sort of dirty deeds. According to that author and historian Robert Coates, this small village was basically populated by a band of outlaws who raided and plundered and murdered who knows how many early settlers in the area and raped who knows

how many women. Susan Maria, get pregnant while living this village and Makage on Wiley, according to several accounts, killed her babies. Soon after the mother's give birth to them. If half of this shit is true, these guys are ridiculously evil. There's so many things coming up. They make Hollywood western bad guys, right? Like the Cowboys gang and the Tombstone movie look like fantastic citizens. I Clinton, Johnny Ringo those dudes way more civilized than the bloody harps. Picture the worst bad guy in some outlaw, you know gang and some Western movie and that guy would be disgusted by the thieves of the harps On October 19th 1781 the British surrender at Yorktown. This is when the British really

lose the Revolutionary War, but sporadic fighting will continue for over another year, mostly amongst militias, especially in Frontierlands. Chickamago and Cherokee continue to raid and attack American patriots during British Britain's peace negotiations with Americans, and the harps continue to raid and attack right along with them. On August 19 1782, the harps company to Cherokee war party with his support of the British to the Battle of Blue Licks and Kentucky. On a hill next to the Licking River in what is now Robertson County, Kentucky, then Fayette County, Virginia, a force of about 50 loyalists along with 300 indigenous warriors, ambush and route 182 Kentucky militiamen. It was the last victory of the war for the loyalists and native warriors that fought for them.

The war that was already over but bands of loyalists in the Western Frontier lands just had not accepted that yet. Between 1788 and 1793 the harps join up with some Cherokee in a series of attacks on bloodsoat station also knows bloodsoats fort and 18th century fortified Frontier settlement located in what is now a custalian springs, Tennessee. On September of 1794, some American settlers attacked Nickajack village in retaliation for years of previous attacks coming out of that village. The harps learned about this attack beforehand and allegedly without informing their Cherokee friends who they've been living with for a, you know, there are a dozen years, they flee the village and Nickajack is destroyed.

Not very loyal to the long time buddies. No, no honor amongst these thieves. The harps and their wives now set up a new camp somewhere in the Tennessee wilderness lived there for approximately nine months. A cage and Wiley passed the time robbing local Tennessee villages and likely doing a bit more murdering and raping the harps and wander around Tennessee for a few years. The records of exactly where they went do not exist. You do know they were still in Tennessee as of 1795 and by the spring of 1797 that they had built a cabin near beavers Creek and Knoxville.

Their presence here is verified by a record of them being charged with murdering a man accused who accused them of stealing livestock. This man was found dead in the Tennessee River. His inside has been cut out, replaced with rocks and he'd been sunk to the bottom of the river. But he floated back up. So not be the last time a harp, you know, a harp victim's body will be found in this state.

In April of 1797, we finally arrived at a pretty detailed, violent harp encounter. Most likely, while on the way to beaver's creek, the harps encounter William Lambeth, young Methodist preacher, traveling along the wilderness road. An old Billy ran to a man-point and rifled at him. Stand where you be, the man shouted at him. The stranger was tall and broad, his skin described as dried and lifeless, his eyes animal-like. He wore buckskin breaches and leather shirt. It was big harp.

And then another smaller man came out of the trees, wearing super big shoes, bright red hair, and plain traveling colliope. Ha ha ha! Hey, belly! I hope you're running in the empty little pockets, loosening that butthole. It's me, little harp. And if I ain't gonna do some murderin'

I'm at least gonna do some rape and impilient. Ha ha ha! Or, according to historical record, little harp just walked out of the trees and didn't say any of that, and it wasn't just like a clown. God, I hope I always find that stupid fucking circus collipy track funny.

It killed me every time. I remember it and decided to add it to an episode. I also really like imagining a traveling collipy, which is not a thing I don't think. Anyway, big harp, now Yoza Billy. Get down from that horse. That's how it's written. Both men proceed to then steal Billy Lambert's horse, his pistol and all the silver in his

pockets. Lambert begs him. It's not leaving the forest with nothing but the ignore him before they leave Billy spots two ragged and unkempt women hiding in the forest. The men flee into the forest with their women allegedly shouting, we are the hops as they did so. We're for them to yell that at the end, right? I mean, why advertise your crimes like that? I guess if you truly wanted notoriety, you

would do so. Not many muggers doing that today, I imagine. Not nothing want to get away with more than like one or two muggings. We're pretty weird, right? Someone jacks you for your shit and they walk away. I'm dead comments. Let it be known. Then comments are stolen. You're silver. Uh, Lambeth, one of the few survivors of an encounter with the harps. Robert coach wrote all their actions had been erratic as if have control. They'd been like men throbbing with a strange fury. They'd been like mad men, lamb with pondering, trudged on. Harps reached Knoxville shortly after this. Cokes wrote, the young town of Knoxville laid the confluence of the Holston and the

French broad rivers on the South Brans of the wilderness road. It marked the overland gateway to the west. It was wild, tumultuous, booming. Half its population changed overnight as the immigrants entered. Stop for supplies and plunged westward again. The other half thrived and the trade thus fostered. The Harps arrived at Beaver Creek. Few members of the community there helped them build their cabin. This was a tradition at the time, cabin railings turned

into social allions. The men worked on the house while the women quilted, made beds, worked on sewing, talked about being shared by the heart brothers. Uh, at the end, there was a big dance, kind of like an Amish barn raising. It was here that strange plot twist, Wiley Harp falls in love with the woman named Sarah Rice, daughter of minister John Rice. That's what the source is saying. This guy tried to be born again round for a bit, attempt to walk the straight and narrow, right? Get right with God, apologize to Jesus for all the rapes.

I don't know, that's what this little deviation the story seems to suggest. Ha ha! Hey Jesus! I would have decided to leave all the rapes behind me. I still get to go to heaven, right? Needle! If I stop raping down here, I'm not sure why a little harp seems to maybe try and lead a better life right here. Maybe didn't. probably a scam. Sally, this Sally described as a frail blonde beauty not yet 20 years old. A sweet young lass with a hankering to fuck a clown head Scottish savage.

I may have had it in that second. Sally's father approved the match and gave Wiley permission to marry her. June 4, 1797 Wiley Harp legally married Sarah Rice, recorded in Knox County marriage records. It's first wife, Maria apparently transferred over to McCay, that's what the source is say, what the fuck is happening in this story, just transfers her. Harp spent a lot of their time in Knoxville, Raisin Hogs, and selling pork to a Knoxville butcher named John Miller. Or maybe that's not quite how it went down. Miller soon started to notice that they, you know, they came in very frequently

And they brought in more and more pork with them each time they came in almost as if there was stealing a lot of hogs from other sellers The heart brothers also were getting a reputation around town for doing a lot of drinking racing horses gambling People who trusted the harps initially grew suspicious quickly of them Especially when a lot of locals hogs went missing, especially when shortly after that, a bunch of random fires started to break out and destroying barns, outhouses, and a few homes. Bunning out for all the fires seemed to happen, you know, on the properties of people who voiced suspicions against the harps, probably coincidence.

December of 1798, neighbors finally catch Wiley and McCage a stealing livestock. Wiley McCage is still horses from a man named Edward Teal ran off with their wives. All three of them. Some neighbors soon caught them red handed with the horses, but then the harps managed to flee the area when a posse tried to bring them into a courthouse. A story in Cotes wrote, like all mad men, the harps were never consistent. In their flight, they left a trail that a child could have followed.

They had shown no spirit when captured, now suddenly they're cutting awakened unnoticed. They settled toward the edge of the road leaped free Plung into the forest and it was as if they vanished The group gave up on looking for them after a few hours That night the bloody hearths went to a local bar known as a rowdy groggery Frequented by hooligans They found a man named Johnson who they believe was one of the accusers. The bar was almost deserted that night, except for the owner listed as a man named Hughes, his brother-in-law, two boys named Metcalf, his last name for each, Johnson and the Harps.

According to Hughes, Johnson was drinking and asked for more. He told him he's closing up, and then the harps showed up in the doorway. He was closed up the bar, no one knows for sure exactly what happened after that, but Johnson's body found in the river the next day disemboweled and filled with rocks. The harps were able to get away with this murder because the police thought that the bar owner and his brother-in-law killed Johnson. She was in the Medcats, or brothers-in-law, I was right, two of them, and the two Medcats were arrested but then acquitted for lack of evidence. The harps now flee Knoxville, soon make their way to Kentucky. In November of 1798, the harps now flee Knoxville soon make their way to Kentucky.

In November of 1798, the harps are ratcheted up to killins. They go buck wild with bloodlusts for the about the next year. Real busy year for them, they become pretty infamous. According to one biography of the killers, it did not matter whether you were white or black, native or settler, man or woman, adult or child, whoever you were, big and little harp were happy to murder you. The Appalachians were extremely isolated with numerous tiny communities dotting the mountains, very little law enforcement around at the time. No established police force for protection from predators like the harps, just like there would be no established police force in so much of the wild west decades later.

