National Park After Dark - Lafitte’s Lost Loot: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

The Birthplace of Jazz, NOLA, The Big Easy - no matter how you know it, New Orleans is world renowned. While we visit today to toss beads and eat beignets, these streets - and swamps - were once home to one of the most mysterious pirates in history, Jean Lafitte. His smuggling operations throughout the South earned him quite the reputation in life, but the legends of his buried treasure solidified his story for generations after his death.To support the community of New Orleans in the wake of the New Year’s Day Tragedy, please visit United for New Orleans Relief FundFor a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns.Ollie: Use NPAD to get 60% off your first box of meals when you subscribe today.Boll and Branch: Use our link to get 15% off, plus free shipping on your first set of sheetsLume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with@lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code NPAD at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. If I told you to take out a piece of paper and a pencil right now and instructed you to draw treasure,

what would that drawing depict? For the vast majority of you, I'm venturing to guess it would look a lot like a wooden chest, lit a jar to reveal heaps of glimmering gold coins and sparkling jewels. You can't help but think of that image. It's been drilled into our minds since childhood. And even now, into adulthood, the biggest treasures ever discovered are splattered across photos of people beaming, holding up diamonds, silver bars, gold coins, and jewels, brought up from the depths of the sea, unearthed from under feet of soil, or extracted from deep caverns.

But don't be fooled. Just as in beauty, treasure is in the eye of the beholder. And it can be just about anything that you find valuable. Finding a long-forgotten letter, which holds the missing puzzle piece to a centuries-old riddle, or discovering a piece of history overlooked for years, may not necessarily make you a millionaire, but rather your wealth would come from knowledge in finally understanding the answers to questions that have plagued the world for centuries. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hey everybody, we just wanted to make a quick note before the episode begins. We originally recorded this episode on New Year's Day in the morning, and it was just a couple hours before we heard of the

tragedy that occurred on New Year's day and early morning hours in New Orleans. And seeing as how this episode is heavily centered around New Orleans, we really wanted to make mention of the tragedy and just kind of highlight that our thoughts are with everybody right now as we're recording this. It's January 2nd. News is still unfolding of the extent of injuries and deaths. And it's just our hearts are breaking. And we're just really wanted to to make sure that we said something before the episode place. Yes. So keep that in mind.

This is a lighthearted episode that we didn't realize the heaviness that was happening in New Orleans at the time. So our heart goes out to everyone who's involved. And we're definitely paying close attention to what's happening. And I know, Danielle, you saw some resources that we can use to help people who are going through this right now. I was just looking up at some things that some resources. If you would like to help, if you're in the New Orleans area, I know this is going to be coming out kind of in the weeks after.

So I'm not sure if there's any blood donation drives that are going on, but I know that's always needed across the board. But specifically, the New Orleans Foundation has been asking for blood donation. So if you are able to do that, that's great. If you're not in New Orleans or unable to donate blood, the Greater New Orleans Foundation has joined the city of New Orleans and fellow community partners. to launch the New Orleans New Year's Day tragedy fund, which is a fund that's going to assist the victims and survivors of the 2025 New Year's Day mass casualty incident. And I will link that in the episode description. So if you would like to donate anything from $5 and up, anything is helpful. So we just wanted to highlight that and just say we're being mindful of what's unfolding,

even though during the actual episode recording, we were unaware. Yes. And with that, we'll get on with the episode. Hello, hello everybody. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. We're so happy to have you all here this week. We are and we are here with a treasure story. Oh, treasure. It's not like the typical Forrest Fenn type of treasure. But it is worthy of a story, I believe. And if anybody is wondering why Jean Lafitte sounds familiar in the description and in the title is because we've talked about the guy a little bit in Hugh Glass's episode in two, episode 2016, 2016, 2016. Okay.

Yeah. I remember you talking about this guy. Yeah. So it turns out he has a whole national park named after him. So he definitely has a worthy story. What a guy is right. And that actually leads me to my first little like sweeping, not a warning, just like kind of a heads up type of thing, that just as with Hugh Glass's story, this story is going to be kind of like, I understand there are probably 10 to 12 versions of the truth for different aspects of his life and events that we're going to talk about. If I was to go over every version, we would be here for a week. And I want to have dinner at some point today. So we're going to just go with one version. And I chose the version of his story that's kind of the most accepted among historians at this point in time.

