Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy

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Jeroboam O. Beauchamp murders Solomon P. Sharp (engraving from 1833, published in The United States Criminal Calendar )

As Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy or Kentucky Tragedy ( english Kentucky Tragedy ), the murder of the politician Solomon P. Sharp in Frankfort in the US state of Kentucky indicated by the young lawyer Jereboam O. Beauchamp on 7 November 1825th According to his later statement, the murderer wanted to defend his wife's honor with his act. The background and circumstances of the crime as well as the subsequent spectacular trial in which the murderer was sentenced to death and the attempted double suicide of Beauchamp and his wife Anne Cooke on the evening of the execution are also an integral part of the Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy.

The murder, the circumstances of the crime and the trial received numerous reports in the American media. The tragic love story, which ended with the death of both spouses, as well as the political background gave ample cause for speculation. The files and letters that document the events were repeatedly examined by historians, and the story itself was taken up and literarily edited by various authors, including Edgar Allan Poe , William Gilmore Simms and Robert Penn Warren .

prehistory

Involved

Solomon P. Sharp

Solomon P. Sharp

Sharp was born on August 22, 1787, the fifth son of a former soldier in the Revolutionary Army and a poor Scottish immigrant. His father tried hard for the best possible education and training for his children, despite little financial means. Solomon chose a legal career that offered young men in the frontier country of his time a desirable opportunity to attain wealth and influence. It is unknown whether he studied law or did an apprenticeship with a lawyer, but he was first elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives at the age of 22 , to which he served for five terms. Shortly after his 25th birthday, he was in this capacity for deputies to the United States House of Representatives voted. He married into one of the most influential families in the state in 1818 and opened a successful law firm in Bowling Green. At 34, he became Kentucky Attorney General and moved to Frankfort , the hometown of his wife, Eliza Scott.

Jereboam O. Beauchamp

Beauchamp was born on September 24, 1802 and took Solomon P. Sharp, who grew up in similar circumstances, as a model. Beauchamp, described as above average intelligent, but unsteady and wild, received financial support from his father and received a good education. When Beauchamp could no longer finance his training, Beauchamp left school, tried his hand at first as a businessman and later as a teacher at the age of 16, but found both unsatisfactory and returned to his former teacher Benjamin Thurston to pursue a career as a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 after a public consultation (instead of a closed examination by the admissions committee), which he requested, and proved to be an exceptionally talented attorney. He settled in bowling green . His aggressive style in court hearings reminded many viewers of Solomon P. Sharp, who also practiced in the small town. Whether he consciously imitated this is unknown; however, he expressed his admiration for Sharp, for whom he took on a few smaller assignments, on several occasions. In 1820 he lost interest in law and returned to his father's farm near Franklin . There he met Anne Cooke, 16½ years his senior.

Anne Cooke

Anne Cooke, etching from the publication: The life of Jeroboam O. Beauchamp: who was hung at Frankfort, Kentucky, for the murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp , 1850

The third direct contributor to the tragedy was Anne Cooke, who was born on February 7, 1786 to a wealthy family in Tidewater , Virginia . It is unknown what kind of education she received, but there are various indications that she was well educated for a young woman of her class; she had a fluent and elegant handwriting, took a keen interest in literature and poetry, from which she quoted, and wrote a number of her own poems. In later retellings, the Cooke family is often described as being of low status, but the temporary social decline did not begin until the father's death. Anne Cooke was 20 years old at the time. The family went into debt, subsequently sold the properties in Tidewater and moved to Bowling Green on the Kentucky border to start over. The Cooke brothers managed to build new fortunes fairly quickly, and the family rose socially. For a young woman of her class, she was considered extraordinarily unconventional and, even by the more relaxed standards of the border region, sexually permissive and unadapted. Although Schoenbachler assumes that she was not generally thought to be beautiful, in his opinion she may have received a number of marriage offers, which she turned down in favor of her freedom. Just over 30 years old, she became pregnant and the child was stillborn. Anne Cooke accused Solomon P. Sharp of seducing and impregnating her. When her brothers showed no interest in defending their unruly sister's honor, she bitterly withdrew and devoted herself exclusively to her extensive collection of novels and short stories.

Political background

At the time of the Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy, Kentucky was experiencing fierce political controversy as a result of the financial crisis of 1819. The Kentucky General Assembly decided to abolish the previous court of appeal , the Kentucky Court of Appeals , and to set up a new court in its place. The judges of the (. English "old court" Old Court ) refused to recognize the decision and the "old court" to resolve - (engl. "The new Court" New Court ) was still in place. While the Old Court tended to give support to the creditors and profiteers of the financial crisis, the New Court promised relief to the people indebted in the financial crisis. Sharp was one of the main supporters of the New Court faction. By the mid-1820s, the New Court's power began to wane; to stop this development, Sharp decided to give up his office as attorney general and in 1824 apply for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. His opponent in this election was John J. Crittenden , a staunch supporter of the Old Court.