Harps next victim thought to be an elderly man named Patent. His body found in Barber'sville on the North branch of the wilderness road. He been killed with a Tomahawk. His head nearly split into and also robbed. If you did later, they murdered two men traveling from Maryland to Nashville. Their names were Paca and Bates. Both men were shot and mutilated with a hatchet just for fun. These I guess pockets had like patents nearly splitting two with a Tomahawk.

Both found naked. Wiley McCage stole their money and traveled to a tavern near Krab Orchard. In December 1798, the harps reached Kentucky. The harps moved along Boone Trace, a trail Daniel Boone in 30 AXMEN carved in March and April of 1775 from North Carolina through the Comberland gap and on to Boone's borough, part of the wilderness road. The goal was to get to crab orchard to gather in place for travelers. Crab orchard was a pit stop for settlers headed to several big cities, which would be the

perfect place to target travelers. The town of Crab orchard is still there today. It hasn't changed a ton. It was 234 people when the census was first taken in 1830, 744 people now. Well, in 2020, guess it, it hasn't changed much. If you swing through crab orchard, please stop in at the past time cafe until the owner, Angela, the Dan sent you.

She will have no fucking idea who I am, but I spent way too much time last night, figuring out who owns this cafe. At least who owned it very recently. And it looks like a very cute place with good reviews, good food, quain atmosphere, and I think it'd be pretty funny if you do that. On December 13, 1798, the harps now kill Stephen Langford, a man traveling from Virginia to Kentucky.

Langford arrived at John Ferris's tavern of wilderness road. The tavern was just outside the settlement of Little Rock Castle between the no longer around community of Little Rock Castle and Crab Orchard. Yeah. castle between the no longer around community of little rock castle and crab orchard. Yeah, the road between the two towns was 30 miles long and full of danger. Locals called it the wilderness. Most refused to travel this area of the road alone. Individuals often waited at this tavern to find a group they could travel with so they could have some safety and numbers.

What a great time to be alive. Langford wanted to go alone, but the landlord told him he should wait. All right, to someone who would come along, he could make the journey with them. time to be alive. Langford wanted to go alone, but the landlord told him he should wait. Right? The sun would come along, he could make the journey with them. Langford took his advice and it cost him his life. The next day, Langford saw one large ugly Scotsman, one smaller uglier Scotsman, and a clown suit, pushed a traveling colliopee approach the tavern. Hey buddy, you looking over the travel company.

We provide some killer companionship. Langford wasn't sure if he should take him up on that offer. Something about what the clown said seemed suspicious, but then he thought, if I'm traveling with a clown, some bandit show up, the clown will probably buy me some time to escape or distract in the bandits with some juggling or shooting water into their eyes with the fake flower, it's really a squirt gun, you know. So head out with the harps. He actually would head out with the harps not because of the clown nonsense, of course. Langford really did see two men and three women approached

the tavern. The day after Ferris, the tavern owner, told him to travel with the group, coached the historian, we're right. They all had a ragged lowering look. Langford hailed them jovily, asked them to wait while he breakfasted and they would attack the wilderness together. Ferris now offered them, offered the group breakfast. They declined, saying they had no money. Langford offered to buy them breakfast instead. The bloody harps watched as he pulled a wallet full of money out in front of them. Langford asked the harps to join him on the trail because they had their wives with them.

He thought they were just a normal family going to Kentucky, even though they had three wives. The harps agreed. Of course, he did. After seeing all that cash and then they murdered him. His remains were discovered a week later by some cattle drovers. Langford had been severely bashed in the head of the Tomahawk, robbed, stripped naked and left on the trail. Those cattle drovers took his naked body back to the tavern and the bar keeper identified him. Everyone suspected the harps. In January of 1799 now, Captain Joseph Ballinger, also known as Devil Joe for reasons never made clear.

A man from Stanford, Kentucky organized a posse to find the harps. It was surprisingly pretty easy to find him. They were arrested while just sitting on a log and they were huts and villalong the Natchez trace. There are only a few miles outside of town and Devil Joe Ballinger took him to a jail in Stanford. And of course, a character named devil Joe Will be the one to escort the bloody benders to jail

right wait bloody benders From Wild West group to the bloody harps Switched my head for a second there. I mean who else you gonna take the bloody harps? Twinkle toes Tommy pixie wings Pete Everyone in the group said that their last name was Roberts, except for Maria Davidson. She took the alias of Elizabeth Walker and court Captain Ballinger testified that the group, you know, was found with Langford's wallet in their possession. Linen shirts belonging to while Langford, his great coat and other possessions in keepers testified that they saw the group together along the wilderness.

Judged determined there was sufficient evidence to charge them all with murder and transfer them to Dan Vilken-Tucky. They were now in the custody of District Jailer John Beagler. Beagler was not happy about his new inmate situation. All three women were heavily pregnant, needed medical attention. He's also very worried about jailing the bloody harps. People discovered that the Roberts were the harps and then came from all over to have a look at the infamous prisoners who had already begun to make a name for themselves

Probably a through some additional crimes lost a history Robert Coates wrote warned by their notoriety the harps swell with confidence Bigheart boasted of his strength. He offered to take on any two men in a fair fight with his fists Provided he'd be set free if he bested them Everybody seemed to think that was a fair sporting offer if he bested them. Everybody seemed to think that was a fair sporting offer. Being the beagley of the jailer began a series of requisitions for handcuffs and ironware balanced by condiments and infusions for the expected mothers. I love the detail of everybody seemed to think that was a fair sporting offer. What a weird time. Imagine a murderer today gets caught,

you know, sitting in jail and then the murderer toss out a challenge of I'll find any two of you at the same time If I lose well, I guess I just got the shit kicked out of me for nothing You can throw me back at myself, but if I win You send me free and then the general consensus of the public is like, yeah, now fuck you out bro. Nice. Let's do it Feels fair. That sounds sick I love reading about shit like this because it makes me feel better about the present. I mean, truly, some days,

especially when I've spent too much time online, I can end up thinking like, we're doomed, right? Despite our technology, we're the dumbest we've ever been. But then I read something like that, and I think, no, no, I think we're a bit smarter than we used to be. The jail was constructed to be secure, but Biggler's record show he purchased two horse locks

to chain the men's feet, and then purchased them tea for the ladies. You know, he also did not allow big harp to try and fight his way to jail. February 13, 1799, Beagle purchased a new lock for the Jail's main door. At the end of the month, purchased three pounds of nails to fortify the jail a little bit further. He was clearly worried about these fuckers being broken out or them breaking themselves out. March 7, 1799, Beagle purchased his tea, sugar, a new bed, pays for a midwife for the He was clearly worried about these fuckers being broken out or them breaking themselves out

March 7, 79 and I bigler purchases t sugar a new bed pays for a midwife for the harp women for their upcoming births February March and April of 1799 Maria Susan Sally do all give birth I guess uh, you know, he puts that bed a little late for the February birth, but they give birth to Children inside the jail Before the third child is born on March 16, 1799, despite Bigler's seemingly doing everything he could to make sure the harps didn't bust out, they do escape jail, leaving their wives behind. Torsans don't say, say exactly how they escaped. Everyone in Dandel now searches for the harps in a hastily formed posses. And one group actually finds them. Coats wrote suddenly as they waited to the forest, two men rose before them staring fiercely.

There was a moment of startled hesitation, then both parties, the harps and the posse went tearing through the thicket in opposite directions. Posse member Henry Skags known as the Kentucky Long Hunter, a man who'd ridden with Daniel Boone, a man who'd been part of the wilderness road crossing a rock castle county Kentucky from Hazelpatch to Crab crab orchard had a piece of that road named after him known as scags trace. Well, he wants to keep looking for the harps, but he can't get the posse to follow him. They're all too scared to yell a bellied. So he sets off alone. An hour later, scags find the crowd of settlers having a cabin raising party tells them the

harps are on the run needs their help. And coach wrote, these men already have full whiskey, seized damage, johns and rifles indiscriminately and plunged up Roriously forth on the hunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go get them and get those darn harps Well, despite this new poppy posse's initial enthusiasm. They still can't find the wily harps Right soon it was getting dark. The men were starting to lose interests They started to go home after a few hours the whiskey had worn off The men were starting to lose interests. They decided to go home after a few hours. The whiskey had worn off.

Once again, scabs continues hunting them alone. The harp show began in historical records, less than a month later, April 10, 1799, when they killed a 13 year old son of Colonel Daniel Tribue. A descendant of French Huguenots, Tribue was born in 1760, raised in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Like many young men of his generation,

Tribue was intrigued by the news of opportunities in the Western lands across the Appalachian Mountains. A land that was becoming known as Kentucky as a teenager. Daniel made a trip to the Comberland gap into Kentucky with his brother, James. He stayed in Kentucky for nearly three years and loved it, spending time at Fort Boone's Burl and Fort Logan returned home to Virginia before the close, the Revolutionary War fought in the war, also peddled goods to American soldiers during the Yorktown campaign.

1782, Daniel married Mary Haskins began to attain land, build a family, a degree of wealth, but he longed to return to Kentucky. 1785, tribune, his new family took the Ohio River out to Kentucky and settled in Fayette County near the Kentucky River. After staying there several years, they relocated to the Southwest, lands near the Green River in present day, a dare county. Life is going great. You become a justice of the peace, a respected man in Kentucky, a brave militiaman, right? He would fought not just in the Revolutionary War, but in numerous skirmishes with local tribes, but then in 1799 these fucking heart pieces of shit take his son.

