FORMER EXECUTIONS FOR PIRACY.; CONFESSIONS OF THE PIRATE GIBBS. THE STORY OF A DUTCH GIRL. BURIED TREASURE. THE LAST SCENE.
Twenty-nine years ago, the pirates GIBBS (white) and WAMSLEY (colored) were hung at Ellis' Island for crimes similar to that for which HICKS suffered. The next execution in New-York for piracy was that of CORNELIUS WILHELMS, which took place at Ellis' Island on the 21st of June, 1839. The case of GIBBS was remarkable in many respects. He led a life of crime, and showed compunction for but one of the many murders he committed.
By the courtesy of a son of Mr. THOMAS MORRIS, late United States Marshal for this District, we are permitted the use of memoranda of the confessions of GIBBS, made to Mr. MORRIS during the period which elapsed from his conviction to the execution of his sentence. Taken in connection with the story of the malefactor who died yesterday, this narrative has a melancholy interest.
During the imprisonment of GIBBS, after his conviction for piracy, he made full and free confessions of his crimes. His confidant was THOMAS MORRIS, then United States Marshal for this District. The memoranda of these confessions, made at the time by Mr. MORRIS, are still in existence, and from them we derive the particulars which follow. The paper on which they are written is yellow with age, and the ink brown and faded. GIBBS seems to have made conflicting statements, for the broken parts of his narrative, scattered over a dozen pages of manuscript, do not fit together, and in some instances there is a flat contradiction of one portfon with another. With some pains, we gather the story of the pirate's life, as told by himself, free from the discrepancies into which he appears to have fallen with the utmost deliberation. Omitting those passages which he afterwards declared to have been purposely falsified, we reduce the confessions to the order which follows. It will be observed that, like HICKS, GIBBS boasted of the commission of one hundred murders, and also gives the particulars of some of the more henious of his crimes.
In the course of his conversations with Marshal MORRIS, GIBBS stated that he entered the United States Navy at the age of 15, as midshipman. His father was a sailing-master in the Navy, and held the command of a gun-boat attached to the flotilla of Com. CREIGHTON in the time of the War of 1812 Young GIBBS served on board his father's boat from 1813 to 1815, but finally relinquished his place, from disgust with the severity of naval discipline. The wishes of his father weighed very little in the unsettled mind of the son, and he went his ways to find a living elsewhere. GIBBS went to Boston, and tried the experiment of store-keeping in a small way, but soon tired of a life which offered no excitement, and again determined to go to sea. He shipped before the mast on board the brig Harriet, for a West Indian voyage, and performed his contract to the letter, making the round voyage, and subsequently returned to Havana. That was the end of his honest career. From the period of his return to Havana, he entered upon a life of crime, and went from bad to worse, until he expiated his offences by the forfeit of his life at Ellis' Island in the Summer of 1830, in company with his confederate WAMSLEY, a negro.
As nearly as can be gathered from GIBBS' statements, his piratical career began in the latter part of the year 1818, or the early months of 1819. The pirates who then infested the Spanish Main had their head-quarters in Havana, where they received the encouragement of the merchants by whom their illegal cargoes were usually purchased at one-half their actual value; nor did the Government exercise any vigilance in the suppression of this contraband [
]amc. GIBBS, whose proclivity to evil was irremediable, found means to place himself in communication with the pirates soon after his arrival at Havana, and presently became a leading spirit in all the cruel and bloody enterprises of the freebooters. Three or four years were passed in this way before GIBBS set up business on his own account. During the whole period of his connection with the gang, as it appears from his confessions, he made common cause with the pirates, helped them in their diabolical work, and received his share of the net proceeds of their captures. His first field of operations was in and about Cape Antonio, the Bahamas, Stirrup Key and the Double-headed Shot-Keys. His confession to Marshal MORRIS, given in his own words, sums up the result of this first cruise of four years, as follows:
Also see Pages 2 & 3
http://www.nytimes.com/1860/07/14/n...ons-pirate-gibbs-story-dutch-girl-buried.html
Twenty-nine years ago, the pirates GIBBS (white) and WAMSLEY (colored) were hung at Ellis' Island for crimes similar to that for which HICKS suffered. The next execution in New-York for piracy was that of CORNELIUS WILHELMS, which took place at Ellis' Island on the 21st of June, 1839. The case of GIBBS was remarkable in many respects. He led a life of crime, and showed compunction for but one of the many murders he committed.