Supporters of Crittenden were Patrick Darby and John V. Waring, both avowed supporters of the Old Court and bitter political opponents of Sharp. Waring, who had already tried to destroy Sharp's public reputation in 1821, staged another smear campaign against him in 1824 , in which he tried to portray him in pamphlets as a man without any morals. In addition to allegations of fraud, he repeated Anne Cooke's allegations against Sharp of seducing and impregnating her. Sharp's political friends tried to refute this by claiming in another pamphlet shortly after Sharp won the election that Cooke had given birth to a dark-skinned child. Not Sharp, it said in the pamphlet, but an African American must be the father.

Personal relationships

Various historians, including Matthew G. Schoenbachler and Dickson D. Bruce, have examined the relationships between the participants. For the most part, they relied on the 137-page Confession written by Beauchamp before his execution as well as the court files, the statements of the prison warden John McIntosh, the letters of Anne published after the Beauchamps death and the extensive counter-statement, which the brother of the murdered Leander Sharp as Vindication (English "restoration" [of honor], "rehabilitation") wrote after his death. Ultimately, however, some points remain open or can only be considered probable on the basis of speculation.

Sharp - Cooke

Sharp and Cooke met in 1807 when Cooke and her family moved to Bowling Green. Whether the two had an affair before 1818 can only be guessed, however, according to Schoenbachler, there is some evidence that Sharp and Cooke had sexual contacts and that he was actually the father of the stillborn child. It is known that Cooke was a frequent visitor to the Sharp house; Sharp and Cooke shared literary tastes in common, they were almost the same age, and both were long and contrary to the norm unmarried. After Sharp's marriage, visits became less frequent, but social contact never broke off. Schoenbachler also mentions the interesting chronological sequence of the pregnancies of Eliza Sharp and Anne Cooke as an argument for an affair. It can be assumed that Eliza Sharp followed the health advice of the time to avoid sexual intercourse during pregnancy. Her husband's sexual activity outside of marriage was likely and socially acceptable during pregnancy. During this phase, Anne Cooke became pregnant, and for years she stayed with her portrayal that Sharp was responsible.

Cooke - Beauchamp

Jereboam O. Beauchamp, etching from the publication: The life of Jeroboam O. Beauchamp: who was hung at Frankfort, Kentucky, for the murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp , 1850

When the well-known philanderer Beauchamp moved near Anne Cooke in 1820, she lived very secluded. According to Beauchamp's description, he felt lonely and tried several times to visit the woman, injured and abandoned by everyone. She kept refusing him, but allowing him access to her library. This, according to Beauchamp in his Confession , turned into love and he asked for her hand. Anne Cooke accepted on condition that he would promise to avenge the injustice done to her and kill Sharp. According to Bruce, this romantic self-expression is more than unlikely. He sees several clues of a Sharp "bought marriage" to silence Cooke in the face of the upcoming election. In particular, he cites the argument of the age difference between Cooke and Beauchamp; in addition, at the time of the announcement of the wedding, several disturbance charges and a paternity charge against Beauchamp were dropped. The young lawyer also received several assignments from Sharp. If Cooke did indeed demand the death of Sharpe from Beauchamp, this demand could have been reinforced by a new paternity suit against Beauchamp. According to Bruce, she could have demanded the ultimate token of love, the killing of Sharp, from her husband. Cooke's gratitude for Sharp's murder is evident, and she signed over her fortune to Beauchamp's father in the event of her death. Nevertheless, there is little doubt about the close relationship between the two partners, who are strongly influenced by contemporary fiction and novella literature. However, it remains unclear whether they loved each other, exercised sexual attraction, or were close for rational reasons.

In addition to a marriage that was blackmailed by Sharp, the young man's wish to achieve prosperity by marrying Anne Cooke or to achieve the social advancement that had been denied him until then would also be conceivable. It is also unclear why the couple waited until 1824 to get married. Beauchamp stated in his confession that he could not have married Anne while Sharp was still alive. Maybe he just wanted to finish his studies. Leander Sharp pointed out that the couple could not be married earlier - Beauchamp was not yet 21 years old and therefore not of legal age under the law at the time, but his father refused the necessary consent to the marriage.

Beauchamp - Sharp

Beauchamp claims in his Confession that he severed all ties with Sharp as early as 1820 when he learned of his shameful behavior as the father of Cooke's child. After that, he could no longer respect him and found his former role model repulsive. In 1821 he challenged him to a duel without witnesses or seconds to restore Cooke's honor. However, Sharp refused in an unmanly manner and begged for his life. This episode of Confession is generally considered to be fictitious; Sharp's behavior would be contrary to all common practice for a man of his social class, in which personal honor played an essential role. Leander Sharp proves in his otherwise partially implausible reply, the Vindication , credibly that the relationship between Beauchamp and Sharp was undisturbed at least until 1823. Bruce believes the relationship between the two men was more complex than contemporaries assumed. It is unclear why the relationship, originally untroubled by Cooke's “seduction”, changed. Sharp may have offered Beauchamp more money for his marriage to Anne Cooke than he ultimately wanted to pay, or ended supporting the couple altogether.