Henry Skags, that dude still looking for the harps. He traveled to Colonel, to abuse Cabin. To be agreed to join Skags, but asked him to wait until the sun returned home. The boy had gone to a neighbor's house to ask for flour and beans. The men waited on the porch, smoking their pipes, doing some talking.

After a while, the boy's dog runs up to the house covered in blood. The dog then leads the men into the woods where they find the boy's body. He'd been hit in the head with a tomahawk, savagely beaten, his corpse mutilated and dismembered. Also had no beans and flour with him indicating he'd been robbed. The viewing scags hunt for days, but cannot find the harps. Man, it cannot imagine the pain tribune felt when he came across his son's corpse in

that condition. Also can't imagine the rage he felt, right, towards the harps. Five days later, April 15th, 1799, Susan Woods still in jail is convicted of accessory to murder. The other women actually acquitted, while charges. And then all three end up getting released for some reason. Coats wrote their downcast looks, the hard condition of their life, the pitiful circumstance of their motherhood had all combined to sway public opinion in their favor, they were acquitted.

Two of them, but somehow three get released. Danville residents take pity on the women, give them clothes, money, even a horse to go back to Tennessee with, and then bigger the jailer has spies follow the women all the way to Green River Cross, in case the harps were to find them. Women go to crab orchard, but instead of trying to start new lives themselves, they sell that horse and purchase a canoe and decide to go out and search for their husbands instead of escaping. Story and John Musgrave gave his opinion on why the women did that. He wrote, I think

the harp wives were brutalized, battered women, trying to survive and protect whatever children they could. During the early part of 1799 when the harps were barely midway in the killing spree, all three were pregnant or had just given birth. They had no way to survive apart from the men, not in the wilderness with no food and shelter when caring for infant children, not even if they thought they could get away without being tracked. Meanwhile, McCage and Wiley had fled north and killed two men named Edmonton and stump. Stump was murdered along the Baren River. Fucking stump man. When you show up in an episode like this with a name like stump, you're

getting murdered. He'd been killed with a Tomahawk disemboweled and once again his stomach filled with gravel, his body dumped in a river. Then when the harps reached the mouth of the Selene River, they found three unnamed men camping at Pots and murdered all of them tomhawk the head gravel to the belly you get it uh... now uh... news spreads at the harps are heading north towards the oh high over on a twenty second seventeen ninety nine the Kentucky governor issues a three hundred dollar reward for the capture of each harp the reward read according to the renowned bloody heart brothers historian

so vestor hobard uh... it could be a bit reward of three hundred shot silver dollars shall be dispersed any manner of the people have been delivered into the custody of the jail of the then build district one mccade jahar

and three more hundred shiny silver dollars for two whileily clown hair harp for the crimes of murder, rape, theft, school dougall, shakainery, the monkey shining, jiggery pulkery tricks and tribulations, aggravations, loiterie, hanky-panky, double dealer, loan sharkant, tax evasion, bootleg, public intoxication, private intoxication, credit card fraud, identity theft.

Indecent exposure, kind of decent but still not very cool exposure. Invezzlement, money laundering, money dry cleaning, narcotics distribution, operating without a medical license, operating without a very good medical license. Insurance fraud, vandalism, shoplifting, and skateboarding in his own deemed to be a local order to be a danger to public safety. Thank you for that wonderful information. Sylvester Hobart, Ichabot, tool pepper. Now with the reward, I really said, a reward of $300, any person who shall apprehend and

deliver into the custody of the jailer of the Danville district, he said, McCage, a harp, alias Roberts, and like reward of $300 for apprehended and delivering as a foreshad, the said, wily harp alias Roberts to be paid out of the public treasury agreeable to law. Got these wrote fucking weird sentence structures back then. As soon as money got involved, Posse's formed all over the hunt down the harps in the rampage. Excuse me, these Posse's hanged 15 people, all of them, not the harps, whipped hundreds more and sent numerous criminals fleeing

out west. Coach wrote the movement against the harps turned into a general cleanup of the whole territory. All criminals fled and terror from the posse, but no one could find the harps. Vigilante justice. Sometimes sounds appealing, but on further contemplation, almost always sounds fucking terrifying to me. Wonder the 15 people all hanging by these posse were actually guilty of crimes worthy of

hanging. I highly doubt it. May of 1799 the heart brothers now travel to cave in rock and southern Illinois. Stronghold of the river pirate Samuel Mason. That's right, a river pirate. That was a real thing in this super fun time and place to live. River pirates and Tory rape ganks. What a time to be alive.

Santa Mason will become known around this time as Mason of the woods. It becomes known as this by, he will often leave a message after his crimes, often written in the blood of his murdered victims, proudly stating done by Mason of the woods. Who in the right fucking mind is moving to this part of the frontier at this time? The posse is still chasing the bloody harps in May of 1799, but stops right before

cave and rock, a 55 foot wide riverside cave along the Ohio River, now part of the Illinois State Park. Plenty big enough for a gang of outlaws to hide out in. Frank and Jesse James, well, actually later hide out in this cave for a bit. The harps, their wives who've now reconnected with them somehow, their three children that they haven't killed yet for some reason all join up with the Samuel Mason gang and stay in this cave as well. The harp women were already waiting for them when they arrived. And again, yeah, not known how they figured out to get there.

Now the harps will spend some time attacking flat boats along the Ohio River with Mason of the woods and his river pirate gang. Coats wrote boats snagged, sank, and all on board were drowned. Or what was worse were set down unarmed and unprovisioned to wander starving into the wilderness. Indians crawling on all fours, wrapped in bare hides, tempted the travelers to land, landing they were massacred. There was another danger even greater than the uncertain currents, or the bitter evasive Indians, bandits. From the red bank on down to the town

of Smithland, the river traversed its most dangerous section, sholes abounded, sandbars lay just below the ripple of the surface, islands split the channel. Landsmen, most of the river travelers were. As they came pulling down, their Jerry Jerry built barges swinging awkwardly in the changing currents. They were helpless indeed to resist attack a whole hierarchy of piracy had arisen to pray upon them. Yet again, man, such a fucking fun place to live back then. Kaven Rock was originally founded by a man named Wilson as far as like a bandit hideout. He made his home in the cave along the shore of the Ohio river.

Cave sat at the head of a maze of snags and ripples known as the hurricane bars. Cave had deep chambers and rock formation still does Wilson eventually posted a sign of the river bank saying Wilson's liquor vault and house for entertainment. The cave was known as cave in later cave in rock. Wilson is gang would wait along the river bank offered to pilot boats through the difficult portion of the river. He and his gang would wreck the flat river bank offered to pilot boats through the difficult portion of the river. He and his gang would wreck the flat boats and rob the occupants. Sometimes travelers, uh, believing the cave was really an in would stop in for the

nights and be, you know, slaughtered, uh, mason, the woods, not even the first river pirate to stay in this fucking weird cave. I would love to explore this cave one of these days. What a strange little slice of history this is. Uh, the harps most likely knew about the notorious Samuel Mason, Mason Mason the woods and his Mason gang long before they met up with them. Perhaps they thought joining up with other outlaws would, you know, provide more safety, you know, while these posse is looking for them, the Mason gang considered ruthless,

but even these fucking river pirates would be appalled by the actions of the harps. Coach wrote, the Western fringes of the young United States were lawless, dangerous places at the end of the 18th century. One of the most dangerous spots was a large cave on the Ohio River near the Kentucky Illinois border. The cave was populated by pirates, not of the swashbuckling kind who stalked the Caribbean earlier in the century, but of the petty course variety, often using the women amongst them

to trick unsuspecting travelers into slowing their boats and nearing the cave where they would be attacked. They were some of the nastiest and toughest men and women around, but even they were appalled of the events they witnessed one day in 1799. This day, Wiley and Micaheja are said to a forced a man to walk up to the top of the bluff above the cave. There they tied him to his horse, blindfolded the horse, and then sent the horse charging over the top of the bluff above the cave. There they tied him to his horse, blindfolded the horse and then sent the horse charging over the edge of the cliff. Man

and horse, of course, both fall to their deaths. The Mason gang, witnessing this are horrified it. The bloody harps literally laugh about it. Just kind of did it for some sort of giggles. Mason gang had a lot more than two members and they kicked the harps out of the group, warned them never to return. Again, coats wrote about this. Upon reaching the cave, the harps joined the pirates in the trade of their craft, attacking heavily laden flat boat, traveling down river with goods. After one such attack, the pirates threw an impromptu celebration inside the cave, seeing

only one survivor alive to tell the tale of the attack, the harps developed a fiendish idea for entertainment. With the others drunken their revelry, the harps took the survivor up to the top of the cliff, stripped him naked, tied him to a horse, blindfolded the horse and ran it off a cliff. Suddenly the outlaws in the cave became aware of the terrified screams hoofbeats and the clatter of dislodged rocks. They ran out of the cave. They could see the horse's neck extended its legs galloping frantically against the thin air and tied to its back the naked screaming prisoner, stark horror on his face in an instant. Horse and man are dashed against the rocks. They loved to make their victims take all their clothes off before they killed them, didn't they? I don't think there's anything actually sexual about that though. I think they just wanted

their clothes to either wear or sell hard to find time to go shopping when you're out law out in the Western American frontier at the end of the 18th century. The harps now head back to Tennessee continuing their murder spree along the way. September of 1799, Makage Harp kills his own daughter, according to some sources anyway. Allegedly, the baby would not stop crying. So, Makaja, being of an even fair-minded temperament, grabbed his baby and quote, slung it by the heels against a large tree by the pathside, thrown it from him into the woods.

