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.

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.

In the early morning of November 7, 1825, he tricked Sharp to open the door at his home in Frankfort, and fatally stabbed him.

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).

[1] Recognizing that his father could not sufficiently provide for the family, Beauchamp found work as a shopkeeper to earn money for his education.

[3] After observing the lawyers practicing in Glasgow and Bowling Green, he decided to pursue a career in the legal profession.

[1] He particularly admired Solomon Sharp, a young lawyer in his thirties in Bowling Green, with whom Beauchamp hoped to study.

[4] In 1820, Beauchamp became disenchanted with Sharp when rumors surfaced that he had fathered an illegitimate child with Anna Cooke, a planter's daughter who lived in Bowling Green.

[5] Beauchamp left Bowling Green to live at his father's plantation in Simpson County, Kentucky, where he convalesced from an illness.

Against Cooke's advice, Beauchamp traveled immediately to the capital of Frankfort, where Sharp had recently been appointed attorney general by the governor.

Learning that Sharp was in Bowling Green, Cooke sent him a letter condemning Beauchamp's attempt on his life and asking to see him again.

Hoping to kill Sharp before the meeting, Beauchamp traveled to Bowling Green, but found his target had already left for Frankfort.

[2] Still determined to defend the honor of his wife, Beauchamp devised a ruse to lure Sharp to Bowling Green.

He wrote letters to Sharp under various pseudonyms, each asking for his help in some sort of legal matter, and each sent from a different post office.

Sharp had served as the state's attorney general under New Court governors John Adair, whose term lasted until August 1824, and Joseph Desha, who succeeded him in office.

[14] Three weeks prior to that date, Beauchamp sold his property, telling his friends that he was planning to move to Missouri.

The historian Fred Johnson says that Beauchamp likely added the warrant into his story after the fact, as a means of damage control.

[15] In preparation, Beauchamp packed a change of clothes, a black mask, and a knife with poison on the tip, to be used as the murder weapon.

[16] Finding all the inns filled when he arrived at Frankfort, he took lodging at the residence of Joel Scott, warden of the state penitentiary.

[18] Dressed in disguise, he carried his usual clothes and buried them along the bank of the Kentucky River for retrieval following the murder.

Mrs. Sharp appeared at the partition door and then disappeared, seeing her disappear I said in a persuasive tone of voice, "Come to the light Colonel and you will know me," and pulling him by the arm he came readily to the door and still holding his wrist with my left hand I stripped my hat and handkerchief from over my forehead and looked into Sharp's face.

[20] He was cleared of suspicion when investigators learned that, at the time of the murder, Waring was in Fayette County recovering from unrelated injuries.

[20] After presenting preliminary testimony, Commonwealth's Attorney Charles Bibb asked for additional time to assemble more witnesses.

Patrick Henry Darby, an Old Court partisan, claimed that in 1824, he had a chance encounter with the man he now knew as Beauchamp.

[27] Giving Beauchamp the time he requested to gather witnesses, the court scheduled a special session in May specifically for his trial.

[15] Many believed Beauchamp's accusation was meant to curry favor with New Court governor Joseph Desha – who considered Darby a political enemy – and to secure a pardon from him.

[34] Anna Beauchamp joined her husband in his cell in the dungeon; the only entry was through a trap door at the top of the room.

[35] With the last hope exhausted, the couple attempted a double suicide by drinking a vial of laudanum which Anna had smuggled into the cell.