So don't come at me if you heard another version. We're going to settle in. We're about to hear a story that may or may not be true. Right. But we're going to take it as truth. I believe you. I think you're right. I'm ready.

I want to hear a treasure story. I want to hear about Jean Lapit. I'm ready. for it. Well, we're on the same page. All right. So, do we have anything else to say? I don't know. No, I don't think so. All right. Well, we're here for a story and that's what you're going to get. In the swamps and bayous of southern Louisiana, the story of Jean Lafitte is legendary. Equal parts history and myth. Not much is known about Jean Lafitte, including if that was truly his birth name or an alias that he adopted later in life. because for the first 20 or so years of his life, we don't have a lot of record.

We have no accurate record of his birth and very little documentation of his early life. So it's thought that he was born in France or in present-day Haiti in the 1780s. He may or may not have gone on to military school in the West Indies and perhaps he even served under Napoleon. But what we do know is that he and his brother, Pierre, or maybe his business partner, we're not sure. We don't even know who his brother is? I wrote brother because that is what most of the sources I read said. Brother and business partner? Slash business partner?

Yeah. Let's go with that. Yeah. Well, we do know they're business partners. For sure. For sure. Already. I'm like three sentences in.

We're like, we're not sure. We're not sure. things up. Truly. Okay. So we do know that he and Pierre arrived in New Orleans in the early 1800s and set up shop. They chose the city with intention. Acquired by the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana purchase, New Orleans served as a gateway to the Caribbean trade and the brothers were in the trading business. They went to work almost immediately in shady dealings, brokering stolen and smuggled goods. But in 1807, with the advent of the embargo act, which restricted U.S.

exports, they really stepped up and into the smuggling life even further by becoming pirates themselves. So, pirate story. Yeah. This is definitely a pirate story. Well, so beforehand, just to set the scene a little bit in New Orleans, this point in time, there's a lot of, because of this act, the embargo act, they were struggling to get goods into the same. And so. They were struggling to get goods into the city. And so what Pierre and Jean Lafitte were doing was basically taking stolen goods and things like that that were coming in from different avenues, other pirates essentially, and selling them and brokering them. But now they're like, hey, why are we just not doing this piracy ourselves and just kind of cutting out extra people in the process?

Good business model. Yes, truly. The Embargo Act, which was enacted to punish other countries originally, primarily France and Great Britain, ultimately hurt the U.S. the most, and resulted in widespread smuggling operations, especially here in New Orleans. The economy was hurting. At the time of their operations, goods were scarce in the city, and residents were desperate for what the Lafitte's smuggled in. Jean Lafitte acquired some ships and began his own operation. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer,

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strategic spot. They picked this with, again, intention. There are a couple islands around this area, most specifically present-day Grand Terre Island, but then known as Barataria, just to keep things straight for everybody. And that's where Lafitte and his men kind of set up shop and headquarters. It sits just at the mouth of the bay and along a narrow pass that winds through a smattering of islands that ships were required to pass through. So they just kind of hunker down there so they could intercept ships and basically steal all of their things. They had a plan. By holding that, like a man with a plan. They do men with a plan. Yeah. We know how we ask. Have a good plan. Please. I'm begging you. Okay. By holding

that spot, Lafitte and his men were able to easily intercept and plunder vessels stealing all of their goods on board. Everything from silks, furniture, sugar, tobacco, alcohol, spices, etc. From there, the goods would be placed in warehouses until they could be transported and sold on the black market. And these black markets were essentially just a series of different secret locations throughout New Orleans, in the bayous, in the forested areas, just kind of under, cover and out of the eye of law enforcement. And one of these locations wasn't so tucked away at all, but it acted as a front. So Jean and Pierre had a blacksmith shop right on Bourbon Street, which, as you could guess, was essentially just, yeah, just like a front for their operations. It was not a blacksmith shop through and through. I don't know why this reminds me of it and

totally not related to this story, but there's this pizza shop near my dad's house. And it's been a running joke. I love this story. It's been a running joke forever that it is a front for something else because, I mean, I guess a pizza shop has been there before I existed. And my dad is always like, I've never seen a car at this piece shop in the entirety. And he grew up in this area, too. I won't like call out the pizza shop in case it's not a drug smuggling operation. But it's just been this running joke like how do they stay in business? How are they there when not a single person as ever in their parking lot? There's never someone inside. My dad ordered pizza there like once and he said it was there was no one there and the pizza wasn't very good. So it's like,

wait, I thought you were going somewhere else. Wasn't there a pizza shop that was selling Coke? Oh yeah, that was in college That one I can talk about Okay, different pizza shop Different pizza shop I guess it's a money laundering ring around pizza shops But yeah my