Holy shit. That is especially savage. But also, to be fair to Makaja. Probably a very effective way to get the baby to be quiet, right? I'm not advocating for this. Not saying it was a good thing to do, just acknowledging that I bet the baby was a lot quieter. I forgot whipped into a tree and tossed into the woods. Let's move it along. Don't dwell on that. Just forget what I just said.

Don't you fucking dare judge me for that. New guy, you shut the fuck up July 22nd 1799 the harps murder the son of a man named Chelsea Coffrey at a location on his black oak ridge about eight miles from Knoxville now The harps needed a rifle stumbled upon young Coffrey who had a rifle so you know, they quote smear to tree with his brains That's not one way to get a new rival. On July 24th, 1799, the Harps Killaman named William Ballard in the same area. No details are given regarding this murder by traditional sources. So let's check in with Suckfers, Harpestorin, Sylvester Hobart, Ickbott Twillpepper, and

see what he wrote about this murder. They never tell you a tale about old Billy Belly. Billy was a good man, overall, who stayed true to his wife. Michael and Roberto Jasmine married Sue Belly, and a fine father to his youngers. But he wasn't much of a provider. Never could hold a straight job for more than a few months. And to keep putting taters on the table, he would often resort to wine cooler shining. Wine cooler shining is a lot like moon shining, but instead of making potent illegal whiskey,

he makes sugar in not so strong, but pretty tasty illegal wine cooler. An old Billy Ballard, well he was known to hide in the brush just off a well-travel trail. And pop about it nowhere, when trolled by if they weren't allowed with the box of wine, cooler shining his arms. Blackberry breezes, strawberry dacres, Kentucky collotti, you name it, he made it. And on July 24th this year, he made the mistake of insulting Little Heart while popping out of the brush

and greeting him with a line of, well, I bet a little clown like you could use a bottle of raspberry rum punch, Latin fruity just like a self. Oh, Bennett. The man was aces when he came to make it fine, one cooler shy, but he never was much for salesmanship. Never could read the room sort of speaking. Quick pitch got him a Tomahawk to the head in a belliff or a gravel. Well, thanks,

semester. I appreciate that a little bit of fake history. Back to real history now in July 29, 1799, harps killed James Brassel. They're a place known for time as Brassel's knob. Brassel may have lived there. Brassel knob Tennessee. Uh, I don't think it's known by the name anymore since the internet does not toss uh, location back in your direction when you search for Brassel's knob Tennessee. Uh, the harps decided to change their strategy with James's murder.

They pretended to be posse members looking for themselves. When Wiley and Makaja came upon James, it's pretty fun. It's fucked up, but it's pretty funny to me. When they come upon James and Robert Brassel, two brothers, Makaja tells them, we're looking for the heart. Makaja then incuses the Brassel brothers of being the heart brothers. Nice. He says, Now I shouldn't be surprised if you was the heart, yourselves, you two. The Brassel's protest, obviously. And McCay to tell them, you say you've just come from Barber'sville.

Well, we'll just ride back to our with you and find out. You couldn't want fairer than that. James eager to prove his innocence, agrees to go with him. And this poor son of a bitch allows him to take his gun Trust him across the horse. He feels confident that once he gets back to town You know he'll be acquitted and I'll be over with his brother Robert seemingly the smarter brother The two runs off into woods. Well, he's running along. He finds a party of friends tells them to the harps have kidnapped James

A new posse now sets off to find him and they soon find James's body in the woods. It's head had been caved in his throat cut and his gun smashed against a rock. Excuse me. And then the posse is terrified. When soon after that, they actually run into the harps, coats wrote somewhere in the interim. The women have rejoined them. Perhaps they had merely laying hidden in the thicket in the roadside while the two men went about their bloody work. And any rate, they're all there, lowering and selling, looking, the men, the three women and the children loaded with arms and ammunition. I'm picturing like fucking babies with guns right now, moving forward in close formation as if in a battle array along the trail. The positive side, I'd sit back down and allow the harps to pass. Again, I can't stop thinking about like a little baby, even the heart baby is

just like fucking crawling along, but somehow they got like little Tomahawks in their hands. That decision to, you know, not pursue the heart's furthest, but haunted poor Robert to his grave after those guys killed his brother. Also, how fucking insane is that they flip the script and pretend to be posse members looking for themselves and then accused two random dudes of being them. I just can't recall coming across that tactic before. It makes me imagine someone more modern doing it like a like a Ted Bundy type. Now getting away for a little little longer at the end of their murder spree by by doing something as simple as just

like, you know, put on a baseball cap, joining a man hunt for themselves, and trying to citizens arrest someone else that they accuse of being Ted Bundy. Bundy actually could have probably pulled that off. August of 1799 now the vicious harps now the killer man named John Tully Clinton County, Kentucky, also killer random farmer named Bradbury. A few days later, they murdered John Graves and his son because why the fuck not? Harps split both their heads open with Tomahawks, throw their bodies into the yard outside the cabin, neighbors find their bodies when they see buzzard circling overhead.

Then they kill an entire fucking family and an enslaved girl near a dareville, Kentucky. This little town is still around just over 800 people, historically significant little spot actually just outside of this town, a year after the heart murders at a place called the Red River Meeting House, America's second great awakening religious movement will kick off. In the summer of 1800, America's first camp meeting or revival, like a 10 revival is held here. Revivals like this one will soon spread to New York State, the burned over district and give birth to new 19th century religions like the Latter-day Saints, AKA Mormonism, Adventism,

which will lead to the Seventh-day Adventist, which will lead to the branch to Vidyan cult compound and Waco, Texas, and much more. Also, six years, just six years after the heart murders, future president Andrew mother fucken Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel in this town, followed his spewed over bed and on horse race. Because that's how old Hickory liked to live his life impulsive violet and reckless. It's got us people. Got a lot of crazy in our blood. The heart's not aside to throw the posses chasing them off track by setting up a false trail back into Tennessee. Instead, head and do Henderson County, Kentucky. Their path indicated they were seeking out Colonel Tribute. Tribute had written an affidavit of all their known crimes and victims. He wrote

their description and distributed flyers to all the settlements in the area. And the harps must have gotten word of this and won a revenge on the man who wanted revenge on them for brutally murdering his son. Is it still revenge if you're trying to harm someone wanting to harm you out of revenge? Don't they have dibs on revenge in that situation? Not sure. Men rode through settlement shouting, look out for the harps and distributing flyers. Everyone lived in fear that they become the next harp victim. Bloody harps have been on quite the rampage.

They're on a lot of heat upon themselves around this time while making their way back to uh, the harps they encountered John Slover local man coming down Highland lick road. Oh wait, I'm sorry while making their way back the harps encounter, I said that wrong. John Slover, a local man coming down Highland lick road after bear hunt. Slover heard the click of a rifle behind him turned around saw two man point and guns at him. One of them shot with the musket ball missed and he escaped. At the time he didn't know he had just faced the harps and lived on August 13, 1799 still in 1799. The harps stayed a farm stead. Webster County, Kentucky and being the bloody harps, you know, they try and kill

again. They try to attack local justice of peace of the peace, Silas McBe, who lived alone in the cabin, and their attack failed because he had too many guard dogs. A lot of guard dogs showing up in the valiant ways in the suck praiseable jangles. One evening McBe heard his dogs barking and he called out for any strangers to show themselves. He then saw the figures of two men walking along the road and into the woods, the heart brothers and they decided to move on. Man, I don't think they would have decided to move on if they would have come to my cabin, it would have been penny and deity garden house. Too little fluffy fucking weasels that would have encouraged the heart brothers of anything like that guy has fucking those dogs. Are you serious? He clearly doesn't care

about his safety. Locals living around the farm, stayed the harps ended up crashing out, watched the strange men for about a week, but didn't think they were the harps started to relax. August 20th, 1799 nine the neighbors around decide to end their surveillance of the harps august twenty first the harps set out to meet their wives and nearby rendezvous point the women have been collecting supplies and money for the past week sources didn't sources don't say how they were collecting that money so many dead areas of information around this story maybe they maybe they juggled Maybe they gave hand jobs behind stage coach. Maybe they sold some

Wine cooler shine. Maybe they ran underground cat fighting ring. I don't know The group now runs into James Thompson local Tom skins or Tom skins no Tom Kins Fucking names are never exactly what I think they're gonna be Tom kids believe them when they said that they were intrent preachers now. Wiley and McCage had recently purchased new suits for this disguise. Tomkins invited them into his home for a meal and McCage just set a lengthy blessing. Tomkins asked the supposed preachers why they were so heavily armed and McCage replied,

we're such dreadful men as the harps abroad. My friend, it behooves us all to protect ourselves. Nice. Tom kids admit he's out of gunpowder and now Makaja generously and randomly pours him some gunpowder from his own powder horn and then blesses the house before he leaves. Why would he do that? Maybe just didn't want to draw even more attention upon himself. Tom kids would soon give this same gunpowder to a man who would use it to shoot macaja. And that is why you never are supposed to help anyone. It only ever ends up getting you killed. August 22, 1799. The harps pass through canoe creek and Webster County can tuck you and kill a bunch of people. They murdered three victims that evening. Mary Stegal, Stiegel, uh, Major William Love, and four-month-old baby James Stiegel.