murder

Eve of the murder

Why Beauchamp set out for Frankfort in early November 1825 to kill Sharp is unknown. One possible explanation is that Anne Cooke, upset by the rumor that she had given birth to a black child, has insisted on the death of Sharp. Another option considered by historians is the golden opportunity presented to Beauchamp in early November. The election just won by Sharp would have drawn suspicion of murder to his political opponents in the Old Court faction and diverted it from Beauchamp. However, Schoenbachler points out that the murder was not planned very carefully. Beauchamp, who arrived in Frankfort on the evening of November 6th after five days on horseback, had tied a red kerchief around his head the whole way so as not to be recognized. The next day the first meeting of the newly elected assembly was to take place, at which Sharp was to be elected chairman of the assembly ( speaker ) . Once in town, Beauchamp went to the Mansion House , a prestigious hotel and at the same time the informal headquarters of the New Court faction. For Schoenbachler, the unanswered question is why someone who wants to kill one of the leading figures in the parliamentary group is looking for a room in this guest house of all places. Beauchamp was referred to a private landlord, Joel Scott, for overcrowding in the hotel. Scott, also a New Court supporter and a close friend of Solomon Sharp, gave him a room. Beauchamp removed the scarf from Scott's face in front of him, which would later make him an important witness for the prosecution.

Questionable hours before the murder

What really happened between 9:30 p.m., the time Beauchamp said he left Scott's house, and the 2:00 a.m. murder remains unclear. After Beauchamp's Confession , he left Scott's house and crept through the streets in search of his victim's house and to track down Sharp. Scott and Sharp's brother contradicted this account, supported by the testimony of two night watchmen. In their opinion, Beauchamp left his room at around 1:00 a.m. at the earliest and made his way to Sharp's residence, which an accomplice from the area around the Old Court had shown him. Both contradicting statements have weak points: Scott used to lock the door firmly as soon as he went to bed. Had the Scotts been awake, Beauchamp would not have been able to return after the crime. Likewise, it is unlikely that the stranger Beauchamp could find the Sharps' property so quickly and accurately, or knew which of the five doors to knock on to wake Sharp and not the whole house. The testimony of Beauchamp's opponents is refuted by the historian JW Coleman, who studied the circumstances of the murder in great detail. In his opinion, the building where the Sharps lived was impossible to miss. It was considered one of the most beautiful and famous buildings in the city. He thinks it likely that Scott had forgotten to lock the door that evening and the two night watchmen saw the young man waiting for his victim in the cold as he walked through town to warm up.

assassination

Around 2:00 a.m. on November 7, 1825, Beauchamp, masked and armed with a knife, knocked three times on the door of a side entrance of the Sharp house. When asked who wanted to enter, Beauchamp replied: "John A. Covington". Sharp, who knew a number of Covingtons in the area, opened the door. Beauchamp explained that he had not been given a room in the overcrowded city and asked his old friend for shelter. However, Sharp did not recognize the stranger and asked him to take off the mask. When he did, Sharp recognized the man and is said to have exclaimed: “ Great God - it's him. ”(German:“ Great God - he is. ”) After Beauchamp's account, Sharp fell to his knees and a scuffle developed in the course of which Beauchamp stabbed his victim with a fatal stab. He left the house immediately, but stayed near a window to watch what happened.

Eliza Sharp, who watched the murder from the stairs, described it far less melodramatically than Beauchamp did in his Confession and a poem. She saw how her husband slowly opened the door, Beauchamp opened it and stabbed the defenseless man down. Eliza Sharp woke her brother William Scott and John Bass, who were also in the house, and informed them that someone had broken into the house to murder her husband. The three of them returned to the room and found Sharp lying on the floor, barely breathing. Bass, a law student at Sharp, asked Eliza if she recognized the man; she said no. Sharp's brother Leander, who was on a house call as a doctor, was immediately ordered back. He stated that he had seen only a little blood, but immediately that it was a fatal wound. The murderer did not hit the heart, as Beauchamp stated, but rather severed the aorta about two inches below the sternum in a stomach stitch . Bibb confirmed the statement about the amount of blood during the trial. The intestines of the murder victim obstructed the opening of the wound and prevented bleeding from the abdomen. A little later, the confused and grieving widow wandered aimlessly through the house. She saw a strange masked man peering in through the window. She screamed and her relatives chased after Beauchamp, but he escaped the enraged pursuer in the dark. Beauchamp took off his blood-stained clothes, weighed them down with a stone, and sank them in the river. He had previously hidden clean clothes there. He buried the knife not far from this point. According to him, he snuck back to his room in Scott's house around 3:00 am.

