Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: And I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson. Today we are talking about a piece of I
Speaker 1: guess you would call it a historical true crime that
Speaker 1: reads like a tella novella. We're also going to hit
Speaker 1: the two hundred year anniversary of this particular drama, which
Speaker 1: involves a politician, a lawyer, and a woman perhaps connected
Speaker 1: to both of them, and it unfolds as the story
Speaker 1: of sexual scandal and political intrigue and ultimately leads to murder.
Speaker 1: The details of the Beecham Sharp tragedy cannot all be verified.
Speaker 1: There remain a lot of questions regarding accusations made among
Speaker 1: the three and beyond, and even questions about testimony in
Speaker 1: a subsequent court case. So a note on pronunciation. The
Speaker 1: way beach is spelled looks French. It looks like it
Speaker 1: would be pronounced Beauchamp. It is b ea u c
Speaker 1: cha MP. I have heard it pronounced Beauchamp, but in
Speaker 1: a version of the story that was told in audio
Speaker 1: format by the Kentucky Historical Society, they use the pronunciation Beacham.
Speaker 1: It sort of pains me to shorten a beautiful French
Speaker 1: name in that way, but we're going to do it.
Speaker 1: That's my own bias. I couldn't find a definitive source
Speaker 1: for that pronunciation, but I'm going to presume that the
Speaker 1: Kentucky Historical Society has more knowledge of it, and so
Speaker 1: I'm happy to defer to them. This also made typing
Speaker 1: the name very difficult for me. Sure I see that
Speaker 1: c slash. Hear that pronunciation a lot like among English speakers,
Speaker 1: specifically for Beacham, when it looks like it should be Beauchamp. Oh,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be Beauchamp. Again, my own bias, but
Speaker 1: that is the story that we going to tell today.
Speaker 1: To set the scene, we will start with a very
Speaker 1: brief biography of each of the three main players in
Speaker 1: the story.
Speaker 2: So first main player in the story Solomon P. Sharp,
Speaker 2: who was born on August twenty second, seventeen eighty seven
Speaker 2: in Washington County, Virginia. He grew up in a log
Speaker 2: cabin in Kentucky after his parents, Thomas and Jean Sharp,
Speaker 2: moved there a few years after Solomon was born. This
Speaker 2: was a time when this area was still pretty rugged.
Speaker 2: Life was challenging there. By the time he was twenty,
Speaker 2: Solomon was already a practicing lawyer. He started his career
Speaker 2: as a lawyer in Russellville, Kentucky, but he soon moved
Speaker 2: about twenty six miles east to Bowling Green, Kentucky. That's
Speaker 2: in Warren County. He quickly built a successful law career there,
Speaker 2: and he further grew his fortune by investing in land speculation.
Speaker 2: In eighteen oh nine, he was elected to the state
Speaker 2: legislature as a county represented. He was re elected the
Speaker 2: next year. His legislative career was interrupted by the War
Speaker 2: of eighteen twelve. Sharp served in the Kentucky Mounted Militia,
Speaker 2: but that service was brief. He only served for six
Speaker 2: weeks and then he went right back to politics and
Speaker 2: was elected to Congress in late eighteen twelve. He was
Speaker 2: a two term congressman, and then he went back to
Speaker 2: his law practice in Bowling Green. In eighteen eighteen, Sharp
Speaker 2: married a woman named Eliza Scott. Eliza was from a
Speaker 2: very good family. She sometimes described as like a debutante,
Speaker 2: and this was considered a very advantageous marriage for Sharp.
Speaker 2: He had accomplished a great deal already by what was
Speaker 2: in his early thirties. He owned a lot of land,
Speaker 2: He was an enslaver, he owned a lot of people,
Speaker 2: and he had a pretty impressive legal and political career,
Speaker 2: but marrying Eliza gave him connections to society. The next
Speaker 2: major player in the story was Anne Cook. Her name
Speaker 2: is spelled a number of ways, depending on the source.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's just a N N, other times and with
Speaker 2: an e on the end, or even Anna ending in
Speaker 2: an A. Her exact date of birth is not known.
Speaker 2: She was born in Virginia sometime in the mid seventeen eighties.
Speaker 2: Estimates put it around seventeen eighty six. Her parents were
Speaker 2: Giles and Alicia Cook. Anne was their first daughter. They
Speaker 2: already had four sons when she was born, and they
Speaker 2: had at least one additional son and daughter after Giles
Speaker 2: died in the early eighteen hundreds, and at that point
Speaker 2: Alicia moved along with Anne and her siblings to Warren County, Kentucky.
