Summary: The family that plays together stays together so what does that say about those folks who get a little rough? The mothers who arm their offspring, the brothers who take out their elders or those large extended families who make the neighbors very nervous are not the Norman Rockwell type, but they are in a weird way far more interesting. 1. The Harpe Family: No Angels here The new world held out hope to the cousins Micah and Wiley Harper, but only because the fledging country didn’t know them. After migrating with their families from Scotland as children the pair changed their names to John and William. Because of their constant habit of remaining together the pair was given the witty nicknames of Big Harpe (William) and Little Harpe (John). The Harpes not exactly men given to more empathic endeavors left home just out of their teens to become slavers or overseers in Virginia. The American Revolution presented them with better opportunities as Troy outlaws where they learned such useful skills as pillaging livestock, burning crops and raping young farm girls. There was a downside to their new lifestyle namely a country side from North Carolina to Kentucky, who knew them and wanted to see them both dangle at the end of twin ropes. The men took up with at least three women and produce many children who traveled with them. This disagreeable family took up a farm in Beaver Creek late in the 1790’s, but apparently not in an effort to change their wild ways. In 1798 the other villages accused them of horse stealing a very serious offense during those times. The Harpe cousins managed to get away, and returned in the night to extract their revenge by killing a local who they might have blamed for ratting them out. The unfortunate victim was found in the river by his neighbors the next morning with his chest and belly slashed open and his body loaded down with rocks. This was the Harpes trademark murder signature. The Harpes continued to get away with their crimes perhaps because even the authorities were afraid of them. Eventually, though they began to be too blatant and reckless and a posse of angry neighbors brought the Harpes along with their three ‘wives’ into seek justice. It was not to be as the pair escaped and continued their ruthless ways. For the remainder of the war, the Harpes raped and killed with abandoned, but at last without the other Tory renegades to back them up they were eventually captured by another posse who didn’t bother to take them to court and wait for justice. This time the angry mob took the killer cousin’s heads. 2. Never invite them to dinner The Borgia reign of terror started long before the Harpes, but their brand of murder was at least quieter and a tad more ‘civilized’. This family’s trademark was poison and manipulation while the motive was always the same—power. The Borgia’s lived the Machiavellian life style of political scheming and sexual maneuvering as they rose in power through the Renaissance Papacy. Father Rodrigo, who later became Pope Alexander VI, his sons Cesare, Giovanni, and Gioffree were ruthless, but it is Lucrezia Borgia, who is the most famous name among them. No one could touch any of the family during their lifetimes even though it was widely rumored that Lucrezia wore a hollow ring in which she kept poison to dispatch those who stood in her family’s way. 3. Hang’em high and keep it in the family Not everyone who kills breaks the law. Some end lives in a manner in accordance with the laws of the land and act in the protection of the greater safety of the many. In other words they execute the bad guys. It isn’t a fun people friendly type of career ending the life of another human being no matter how good your motives so it’s strange that some fathers would pass this occupation down to their sons, but the Pierrepoints did just that. British executioner Henry Pierrepoint was the man who hanged such famous names as George Chapman the famou[...]
