Daily history

Good morning,




Quote of the day:



“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, and that is all.”

Oscar Wilde



Today’s prologue will be a short biography of one of the most interesting people in this country’s early history. He became a legend.



Jean Lafitte



Legendary Pirate



The exact place and date of birth of Jean Lafitte is not known for sure. The generally accepted year is 1776. Lafitte himself claimed Bordeaux, France as his birthplace while at the same time his brother Pierre claimed that their birthplace was Bayonne, France. At that time it would be advantageous to be a French citizen so as to not be subject to American laws. There are several documents out there that put Lafitte’s birthplace at many different places in the world including an island on the South Carolina coast. His biographer states that the best documentation puts his birthplace on the French possession island of Saint Domingue as it was known as then and is known as Haiti today. Jean’s father died and in approximately 1784 his mother moved him and his older brother Pierre to the Mississippi River Delta area which was a French possession also. Jean stayed with his mother and Pierre was raised by an extended family in other areas of Louisiana. Soon after their arrival Jean’s mother married a wealthy New Orleans merchant named Pedro Aubry. It is believed that as a young man Jean roamed the bayous and inlets from the Gulf of Mexico and became known as the most knowledgeable person alive about this area. Jean’s brother Pierre became a privateer for Saint Domingue and was carrying a Letter of the Marque. This meant that he was a pirate for Saint Domingue and would capture ships of the nation named in the “Letter” and split the booty with Saint Domingue in return for safe haven in Saint Domingue’s harbors. Jean began operating a warehouse and a store (probably on Royal Street) in New Orleans where he would distribute the booty brought to him by his brother to merchants in the New Orleans area. New Orleans and a hell of a lot more became American property with the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. This put a severe kink into the smuggling operation of the Lafitte brothers in New Orleans so they began looking elsewhere. They found a sparsely occupied island in Barataria Lake southwest of New Orleans. This lake was accessible only by a narrow channel between Grand Terre and Grand Isle that was easily defended and any ship approaching would be quickly detected and was a long way from American naval bases. Their business boomed once the privateers in the Gulf of Mexico found them. They would simply unload the ships and send the goods on barges up various bayous to New Orleans. Eventually the brothers got tired of being dry goods brokers and bought a boat, hired a captain and became privateers themselves. A few days later they made their first score. It was a Spanish ship with 77 slaves aboard. After selling the slaves (probably to Jim Bowie) and the other goods aboard they made about $18,000. They liked the boat and kept it also. A couple of days later they knocked over a Spanish brig and reaped about $9,000. They decided that this was a lot better than smuggling stolen goods. But they did not like this boat and chose to unload it and turn it back over to the original crew. The Lafitte brothers were renowned for good treatment of hijacked crews. A big turn of events occurred when England kept stopping American ships at sea and “Shanghaiing” American sailors. This means they would take American sailors off their ships and force them to serve on British ships. America finally got fed up and in 1812 declared war on England. During all of this the Lafitte brothers had gathered/swapped ships until they had three very fast sloops armed to the teeth. The British knew that The Americans did not have a viable navy and utilized pirates and privateers in their behalf so they approached Jean Lafitte and his small navy to join the British navy for pay. Jean believed that the Americans would win this war and wrote a letter to a member of the US congress telling him of the British offer. Previously Jean’s brother Pierre had been captured in a United States Navy raid and was imprisoned in New Orleans. Jean offered to join with the Americans in their war against Great Britain along with most of his crews if any criminal charges that were pending against he and his men would be dropped and Pierre would be released. The military person in command in this area was General Andrew Jackson and he balked at first but when three British warships showed up southwest of New Orleans he agreed. Jean Lafitte and his men were indeed present at the immortal Battle of New Orleans where the British had their asses handed to them even though they had the rag-tag army commanded by General Jackson out-numbered and out gunned. The British had 345 killed, including the British commanding General Packenham, and many wounded to 45 killed for the Americans. Lafitte knew that his operation at Barataria Bay was over and began looking for another location and found one in Galveston in what is now Texas. But at that time southern Texas was a Mexican property. Mexico was in the midst of a war for Independence with Spain. Both Pierre and Jean agreed to spy for Spain with Pierre in New Orleans and Jean on Galveston Island. Jean again established a base for smuggling on Galveston Island along with some pirating on his own. The US had passed a law that slaves could not brought in to the US unless they were captured off of a slave ship, then the slaves could be brought in to customs agents and be sold by them and half the profit going to the capturers so that told Jean and Pierre what their targets would be. They began a very profitable venture of capturing slaves, bringing them to New Orleans and letting the customs agents sell them to Jim Bowie at a reduced rate. Then they got an additional profit when Bowie sold them and gave the Lafitte brothers a commission. In 1821 the US Navy went to Galveston to run the Lafitte brothers out of the Gulf of Mexico. Jean agreed to leave without a fight and sailed down to Isla Mujeres off the northeast corner of the Yucatan peninsula Mexico and set up operations but it did not flourish like the others and his camp was nothing but a group of squalid huts. Later he became ill and moved onto a small village on the Mexican mainland and died a few days later died of a tropical fever. He was 47.