Speaker 2: By that point, some of Anne's brothers were adults, they
Speaker 2: had their own young families. They all moved together. The
Speaker 2: reason the whole family moved to Warren County was that
Speaker 2: Giles had also been a land speculator, and he had
Speaker 2: purchased a lavish estate property complete with it enslaved workforce
Speaker 2: in Kentucky before his death, so the whole family moved there.
Speaker 1: The third person in this story is Jeroboam Beecham. He
Speaker 1: was born to a Kentucky farm family in September eighteen
Speaker 1: oh two, so he was the youngest of the three
Speaker 1: people involved here by more than a decade. Though his father,
Speaker 1: Thomas Beecham, was a farmer, Jeroboam had relatives in politics,
Speaker 1: and he started studying law in eighteen twenty sometime in
Speaker 1: the eighteen teens in Bowling Green and Cross Paths with
Speaker 1: Colonel Sharp. Anne's life had included a lot of tragedy
Speaker 1: in the years after she moved to Kentucky. While things
Speaker 1: had initially gone pretty well, three of her brothers had
Speaker 1: died in less than three years, and she met the
Speaker 1: Sharps through some mutual acquaintances. While those sad events were
Speaker 1: playing out.
Speaker 2: Apparently, she had some degree of friendship with Eliza Sharp,
Speaker 2: she visited her at home on several occasions.
Speaker 1: Anne got pregnant in the autumn of eighteen nineteen. She
Speaker 1: gave birth in May or June of eighteen twenty. That
Speaker 1: baby is usually reported as having been stillborn, although there
Speaker 1: are some accounts that suggest that it died shortly after
Speaker 1: it was born. At the time, Anne, who was unmarried
Speaker 1: and not romantically tied to anyone, claimed that the father
Speaker 1: was Solomon Sharp. Anne did not really follow up on
Speaker 1: this claim, though, or seek any acknowledgment of it on
Speaker 1: Sharp's part. In June of eighteen twenty one, Colonel Sharp
Speaker 1: decided to run for public office again. This time he
Speaker 1: was running for a state Senate seat, and his political
Speaker 1: opponents chose to bring up this allegation that Cook had
Speaker 1: raised in an effort to discredit him. He was also
Speaker 1: accused of land fraud. During the campaign, these two accusations
Speaker 1: were often bundled together in criticism of Sharp, but then
Speaker 1: fate intervened and seemed to offer a way for Sharp
Speaker 1: to sidestep all of this. He was offered the state
Speaker 1: attorney general position by Governor John Adair after the governor's
Speaker 1: first choice for that role declined that though meant that
Speaker 1: Sharp had to go through confirmation, and of course, these
Speaker 1: same accusations again came up during that confirmation, but after
Speaker 1: a Senate committee investigation, they found no wrongdoing, and Sharp
Speaker 1: was confirmed as Attorney General. Meanwhile, in eighteen twenty one,
Speaker 1: Jeroboam Beecham finished his law degree and moved home to
Speaker 1: his father's house for a little break while he prepared
Speaker 1: for the bar. And he soon met a nearby neighbor
Speaker 1: that was Anne Cook, who had moved to the rural
Speaker 1: area with her mother. Anne and Jeroboam started a courtship,
Speaker 1: and soon Jeroboam proposed. The pair waited until he passed
Speaker 1: the state bar exam in eighteen twenty three to move
Speaker 1: forward with their wedding plans. In eighteen twenty four, they
Speaker 1: were married, Jereboah moved to the farmhouse that Anne shared
Speaker 1: with her mother.
Speaker 2: We'll pause here for a sponsor break, and when we
Speaker 2: come back, we'll talk about how all of this unraveled.
Speaker 2: So at the point we left off before the break,
Speaker 2: it kind of seemed like everyone's lives were pretty settled.
Speaker 2: Sharp had his Attorney General position, and the newlywed Beechams
Speaker 2: were starting their life together. But then Sharp decided he
Speaker 2: wanted to run for a state legislator position in eighteen
Speaker 2: twenty five. There is a whole story about how and
Speaker 2: why that decision was made and we're going to give
Speaker 2: a super abbreviated version of it, because this whole affair
Speaker 2: could be its own episode as well. It involves a
Speaker 2: lot of political arguing about legislation that had been passed
Speaker 2: as part of a relief effort to help farmers in
Speaker 2: the state of Kentucky who had faced economic hardship and
Speaker 2: potential foreclosures, and then that legislation was rejected on a
Speaker 2: legal appeal. Following that failed appeal, the sitting judges were
Speaker 2: all dismissed by the Kentucky General Assembly and an entirely
Speaker 2: new court was appointed. At that point, lawmakers of Kentucky
Speaker 2: split pretty hard into two factions, the so called Old
Speaker 2: Court Party and the New Court Party. Sharp was a
Speaker 2: member of the New Court Party. Sharp had been right
Speaker 2: in the middle of that conflict, and he thought he
Speaker 2: could support his position better as a legislator than as
Speaker 2: an attorney general. That position had been kind of a
Speaker 2: straddling of the fence on this issue. Once he entered
Speaker 2: the race, though, the allegations about his relationship with Anne
Speaker 2: Cook and the paternity of her child surfaced again. Sharp
Speaker 2: vehemently denied these allegations, as he had when they circulated previously.
