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The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy was the murder of Kentucky legislator Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp. As a young lawyer, Beauchamp had been an admirer of Sharp's until the latter allegedly fathered an illegitimate child with a woman named Anna Cooke. Sharp denied paternity of the stillborn child. Later, Beauchamp began a relationship with Cooke, who agreed to marry him on the condition that he kill Sharp. Beauchamp and Cooke married in June 1824, and in the early morning of November 7, 1825, Beauchamp murdered Sharp at Sharp's home in Frankfort, Kentucky. An investigation soon revealed Beauchamp as the murderer, and he was apprehended at his home in Glasgow, Kentucky, four days after the murder. He was tried, convicted, and hanged for his crime on July 7, 1826. He was the first person legally executed in the state of Kentucky. While the primary motive for Sharp's murder was defending the honor of Anna Cooke, speculation raged that Sharp's political opponents instigated the crime. Sharp was a leader of the New Court party during the Old Court – New Court controversy in Kentucky. At least one Old Court partisan alleged that Sharp denied paternity of Cooke's son by claiming the child was a mulatto, the son of a family slave. Whether Sharp actually made such a claim has never been verified. New Court partisans insisted that the allegation was concocted to stir Beauchamp's anger and provoke him to murder. The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy served as the inspiration for literary works, most notably Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished Politian and Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time. (more...)

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