When I went to College we had this pizza hop It was called pizza hop It was called PHop And it was the famous Late Night Pizza Everyone after you'd been drinking all night Would show up

It was open until 3 a.m. Get a slice of pizza But I had a roommate that worked there for one night and one night only and she the owner was doing cocaine in the back and then it was just kind of a mess and then years later someone who I had been dating at the time told me um and he was a police officer told me that it got busted because they found out that she was smuggling cocaine in the flower sacks at this pizza shop and they were about to bust her and she just fled and I don't believe she was ever caught but she would have been arrested but

it is not a pizza shop anymore an NPAD fan so if so we know what you did right in a trail tales episode and we'll keep you anonymous yes um yeah that's why I thought you were going with that originally but I think there's always somebody like in most towns there's a there's some sort of business that is like how is this an operation yeah i've never seen movement here going on and yet it's like a community staple it's always there maybe it's yeah like a laundering money laundering scheme i'm just going to say i'm not a snitch so if you want to tell us about your money laundering schemes i won't tell anyone i want to know what you your business model is just say like you can write to us but just say not for the podcast, your eyes only.

Some people do that. People write in about things that they prefer not to be shared, and it's just for us. We don't share them. So it's a safe space is what we're trying to say. Yeah, we don't tell. Yeah. We're here for illegal activities.

Stitches get stitches. Okay. So, da-ta-da. Okay, so they're on Bourbon Street. We're aware it's likely a front. Some historians argue that his operation may be the first organized crime syndicate in U.S. history. At the peak of success here, he owned 100 ships and was in charge of over a thousand men,

including free men of color and runaway enslaved people. His warehouse in Barataria that held his stockpiles of amassed goods were worth millions of dollars in early 1800s currency. And at one point, he became one of the 10 most wealthy men in America. So he was doing the damn thing. Yeah, he was. is what I'm trying to say. He's a boss bang.

Yeah, truly. It's important here to point out a couple of things, and this is a little bit more serious. So Jean Lafitte is a bit of an enigma, and history tends to romanticize him quite a bit, especially in my research. I was like looking up or seeing all of these nicknames for him and just how he has come to be remembered. He's widely remembered as this gentleman pirate. or kind of like a Robin Hood type of figure. And there are many accounts of him and his men acting civilly when looting various ships,

treating the crew well and returning their vessels back to them after they had stolen everything and commandeered what they wanted. So it's like they're still stealing and they're still doing illegal activities, but they're not slaughtering people is essentially what I'm trying to say here. And going back to the Robin Hood feel parts to his story, stealing from the wealthy, giving to the needy of New Orleans was kind of where that came from. However, he wasn't just stealing goods because it's important to remember these ships weren't just transporting sugar and cotton.

They were also trafficking human beings. According to the Smithsonian magazine, the city of New Orleans was the largest slave market in the United States, ultimately serving as the site for the purchase and sale of more than 135,000 people. Wow. Technically, the importation of enslaved people was outlawed in the year 1808, but it did not end domestic slave trading, effectively creating a federally protected internal market for human beings.

And as with any law, loopholes were found and Lafitte utilized them. He and his men would transport the people that they captured and sold them in slave markets. So let's just bear that in mind. Not the boss babe that I talked about before. Right. I feel like I was just romanticizing him. I'm like, yeah, he's doing his own thing. And now he's not as cool now that he's trafficking human beings.

That's not cool. Right. And it's just, again, like with the whole mixed bag, like, as I said earlier, he employed, freed people of color. And, like, he had nothing against, he wasn't, I don't know. He just, he had, he was a businessman through and through. And at the time, enslaved people were unfortunately a commodity that were viewed as a commodity that he took advantage. I mean, he was stealing everything and anything that held value. And at the time, enslaved people held value.

He didn't have any regard towards people. So he had no regard. Yeah. Correct. I mean, he is a pirate. You can't say he's like this grand, wonderful person. He's a pirate. Right.