Much has been written about Jean Lafitte and his obvious gigantic collection of gold and treasure none of which has ever been found. Some believe it went down with his ship The Pride in the hurricane of 1826, some believe that he buried it in various locations around Barataria Bay with the prime location being a cotton/sugar plantation named The Destrehan Plantation. It is rumored that the ghost of Jean roams that plantation on nights with a full moon. Then again, others think he buried it in the shifting sands of Galveston Island. What we do know for sure is that he did not have any of it with him at Isla Mujeres and the location(s) of his treasure is a mystery to this date.



This date in history August 20



1794 Earlier at the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War, England ceded the so-called Northwest Territory which today is known as the Midwest to the United States. The problem was that some of the British soldiers did not abandon their forts and encouraged and supplied the Indians against the incoming American settlers. President George Washington got fed up and called in General Anthony “Mad Anthony” Wayne and tasked him with going in and taking care of that problem. General Wayne got the nickname “Mad Anthony” at his attack on the British encampment at Stony Point, New York. Wayne knew he would be outnumbered so he ordered the attack to begin at 1:30a and he also ordered his men to bayonet as many British/Loyalist soldiers in the throat as they could while they were asleep to keep them from crying out. His troops killed over 90 British/Loyalist troops which evened the odds and Wayne and his troops prevailed. Anyway on this assignment he had an army of 3,000 combat trained infantry which proved to be formidable. This was not the first time a United States military unit had been in that area trying to overcome these hostile Indians. Two years earlier United States General Arthur St. Clair had led a military force in that area and met up with an Indian chief named Blue Jacket and St. Clair received an ass-kicking to the tune of losing 630 men. On this date “Mad Anthony” Wayne and company met up with Blue Jacket and his army near present day Toledo, Ohio. A savage battle ensued in which Blue Jacket and his army was all but annihilated. The savagery of Wayne’s attack spread throughout the Indians in the area and the incoming settlers had little if any trouble with the Indians from this time on. This encounter went down in history as the Battle of Fallen Timbers.



1989 Incredible as it may seem, two brothers named Lyle, aged 22 and Erik, aged 18 decide to murder their mother and father. On this day the Menendez brothers opened fire with shotguns on their parents Jose and Kitty in their home in Beverly Hills and nearly cut them to pieces. They then go to a movie to have an alibi. After coming home from the movie, Eric called 911 and screamed “Someone has killed my parents!” At first the brothers were not suspects but Erik was overcome with guilt had to have psychiatric therapy. He confessed to his psychiatrist that he had done the deed. The psychiatrist had taped his sessions with Erik and in trying to impress his girlfriend, told her about what Erik had said. The girlfriend was not impressed and went to the cops and in March of 1990 Erik and Lyle were arrested. It took a three year battle through the courts before the California Supreme Court ruled that the psychiatrist’s taped confession could be played in court. Even after that the brothers testified that they had suffered sexual abuse from both their mother and father. It was an obvious lie but it was enough to cause a hung jury in the first trial. In the second trial the judge was more restrictive about the brother’s testimony that they killed their parents in self defense. They testified that they believed that their father would kill them rather than risk the exposure the he was a sexual deviant. That was a bald-faced lie and the jury did not buy it this time and the brothers were sentenced to life in prison. I forgot to mention that between the time they killed their parents and they were arrested, the Menendez brothers bought themselves a Porsche 911 each and had almost one continual party at their parent’s house. The bad part was that they were going to get their parent’s money anyway but they just could not wait. Now they will never see it.



1995 On this date in northern India one of the worst train disasters in history occurs. There was another train disaster a few years before in this area both of them involved a cow. Train travel in India is very popular primarily because it is pretty cheap. This means that nearly all of the passenger cars are very crowded. As most of us know the Hindu religion holds that their ancestors are reincarnated through animals, especially cows. Anyway, cows are allowed to run free across the countryside. On this particular occasion a cow wandered out on the railroad track and an express train from New Delhi hit the cow while running 75 MPH. As you might suspect the cow was killed instantly and the engineer of the train had a hell of a time getting the train stopped because the brakes were damaged in the collision. They finally got the train stopped but the signalman got so interested in the collision that he forgot about another express train that was 13 minutes behind and did not put out a signal to the following train. The following train was also traveling at 75 MPH and collided with the stopped train in a grinding crash. 376 people were killed almost instantly with hundreds were wounded. As soon as the crash came to a stop the forgetful signal man ran into the bush and was never seen or heard from again.



Born today:

1921 US writer Jacqueline Susann. She said of Phillip Roth the author of Portnoy’s Complaint. “He is a good writer but I would not want to shake hands with him.” She said that because in his book Roth described in detail a man masturbating.



Died today:



1912 The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth. He said “Prostitution is the only profession where the youngest apprentice starts at the highest pay.” I would have thought that a skill level would have been involved, but what do I know?



1940 Communist leader Leon Trotsky. He said “If would have had more time for meetings we surely would have made more mistakes.” Leon has his finger on how businesses operate.



2001 English astronomer Sir Fred Doyle. He said “There is a definite plan for the universe, but I don’t know what the plan is for.” Not to worry Fred, neither does anyone else.



Quotable quotes:



“There is no time like the present for putting off what you don’t want to do.” Arthur Bloch

Arthur and I speak the same language.



“A nymphomaniac is a woman with the same sex drive as the average man.” Phyllis Diller



Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow