A Halloween Post

Sometimes the effect of earthquakes are not just building damage and causalities but to uncover the misdeeds of people who attempted to conceal their crimes only to have the forces of nature expose them.

When the earthquakes struck central Kentucky it caused the inhabitants much consternation.  Notable among these inhabitants were two nephews of Thomas Jefferson, Lilburne and Isham Lewis.  Who lived in the Western part of Central Kentucky at the time of the New Madrid earthquakes.  The Lilburne with the assistance of his brother murdered a slave named George on the night of December 15, 1811 right before the first earthquake.  The motivation for the crime was that George had broken a ceramic pitcher that had belonged to their mother.  After the murder an attempt was made to cover up the crime by burring the body. The crime was committed in front of the other slaves they owned and they were coerced into burning the body.   Just as the body of the slave was being burned in a fireplace an attempt to cover up the crime the first of the earthquakes occurred collapsing the chimney on the house.   The brothers then forced the slave to rebuild the chimney with the remains of the slave concealed in the masonry.

The plan might have worked but the brothers did not take into account the succeeding earthquakes of January 23, 1812 and February 7, 1812.  The rebuild chimney crumbled in this seismic onslaught and the remains were exposed to the point a dog found the skull of the slave and deposited in public view, which sparked an inquiry into whom the skull belonged to.  This uncovered the murder and exposed the brothers to criminal charges  for  murdering a slave by torture.  They were arrested and while out on bail Lilburne committed suicide.  His brother fled and enlisted in the Army and would be killed in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.

Source:  Boynton Merrill, Jefferson’s Nephews, A Frontier Tragedy(2004)

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_George