How all this went down is very bad even by their standards. They were looking for Mary's husband, Moses Stiegel. There was a rumor in the community that Moses associated with harps. Wrote quotes, he was a man of sudden disappearances, of long voyages to destinations only hinted at, of strange parlaying with furtive individuals. All these things little notice before were to give rise to much comment later on. Moses was still out of town in the show up.

Mr. Stiegel was up late because her husband was expected to arrive home that night. Major William Love, a surveyor, was at the house because he came to do some business with Mr. Stiegel. He was in the loft napping while he waited for Mr. Stiegel to get home. Mr. Stiegel, or excuse me, Mrs. Stiegel allegedly knew the harps, but her husband and her husband had warned her to never reveal their identities to anyone. So when they show up on her doorstep, dressed as minister, she runs with it and introduces them to love under false names. The harps chat with love for a bit, ask for news about the heart brother's search. After filling

them in, the hour grows late, soon all the men decide to go up to the loft to sleep. Then while they lay in the loft, not long after love, it falls asleep. Makaja decides he should smash him in the fucking face with his Tomhawk. Why, according to some sources, because he was snoring and it pissed Makaja off. I get it. I mean, when you're really tired and you can't sleep because someone nearby is snoring. I bet it will. I bet it would feel pretty good to take a Tomhawk to their head. The murder must have been completely silent because Mrs. Steegel didn't notice anything

was a miss until the brothers came down from the loft covered in the man's blood. And then Mikaegah told her, he snored, this is the quote in sources, he snored so much. What did he mean by putting this in with a man that snored so much. What did he mean by putting this in with a man that snored so? And then Mrs. Steegel now becomes very upset for some reason. She must have been a really sensitive person. They could all work out about one of her house guests,

Tomahawk and another house guest, the death over snoring. When sensitive Sally's baby then starts to cry, the harps, clearly suffering from a lot of mesophonia, strong aversion to certain en raging noises for these guys. They cut the baby's throat. I told you it's gonna be bad. Mrs. Stegel screams, I told you she was sensitive and now they kill her as well for screaming. Then Micaheja and Wiley set their friend Moses' house on fire after murdering his fucking family,

hoping to attract nearby justice apiece, Silas McBeat, because I guess they wanted to kill him too. And when McBeat doesn't show up, they decide to flee the area. Shortly after they leave Moses now arrives home to find his house burning down and the dead and burnt bodies of his wife and son. And I guess he was as sensitive as his wife was because he got really pissed about this. He, for some reason, he got really worked up about, you know, losing his home and family in the same instance He quickly organizes the posse to hunt these guys down the harps now flee west to avoid the posse that was chasing them a posse led by Moses He has a lot of time to hunt them now, right? His schedule just really opened up and

The posse consists of Moses Silas McBea Samuel Leaper James Tompkins and John Williams the group the group rides through the night searching for the bloody harps They discover the bodies of two more harp victims as they do so neighbors Gilmore and Huggins Who the harps must have been counted while running away Gilmore was shot Huggins had his head fucking bashed in with the butt of a gun And they're hasty chase down the harps. No one in the posse remembers to pack food or water. They'll fucking amateurs Whenever I'm taking off on a posse, I always bring drinks and snacks. At least juice boxes and granola bars. Come on guys. The posse then forced to stop for the night and begin the hunt the next day. Despite the setback, the next day August 24, 1799, the posse locates the harp women.

Wife number three, Sarah Rice tells the group where a macaja and wily have taken off to the women and children are taken to chat nouga. Put an empty block house inside the neighboring town of Red Bank. The positive catches up with McCayden Wiley soon after locating their wives. They catch the bloody harps attempting to kill a settler. They're always trying to kill somebody. Kill a settler named George Smith. They're able to save Smith's life. They call for the harps surrender, but the men flee in different directions, Wiley flees

into the brush on foot. McCayden takes off on his horse, wrote coats. It was rolling country. The pursuers rode down one slope and up another. At the second hilltop, they had closed to within rifle range. Samuel Leapur was in the lead. He fired the shot. It seemed to have no effect.

And when he tried to reload, he found his ramrod stuck in its casing. In the rainy weather, the metal had rusted and jammed. He dropped his bridle, still galloping. He tried with both hands to free it and he did so. As he did so, Tomkins spurred up alongside him here, take my gun, he offered. You got the fastest horse and you're the best shot, so you better take it and say, he added tap in the gun barrel.

I just recollected the charge of powder and there is from that fellow zone horn. He gave it to me day before yesterday. Now it seems like you ought to be able to hit him with that. Seems a little dramatic, but maybe it happened for posse members shoot at Makaja. They all miss John Leaper shoots. He misses this posse that worse. It's shooting than they are remembering to bring drinks and snacks. Always when you posse up with people, Leaper now takes Tomkins gun shoots again,

race not his horse to catch Makaja. Makaja turns now, aims at Leaper. Leaper fires one more round in this time with McCagia's powder. He hits the man right in the spinal cord, very specific shot, wrote coats. His pursuer saw his arms jerk wildly with an effort he waived as Dama hawk and one last flourish, his hand perhaps obeying some inner spasm of pain. He yanked his horse's head about and spurred straight for the thicket. Aposty now caught up to him, to the now paralyzed man from his horse.

Stegel approached Makasia, kicked him, threatened to cut his head off. Makasia begged him for water. Once given some, he confessed to his crimes. He confessed according to this posse to over 20 murders. He also said the only murder he regretted committing was killing his daughter for crying that one time. Makasia lived for about an hour after being shot during that time. Moses furiously paced around wanting to cut his head off.

At one point in his frustration, he pointed his rifle at Makaja. When Makaja flinched, Stegle threw his gun down and laughed. Ha ha ha. All right. I wouldn't shoot you in the head anyway. I want that head. I told you I was going to cut it off. And then choose not to waste any more time,

Stiegel of engine, his wife and baby's murders. Moses cuts Maccaja's head off while he's still alive. Roadcoats, Stiegel took Harp's own butcher knife when Leaper had compelled him to deliver up, which Leaper had compelled him to deliver up and taking heart by the hair of the head, drew the knife slowly across the back of his neck, to the bone and then Makaja said as he died This sounds like some fucking really dramatic shit at a bike coat for Sherba. Who knows? You are a goddamn rough butcher, but cut on and be damned If he somehow did say that as he's getting his head cut off after getting shot at the spine He's one of the toughest dudes ever live. I mean, the piece is shit, but not as sissy.

The posse now wedges McCage's head, decapitated head into the fork of a tree at acrossroads and they're Henderson Kentucky, and that intersection will be called Harps Head for many years. And I couldn't figure out why. I researched it a whole bunch. I was like, why is it called a Harps Head?

The sources don't say, come on. But what about Wiley? He still run free. In August of 1799, Wiley Harp escapes the posse flees all the way back to the mason gang at cave and rock. It's by them kicking him out before for being a fucking psychopath. Tricking a horse and jumping off a cliff with a negative tie to its back and laughing about it, they're taking back in. Probably hard to find good psychopaths back then who could really handle themselves. And maybe they figured they could handle one psychopath, heart, brother, just not two. Wily now disappears from the historical record for several years, possibly living under the alias of John

Seton for at least some of those years. Back it up to 1799 before we reconnect completely with Wily on September 4, 1799 to three women who ran with the harps all charged with being parties to the murders of Mary Steele James Steele and major William Love their ordered to stand trial in Russellville Tennessee a little town Recently annexed by neighboring Morris town the next month all three women through all shoot shoot me all three women hanged their heads are cut off and Used as fucking soccer balls by kids in town as a message. She fucking run with bad guys. We'll call your head off and treat like a game.

No, they're released. They're released again from prison. And now their time with the harps is over with Makaija dead and Wiley vanished. Sally Rice goes back to Knoxville to live with her dad. She marries a highly respected man in sources. Has a big family in Illinois. Susan Wood stays in Rossoville and lives a respectable life. She'll die in Tennessee. Susan Wood stays in Rossoville and lives a respectable life. She'll die in Tennessee. Maria Davidson marries a man named John Huffstutler on September 27th, 1803. In 1828, they'll move to Hamilton County, Illinois. They'll have a large family and live in

Illinois until they both die in the 1860s of long lives. All seems to have ended well for the Harp ladies after what was likely years of, you know, hellish abuse Now there's only the story of Wiley to wrap up in 1803 there was a large reward posted for the head of Samuel Mason that fucking river pirate Mason of the woods that Riley's still running with Wiley and a fellow river pirate James May decide to kill Mason turn his head in Not a fucking head's getting tossed around the story turn his head in for money When they present his head, they are both arrested. Right backfires on him. And then Wiley and Mae both escape prison.

