Jereboam O. Beauchamp

Jereboam O. Beauchamp
Etching of Jereboam O. Beauchamp
Born	Jereboam Orville Beauchamp (1802-09-06)September 6, 1802 Simpson County, Kentucky
Died	July 7, 1826(1826-07-07) (aged 23) Frankfort, Kentucky
Cause of death	Execution
Occupation	Lawyer
Criminal penalty	Death by hanging
Criminal status	Deceased
Spouse(s)	Anna Cooke
Parent(s)	Thomas and Sally Beauchamp
Motive	Honor killing
Conviction(s)	Murder

Jereboam Orville Beauchamp (/dʒɛrəˈboʊ.əm ˈɔːrvɪl ˈbiːtʃəm/; September 6, 1802 – July 7, 1826) was an American lawyer who murdered the Kentucky legislator Solomon P. Sharp; the crime is known as the Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy. In 1821, Sharp had been accused in Bowling Green, Kentucky by Anna Cooke of fathering her illegitimate child; it was stillborn. Sharp denied paternity, and public opinion favored him. In 1824, Beauchamp married Cooke, who was sixteen years older than he. She asked him to kill Sharp to defend her honor.

When Sharp campaigned in 1825 for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives, opponents revived the story of his alleged illegitimate child by Cooke. They distributed campaign literature claiming the child was mulatto. Enraged, Beauchamp renewed his intention to avenge his wife's honor. In the early morning of November 7, 1825, he tricked Sharp to open the door at his home in Frankfort, and fatally stabbed him.

Beauchamp was convicted of the murder and sentenced to hang. The morning of the execution, he and his wife attempted a double suicide by stabbing themselves with a knife she had smuggled into prison. She was successful; he was not. Beauchamp was rushed to the gallows before he could bleed to death, and was hanged on July 7, 1826. The bodies of Jereboam and Anna Beauchamp were arranged in an embrace and buried in a single coffin, as they had requested. The Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy inspired fictional works such as Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished play, Politian, and Robert Penn Warren's World Enough and Time (1950).