Murder Suspects and Investigations

Find the murderer

On the morning of November 7th, when the General Assembly was about to elect Sharp as its spokesman, news of his murder spread like wildfire. The Kentucky General Assembly offered a $ 3,000 bounty, the City of Frankfort increased the amount by $ 1,000, and Sharps' friends and family raised an additional $ 2,000. The first rumors arose that it was a politically motivated attack. The main suspects were Waring and Darby, the authors of the filth campaign against Sharp. They had already issued death threats against Sharp in the past. Waring's arrest warrant was issued. However, this was reversed shortly afterwards when it became known that Waring had been shot the day before the murder. A gunshot wound to the hip proved he could not have committed the murder. Darby made his own investigation to prove his innocence. He met Captain John F. Lowe, the constable of Simpson County and one of the Beauchamps' neighbors. This told Darby not only that Beauchamp had informed him about the details of the murder, but also gave him a letter in which he made serious allegations against Beauchamp.

Beauchamp's escape and arrest

Beauchamp left Frankfort on November 7, 1825, rode to Bloomfield and stayed with a relative. From there, he traveled to Bardstown on November 8th and met his brother-in-law at Bowling Green on November 9th, where he spent the night before returning home the next day. He and Cooke planned to flee to Missouri , but he was arrested before nightfall by a detachment from Frankfort. Beauchamp was brought back to Frankfort and brought before an investigative court. However, prosecutor in charge of the case, Charles S. Bibb, did not yet have sufficient evidence to warrant charges. Beauchamp was released on condition not to leave the city for the following ten days to allow the court to investigate further. During these days Beauchamp wrote a number of letters, including to John J. Crittenden and George M. Bibb , former Kentucky senators and friend of the murdered man, asking for legal assistance. He got no answer to his letters. His uncle, also a Senator, meanwhile put together a team of excellent lawyers led by former US Senator John Pope . This was supported by Kentucky's two best-known defense lawyers, Lacy and Samuel Q. Richardson.

Investigations

During the Bibbs-led investigation, a number of unsuccessful attempts were made to produce conclusive evidence of Beauchamp's guilt. For example, a knife seized at Beauchamp's arrest was compared with Sharp's stab wound. A footprint near the Sharps house was examined but could not be traced to Beauchamp. Another piece of evidence, a blood-smeared handkerchief found at the scene of the crime, was lost by the officers on their way back to Frankfort after Beauchamp was arrested. Schoenbachler assumes that this handkerchief, which a Sharps neighbor found, was possibly only later brought near the crime scene. He also believes it is possible that the guards accompanying the suspect did not accidentally lose the handkerchief, but instead made it disappear for a fee. The most conclusive evidence the investigators were able to present to the court was the testimony of Eliza Sharp. She had stated that the killer had a very high-pitched, high-pitched voice that she recognized as Beauchamp's.

Darby stated in his testimony before the investigative court that Beauchamp had tried to win him over in 1824 as legal representative against Sharp. Who he was accusing Sharp of is unknown. When discussing the possible case, Beauchamp told him the story of Anne Cooke, who was impregnated and abandoned by Sharp. On that occasion, Beauchamp swore that one day he would hold Sharp accountable for the injustice and murder him. The testimony of the victim's widow and Darby's eventually sufficed to bring charges against Beauchamp and bring him to court in March 1826, the earliest possible date. Beauchamp asked for a delay before the grand jury, which was due to meet in March , in order to be able to produce additional witnesses for his defense. The jury approved his request and postponed the process until May 1826.

process

Prosecution witnesses

The trial of Jereboam Beauchamp was opened on May 8, 1826 in Frankfort under the presidency of Judge Henry Davidge. The prosecution was represented by Charles S. Bibb, Daniel Mays and James W. Denney as Attorney General. Beauchamp pleaded "not guilty" and abstained from further testimony throughout the process. After a description of the crime scene by the murderer's brother and his widow, whom Beauchamp had identified as the perpetrator by his voice, Lowe was called to the witness stand. He should tell the story of his observations, which he had already told Darby during his own investigation. He reported that Beauchamp had threatened to kill Sharp. He also testified that when Beauchamp returned home, he waved a red flag over his head and said he had won the day, causing his wife to fall on his neck. As a neighbor, he happened to observe this incident. Schoenbachler regards the description of this bizarre behavior as one of the causes that ultimately led to Beauchamp's condemnation.

Lowe, who also socialized with his neighbors, handed the court a letter he had received from the Beauchamps, which referred to the murder. There Beauchamp protested his innocence, but also declared that his enemies were plotting against him and asked Lowe to testify for him. The letter made a number of points that Lowe should make in the event of a testimony, some of which were true, others were fictitious.

The prosecution then called Joel Scott to the stand. He confirmed that Beauchamp had stayed with him on the night in question, and stated for the first time on record that he had heard both Beauchamp leaving the house and how he was returning. In addition, the defendant behaved suspiciously the next morning, which led Scott to bring the name Beauchamps into play as a suspect. The main witness for the prosecution was Darby. He testified that Beauchamp had mentioned to him that Sharp would offer him $ 1,000, a slave girl, and 81 acres of land if the Beauchamps would leave him alone. He later broke his word and did not make the agreed payment.