Speaker 1: Soon after these allegations came back up, a counter rumor
Speaker 1: began to spread that the deceased child had been of
Speaker 1: mixed race, suggesting that it could not possibly have been
Speaker 1: Sharp's and also insinuating that Anne had a sexual relationship
Speaker 1: with a black man. It was believed, though denied, that
Speaker 1: Sharp's camp had started that rumor regarding Anne's baby's race,
Speaker 1: though there were also claims that her midwife had provided
Speaker 1: the Sharp family with a sworn document backing that rumor.
Speaker 1: But despite all of this gossip and mudslinging, Solomon Sharp
Speaker 1: won his election the day the Legislative Assembly was to begin.
Speaker 1: November seventh, eighteen twenty five, Solomon Sharp and his wife
Speaker 1: Eliza were awakened at approximately two a m. By somebody
Speaker 1: knocking at their door. They were claiming to be somebody
Speaker 1: that the couple knew who was in need of lodging.
Speaker 1: When questioned through the door, this person said that all
Speaker 1: the local taverns were full and that he needed a
Speaker 1: bed for the night. Here is how things played out
Speaker 1: from there. According to the paper the frankfort Argus quote,
Speaker 1: Colonel Sharp told him he should have a bed and
Speaker 1: opened the door. The assassin entered and passed with Colonel
Speaker 1: Sharp by the door of Missus Sharp's room. He then
Speaker 1: asked her you Colonel Sharp. The colonel answered in the affirmative.
Speaker 1: The assassin then said, my name is John A. Covington.
Speaker 1: Colonel Sharp replied, I do not know you. The assassin said,
Speaker 1: damn you, you shall soon know me and plunged the
Speaker 1: fatal weapon into his body. Colonel Sharp groaned and fell
Speaker 1: to the ground, and when Eliza heard that, she jumped
Speaker 1: out of bed and ran to him. Sharp's brother, Leander,
Speaker 1: who also lived in the home, heard the noise as
Speaker 1: well and ran to see what it was. Sharp died
Speaker 1: from his stab wound just a few minutes after the attack,
Speaker 1: without saying a word to his wife or brother. The
Speaker 1: only clue left at the scene was a bloody handkerchief.
Speaker 1: It was believed that it had been used first to
Speaker 1: conceal the knife and then to wipe the blade After
Speaker 1: the stabbing. The assailant had run out through the same
Speaker 1: door that he entered, with neither of Sharp's surviving relatives
Speaker 1: having seen any detail of his face, they could only
Speaker 1: report that it had been a tall man wearing dark clothes.
Speaker 1: A man hunt began immediately, and the trustees of Frankfort
Speaker 1: put up one thousand dollar reward quote for the purpose
Speaker 1: of apprehending the monster who committed this diabolical act. In
Speaker 1: addition to that, the state governor, with an authorization from
Speaker 1: the state legislature, offered another three thousand dollars quote for
Speaker 1: the apprehension.
Speaker 2: Of the murderer of Colonel Sharp. Although Sharp had just
Speaker 2: been part of a very polarized election cycle at a
Speaker 2: time when Kentucky was very much divided, the community galvanized
Speaker 2: over his murder, and even his most intense rivals and
Speaker 2: detractors condemned the murder and called for justice.
Speaker 1: While suspicion had briefly fallen on one of Sharp's political rivals,
Speaker 1: eventually Beecham was the person who came into focus. He
Speaker 1: was known to have been in Frankfurt the night before
Speaker 1: the murder. He had apparently left the lodgings where he
Speaker 1: was staying in the middle of the night, and then
Speaker 1: he had left the following morning. News of the attack
Speaker 1: had already broken when he left, and while everyone else
Speaker 1: in town was aghast and discussing Sharp's death, Beecham was disinterested,
Speaker 1: to the point that people thought it was odd. Additionally,
Speaker 1: he had threatened Sharp on several occasions when rumors about
Speaker 1: his seduction of Anne had circulated. As citizens of the
Speaker 1: area pieced these bits of information together, a group formed
Speaker 1: up and went to his and Ann's farm in the
Speaker 1: next county to apprehend him. He was brought back to
Speaker 1: Frankfurt on November fifteenth and formally arrested once he arrived there.
Speaker 2: There was plenty of testimony at the ready regarding Jereboam Beaucham,
Speaker 2: but physical evidence was a lot harder to come by.
Speaker 2: He did have a knife when he was taken in,
Speaker 2: but that knife could not be conclusively tied to the murder.
Speaker 2: The knife wound on Sharp's body was a lot wider
Speaker 2: than the blade of Beecham's knife. Furthermore, it was not
Speaker 2: the least bit odd at this time and place for
Speaker 2: a man to be carrying a knife. The handkerchief that
Speaker 2: had been found at the scene had been picked up
Speaker 2: by the posse that followed Beacham home, but then it
Speaker 2: had been lost on the journey. So the strongest piece
Speaker 2: of evidence against Beacham was Eliza Sharp, who identified his
Speaker 2: voice as that of the attacker. But Beaucham declared his
Speaker 2: innocence from the moment he was taken in. He was
Speaker 2: adamant that he had never threatened Sharp, and he wrote
Speaker 2: to a number of people hoping for help in the matter.
Speaker 2: One of those people has come up on the show
Speaker 2: before that was lawyer and politician George M. Bibb, whose
Speaker 2: family recovered in July of twenty twenty two. Beecham told
Speaker 2: bib who had been a close friend of Sharp's, that
Speaker 2: he was being framed. I have penciled that bib episode
Speaker 2: in as a Saturday Classic forthcoming for people who are interested.
Speaker 2: That might sound far fetched, not the Saturday Classic what
Speaker 2: Holly just said, Tracy, really, but there were people who
Speaker 2: believed it, and with pretty good reason. In the middle
Speaker 2: of all the tumult that had been going on in
Speaker 2: Kentucky politics, there had been instances of violence, like basically fisticuffs,
Speaker 2: and some of Sharp's friends and allies in the legislature
Speaker 2: thought it was possible that his political enemies could have
Speaker 2: taken things farther in an effort to eradicate a powerful
Speaker 2: opponent to their agendas. One of Sharp's friends named Amos Kendall,
Speaker 2: who would eventually become post Master General of the United
Speaker 2: States ran the argus of Western America, and he used
Speaker 2: his platform to accuse Sharp's rivals of goading Beacham on
Speaker 2: by making sure those rumors about Sharp and stayed circulating.
Speaker 2: He even accused specific politicians of going directly to Beacham
Speaker 2: to talk about these rumors. There were implications that some
Speaker 2: of these men had been near Sharp's house in the
Speaker 2: early morning of November seventh, insinuating that they had urged
Speaker 2: Beacham to take action.
Speaker 1: We are going to get to Beacham's trial, but before
Speaker 1: we do, we will hear from the sponsors that keep
Speaker 1: stuff unissed in history class going. During the grand jury hearing,
Speaker 1: which found cause to move forward with a trial, but
Speaker 1: not enough evidence to suggest that anyone other than Beecham
Speaker 1: be charged, Jeroboam's attorney, John Pope, asked if they could
Speaker 1: postpone the trial for a while so they would have
Speaker 1: time to put together their case. That was honored, and
Speaker 1: this trial was set for May the following year. When
Speaker 1: it began on May eighth, eighteen twenty six, Jeroboam Beacham
Speaker 1: pled not guilty.
Speaker 2: During the trial, which was prosecuted by Charles Bibb. Just
Speaker 2: to keep the bib family in the mix. One of
Speaker 2: the interesting pieces of testimony came from Patrick H.
Speaker 1: Darby.
Speaker 2: Darby was one of the men who had been accused
Speaker 2: of stirring up Jeroboam and inciting him to murder. His
Speaker 2: testimony indicated that he had met with Beecham, but that
Speaker 2: he hadn't known who the defendant was when they met.
Speaker 2: Darby claimed that while the two men both happened to
Speaker 2: have stopped at the same roadside well while traveling, Beacham
Speaker 2: broached the subject of the purported sexual relationship between Sharp
Speaker 2: and Anne and told Darby that Sharp had basically offered
Speaker 2: him a bribe, with that being money, an enslaved girl,
Speaker 2: and property if they would just drop.
Speaker 1: It and leave him alone.
Speaker 2: But he had never delivered on the promised items, and
Speaker 2: Jeroboam was hoping to enlist Darby to help him get
Speaker 2: what he was owed. Darby testified that he refused to
Speaker 2: do this and that at that point Beacham said he
Speaker 2: would kill Colonel Sharp, and cross examination, defense attorney Pope
Speaker 2: pointed out that Beaucham's conviction would help Darby and his
Speaker 2: political allies get out of hot Water, so his testimony
Speaker 2: should be considered questionable. Darby also brought another witness into
Speaker 2: the case that was Anne and Jerebouham's neighbor named low
Speaker 2: The neighbor stated that when Jereboam had returned to his
Speaker 2: farm from Frankfort, he had been waiving a red flag
Speaker 2: and claiming victory, but he had not discussed with the
Speaker 2: defendant what that actually meant. Lowe also stated that he
Speaker 2: had letters from Beacham that incriminated him. These letters were
Speaker 2: not miss that included a plan to murder Sharp, they
Speaker 2: had been written after Beacham was arrested. They were incriminating
Speaker 2: because they included detailed directives on the story that Jereboam
Speaker 2: would like low to tell in court, including that Anne
Speaker 2: had not been the one to introduce the rumor of
Speaker 2: the affair with Sharp, but that it had been concocted
Speaker 2: by one of his political rivals, John Waring. Yeah, Pope
Speaker 2: really tried to have this letter struck, and it did
Speaker 2: not hold up because it obviously made the defendant look
Speaker 2: very bad. Throughout this trial, which went on for two weeks,
Speaker 2: every aspect of the case was of course addressed and
Speaker 2: debated in detail. Witness testimony, though, was largely contradictory, with
Speaker 2: just about anything introduced by the prosecution countered with an
Speaker 2: opposite account from a defense witness. Everything from the issue
Speaker 2: of the size of the knife to the disappearing bloody
Speaker 2: handkerchief was discussed, and there too, in those pieces of
Speaker 2: physical evidence, or lack thereof, the expert test testimony from
Speaker 2: each side contradicted the other. There was no physical evidence
Speaker 2: of the actual crime. It was all circumstantial, and the
Speaker 2: only sticking point remained Eliza Sharp's insistence that Jereboam's voice
Speaker 2: was the one she had heard at their door the
Speaker 2: night her husband was murdered. This case went to the
Speaker 2: jury at five pm on Friday, May nineteenth. At about
Speaker 2: six pm, just an hour later, the verdict was read guilty.
Speaker 2: For a while, it seemed like Anne might also be charged.
Speaker 1: Their neighbor.
Speaker 2: Low had more to say about this. This was actually
Speaker 2: precipitated by Jereboham's defense counsel, who introduced the possibility of
Speaker 2: Anne being a more active participant as a way to
Speaker 2: postpone the sentencing. Lowe told the judges that Anne had
Speaker 2: told him that she had helped plan this murder, and
Speaker 2: she detailed the various ways that they had gone about
Speaker 2: learning the layout of the sharp holme acquiring she and
Speaker 2: a knife that were different from her husband's personal items.
Speaker 1: Things like that.
Speaker 2: Lowe also told the judges that Darby's testimony about a
Speaker 2: bribe to silence the Beachams was not correct and that
Speaker 2: no such deal had ever been offered. But although this
Speaker 2: was compelling and a dramatic development, it was determined that
Speaker 2: Anne had not been materially responsible for the murder, so
Speaker 2: she was not charged. That same day, Jerebohen was sentenced
Speaker 2: to death. Yeah, so much of this trial hung on
Speaker 2: the testimony of their neighbor, low who was a person
Speaker 2: that Darby had found and said, I think you know
Speaker 2: about this case. It's also convoluted and dramatic and a
Speaker 2: lot of machinations.
Speaker 1: So much of it.
Speaker 2: I'm like this seems like hearsay to me.
Speaker 1: Huh. The date of the execution was set for June sixteenth,
Speaker 1: but Beecham asked for a postponement because he wanted to
Speaker 1: write something. Surprisingly, this quest was honored and the new
Speaker 1: date of execution was set for July seventh. Jereboham returned
Speaker 1: to his cell to write, and his wife and joined him.
Speaker 1: She stayed with him throughout the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: While an appeal was attempted, it did not gain traction.
Speaker 1: And this is where Beecham's story seems to have just
Speaker 1: changed abruptly. Almost from the moment that he was sentenced.