But when you look into his story, like sometimes depending on where you're reading and what you're reading, I don't want to say that that's left out entirely, but it's also not included in a lot either. Yeah, like he kind of feels like maybe he's getting, he's being thought of as like a vigilante, but he's actually not just doing all good. Right. Through the years, Lafitte's knowledge of the swamps aided him in quick getaways when the law came knocking. him and his men skillfully use the winding canals and marshy bayous of the swamps to sneakly transport their stolen goods into the city and to evade capture. Typically, aboard Peerogues, a type of small boat similar to a canoe but crafted specifically to navigate the marshes and swamps of the south. And I just have to note here, it's spelled really closely to the word parogi, which is like a dumpling. And I'm like, wait, am I reading this correctly?

And I hope I pronounce it correctly because I tried, I'm like, don't say it, don't say it. Don't say parochie. He'll never let it down. I never. They would often use paddles to navigate these boats. But what was most popular were push poles, which is a better way for shallow water navigation, usually choked with thick vegetation. On many occasions, he was able to make quick getaways and on several

occasions, the officials who were sent after him wound up captured, wounded, or killed by his own men. He didn't always successfully evade his pursuers, though, and he and his brother, slash business partner, Pierre, found themselves arrested and locked up on more than one occasion. However, they were always sneaky, sneaky, and were able to make bail and then skip out on bail or escape from jail entirely. Outlaws on the run. New Orleans governor, Clare Vermont was getting fed up with Lafitte's organization. It was a little murky there for a while. Government officials did reap the benefits of some of the items that Lafitte's men were smuggling in. Like we're talking alcohol and luxury items that maybe were scarce before his operation was in full swing.

So for a while, they kind of turned a blind eye to some of the operation and because they're like, hey, we get bourbon out of this. And not to mention like tobacco and cigars and things like that. things like that. They don't care. Right. But eventually, they couldn't ignore the far-reaching disregard for the law. It is said that the governor began posting wanted signs across all of New Orleans for Lafitte's capturing, offering a reward of $500. And then, in response, under the cover of night, Lafitte had his men go to those signs.

And instead of ripping them down, he put up his own signs offering a $1,500 reward for the capture of the governor. So that is hilarious. a little cat and mouse type of game. Tom and Jerry or whatever. That is funny. However, the businessman turned wanted pirate underwent another transformation in 1814 to that of an unlikely patriot. Tensions were running really high between America and Great Britain at the time, as the two nations were in the middle of the war of 1812. For the most part, up until then, the fighting for this war took place on the east coast of the United States.

But in 1814, the British sought the help of Lafitte in hopes of gaining access into the bay. And they wanted to stage attacks from the Gulf of Mexico to ultimately take the city of New Orleans. And remember, he has a strategic spot on the bay. He has intimate knowledge of this area where they could potentially get British forces up through the swamps into New Orleans and stage a surprise attack and take the city, which is a huge stronghold that they wanted control of. Seeing the value of his strategic position, the British offered him a deal. Thousands of dollars, a full pardon and British citizenship, if he and his men aided their efforts in gaining access to the Gulf, past the islands, and through the bayous, and into the city. Despite this tempting offer, Lafitte stalled for time.

He may have been a pirate, but his loyalty did reside with America. So he attempted to warn American authorities of this incoming attack. And not only did they not believe him, in fact, Andrew Jackson referred to him as a hellish banditti. They actually attacked him at his base in Barataria. Oh, man. He's like, I'm telling the truth. He's like, I'm just trying to. I'm just trying to help. You're about to get caught.

Okay? Like, just giving me a warning. Yeah, I'm just trying to give you a heads up here. But when the British pulled up and American forces were like, oh, okay, so this is actually real, Jackson changed his mind on Lafitte's offer. Legend has it that Jackson was quick to change his mind and met up with Lafitte in secret in a coffee shop within the city of New Orleans. In need of supplies, manpower, and equally important men with knowledge of the landscape to win this important battle, he turned towards the Baratarians, for all of the above. In exchange for their help in the battle,

Lafey and his men would receive a full pardon, which was great since they were very wanted men and had broken lots of laws. Sure, I'd love to be forgiven. Thank you. The deal was made, and the baritarians joined the 4,000 other men on the front lines just south of New Orleans. Within 30 minutes, the British were down about 2,000 men

to the Americans, about 20. men. The battle was won and Lafitte and his men were granted their pardons. But as the old saying goes, Pirates going pirate. And it didn't take long for Lafitte and his men. You've never heard it? No. That's weird. It didn't take long for Lafitte and his men to make their way back to the swamps and resume operations as usual. While his efforts and assistance undoubtedly changed the tide of the war in America's favor, he was not permitted to keep his operations going on Grand Terre Island. They're like, hey, we like you, and thanks for doing that. But you're still breaking the law, like a lot. Yeah, you're still being bad. So in 1817, he moved west to present day Galveston Island.

