Carrington Simpson, Defendant was born Chesterfield Virginia, on the 10th of August, 1782. His mother's name was Jenny Simpson. She never married. He had three brothers, Langhorn, Robert and Jack and four sisters, Betsy, Rhody, Polly, and Lear, all raised in Chesterfield County Virginia. His father was said to be Judge C. of Virginia, from whom he took his given name. He was married one year to Dicy Powell, daughter of James Powell.

Samuel A. Spencer, Defense Attorney was born in 1803, and died in -1871.

The three used shovels to murder Lucinda White, a wealthy widow and the rest of her family, including decapitating a baby.

It was generally known that the Whites were planning to move to Alabama, and the conspirators relied on this knowledge to prevent suspicion about the family's absence. The subsequent appearance of possessions belonging to the White family among Simpson's family aroused suspicion, and in March 1840 Simpson was arrested. The White family's remains were discovered in a shallow grave on Simpson's farm, and Simpson confessed to the crime and named his co-conspirators.

Bell and Sadler were tried jointly for murder in June 1840, but the trial resulted in a hung jury. In November 1840 Bell was tried separately and convicted, but his sentencing was suspended until August 1841, at which time Sadler and Simpson were also tried separately and convicted. All three were sentenced to hang.

Bell and Sadler shared a cell after sentencing and when Bell was found dead, it was suspected that Sadler smothered his step-father before hanging himself. In the end, Simpson faced the hangman alone before a crowd of 10,000 people in Greensburg on September 21, 1841.