But then, both are quickly recaptured, tried and sentenced to death. But then, Wiley escapes another time, like convincing the guards that they have wrongly imprisoned and innocent, traveling clown, falsely accused of being a heart brother Why am I in the cell if I was a bloody heart? I don't know how to play the traveling club. How do I even get this traveling club into myself? I'll make it really cool blue in animal in the shape of a fucking tumble Or use this blitzer fucking in it too Whoops, I got bang. I guess I am a bloody harp. Wily does not escape again.

February, 1804, Wily and James May are both executed, both their heads are cut off, not even joking. There's so many heads getting cut off, this part of the story. And their heads are placed on stakes along the Natchez Trace to serve as a warning to other outlaws. And the bloody saga of the bloody harps is now over.

Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. Before I recap today's wild tale, how about a fake recap with some fake harp history collected by premier Suck first harp historian Sylvester Hobart Ickabod tool pepper. Did you know that his initials spell shit? How did they get a dog what a tale what a tale The history of bloody harps is forever a part of the fabric of America's push-westward fallen revolutionary war.

The harps did much in their lives, and most of it, if looked at in a certain light, was really, really good. I mean, they were fantastic fathers when it came to teaching their kids to be quiet. They were great husbands when it came to Stockholm Syndrome, they were tough, honorable men who didn't tolerate disrespect from anyone peddling wine cooler shine. And the younger brother had some serious musical talent. Not every clown can play a traveling colliope like Little Heart. They were handymen.

They could build a cabin, make a swing of hammer into a nail as easily as a train of time of hawk into a nail as easily as say Twinging a time of hawk and do a snore man's skull Most of all they were dedicated patriots real patriots for Britain Not to be said for that a lot of Americans double-crossed old King Jordy, but not the harps. They were loyal They're born a part of England. They wouldn't just turn their backs on her over some tea and stuff and times got tough like other traders Don't let the history books fool you. Here are the good guys in this story. Americans found in fathers of true crime.

And America does love true crime. They were strong loyal men demonized by a soft new nation and revisionist historians. They didn't have the stomach for time and a horse and run them off cliffs for giggles and swinging noisy bothersome babies in the trees doing raping itself the bloody hearts find men find Americans founding fathers and it was a joy

and honor the privilege to share their wonderful inspiring life story with y'all today uh... i mentioned that uh... so vester is severely mentally uh... started to sit there now for a real recap today's story minded uh... me a lot of two previous episodes. Clearly the bloody benders, I actually called them at a one point, suck 218, and suck 270

boon helm. The Kentucky cannibal. Man, boon and these guys. I was gonna say they would have gotten along great, but no. Now they'll probably try to kill each other. A murder on the American frontier, right? Savage is making an already savage environment so much more savage. All three of these episodes remind me

that we are living in pretty good times comparatively. Sure, we've got plenty of shit to worry about today. Plenty of wrongs need to be righted. That'll always be the case, but we don't have to worry about river pirates or murderous trail bandits. I continually forget how truly lawless in so many ways the frontier was, right?

No infrastructure to effectively deal with, you know, men like McCaggen, Wiley Harp. Who knows how much of all the exploits of theirs I shared today are actually true, but what is true is that they were rough enough to stand out from other bandits and murderers in a very rough, murderous chapter of American history. And that says a lot about them. We'll never know exactly how many people they robbed, you know, murdered or raped. But we do know they were robbers, murders and rapists. The harps came from Scotland to America during the final stages of the French and Indian war, entering a politically tense and turbulent country.

Wiley and Micaheja grew up in a loyalist Tory family. They fought as their fathers did for the British during the American Revolution. At some point during the war, their parents were murdered by a patriot lynch mob and tent on exacting revenge on the loyalists. Mertes like this were all too common on both sides, as were so many women being ravished. The heart brothers spent much their time in the war not actually fighting for a political cause, but using the backdrop of a chaotic war to rape and pillage as part of a Tory rape gang, a gang of loyalists who were religious social deviance, who did whatever they wanted to, whoever they wanted. And the spring of 1775, after raping three girls already, Wiley attempted to rape Susan

Wood, the author of Continental Army Captain James Wood, would prevent it, would prevent the attack, sent the harps running, but they wouldn't forget what happened. And they wouldn't forget about Susan. The harps left the Tory gang, joined a band of Cherokee warriors who were rating settlements in North Carolina and Tennessee. Probably did a lot more raping and murdering and plundering with them. In June of 1781, the harps returned for Susan Wood and kidnapped her, along with Maria Davison. These two women were forced to become wives and endured constant rape and physical abuse from

their husbands. They went where the brothers went and ended up helping them commit some of the robberies along the way, whether choice did they have out in the wilderness, the American frontier. The harps were so savage as husbands, numerous sources say they murdered both of their first born children. The harp family lived in Nika Jack, a Cherokee, Chickamauga village for over a decade. They participated in several raids on white settlements. 1794, a group of angry settlers destroyed Nika Jack, forcing the harps to flee once again. 1797, they traveled.

Beaver Creek outside of Knoxville, Tennessee, Wiley Harp fell in love with Susan Rice, a minister's daughter. They actually get married in June of 1797. Harps were a happy family for about a year kind of. Not sure what the first two wives thought about new Susan. Then the harps were caught stealing livestock. They fled town, but not before they murdered at least one of their accusers. In late 1798, they now set out on an incredibly bloody murder spree that made them infamous.

The harps murdered it seemed just about anyone who happened to wander across their path. They murdered people who thought they were safe in their homes. Those who thought they were alone in the wilderness, their victim count has never been confirmed, never will be, but it consistently is listed in sources as anywhere from 35 to 50 men, women, children, babies. The harps continued killing despite arrest of numerous posse intent on finding them, they escaped on several occasions once they were caught. The murders of Mrs. Stiegel, Captain William Love, and four month old baby, James Stiegel finally led to the capture and death of one of the cousins who passed themselves off as a brother.

Moses Stiegel and a posse of men hunted down the harps and found them in the woods. The women were arrested for Wiley and Micaheja. Uh, Micaheja, where they ran off. Wiley escaped. Micaheja was shot down, confessed to all his crimes before Moses brutally be headed him, put his head on the road as a warning to other outlaws, not to do what these men did. And as a celebration of revenge of, uh, over Micaheja's death, I mean, the guy killed Moses

his wife and only child and burned down his house. And as a celebration of revenge of over McCage's death, I mean, the guy killed Moses's wife and only child and burned down his house. While he hopped back to cave and rock to work with those same river pirates that kicked him and his brother out of their gang earlier, he'd remain a member of Samuel Mason's gang, Mason of the woods for a few years. But then when a bounty came for his boss, he quickly tried to claim it. He was arrested instead of rewarded. And he was executed in February of 1804.

And just like his brother before him had his head removed from his body and put on display as a warning. Not a lot of good news in this story, but all the harp women were acquitted of the crimes they committed while the bloody harps controlled them and they would go on to live long and peaceful lives. The bloody harps, the vicious harps, what a crazy ass story. I bet it pairs well with some wine-clarishine. Let's look back at it a few more times and of course learn something new with today's takeaways. And number one, Wiley and McCage of Harp were the sons of Scottish immigrants,

John and William Harper, two brothers. Despite being called the Harp Brothers, Wiley and McCage were actually first cousins, their real names were William and Joshua Harper. Later changed the harp. They assumed the identities of Wiley and Makage when they joined the Tory rape gang as young men. Number two, the harps killed anywhere from 35 to 50 victims. Their victims ranged a lot in age and gender.

They killed travelers, family men, women, at least four babies, young girl. They were ruthless monsters who didn't discriminate and their victim type and had no remorse for their actions. McHage, a harp murdered his own baby, which he wouldn't stop crying. This is the second of his own babies. He reported they killed some sources to say the second baby was the only murder he ever regretted committing. Number three, if the harps had a signature way of killing it was to either disembowel a

victim and fill the body cavity with rocks and then try and sink them in a river. Number three, if the harps had a signature way of killing it was to either disembowel a victim and fill the body cavity with rocks and then try and sink them in a river, they did that several times, but it never worked. Or it was to mutilate their victim by Tomahawk, their favorite murder tool. Number four, the harps are considered America's first documented serial killers. From late 1798 to late 1799, it sure seems like they killed just about anyone they came across. And number five, new info. There was a paranormal legend associated with McCage Harp, Big Harp. A place called Witch Dance is located between Tupelo and Houston, Mississippi.

