The Harp brothers, Willie and Micajah, left a trail of bodies across Kentucky and Tennessee in 1798 and 1799, and are often called America’s first serial killers. William Faulkner and Herman Melville both wrote about them. Historian Katherine Grandjean, author of Kingdom of Devils, joins us to ask the question that has dogged the case for more than two centuries: why did they do it? The typical answer: they were monsters. Grandjean’s research points elsewhere: to debt, a lawsuit, a lost horse race, and a horse theft on the Cherokee border in post-Revolutionary Tennessee. We follow the Harps from their Knox County farm to a night of horror in Henderson County, a deadly posse chase, and the river pirate Samuel Mason, plus what Micajah said as he lay dying: that he had declared war on mankind.Subscribe to our newsletter: ⁠https://jedlipinski.substack.com/⁠ Connect with Jed Lipinski:⁠https://www.instagram.com/gonesouthpodcast/⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/gonesouthpodcast/⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jed-lipinski/⁠