By the courtesy of a son of Mr. THOMAS MORRIS, late United States Marshal for this District, we are permitted the use of memoranda of the confessions of GIBBS, made to Mr. MORRIS during the period which elapsed from his conviction to the execution of his sentence. Taken in connection with the story of the malefactor who died yesterday, this narrative has a melancholy interest.
During the imprisonment of GIBBS, after his conviction for piracy, he made full and free confessions of his crimes. His confidant was THOMAS MORRIS, then United States Marshal for this District. The memoranda of these confessions, made at the time by Mr. MORRIS, are still in existence, and from them we derive the particulars which follow. The paper on which they are written is yellow with age, and the ink brown and faded. GIBBS seems to have made conflicting statements, for the broken parts of his narrative, scattered over a dozen pages of manuscript, do not fit together, and in some instances there is a flat contradiction of one portfon with another. With some pains, we gather the story of the pirate's life, as told by himself, free from the discrepancies into which he appears to have fallen with the utmost deliberation. Omitting those passages which he afterwards declared to have been purposely falsified, we reduce the confessions to the order which follows. It will be observed that, like HICKS, GIBBS boasted of the commission of one hundred murders, and also gives the particulars of some of the more henious of his crimes.
In the course of his conversations with Marshal MORRIS, GIBBS stated that he entered the United States Navy at the age of 15, as midshipman. His father was a sailing-master in the Navy, and held the command of a gun-boat attached to the flotilla of Com. CREIGHTON in the time of the War of 1812 Young GIBBS served on board his father's boat from 1813 to 1815, but finally relinquished his place, from disgust with the severity of naval discipline. The wishes of his father weighed very little in the unsettled mind of the son, and he went his ways to find a living elsewhere. GIBBS went to Boston, and tried the experiment of store-keeping in a small way, but soon tired of a life which offered no excitement, and again determined to go to sea. He shipped before the mast on board the brig Harriet, for a West Indian voyage, and performed his contract to the letter, making the round voyage, and subsequently returned to Havana. That was the end of his honest career. From the period of his return to Havana, he entered upon a life of crime, and went from bad to worse, until he expiated his offences by the forfeit of his life at Ellis' Island in the Summer of 1830, in company with his confederate WAMSLEY, a negro.
As nearly as can be gathered from GIBBS' statements, his piratical career began in the latter part of the year 1818, or the early months of 1819. The pirates who then infested the Spanish Main had their head-quarters in Havana, where they received the encouragement of the merchants by whom their illegal cargoes were usually purchased at one-half their actual value; nor did the Government exercise any vigilance in the suppression of this contraband [
]amc. GIBBS, whose proclivity to evil was irremediable, found means to place himself in communication with the pirates soon after his arrival at Havana, and presently became a leading spirit in all the cruel and bloody enterprises of the freebooters. Three or four years were passed in this way before GIBBS set up business on his own account. During the whole period of his connection with the gang, as it appears from his confessions, he made common cause with the pirates, helped them in their diabolical work, and received his share of the net proceeds of their captures. His first field of operations was in and about Cape Antonio, the Bahamas, Stirrup Key and the Double-headed Shot-Keys. His confession to Marshal MORRIS, given in his own words, sums up the result of this first cruise of four years, as follows:Also see Pages 2 & 3
http://www.nytimes.com/1860/07/14/n...ons-pirate-gibbs-story-dutch-girl-buried.html
