page_title: Samuel Brady
section_title: Murder trial for killing Indians
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Brady / After the Revolution / Murder trial for killing Indians
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Thomas Mifflin
context_page_description: Captain Samuel Brady was an Irish-American Revolutionary War officer, frontier scout, notorious Indian fighter, and the subject of many legends, in the history of western Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. He is best known for reportedly jumping across a gorge over the Cuyahoga River to escape pursuing Indians in what is present day Kent, Ohio. This jump is still remembered as "Brady's leap".
context_section_description: Samuel Brady's thirst for revenge did not end with the Armistice. Samuel Brady was charged with killing Indians after the War was over, tried for that crime in Pittsburgh in a "bar" and a jury of his frontier peers acquitted him, even after he defiantly admitted in open court that he had done it.
  Several years after the Revolution, Captain Brady led twenty five armed Virginia Rangers in "hot pursuit" of twelve Delaware Indians whom they said had been raiding white settlements in what was then Virginia and is now West Virginia.  On March 9, 1791, they crossed Brady's Run and the Beaver River into the newly established state of Pennsylvania. They caught up with the Indians, who they thought had been conducting the raids, at the Big Beaver Blockhouse where those Indians were trading. They killed four Delaware men and one Delaware woman. After the raid, they crossed back over the border to their homes in Virginia. The owner of the Red Front Trading Post, William Wilson and his friend John Hillman accused Brady and his Rangers of "plundering". Pennsylvania issued a warrant for Samuel's arrest.
  Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin demanded Samuel's extradition from Virginia Governor Peyton Randolph. There were a lot of documents that passed back and forth between the two new states, but Virginia did not give him up. Pennsylvania offered rewards of $300 and $1000 for his capture, to no avail. Two bounty hunters did try, but failed. These bounty hunters lost their guns in a West Virginia tavern where Brady claimed them as "souvenirs". This is how Belle Swope described that incident. "He was sitting in a tavern in West Virginia, when two Virginians rode up, and told the keeper they wanted horse feed and dinner. He was rolling his rifle on his knees, and they laid their pistols on a table near, while they conversed with the landlord. He told them the young Captain was popular and lived in that region. They promised him part of the reward if he would assist in his capture. The landlord said it was useless as no one could take Sam Brady alive. They vowed they could. The man opposite said, "I am Sam Brady". They looked at him, measured his strength, and gave up the attempt. After dinner they turned to the table to take up their pistols, but the Captain of the Rangers said "no", and not even the landlord persuaded him to change his mind. He afterward presented them to his sons."
  [[Image:|100px|right|thumb|Defense Attorney James Ross]]
  Samuel's old Commander, General Anthony Wayne wanted "his long time friend" Samuel Brady to be his chief scout in an upcoming Indian campaign. So, he and Samuel's father in law, Van "Indian" Swearingen of Wellsburg, along with many of Samuel's friends, convinced Samuel to surrender himself for trial in Pittsburgh, so the matter would no longer be hanging over his head. The case was much celebrated at the time and became one of the earliest court trials in Pittsburgh. The Judge came by stage coach (complete with wig) all the way from Philadelphia to preside at the trial. Pennsylvania Chief Justice Thomas McKean (a Quaker) went along with the trial judge and actually sat on the bench next to him. The jurors were all male and all settlers.  At this trial, Samuel was defended by the politician James Ross. Present and going way out of her way to be conspicuous in the "court room" (apparently a bar) was the compelling presence of Jennie Stupes. Brady had heroically rescued her and her son from Indians thirteen years earlier and the jury members knew it full well. To make sure no juror missed her presence, she walked up to where Samuel was seated and placed a flask of brandy on the table in front of him and a pitcher of water on top of that "for his personal refreshment".
  Samuel Brady had an Indian friend named Guyasuta, who testified as a defense witness. He stated that the Indians "rode white men's horses and were not friendly." At one point in the trial, Belle Swope reports, "At the trial at Pittsburgh, he laid the scalps on the bar, and said, 'There they are, I killed them.'" Belle, continues, "Women and me
caption: Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin
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