A cruel axe murder and dismemberment of a black slave was committed in 1811 by two brothers, Lilburne and Isham Lewis. Their mother was Thomas Jefferson's sister, and their father was Jefferson's first cousin. This story forms the core of a real-life, historical detective story and an account of the violence of frontier life in western Kentucky. On December 15, 1811, drunk and enraged over the breaking of a pitcher, Lilburne went on a rampage because the pitcher had once belonged to be his mother. Lilburne's youngest brother, Isham, brought a slave, George, into the cabin, blaming him for breaking the pitcher. Lilburne and Isham secured George to the floor. Lilburne gathered up all his slaves and brought them into the cabin. He explained to the slaves that what was about to happen to George was a warning to all of them if they disobeyed or broke something that belonged to him, they would suffer the same fate as George. Lilburne picked up an ax and cut off George's head. He handed the ax to another male slave and forced him to destroy the rest of George's body and burn it in the fireplace. .

             In the months following the murder, there were many earthquakes in the area. On January 23rd there was a quake that shook for over five minutes with great intensity. It was equal in force to the first disruption that collapsed the kitchen chimney at Rocky Hill. In Louisville, houses were badly damaged, and boatmen on the river found themselves in great danger. Nine days of quiet passed, and then, during the first week of February, there were more earthquakes, violently shaking the land in the dark, early hours of the morning of February 7th. It was the most severe disturbance ever recorded on the North American continent. Those weeks must have been a period of numbing horror for Letitia and the children. It seems in conceivable that the knowledge of the murder could have been hidden from them for longer than a few hours.