Other witnesses confirmed that Beauchamp had made death threats against Sharp. Others explained the connection between the use of the name John A. Covington on the night of the murder and Beauchamp. Both Sharp and Beauchamp were acquainted with the actual John W. Covington, but Beauchamp had mistakenly addressed him as John A. Covington several times in the past.

defense

John Pope, senior attorney on the defense team

The defense strategy was based on the one hand on the total lack of actual evidence of the crime and on the other hand focused on Darby as another possible suspect. Defense attorneys J. Lacy, Samuel Q. Richardson and John Pope tried to create a picture that the murder was politically motivated. The emphasis was on Darby's close association with members of the Old Court, who had seen Sharp as one of their strongest political adversaries. The defense team uncovered a number of political ties to the Old Court faction designed to support this theory. Darby, who tried to address Beauchamp's motive and Cooke's illegitimate pregnancy during the cross-examination, was repeatedly interrupted by Beauchamp's defense attorney Pope, who distracted and tried to present Darby as the real culprit. Neither party showed any interest in clarifying this point. Other witnesses, including the defendant's uncle, stated that there had been no differences between Sharp and Beauchamp until 1824, and raised the question of whether the conversation with Beauchamp described by Darby had actually taken place.

During the trial, Anne Cooke tried to get John Waring to defend her so that he could testify in her husband's favor. She also tried to get Lowe to swear perjury and retract his testimony. Both attempts failed. In the closing argument, defender Pope tried again to bring Darby into play as a possible perpetrator. He went so far in his discrediting Darby that he attacked one of Pope's employees with a stick.

judgment

After the 13-day trial, the jury withdrew to deliberate on May 19, 1826. Despite a number of contradicting statements, a lack of evidence and one more suspect presented by the defense, the jury only needed an hour to pass a verdict. She found the accused guilty of the murder of Sharp. The verdict was scheduled for the following day.

Before Judge Davidge could read his sentence the following morning, May 20, Pope asked for an adjournment. He justified this with the as yet pending investigation into the involvement of Anne Cooke in Sharp's murder, who was suspected of complicity in the murder . The judge refused and sentenced Beauchamp to hang up . The day of execution was set for June 16, 1826. On May 20, Anne Cooke was interrogated by two justices of the peace , but was immediately released for lack of evidence.

Imprisonment and Execution

Appeal and Procrastination

In the days after the sentence was pronounced, Pope made several attempts to have the death sentence overturned and commuted to prison. He turned to Judge Davidge and tried to convince him that there was insufficient evidence and that a local court did not have the authority to make such a judgment. With the resolution of the former appellate court resolved by the legislature, a law from 1796 was revived - according to him - that deprived the local courts of the right to impose the death penalty. Davidge turned him down. For him, the testimony was sufficient, and he believed that any laws that gave him the right to impose the death penalty would remain in effect until the dispute over the two courts was resolved.

Pope then turned to the old appeals court, which had already formally been abolished but refused to dissolve. He tried to explain why the Old Court was responsible for the case, even though it nominally no longer exists and was only responsible for civil actions under the old law, but not for criminal matters. The court denied the appeal without further explanation.

Beauchamp saw his last chance to escape the death penalty was to convince the public and the governor of his version of the story. He turned to Davidge with a request that the execution be postponed to give him time to put his point of view in writing. This request was a common practice at the time, and Davidge gave it six weeks. The execution was postponed until July 7, 1826.

Beauchamp's imprisonment and writing of the Confession

The acquitted Anne Cooke refused to leave her husband and was given permission by prison guard John McIntosh to remain in his cell until Beauchamp's execution. In the weeks that followed, Beauchamp wrote a 137-page document entitled The Confession of Jereboam O. Beauchamp , a largely incorrect account of the events from his point of view. Schoenbachler draws attention to two crucial points: On the one hand, the purpose of the text was to convince the public of the legality of the murder; on the other hand, it is more than unlikely that the more experienced, more eloquent and more educated Anne Cooke was not significantly involved. Inspired by contemporary romantic literature and Lord Byron's verses, the two paint the melodramatic image of an honorable and spiritualized hero who restores the honor of his great love. Sharp is portrayed as the demonic villain who seduced and ruined an innocent woman.

Beauchamp and his uncle tried to find a publisher as early as mid-June, knowing full well that the document was capable of influencing public opinion in their favor. However, both Jacob H. Holeman, a well-known Frankfort publisher, and outside publishers refused to publish the manuscript before the execution. In particular, this was because, in an attempt to buy time, Beauchamp wrote a series of letters claiming that it was indeed a political conspiracy and that Darby was the mastermind. Some of the information in the letters turned out to be untrue, and Beauchamp's credibility sank.

Suicide and execution

After all efforts to publish the Confession had failed, Beauchamp wrote a pardon to the incumbent Governor Joseph Desha . However, he finally refused the pardon on July 5, 1826. When the Beauchamps gave up hope is unknown, but there seems to be a connection with the rejection of the petition for clemency. Anne Cooke wrote her will that day, and the couple attempted suicide with laudanum that evening . The attempt was unsuccessful and the guards watched them more closely.