The little towns are about 30 miles apart. Witch Dance was once the home of the mound builders of the Mississippi and according to local lore, also allegedly used by a covenant of witches for nighttime ceremonies, wherever the witches' feet touched the ground, the grass withered and died. Mikaegia traveled along the Natchez trace with an indigenous guide one day who supposedly showed him a dead spot in the grass, told Mikaegia about this witch dance. Mikaegia scoffed and leapt around from spot to spot, dared the witches to come out and fight him, but nothing happened That sounds like a big heart

This legend claims after McCabe was decapitated a witch took his skull grounded into a powder and used it in some sort of healing potion And she must have sprinkled some around the grounds of witch dance as well because now some claim to hear his mocking laughter Coming from the woods in that area Glad to ghost a big harp, but just laughing at people who walk by instead of, you know, Tomahawk in them or smashing babies into trees. Time suck. Top five takeaways. The bloody harps have been sucked. Hopefully the dates weren't too distracting. Again, so many of the dates, very inconsistent sources. Try to stay with the ones believed in the most.

I believed in the most. I think early on when I talked about maybe how old or started to talk about how old the heart brothers were, there was a day confusion. I don't know. I got a little jump into my brain there for a second, but I think I grabbed the best details. The backdrop details, a lot more legit of the Ward stuff.

I learned a lot of additional history that I was not familiar with before about the Revolutionary War era. Man, what a couple of scary bastards. Thank you as always to everyone involved, starting with the Queen of Bad Magic, Lindsey Cummins for making this week's show. Thanks to Logan Keith, the Keith the Art Warlock for directing and producing today. And the suck ranger, Titer C, working on the lighting, cut and clips from the episode for socials. Thanks also to BiddleLixer for upkeep on the time. So the art warlock, Logan again for creating Merch at BadmagicMerch.com and for helping

run our socials along with the suck ranger. And a team managed by our social media strategist Ryan Handelman, thanks to producer Sophie Evans. Again, for the initial research this week, thanks to the all-seeing eyes moderating the Colton Curious private Facebook group the mod squad for making sure discord keeps running smooth and everyone over at the time sucks subreddit and bad magic subreddit next week on time suck we get into a very recent true crime case that made media headlines maybe not in the way you would think when first hearing about it. It's perfect for Halloween. Much of it feels like something out of a horror film.

When Kathleen Mangin discovered what her husband, 25-year-old NYPD officer, Gil Valley was actually doing during nights he spent to wake after she went to bed, nights on the computer and their living room. She was horrified. Far from what she assumed instead of keeping up with sports stats or cheating on her even turned out Gil was dedicating his time online to porn, but not just any porn, cannibal porn. Using the website dark fetish network, Gil had been in communication with other cannibalism enthusiasts for years. They wrote back and forth to one another comparing fantasies, and then Kathleen was worried that maybe all

this was not just fantasy. Gil had sent pictures of his female friends acquaintances and of Kathleen herself to his friends online, described in horrific detail what he'd like to do to them. And a lot of graphic details. Gil wrote about how he'd like to kidnap torture rape, kill and cook women, especially his wife. Now afraid for her life, Kathleen turned over the laptop of the FBI, who came to believe that Gil was hatching a plan on October 24, 2013. He was arrested for conspiracy to commit kidnapping and a proper use of a police database, which he'd used to learn sensitive information about possible would be victims. Then things could even more complicated. Gil in his defense claims

that he is just expressing fantasies while doing this and that convicting him would be like convicting someone for a thought crime. They compared the writing he did online to the kind of writing Stephen King does. I've read a lot of Stephen King, I don't know that he does exactly this, saying that Gil had every right to share and express his fantasies no matter how fucked up they were. A jury would disagree and convict Gil, but then in 2015 another jury would agree and appeal would reverse the initial jury's decision and Gil would become a free man. He admittedly is still shouting online

about how sexy it would be to carve up and cook and eat women. The fuck is happening here. What exactly were the fucked up fantasies that Gil was writing about? And were they fantasies at all? Are they just fantasies? Where do you draw the line between a violent day dream and a real plan to do something terrible

to another human being? All this next week is gonna be a lot of interesting territory to explore in another twisted cannibalism-filled episode, a Halloween episode. Now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker Updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. Our first message is regarding last week's Suck. Comes from an anonymous Tennessee-based sweet sack. Who writes?

Hey there, you beautiful bastard. Long time, listen, first time caller here. I live in Memphis, Tennessee, and have lived in the area most of my life, so I'm no stranger to what gang violence can do to a city. From rapper and Memphis legend, young doll, being shot 22 times while buying his mother cookies and what appeared to be a gang affiliated murder to a Zekio Kelly's mobile mass killing spree just last month. Cities like the one I live in and work in are in pain and are tired. You can not be more on the money when it comes to your

views on how to make these problems go away or at least cut down on them. This city is full of crime, low income neighborhoods, understaff schools, run down building slash roads, yet the government is stuck in its ways when it comes to the legalization of any vices. I believe just the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state could put a real dent into these problems that plague our communities. I wish for more access to programs and for better education for our youth and the future of our city. But sadly, I watch as our government keeps her head in the sand. I hope for a brighter future for not just my city, but for our nation.

Thank you for your time and keep on second. Well, thank you for this message. Yeah, Tennessee. One of the few states where marijuana remains an illegal controlled substance for all purposes. Neither recreational nor medicinal use is allowed. Why? Political optics and ignorance. There's no other reason. I have never heard another fucking good reason that violent crime suddenly spiked tremendously in states where we became legal. No. Actually, there was nearly a 20% reduction in violent and property crimes in California following the

legalization of medical cannabis there many years ago now. So if Keith Merriwan and legal doesn't make anyone safer, why the fuck are we doing it? Ignorance, stubbornness, pandering, right? By politicians to the self-righteous country club crowd. It's fucked up, legalize it all, Portugal did. That country has not become a cesspool of crime. Right, take money making opportunities away from violent criminals.

Take away their reason to fight. Don't give them vice to fight for turf to defend. There's no fucking way that won't help. Might be a rough transition, right? You know, period into like a new type of normal, but I say we roll those dice. I believe 100% of it would help reduce violence in the neighborhoods, you know, seeing the most violence. Now, baby maker and funny sucker. Andrea Archuleta, thank you for the pronunciation guide. Share some suck-related pregnancy woes.

You're right, it's greetings, oh wise, and fearless leaders of the color of the curious. This message is almost a year in the making. My superstitious self couldn't bring myself to message until now, maybe the queen of the suck could have recommended some crystals to help. For context, though my husband has been a spaceholder for years, I only started working through the back catalog last year when I was pregnant.

While I have an amazing stepson, we faced a very long battle with fertility issues when we decided to have a meatball of our own. When it finally happened, I was afraid I would jinx it by talking about him too much too soon. Now that he is almost a year old, I feel like I can safely send that the much overdue scathing email about how Dan fucked a space lizard's pregnant wife now once but twice. The first time was early on when I had been confidently grateful that I had minimal morning sickness.

The streak was broke when I first listened to the Jersey Devil's Suck and Dan whipped up the piny song for whatever reason the imagery of sucking puke out of someone's beard had me gagging my desk and bolting for the nearest bathroom. I should have stopped then that I was already hooked. The next act against maternity act against maternity was when we found out we were actually having a hell spawn. I was listening to the time suck while getting ready. I was listening to time suck, we're getting ready.

And my little demon had been moving much that morning until the recording of the possession of Annalise Michelle. He then did the biggest barrel roll ever as if trying to reach the song of his people. And in my illogical hormone brain, I was convinced I was spawning the next devil child. I hope my pain gives you all a smile and then my 80-D mom brain makes sense in the off-chance. Any of this makes it out of the suck. Could you please give a shout out to my amazing husband, Kevin Hall.

He kept me sane with our ups and downs fighting both, uh, fighting for both our kids, custody with one, make in the other, carried me through a taxing pregnancy and post part of them. Now works nights, sometimes 16 to 18 hour shifts so that he can then come home and watch our hell spawn all day. So we never have to leave him with a stranger or daycare. He's the most amazing partner and father I could have ever dreamed of, personal incubest nice. And maybe most importantly, the one who got me hooked on TimeSuck, especially DJ Iceberg, no IDY.

That's a fun button to hit. Where's DJ Iceberg? He's around here somewhere. Maybe maybe he's maybe he's in the secret suck ones. I have to get this out of my head now. Oh no. He's he's gone. Oh no. Oh there he is. It's so big. Yeah, that's just the tip. DJ iceberg. Thanks again for all you do since, Sierly, Andrea, Artruleta. Good forgot. I forgot. Thank you so much for all you do since Sierly, Andrea, Archuleta. Good luck with that one. I would have messed it up.

I would have messed up Archuleta if you didn't write the pronunciation guide. So thank you, Andrea, and Kevin, good job. You shot one past Andrea's goalie. Well done. Thanks for working hard for your family. Thanks for both of you. Working hard for your family's love stories like yours, man.