Speaker 1: People started reporting that he was telling people that he
Speaker 1: had in fact been the murderer. This information was relayed
Speaker 1: to the press, which just ran with it. Simultaneously, he
Speaker 1: started to write the thing that he had in mind,
Speaker 1: which opens as follows, quote, I am this day condemned
Speaker 1: to die by my country's laws. My country has extended
Speaker 1: the limited time first fixed for my existence on earth,
Speaker 1: in order that I might write an account of the
Speaker 1: causes which have led to my death. He goes on
Speaker 1: to confess in this document, but also to justify his
Speaker 1: actions in doing so, quote, I die for pursuing what
Speaker 1: the dictates of my clearest and most deliberate judgment had
Speaker 1: determined it was at least justifiable in me to do,
Speaker 1: if not my duty to do, and for which no
Speaker 1: guilty pang of conscience has ever yet reproved me, or
Speaker 1: the certain prospect of death made me feel the least regret.
Speaker 1: And if my death teaches a respect for the laws
Speaker 1: of my country, my example will be not less serviceable
Speaker 1: in teaching a respect for those laws of honor to
Speaker 1: revenge the violation and outrage of which I so freely die.
Speaker 1: The writing indicates that Jereboham intended for there to be
Speaker 1: a didactic outcome from the murder and the trial. Writing quote,
Speaker 1: the death of Colonel Sharp at my hands will teach
Speaker 1: two lessons not altogether uncalled for by the present moral
Speaker 1: and political state of society in Kentucky. It will teach
Speaker 1: a certain class of heroes, who make their glory to
Speaker 1: consist in triumphs over the virtue and the happiness of
Speaker 1: worthy unfortunate orphan females, to pause sometimes in their mad
Speaker 1: career and reflect that though the deluded victim of their
Speaker 1: villainy may have no father to protect or avenge her,
Speaker 1: yet some friendly arm may sooner or later be nerved
Speaker 1: by her to avenge her blighted prospects. The second lesson
Speaker 1: Beecham felt the colonel's death might impart was this quote.
Speaker 1: My example, or rather that of Colonel Sharps, will also
Speaker 1: teach the unprincipled politician in his career of ambition, that
Speaker 1: if his dishonor has driven from society and buried in
Speaker 1: a living grave, an unfortunate female who had fallen a
Speaker 1: victim to his villainy. It may be better to lie
Speaker 1: under the reproach of her seduction than to hazard adding
Speaker 1: further insult to so deep an injury, slander and detraction
Speaker 1: to such an outrage upon on every human feeling. One
Speaker 1: aspect of Beecham's sentence that fascinated the public at the
Speaker 1: time and frankly a lot of people since, was that
Speaker 1: Anne made no secret that she wished to have the
Speaker 1: same fate as her husband. Jeroboam also wrote about this
Speaker 1: in his confession, noting, quote, my wife is, I know,
Speaker 1: inflexible in her determination that as I die for her,
Speaker 1: she will die with me. I have no motive to
Speaker 1: conceal the part which she has acted, the more especially
Speaker 1: as she insists to let the world know all the
Speaker 1: agency she has had in bringing about a revenge for
Speaker 1: the deep, indelible wrong which Colonel Sharp had done her
Speaker 1: and her family.
Speaker 2: On July fifth, Anne administered what she thought would be
Speaker 2: a fatal dose of laudanum to both herself and to Jereboam.
Speaker 2: She had snuck the laudanum into the cell, concealing it
Speaker 2: in her clothing. It was not a fatal dose, and
Speaker 2: she and Jereboham were both put on suicide watch, but
Speaker 2: it doesn't appear that anybody searched her at that time.
Speaker 2: Because she still had more laudanum with her, she took that,
Speaker 2: but rather than killing her, it just caused her to vomit.
Speaker 1: Two days later, on the seventh, which was the date
Speaker 1: that Jeroboum was to be executed, the pair asked for
Speaker 1: some time alone. They were not supposed to be left unattended,
Speaker 1: but for some reason the jayler agreed. Anne still determined
Speaker 1: that they should die together, and, once again with contraband
Speaker 1: in her possession that no one had managed to notice,
Speaker 1: pulled out a knife and stabbed herself in the chest.
Speaker 1: She also convinced Jeroboam to stab himself. He stabbed the
Speaker 1: knife into his abdomen, but apparently did not hit any
Speaker 1: vital organs. His wound was not fatal, and hers was.
Speaker 1: She died an hour after the stabbing, with her husband
Speaker 1: by her side. She had been removed from the cell,
Speaker 1: but they allowed him to come to where they had
Speaker 1: her when they realized she was about to expire. He
Speaker 1: reportedly stated as he watched her past quote. I wish
Speaker 1: doctor Sharp was here. I wish he was here to
Speaker 1: behold this spectacle. Her last words, as reported in the
Speaker 1: local newspaper, were, Oh, my husband, I die for my husband.
Speaker 1: Beecham was taken to the gallows in the early afternoon.
