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Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

5: The Notorious Harpe Brothers w/ E. Don Harp - A True Crime History Podcast

Most Notorious! A True Crime History Podcast

Erik Rivenes

True Crime, History, Education

4.72.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2015

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1799 Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe cut a bloody path down the Wilderness Trail in Kentucky and Tennessee, murdering everyone in their path. My guest, E. Don Harp, a descendant of the infamous brothers, argues in "The Last Rampage of the Terrible Harpes" that they were the first serial killers in American history. In our conversation we get the lowdown on these lowdown murderers.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Time for Diet Coke, mate. Yes, yes, yes!

0:07.0

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0:12.0

I really need a good zap. Love what you love. Diet Coke.

0:19.0

Get Runway Ready, a chance to win the ultimate shopping experience

0:23.0

plus hundreds of prizes curated by Kate Moss.

0:26.0

From a Paxen store, 18 plus Ties & Seas visit Coke.co.uk slash break.

0:30.0

The topic today is a bit bloody, so please listen to this question as advised.

0:57.0

The

0:58.6

Welcome to the most notorious podcast. I'm Eric

1:28.5

Rivenes. Ever since my days working my way through college as a young lad at historic fort

1:34.5

snelling in St. Paul, interpreting the life of a lowly private in 1827, I've been fascinated by the mythology and history of the bandits cut throats and outlaws, who prowled the Ohio River in the late 1700s.

1:48.5

And that's why I was excited to talk to Don Harp, a descendant of two of the most bloodthirsty murderers in American history.

1:55.5

Mekaija in Wily Harp, known to many as Big Harp in Little Harp,

2:00.5

blazed a trail of absolute terror through Tennessee and Kentucky in the late 1790s.

2:06.5

Don Harp recently appeared on an episode of investigation discovery about the brothers,

2:12.5

and he's also written books about his infamous relatives, including the last rampage of the terrible harps available for sale on Amazon.

2:21.5

Thank you so much sir for joining me today.

2:24.5

Now how young were you when you first learned about the Harp brothers? And did someone in your family sit down and explain the blood connection or did you find out through your own investigation?

2:35.5

No, I was, I was probably 12, 13 when I first learned about it, but I learned about them through a article that was written in the National Tennessee News Paper.

2:47.5

I found the article and I read it and I asked my dad about it and his own reply was, you know, they are in our family history, we know about them, but we don't talk about them.

2:58.5

And that was it, bam.

3:00.5

So when I had to find out, I had to find out by myself later.

...

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