At the time, still flip-flopping between Spanish and Mexican rule. The 30-mile long, two-mile-wide island home to deer, ocean birds, and thick with prairie grass and marshes, was also a favorite hunting and camping ground of the Karanqua peoples. According to the East Texas Historical Association, Lafitte's presence on the island was met with some mixed emotions from the indigenous peoples. Lafitte's men traded with the Karanquas, and Lafitte was known to be welcoming of them, invited them into his home, and they aided each other in rebuilding damaged settlements after a particularly devastating hurricane that hit the area. and there was at least even two documented marriages between the two groups, which I thought was really interesting as well. But the amiable relations didn't last after Lafitte's men kidnapped several Caronqua women.

And a battle, a really large battle ensued, which resulted in death and injuries on both sides. And what resulted was a tainted relationship between the two groups. Their relationship just never recovered to what it was. when they first arrived. Yeah. The new pirate colony dubbed Campici was another huge success for Lafitte. They took over the entire island.

There was about 2,000 people who ended up living on it, and Lafitte himself built a grand, giant hotel home for himself. It was two stories high, was painted red, and was surrounded by a moat. And he named this Maison Rouge. I feel like all big, big up criminal. just want a moat. Like you look at Pablo Escobar, he had his moat with hippos in it. I thought you were going to say, I thought you were going to say every like grand house has a name.

Like it's dubbed something. No, I was focusing on the moat. But I do like a house with the name. Yeah, I do too. I don't know if I'll ever own a home that is deservative of a name, but yeah. Like, do you have a name for your house? No, I've never thought to name it. I have considered a though. Okay. You do have some outdoor ponds that you could just connect. We kind of almost have a, it's not really a moat, but between the road and my yard, there's this big, a rain drainage area and it's deep. It's like three feet deep and probably like five feet wide. So between my yard and the road, there is kind of a moat in the rainy season.

There's a huge moat when I was there and you trap me. It was a state of emergency. That is true. I've never seen anything like it. Yeah. You came up to visit me while we had the historic flooding and my entire road washed out and we actually couldn't leave. Yeah. Trapped.

Trapped. But there's something to say about a moat. You'll never forget my house. That's true. So back to this colony, Campici. At its height, it was pulling in about $2 million annually, which today would be roughly $40 million. dollars. He got into hot water though after launching an attack on an American ship. So they're not on the American side anymore. Yeah, they're like, oops, kind of messed up on that one.

And after he did that, him and his men did that, the U.S. Navy got involved and drove him away from the island. Campici was burnt to the ground and Lafitte sailed away once again to Central America. For a very long time, this is kind of where our knowledge of Lafitte ended. Following him boarding the ship, or his ship, I should say, called the Pride, and sailing away from a smoldering Campeche in 1820, rumors about what his next move was, was, were all over the place. But at the time, it was largely accepted that he worked as a privateer along the Mexican coast and down into Central America for a handful of years. And just a little bit of a side note, do you know the difference between a pirate and a privateer? I do not. Okay. So I just wanted to point out. Okay. So pirates steal and plunder any vessels, steal the cargo, and sell the goods elsewhere illegally. Prieteers were hired by different governments to basically do the same thing for enemy vessels.

So whether they're military vessels or not. Right. Piracy on paper with like a permission slip essentially. to do that. They do. And as a hired privateer, a person would receive a letter called a letter of Mark, which essentially made their piracy legal. So they could just show their letter to somebody. Hi, we're legally allowed to rob you. So. So anyway, he may or may not have been working as a privateer in Central America when suddenly more rumors started cropping up about him, but this time about his death. Stories that he was mortally wounded in battle and was buried at sea. died of a fever and was buried in an unmarked grave in the Yucatan, and more popped up in newspaper accounts from Haiti to Cuba and beyond. There are even various locations that claim to have his final resting place and that he was interred sometime in the early 1820s. And by and large, most people accepted that Lefie likely died around this time. And that was kind of just the end of his story. It just fizzled out. And for the, for most people, they just kind of accepted that. And that is,

