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Earning the dubious distinction of being the United States' first documented serial killers, Micajah "Big" Harpe and Wiley "Little" Harpe were murderous outlaws who operated in Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Mississippi in the late 1700s. Often referred to as the Harpe Brothers, they were cousins who often passed themselves off as brothers.
Their fathers were Scottish immigrants who had settled in Orange County, North Carolina. Micajah Harpe was born to John Harpe and his wife, while Wiley Harpe, actually named Joshua, was born to John's brother, William, and his wife. Soon after the arrival of the Harpes in America, they changed the spelling of their original name from "Harpe" to "Harp."
Growing up near each other, the boys soon took up the nicknames of Big and Little Harp, as Wiley was much smaller than Micajah. The two left North Carolina in 1775 for Virginia, intending to find jobs as slave overseers; however, the American Revolution interrupted their careers. The pair sided with the British, but their interest seemed more in violence and criminal activities than any sense of patriotic duty. Along with other like-minded irregulars, they thrilled in burning farms, raping women, and pillaging the American patriots. When Little Harp attempted to rape a girl in North Carolina, he was shot and wounded by Captain James Wood; however, he survived.
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In 1780, the Harpes joined the regular British troops and fought in several battles along the North and South Carolina borders. The following year, they left the army and joined a group of Cherokee Indians, raiding settlements in North Carolina and Tennessee and continuing their pillaging. Taking revenge on Captain James Wood, who had earlier wounded Little Harpe, the pair kidnapped his daughter, Susan Wood, and another girl named Maria Davidson. The women served as wives to the Harpes.
The pair, the brutalized women, and four other men began to make their way to Tennessee. During the trip, a man named Moses Doss had the "audacity" to be over-concerned for the brutalized women. For his concern, he was killed by the Harpes. The group then settled in the Cherokee-Chickamauga village of Nickajack, located southwest of modern-day Chattanooga, Tennessee. For the next dozen years, the Harpes, along with their "wives," lived in the Indian village. During this time, both captive women became pregnant twice, and their fathers killed their children.
