The Harpe Brothers: America’s First Serial Killers - Episode 20

In the lawless backcountry of the 1790s, two brothers carved a trail of blood across Tennessee and Kentucky. Micajah and Wiley Harpe — better known as Big Harpe and Little Harpe — are remembered as America’s first serial killers. Their victims ranged from weary travelers to helpless children, and their reign of terror ended only when one was gunned down and decapitated, and the other swung from a noose.

More than two centuries later, their memory lingers in place names, folklore, and chilling accounts that blur fact and legend. Join The Midnight Dreary as we step into the wilderness roads, the outlaw cavern of Cave-in-Rock, and the shadowed legacy of the Harpe Brothers — devils on the American frontier.