On the day of the execution, the two made another attempt at suicide. With a knife smuggled into the cell, they stabbed each other in the abdomen. Anne Cooke, seriously injured, died in prison within a short time. Beauchamp, also badly wounded, but in better shape than what is reported in later accounts, was taken to the place of execution. Around five thousand people had come to watch the spectacle; Beauchamp was the first to be executed by rope in Kentucky on the basis of a court order. On the way to the gallows, he waved to the people and talked to the prison guard. When he arrived at the place of execution, contrary to custom, he ignored the clergy and went straight to the gallows without saying a last word to the crowd. He wished the band of the 22nd Regiment Bonaparte's Retreat from Moscow present , a happy and lively melody. Beauchamp used the last opportunity to strengthen the image of a man of honor he had created himself. With his refusal to obey the usual customs and church rites, he tried to the end to keep control of what was going on.

Beauchamp's father asked for the bodies of Beauchamp and his wife to be handed over. He had them buried tightly entwined in a common coffin at Bloomfield's cemetery, Maple Grove Cemetery, as requested. Engraved on the headstone is a poem by Anne Cooke in eight four-line stanzas that sums up and romanticizes the story of the Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy from the perspective of Beauchamp and Cooke.

aftermath

Press reactions

From the day of the murder, the Kentucky political turmoil, as well as the story of the murder, trial, Cooke's suicide, and Beauchamp's execution became nationally noted events. Countless newspapers, including the Philadelphia National Gazette , the New York Spectator, and the Baltimore Patriot , covered the events in Kentucky throughout the summer of 1826. Even before the Confession was published, the reports on the events viewed from a distance turned more and more into the literary view of a drama and moved away from journalistic reporting. Comparisons were made with the dramas of Shakespeare , the brutalization of morals by the younger generation was denounced. Other magazines lamented the seduction of an innocent man and faced a perfect tragedy that was translated into reality in plot, cast, and catastrophic ending.

Sharp's brother Leander tried to stop this shift, which, more and more disregarding the actual circumstances, developed into a romantic transfiguration of the Beauchamps and a negative attitude towards Sharp. He wrote a number of letters to the various editorial offices and publishers, but was unsuccessful. The development into tragedy had already taken on a life of its own.

Leander Sharp's reaction: The Vindication

The Confession , the Letters of Ann Cook and a transcription of the trial protocols appeared in 1826 . To illustrate his family's point of view, Leander Sharp wrote a document the following year, which he called the Vindication of the Character of the Late Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, from the Calumnies Published Against Him Since His Murder, by Patrick Darby and Jereboam O. Beauchamp designated. In it he tried to show that Beauchamp was just a henchman. The real perpetrators were Waring and especially Darby. He had this manuscript printed, but after Waring and Darby threatened him with a lawsuit and death, he decided not to distribute it. The manuscript was discovered many years later during the renovation of the Sharp house.

The Sharps continued to insist on Darby's involvement in the murder and, as Eliza Sharp put it in a letter to the New Court Argus of Western America , saw a political conspiracy behind the murder of one of the leaders of the New Court faction. With much less media coverage, the argument between Darby and the Sharps reached a climax in 1826 when the New Court Argus alleged that the New Court itself planned and carried out the murder in order to discredit Darby as a representative of the Old Court faction. In 1827, Darby finally charged the Sharps with defamation, but the case went out of court before Darby's death in December 1829 because of a series of relocation motions and postponements.

Adoption in literature

The Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren adapted 1950, the Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy in his work World Enough and Time . Photograph from 1968

The Kentucky Tragedy was shaped more and more by the press reports and retellings of the Confession , the actual background and the dubious presentation of the events by Beauchamp fell into oblivion. The drama that the Beauchamps had created in order to avert the death sentence had found a tragic and therefore worthy end in suicide and execution. A number of authors took up the story in order to process it literarily. One of the most famous adaptations is the unfinished play The Politian by Edgar Allan Poe from 1835. Influenced by Lord Byron , Poe relocates the plot to the Renaissance and paints the picture of a young and beautiful woman whose honor is tarnished by the seduction of the Duke's son Castiglione . The British Earl of Leicester falls in love with the fallen and takes on the seducer in a duel in the streets of Rome. But he laughs at him and leaves. At this point the piece breaks off.

Shortly thereafter, in 1843, William Gilmore Simms ' first part of a trilogy appeared, entitled: Beauchampe: or The Kentucky Tragedy, A Tale of Passion, followed by Charlemont: Or, The Pride of the Village , published in 1885 . A Tale of Kentucky and Beauchampe: Or, The Kentucky Tragedy, a Sequel to Charlemont. The plot essentially relates to the murder and the subsequent events, while its characters follow the contemporary stereotype of the male, honorable and worthy hero and the passive, innocent and loving woman. The adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time , published over a hundred years after the events, deals for the first time with the political background of the actually romantic act. He describes the effects of degradation, impoverishment and ruin in the still young frontier country of Kentucky. In his novel, the Beauchamps manage to escape, and he uses the material to take up the classic southern theme of high ideals in the face of severe blows of fate.

literature

  • Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy. University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9
  • JW Cooke: The Life and Death of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp Part 2: A Time to Weep and A Time to Mourn. The Filson Club Quarterly, April 1998, year 72/2
  • Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. Louisiana State University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3
  • John Winston Coleman: The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy; an episode of Kentucky history during the middle 1820's. Roberts print. Co., 1950
  • Lewis Franklin Johnson: Famous Kentucky tragedies and trials; a collection of important and interesting tragedies and criminal trials which have taken place in Kentucky. The Baldwin Law Publishing Company, 1922, pp. 45-48. Available online from the Kentuckian Online Library
  • Mimi O'Malley: Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. In: It Happened in Kentucky. Globe Pequot. 2006, ISBN 0-7627-3853-7
  • Stephen R. Whited: Kentucky Tragedy. In: Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan: The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People. Louisiana State University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8071-2692-6
  • Fred M. Johnson: New Light on Beauchamp's Confession? In: Border States - Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association. 1993, no. 9. Available online at Georgetown College: Border States On-Line
  • Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky Tragedy and the Transformation of Politics in the Early American Republic. In: The American Transcendental Quarterly, Issue 17, 2003, ISSN  1078-3377

Works based on the Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy

  • Charlotte Barnes: Octavia Bragaldi. EH Butler, 1848
  • Thomas Holley Chivers : Conrad and Eudora, or The Death of Alonzo. 1834
  • George Lippard: The Monks of Monk Hall. , 1844
  • Charles Fenno Hoffman: Greyslaer: A Romance of the Mohawk. 1840
  • Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911
  • John Savage: Sybil , JB Kirker, 1865
  • William Gilmore Simms: Beauchampe: or The Kentucky Tragedy, A Tale of Passion. Bruce and Wyld, 1843
  • William Gilmore Simms: Charlemont: Or, The Pride of the Village. A Tale of Kentucky. Bedford, Clark, 1885
  • William Gilmore Simms: Beauchampe: Or, The Kentucky Tragedy, a Sequel to Charlemont. Bedford, Clark, 1885
  • Robert Penn Warren: World Enough and Time Louisiana State University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8071-2478-8 (first edition 1950)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 13-14
  2. ↑ a b c Richard Taylor: Three Kentucky Tragedies , University Press of Kentucky, 1991, ISBN 0-8131-0907-8 , pp. 1-2
  3. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 71-75
  4. ↑ Her name is also spelled Anna Cook, Ann Cook, Anna Cooke, Ann Cooke or Anne Cooke-Beauchamp in the various documents
  5. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 47-49
  6. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 43-70
  7. ^ JW Cooke: The Life and Death of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp Part 2: A Time to Weep and A Time to Mourn . The Filson Club Quarterly, April 1998, Volume 72/2, pp. 130-134
  8. ^ A b c John E. Kleber: The Kentucky encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky, 1992, ISBN 0-8131-1772-0 , p. 63
  9. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 44
  10. ↑ Richard Taylor: Three Kentucky Tragedies, University Press of Kentucky, 1991, ISBN 0-8131-0907-8 , pp. 3-4
  11. ↑ Jereboam O. Beauchamp, Ann Beauchamp: The confession of Jereboam O. Beauchamp: who was hanged at Frankfort, Ky., On the 7th day of July, 1826, for the murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp , 1826 Available online at the Library of Congress
  12. ↑ The authenticity of these letters is doubted by all authors
  13. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 55-57
  14. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , pp. 47-51
  15. ↑ Schoenbachler is primarily referring to Lord Byron and similar authors who at the time thematized and romanticized the seduction of innocent young women and their case.
  16. ↑ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 75-91
  17. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 99-100
  18. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 96-97
  19. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , pp. 49-50
  20. ^ JW Cooke: The Life and Death of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp Part 2: A Time to Weep and A Time to Mourn . The Filson Club Quarterly, April 1998, Volume 72/2, p. 136
  21. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , p. 127
  22. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , p. 128
  23. ^ A b c Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 131-135
  24. ↑ John Winston Coleman: The Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy; an episode of Kentucky history during the middle 1820's. Roberts print. Co., 1950, p. 7
  25. ↑ Quoted from the Confession in Richard Taylor: Three Kentucky Tragedies. University Press of Kentucky, 1991, ISBN 0-8131-0907-8 , p. 5
  26. ↑ Loren J. Kallsen (Ed.): The Kentucky Tragedy: A Problem in Romantic Attitudes. Bobbs-Merrill, 1963, pp. 309-310.
  27. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 14
  28. ↑ According to the cost of living index , the total amount of the bounty corresponds to a purchasing power of 140,000 dollars (as of 2009), the equivalent of around 115,000 euros
  29. ^ Lewis Franklin Johnson: Famous Kentucky tragedies and trials; a collection of important and interesting tragedies and criminal trials which have taken place in Kentucky. The Baldwin Law Publishing Company, 1922, pp. 45-48. Available online at http://kdl.kyvl.org/?c=kyetexts%3bcc=kyetexts%3brgn=full%2520text%3bview=toc%3bidno=b02-000000011 (link not available) (English)
  30. ↑ http://kdl.kyvl.org /? C = kyetexts% 3bcc = kyetexts% 3brgn = full% 2520text% 3bview = toc% 3bidno = b02-000000011 (link not available)
  31. ↑ Mimi O'Malley: Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. In: It Happened in Kentucky. Globe Pequot. 2006, ISBN 0-7627-3853-7 , pp. 44-45
  32. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , p. 149
  33. ↑ a b c d J.W. Cooke: The Life and Death of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp Part 2: A Time to Weep and A Time to Mourn. The Filson Club Quarterly, April 1998, Volume 72/2, p. 144
  34. ^ A b Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , pp. 20-21
  35. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 143, 165
  36. ^ A b Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , pp. 15-16
  37. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , p. 164
  38. ↑ a b c d e Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , pp. 21-25
  39. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 24
  40. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , p. 164
  41. ^ Lewis Franklin Johnson: Famous Kentucky tragedies and trials; a collection of important and interesting tragedies and criminal trials which have taken place in Kentucky. The Baldwin Law Publishing Company, 1922, p. 48. Available online at http://kdl.kyvl.org/?c=kyetexts%3bcc=kyetexts%3brgn=full%2520text%3bview=toc%3bidno=b02-000000011 (Link not available) (English)
  42. ↑ a b c Mimi O'Malley: Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. In: It Happened in Kentucky. Globe Pequot. 2006, ISBN 0-7627-3853-7 , p. 47
  43. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy , University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 173-174
  44. ↑ a b Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy, University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 176-177
  45. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy, University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 177-179
  46. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 29
  47. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy, University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 194-198
  48. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 37
  49. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky tragedy: a story of conflict and change in antebellum America. LSU Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8071-3173-3 , p. 8
  50. ↑ a b Stephen R. Whited: Kentucky Tragedy. In Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan: The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People. LSU Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8071-2692-6 , p. 404
  51. ^ Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy, University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 204-208
  52. ↑

    Entombed below in each other's arms,
    The husband and the wife repose,
    Safe from life's never ending storms,
    And safe from all their cruel foes….

    A child of evil fate she lived,
    A villain's wiles her peace had crossed;
    The husband of her heart revived
    The happiness she long had lost.

    He heard her tale of matchless wee,
    And burning for revenge he rose,
    And laid her base seducer low,
    And struck dismay to Virtue's foes

    Reader, if Honor's generous blood
    E'er warmed thy breast, here drop a tear,
    And let the sympathetic flood
    deep in thy mind the traces bear.

    A father or a mother thou,
    Thy daughters view in grief's despair,
    Then turn and see the villain low,
    And here let fall the grateful tear.

    A brother or a sister thou,
    Dishonored see this sister dear;
    Then turn and see the villain low,
    And here let fall the grateful tear.

    Daughter of Virtue moist thy tear,
    This tomb of love and honor claim;
    For thy defense the husband here
    Laid down in youth his life and fame.

    His wife disdained a life forlorn,
    Without her heart'sloved honored lord;
    Then, reader, here their fortunes mourn,
    Who for their love their life blood poured.

    In: Jereboam O. Beauchamp, Ann Beauchamp: The confession of Jereboam O. Beauchamp: who was hanged at Frankfort, Ky., On the 7th day of July, 1826, for the murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp , 1826 Available online at the Library of Congress
  53. ^ A b Matthew G. Schoenbachler: Murder and Madness: The Myth of the Kentucky Tragedy. University Press of Kentucky, 2009, ISBN 0-8131-2566-9 , pp. 209-213
  54. ↑ Fred M. Johnson: New Light on Beauchamp's Confession? In: Border States - Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association, 1993, No. 9. Available online at Georgetown College: Border States On-Line (English)
  55. ^ Dickson D. Bruce: The Kentucky Tragedy and the Transformation of Politics in the Early American Republic. In: The American Transcendental Quarterly, Issue 17, 2003, ISSN  1078-3377
  56. ↑ Edgar Allan Poe: Scenes from 'Politian'. In: The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911, pp. 40-59
  57. ↑ See William J. Kimball: Poe's Politian and the Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. In: Poe Studies. December 1971, Issue IV, No. 2, pp. 24-27. Available online at Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore (English)
  58. ↑ Bruce and Wyld, 1843
  59. ↑ Both published by Bedford and Clark, 1885
  60. ↑ a b Stephen R. Whited: Kentucky Tragedy. In Joseph M. Flora, Lucinda Hardwick MacKethan: The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People. LSU Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8071-2692-6 , pp. 404-405

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This article was added to the list of excellent articles on July 3, 2010 in this version .