Harold Schechter is a professor of American literature and culture. Renowed for his true-crime writing, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, and, with David Everitt, The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers. He is also the author of Nevermore and The Hum Bug, the acclaimed historical novels featuring Edgar Ellen Poe. He lives in New York State and is the father of YA novelist, Lauren Oliver. — Mostly from Depraved
The Pirate
The Pirate
Synopsis
In 1860 a sloop drifted into New York Harbor with no one aboard and blood from cabin to deck. Looted coins led investigators to Albert Hicks, a Bowery thug who had taken an axe to his shipmates.
Hicks was convicted not of murder but of piracy — a prosecutorial choice that carried the death penalty — and hanged on Bedloe's Island, now Liberty Island. Nearly ten thousand spectators came to watch, refreshments were served, and the showman P. T. Barnum turned up, later buying Hicks's clothes for a wax exhibit. The unrepentant killer became one of America's first celebrity murderers.
Harold Schechter reconstructs the case from newspaper accounts and court records. The Pirate is a short work, part of the Bloodlands collection of historical true-crime narratives published by Amazon Original Stories.
Vibe
Genres
Characters
Albert HicksProtagonist
The Bowery thug hanged in 1860 for the murders aboard an oyster sloop.
P. T. BarnumCameo
The showman who attended the execution and bought Hicks's clothing for exhibition.
Places
Edition
No cover available
The PirateUnknown, 2018Amazon Original StoriesISBN: 9781477817704
