Description

The saga opens with a grim discovery in New York Bay: the abandoned oyster sloop E.A. Johnson, its deck slick with blood and its crew missing. Newspaper reports and whispered rumors fuel a citywide hunt for the shadowy river pirates believed to have seized the vessel. From the wreckage emerges the chilling portrait of Albert W. Hicks, a self‑styled highwayman turned sea raider, whose own confession bears the raw details of mutiny, robbery, and a string of murders that shocked the mid‑century public.

The narrative follows the painstaking police work that tracks a suspect from a tenement on Cedar Street to the shoreline of Providence, while courtrooms buzz with sensational testimony and even a phrenological sketch of Hicks’s character. As the trial unfolds before Judge Smalley, listeners hear the legal drama, the moral panic, and the stark contrast between Hicks’s own brutal memoirs and the era’s attempt to make sense of such violence. The account stops short of the final execution, leaving the outcome to the listener’s imagination.

Details

Full title

The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to which is added the Account of His Arrest, Imprisonment, Trial and Execution. Also, His Phrenological Character, as described by L. N. Fowler. The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to which is added the Account of His Arrest, Imprisonment, Trial and Execution. Also, His Phrenological Character, as described by L. N. Fowler.

Language

Duration

~3 hours (185K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Original publisher

United States: Robert M. De Witt, 1860.

Credits

Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Release date

2021-12-13

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

Source

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66941