Convicted Murderer, Figure In The Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. He received a place in Kentucky history when in the early hours of November 7, 1825, he fatally stabbed Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, a former United States Congressman and a former attorney-general of Kentucky, at Sharp's home in Frankfort, Kentucky. From a fairly prominent family Beauchamp was a respectable law student before the murder. During an 1824 political campaign a handbill had been circulated accusing Sharp of seducing Anna Cooke and fathering her illegitimate child, which was a stillborn in June of 1820. Beauchamp, who had married Cooke in 1824, was furious at the allegations and murdered Sharp when he answered his door. Tried, convicted and sentenced to death he and Anna persuaded his jailers to allow them to stay together. On July 5, 1826, they attempted a double suicide by taking the narcotic laudanum. The attempt was unsuccessful, but a guard was placed in the cell to watch them closely. On July 7th the day set for the hanging, they persuaded their guard to allow them some privacy. They then made a second suicide attempt, this time with a knife. Beauchamp was hustled off to the gallows but was so weak from his wounds he had to be supported by two men before being hanged. Anna succumbed to her wounds at nearly the same time. They were buried in an embrace in the same coffin. The Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy created a national sensation at the time and has been the subject or inspiration for many books and story plots. The most famous of which are probably Edgar Allan Poe's "Politan" and Robert Penn Warren's 1950 "World Enough and Time." Beauchamp's own document was written during the six weeks waiting for his punishment, “Confession of Jereboam O. Beauchamp: Who was hanged at Frankfort, Kentucky on the 7th Day of July 1826 for the Murder of Col. Solomon P. Sharp,” which was published that year.