all the way until the 2010s. So going from 1820 to 2010, he's alive, when two women from North Carolina discovered something extraordinary in the footnote of a book. Retired English professor, Dr. Ashley Oliphant, had been interested in pirates since she was a child, finding particular fascination with Lafitte

and his operations during the last hurrah of piracy, which had seen their golden years come and go prior to his time. So for another thing that Lafitte is remembered, for is kind of like the last great pirate because he was in operations towards the end of when piracy was really in full swing. Okay. So she was in the early stages of collecting research for writing a biography on Lafitte when she decided to look into one of North Carolina's local legends that may have had a possible

connection to him. So she was just kind of sniffing out every lead, making sure she was thorough for her biography. And what she thought initially would just be a side note or a footnote and a note. her own book, merely a passing mention but one to be covered just for the sake of being thorough, quickly took a turn. What started as a planned footnote in her book became the entire book, and what they have discovered may change much of what we believed to have happened to Lafitte after all. Enlisting the help of her mother, Beth Yarbrough, the pair embarked on a long journey to dusty basement archives, historic societies, and prestigious research libraries across the country

in search of documents, letters, newspapers, pretty much anything and everything that could provide a paper trail for their theory that Lafitte faked his own death. I mean, it makes sense already. Just he's wanted. He's on the run. He's a little sneaky snake. And he's intelligent. Yeah, he is intelligent.

He knows what he's doing. And there is a lot of supporting evidence for this theory so much so. You know, they wrote a whole book about it. So I'm not going to go into extreme detail. but I did want to highlight a couple of the key points here and some of the supporting evidence just to bring some context to this theory and why they believe it to be true. In short, the mother-daughter duo believes that Lafitte went into hiding for several years in Cuba before taking on the alias of Lorenzo Ferrer, making his way to Mississippi and finally to North Carolina where he died in 1875, which would have made him elderly well into his 90s, not dying in 1820. Or the 1820s, I should say. In their research, they came across a series of letters dated in 1829, years after the rumor of his death have already kind of come and gone.

And the letters were between two men. The first was Lafitte's lawyer and the other was an old friend of Lafitte's. Okay. One was based in Cuba and the other was based in Washington, D.C. And in these letter exchanges, they speak of a man that was currently being harbored in Cuba who needed assistance getting back into the United States. States, a man that they never referred to by name, but in code as Maison Rouge. Do you remember what Maison Rouge was? Remind me. The name of his home in Camp Peachy. Oh, right. I was so focused on the moat. I forgot. Right. Yeah. The moat was distracting. The moat was so distracting.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh. So the lawyer knows he's alive, but. It's like a lawyer and an old friend. And they're talking about somebody who's in Cuba. He had connections to Cuba beforehand, wanted to get back to the States. So anyway, so for brevity's sake, I'm skipping around a bit. So I'm sorry for the whiplash here. But we're going to fast forward to 1830. And Lorenzo Ferrer pops up on the Mississippi census one day as a middle-aged man with no record of that name in any documentation anywhere in the United States prior. So this is what they think his alias is. And now all of a sudden, He exists. He exists and he's on the census and he's like in his 40s or 50s. And who are you, sir?

Yeah, what is going on here? Assuming that this was Lafitte, he lived under the radar for years. At this point in time, he didn't join any churches or social circles and generally just laid low. He worked by all accounts following the letter of the law and at the time purchasing and selling both land and enslaved people. From there, he made some very influential friends and moved non-examined. north to North Carolina and settled there for the rest of his life where he behaved a little bit differently. He was very visible in the public eye, likely feeling comfortable in his powerful circle of friends and being away from where many different people may potentially recognize him.

Because where he was in Mississippi was still in the South. And he operated all throughout the South during his piracy or time of piracy. So he maybe was feeling emboldened by being somewhere completely new. Yeah. And surrounded by powerful people. And there's no photos of him at this time? No. Okay. No. He, and I keep saying he, but we're now assuming that Lorenzo Ferrer and Jean Lafitte are this one and the same. Okay. So he was a founding member of a local Masonic lodge, purchased property, became politically active, he married, took mistresses, may or may not have had children and interestingly arrived with money but never worked a day for the three decades that he lived there. And he died a very, very wealthy man. Ferrer left a very detailed will

leaving lots of money to various people and is currently buried under a marker that he designed himself directly next to a woman named Louisa in Lincolnton, North Carolina. And Louisa spent part of her life enslaved under Lorenzo Ferrer's ownership. and was also his mistress. So that's why they're buried side by side. Dr. Oliphant and Ms. Yarbrough actually dedicate their entire book, which they titled, Jean Lafitte revealed,

unraveling one of America's longest running mysteries to Louisa, as they felt, quote, she had no voice during her lifetime, but across 200 years and from her grave, she was able to lift a beautiful hand and point out the link between Lorenzo Farere and Jean Lafitte, end quote. And for clarity, she inadvertently did that, by being present in various documents that connected the alias Lorenzo Ferrer and Jean Lafitte.