Speaker 1: He was composed, He asked for some water and for
Speaker 1: the attending bands to play Bonaparte's Retreat from Moscow, and
Speaker 1: then he was hanged. After the execution, newspapers ran the
Speaker 1: story with an introductory paragraph that read, quote, the tragic
Speaker 1: scene has closed and the curtain has fallen over the
Speaker 1: murderer of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp. The trial, conviction and
Speaker 1: confession of guilt and execution of Jereboam Oh Beecham for
Speaker 1: the murder and suicide of Anne Beacham formerly Anne Cook,
Speaker 1: who was privy to and instigated her husband to the
Speaker 1: murder of Sharp.
Speaker 2: It was also after the execution that Jeroboam's confession became public,
Speaker 2: and writing it, it appears that he was hoping the
Speaker 2: contents would lead to his sentence being commuted, or even
Speaker 2: that he might be pardoned. He did not claim innocence
Speaker 2: in the murder, but he invoked Darby's involvement, and this
Speaker 2: confession also had some bombshells. A big one was that
Speaker 2: he said he had heard about the rumors regarding Sharp
Speaker 2: and Cook and had subsequently orchestrated a way to meet
Speaker 2: her shortly after they had become acquainted. He said he
Speaker 2: had confronted Sharp about it, but that Sharp had gotten
Speaker 2: away from him, and that this had happened four years
Speaker 2: before the murder. Then he described how his desire to
Speaker 2: kill Sharp was a big part of the bond that
Speaker 2: he shared with Anne. He wrote that at one point
Speaker 2: he and Anne tried to lure Sharp to their house
Speaker 2: with a fake lead on a land claim, hoping that
Speaker 2: they could kill him there, but Sharp didn't come. What
Speaker 2: emerges is a tale of two people deeply intent on
Speaker 2: getting revenge.
Speaker 1: Yeah. His version of why they didn't get married until
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty four was that initially Anne told him he
Speaker 1: had to kill Sharp before she would marry him. Like
Speaker 1: there's a hole wild what their relationship really was that
Speaker 1: plays out in this confession. But another version of the
Speaker 1: events was written down by Colonel Sharp's brother, doctor Leander Sharp.
Speaker 1: This was titled Vindication of the Character of the Late
Speaker 1: Colonel Solomon P. Sharp. And the Leander account, actually, like
Speaker 1: the other, does place the blame on Darby's shoulders. It
Speaker 1: strongly suggests that he was actually the one that started
Speaker 1: the rumors of Sharp and Ann Cook's affair, and it
Speaker 1: also reiterates the story that her deceased child had been
Speaker 1: of mixed race. One of the things that does give
Speaker 1: Leander Sharp's account a bit more weight in the eyes
Speaker 1: of many historians is the fact that he worked pretty
Speaker 1: diligent to collect evidence. He collected accounts from various witnesses,
Speaker 1: he gained sworn testimonies, he actually ran down a lot
Speaker 1: of leads, and he included all of this in his work.
Speaker 1: But this version of events was suppressed due to pressure
Speaker 1: from Darby, and it only came to light decades later
Speaker 1: when the manuscript was found in the Sharp home.
Speaker 2: Yet another publication did see public release in eighteen twenty six,
Speaker 2: and it was The Letters of Anne Cook. This salacious
Speaker 2: collection of missives was popular with a public that wanted
Speaker 2: to condemn the behavior of everyone involved in this tragedy,
Speaker 2: but also wanted to learn all of the juicy details
Speaker 2: in private. This publication was almost certainly a fake, not
Speaker 2: real letters and had written, although it has been referenced
Speaker 2: a lot of times by people as though it were
Speaker 2: legitimate in the last two centuries.
Speaker 1: As noted in the book Murder and Madness, the Myth
Speaker 1: of the Kentucky Tragedy, which was written by Matthew Schoenbackler
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, quote, most of what we
Speaker 1: do know about the Kentucky Tragedy comes from three remarkable documents,
Speaker 1: the published proceedings of Beacham's murder trial, Beacham's confession, and
Speaker 1: a vindication of Solomon Sharp, written by his devoted brother,
Speaker 1: doctor Leander Sharp. Since the Sharp and Beacham writings contradict
Speaker 1: each other, and the trial account likely contains testimony that
Speaker 1: was purposely false, we're kind of left to puzzle out
Speaker 1: for ourselves whether this was truly a crime of honor
Speaker 1: bound vengeance, or just the result of political machinations.
Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty seven, the Kentucky Historical Society had a
Speaker 2: marker placed at the grave of Jereboam and Anne, which
Speaker 2: takes a pretty starry eyed stance. The front of that
Speaker 2: marker reads Romantic eighteen twenty five tragedy Jereboam Beacham and
Speaker 2: wife Anna buried here in same coffin at own request
Speaker 2: to avenge her alleged seduction by Colonel Solomon Sharp. B. H.
Speaker 2: Jim murdered him match Sharp's Frankfort home eighteen twenty five.
Speaker 2: Beacham and Anna were held in Frankfort jail. She was
Speaker 2: released but joined her husband in his cell, refusing to
Speaker 2: be separated even by force. He was sentenced to hang.
Speaker 2: The back of the marker reads quote. On execution day,
Speaker 2: they attempted suicide by stabbing themselves. Her wound was fatal,
Speaker 2: but he lived to be hanged that day, the first
Speaker 2: legal hanging in Kentucky eighteen twenty six. Colonel Sharp's political
Speaker 2: prominence caused case to have widespread newspaper publicity. Edgar Allan
Speaker 2: Poe and many other authors wrote of the tragedy inspired
Speaker 2: by Beecham's deep devotion and love.
Speaker 1: It's such a romanticized version. A fascination with this case
Speaker 1: does seem to be never ending. Fiction has, as referenced
Speaker 1: in that marker, drawn from it many times. Social and
Speaker 1: legal analysts have continued to break down the details of
Speaker 1: the case and examine it through various lenses over the years.
Speaker 1: One of the angles that I didn't see considered or
Speaker 1: talked about very often. Was put forth by Dixon D. Bruce,
Speaker 1: Junior in his two thousand book The Kentucky Tragedy, A
Speaker 1: Story of Conflict and Change in Antebellum America. In the book,
Speaker 1: Bruce notes the cultural context of Beacham's crime quote, Kentucky
Speaker 1: could be a violent place in the eighteen twenties. It
Speaker 1: was a place where people gave credence to a strict
Speaker 1: and bloody code of honor that, among other things, provided
Speaker 1: little room for despoiling a woman's character, as Sharpe is
Speaker 1: said to have done, and virtually demanded the kind of
Speaker 1: violent retribution Beacham exacted. Thus, to a great extent, the
Speaker 1: code served to frame how people understood the Beecham Sharp
Speaker 1: affair at the time and how they have continued to
Speaker 1: interpret its significance. Bruce also notes, as others have, that
Speaker 1: it's impossible to find any contemporary writings about the events
Speaker 1: involved that isn't biased. So the only truths that we
Speaker 1: could really hang on to are the few components that
Speaker 1: are consistent from account to account. Oh, we got a
Speaker 1: whole thing to talk about on Friday. We sure knew
Speaker 1: about poems. Okay, do you have a listener mail I do.
Speaker 1: We have gotten a lot of emails about our Library
Speaker 1: of Congress episode, and I want to read them all
Speaker 1: because they're really good. But I really wanted to read
Speaker 1: this one in the hopes of wishing someone the best
Speaker 1: possible good fortune going forward. This is from our listener Katie,
Speaker 1: who says, Hello, Holly and Tracy. Longtime listener, first time emailer.
Speaker 1: I'm writing to thank you for your episode on the
Speaker 1: Library of Congress and your acknowledgment of the unjust firing
Speaker 1: of doctor Carla Hayden. I have been a librarian with
Speaker 1: the federal government for over eleven years. In the last
Speaker 1: four months have been some of the hardest of my career. Sadly,
Speaker 1: I know I'm not unique in this regard. I have
Speaker 1: always appreciated your references to and use of various libraries
Speaker 1: and the vast resources they provide. Libraries of all types
Speaker 1: have always faced challenges shrinking budgets, book bands, finding ways
Speaker 1: to provide equitable access to all citizens, be it books,
Speaker 1: maker spaces, access to free Wi Fi, or a place
Speaker 1: to stay warm or cool. This is our passion and
Speaker 1: our calling, and as with many helping professions, we are
Speaker 1: not in it for the money. As we face so
Speaker 1: much uncertainty in the world, libraries have always been a
Speaker 1: safe space, and I hope we survive the next four years.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all that you do. I'm obviously crying
Speaker 1: because I hope so too. But then Katie attaches pictures
Speaker 1: of her kiddie Blue as a pet. Tax Blue is
Speaker 1: a fluffy, gray, magical creature, very near and dear to
Speaker 1: my heart. Is a great cat. So I love these.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing them. I'm sorry I'm getting so
Speaker 1: choked up. I really want libraries to survive and thrive.
Speaker 1: That's all I'm wishing you well. If you would like
Speaker 1: to write to us and make me cry, you can
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