Fighting to do the best you can for your family, There's no more noble purpose. I don't think. I wish you and your demon spawned nothing but the best. May your little meat sack demon rise up and rule all of us. Hellu's a phena. Now sweet sack and sun, griff has a nice shout out for me to share. He writes, Hey, time's up crew. As was the case in my past updates right on the show, my father, the policeman is the main character of this story, but this time not an on duty story of his, but I figured the cold would get a kick out of it nonetheless, if they even hear it. Last month, my dad was promoted to lieutenant, his department, a tremendous achievement that at least in my opinion has been a long time

coming. As one would expect that promotion has come with his peaks and his drawbacks, but one of the perks, excuse me, perks and drawbacks. One of the perks was that this past weekend, he was sent to force worth Texas with his department's other newly promoted lieutenant and their commander for the 2022 International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. And naturally the whole weekend, he's sent my brother and I some pictures of what he's been doing because that's just how he is. For example, he sent his pictures from the Texas Christian University football game, went to Saturday afternoon, picture him with Eric Astrata, who played Ponce in the original chip series in the 1998 movie, and today happened. Same my father with history buff is a massive understatement.

And Dallas has some pivotal, has had some pivotal events occur in his history. So when he had some free time this morning, he went into the town to take a tour of one of those specific events at 9.30 a.m. online and bad and he and the tech start coming in. First, to get a picture of a seemingly innocuous Dallas house. Then I get a picture of a plaque memorializing Dallas PD officer JD Tippett, who is murdered by a suspect on November 22nd, 1963. If that date rings a bell, you already know where this is going. Then he sends his pictures of the old Texas school depository building that rather eerily has the corner window on the first floor down from the top, propped open. The final picture I received

was of the adjacent street with two exes marked on it because those were approximately where John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald from that corner window. Yes, my father did it to where the JFK assassination. The house was where Oswald stayed the night prior. Officer Tipit was killed by Oswald about an hour after the shooting as he was trying to escape. May he rest in peace in the building and road speak for themselves.

My brother and I both responded with the same version of dead. What the fuck is 9.30 in the morning? He then lectured us on the gravity of that day's events, something we were both well aware of. As the sons of history buff, we were both just half awake. That's just how my dad is. Someone who cares deeply about his country to the point that he took a rather morbid tour of a tragic crossroads in his history when he had a few hours free to himself and between his military service and career and law enforcement

has dedicated almost 30 years of his life to protecting the people in it. So Mr. Dan or Lord of the Suck, if you read this on air, could you please wish my dad a happy 54th birthday? He's the best father I could have ever asked for in one of the greatest meat sacks I've ever known. And my brother and I know how lucky we are to have him as those two things often do not go hand in hand. Sorry, not sorry for the length.

Hail, Nimrod. Help your boy out, Lucifina. Glory be to triple M. Your humble spaces are griff. Well, griff, what a great son you were to write and send this message. And what an amazing man your dad seems to be. Thank him for me. If you guys listen,

sure there are terrible members of law enforcement like LAPD, police chief, William Parker, we talked about last week, but so many more others who are motivated to keep us all safe and so good at what they do. People who keep us from being harmed by those people like well, like the bloody harps like modern day versions of them. It's society descended into lawless Anarchy. I am positive there would be a lot more bloody harp types out there than we would like to think about.

So happy birthday, Griff's dad 54 years young. Thanks for doing what you do. And now one more message from top shelfelf Sack Dante, who writes, Dear Dan of the Bad Magic Crew, you don't deserve nicknames after this. All right. This is going to be a very long email. I will not apologize for it. Before I get into the meaning behind the subject line, I will give you some background.

I found scared of death before time suck because of my mom. And I was hooked. I would listen during school, working out, playing video games, or just whenever I could. Eventually I ran out of episode, so I decided to try time suck Started with the skin walker ranch episode and I got really confused and I stopped listening That's fair

Fast forward a few months that I'm half way through my junior high school I noticed that I couldn't see out of my left eye anymore. Everything was super blurry spread to my right eye and from then on I became legally blind. I have no central vision. I could only see it in my periphery I was diagnosed with a rare mutation of adult onset lays Disease where only five other people in the world are known to have had it. Holy shit My life was slipped upside down. I became really depressed I even contemplated suicide couldn't play rugby anymore, which my favorite sport also couldn't play video games Which is how I bonded with my friends. I stopped hanging out with people and I just wanted to die

I became super bored during all of this because I couldn't do video games, which is how I bonded with my friends. I stopped hanging out with people and I just wanted to die. I became super bored during all of this because I couldn't do a lot of the activities I loved. So I decided to retry TimeSuck and I fucking hated it. No, and I love it so much now. You and a lot of other suckers have inspired me to keep going and trying to succeed despite the odds, I became the long snapper from my high school football team.

Graduated with a high GPA, got into college with a nice scholarship. I also have an amazing girlfriend who's been so supportive But won't listen to the suck so I might have to break up with her. Yeah, we're probably gonna have Tom Halker Don't do that. Anyways, I owe you so much so much to you in the community You've built but I'm pissed at you when you announced the charity of the month was guide dogs for the blind You made me cry in my student union at the busiest time of day I cried in front of least a hundred people because you for the blind. You made me cry in my student union at the busiest time of day. I cried in front of least a hundred people because you wore my heart, you sick fuck.

I was so touched that people want to help people with blindness, visual impairments because I feel like we don't get as much credit as we deserve. Also, I met Lindsay, so if I misspelled her name, I'm blind, so I don't know how it spelled. At your Cleveland show last year, outside of the bathrooms, and she was super cool.

Ah, is she? No, she is. Can't wait to see you in Columbus next year. Love the show, year outside of the bathrooms and she was super cool. Ah, is she? No, she is. Uh, can't wait to see you in Columbus next year. Love the show. Three out of five stars. Wouldn't change a thing. From Dante, La Bianca. Well, thank you, Dante.

I am so glad that I made you cry. That's why I went into comedy years ago. To make people I don't know fucking weep. That's why I keep doing this, more tears. Sure, there may be funnier comics out there, but no one in the comedy business makes more people weep than this motherfucker. No, but seriously, so glad you're doing so much better

than you were and having fun with this weird shit and letting it be a positive distraction, nice place to get lost. And I hope you have a blast in Columbus. I'm so glad that you are kicking ass after, you know, life dealt you a heavy blow. And, you know, I can't know when in the right mind would blame you from going to a dark place,

but then how you rebounded is fucking inspiring. So good on you. You know, glad that our charity choice made your heart happy. I hope, I hope this donation helps connect some great dogs and great folks, praiseable jangles, and I hope it makes you cry again. Going forward. And also, sometimes laugh. Now I gotta push this button.

Thanks, time suckers. I need a net! We all did. Another bad magic production's podcast has been completed. It felt a little weird to the normal this week. It felt a little loopy. Branded with it. Please don't join any rape gangs, or Tomahawk anyone, or slam babies against trees.

When faced with a decision, any decision you're unsure of. Think, what would the bloody harps you? And then do the opposite of that. And keep on sucking. 10 Hello there, me Tex. It's the Vester Hovar, it's about 12 pepper. And I just wanted to speak to you a little bit more. I found myself with a source. And I wanted to see if it was just kind of fun to weave a story out of a lot of similar words. Maybe we can talk about alcohol.

Drink liquor spirits to stillerhoops, moonshine, poutine, ruckets, mountain dew. Spirit's us for minty. Maybe you have an whiskey out in a rural area in the back country, the back woods. Bucolic, Atlantic, pastoral, provincial area of rustic, archadian, countryified natural outland rustic or simple, retaliant land, and then once there, you gotta stay away from people who want to. Bloodshed, crown destruction, homicide, lynching, man-sautomatic or shooting-slain'

terrorism annihilation, butcheryphile play, trying to bump y'all over the one-way tigger up out the business the works Liquidation and I've entered a spatio of your death and conch I don't know that's in a team for you, but It's nice to do this voice for me It's fun way to deflect things An arranging but uneven routine. I'm just reading things out of my phone now.

It emails from Park Wears and Storm Drake, Alex Hollander, Vimeo. Notifications, sag after a communications, HBO Max is trying to get a hold of me. Let me know that there's a white load of season two that's coming soon. I don't give a shit I didn't watch a white load of season two is coming soon. I don't give a shit I didn't watch white load of season one Gonna know I don't know why I'm getting the American Express. Oh shit Large purchase approved. What's Lindsay doing? Coinbase buy to the fuck of a before big firms making crypto moves. Okay There's a lot of hands. Let me know what's time to check in

Okay, there are tailhorns, let me know what's time to check in. And the inland of sneak peak is telling me to vote, vote, vote. I've tried to unsubscribe from their spam messages for many years now and successfully. Fine Brewed Cafe orders, that's when I got myself a smoothie earlier. And Call of Duty, let me know that it's less than 24 hours until campaign to the axis. We are 141. I do not have time for you all to warfare today. Call of Duty but perhaps soon I can let some five-year-olds talk shit. After sniping me in every fucking possible situation that I try to partake in, Maverick's men's hair gives me a reminder of my appointment. Zoom.

A Joan has just joined my meeting. That's my mother-in-law. And I was not in that meeting. That was my wife. She used to be my email. Freakly. Yahoo! Fantasy. Okay.

I kind of set my week seven line-ups. And Big War executive premiere. Gold Sender. Oh, who do I got? Christian McCaffrey. Lamar Jackson, Tari Hale, oh shit. It's gonna be a good one for me. That's all for me, Mr. Twillpepper.