So she was kind of like this link that really pulled the thread between the two of them and... Yes, the connection. Yep. They were also shown during their research, a sword that was forged in the 1810s at the Masonic Lodge that Ferrer helped found by some of the current members. And they said, hey, you want to check out? because they went to this lodge and knowing that Ferrer was one of its founding members and just wanted to look at any of their records or archives to see if they could find anything of note. And while they were there, some of the members were like, hey, we have this really cool relic, essentially. And it was this big sword and it was hanging above one of the fireplaces in the main building. They're like, just thought you would think it's cool.

And it's from the period of time you're researching. So, you know, so they're looking at it. And upon closer inspection, the ladies discovered something absolutely remarkable. The letters J.N. Lafitte were found etched into the sword scabbard. And it was so faint that no one had noticed. Like, they're really looking at it. And to the members there, they're like, this has literally been here for hundreds of years. We never have thought to look at it that hard.

To examine it. Yeah. Yeah. The sword was sent off for expert analysis by Colonial Williams. the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and numerous museums throughout the state of North Carolina, which culminated in the result that the inscription was as old as the sword, meaning someone didn't write it in, I don't know, as like a prank or later on. It was graffiti like a hundred years later.

It was etched by hand and dates back to the early 1800s. The other interesting piece, through their years of research, the women knew that Jean Lafitte, a meticulous record keeper, So they have seen numerous documents that he has signed and dated and Ben had a hand in. He never wrote his name completely. It was always written J.N. Lafitte. So that's really cool. There it is. It's his sword.

And it's like, okay, so this is a lodge that allegedly Ferrer founded. Jean Lafitte was supposed to be dead. Right. And now John Lafitte's sword is in his lodge. Yes. Coincidence? I think not. Then in 1865, as the Union Army was getting ready to pass through the area, Ferrer requested a friend assist him in bringing some of his valuable items to the courthouse basement for some safekeeping. According to this friend, he helped Ferrer move three heavy trunks of valuables to a vault in the courthouse basement.

As they were turning to leave, this friend caught sight of Ferrer opening one of the lids of the trunk, which was filled to the brim with gold. coins. Ferrer requested his friend take a scoop of the coins as payment and thanks for his help. So yeah, take a handful. Take a handful. It's like, sir, why do you have three chests of gold coins? Why do you have a treasure chest like a pirate? Are you a pirate? It's like, no. Why would you blink twice? Not only did Ferrer and Lafitte's physical resemblance bear striking similarities, there is a ton of supportive information from physical objects, written accounts, personal letters, etc., that reinforce that Lorenzo Ferrer is Jean Lafitte, and Jean Lafitte is Lorenzo Ferre. And like I said, Dr. Oliphant and Beth Yarbrough present and discuss this at length in their book. So if you would like to know more about this connection and this mystery, it's less about Jean Lafitte's earlier life and more about this mystery of if he did truly live.

beyond his death rumors. And again, I didn't read it in full, but I did listen to several lengthy presentations that the two had given about their book. They went on a press tour and it was during COVID. So thankfully, a lot of them are recorded and on YouTube. So there's like lots of lectures out there online that they give about their book. And it's all very in the process that they went through researching it. And it just gave me national treasure vibes. Okay. Like the movie. I like that. So if you. Real life. like that. Yeah, it might be up your alley. And I'll link some of the more interesting talks in the episode description for you guys. But it did remind me I made a note in my notes here to say this because while it's kind of off subject but kind of not. And while I was in the process of this research and taking Instagram breaks as one does, I came across this page. And it is so cool. And I just wanted to mention it during this episode specifically because it's a history. episode and this is a very like geeky thing to like. But there is this page called Lectures on Tap

and I am absolutely obsessed with this page. So basically, unfortunately, it only is in operation right now in New York City, but they're looking to expand so there's hope for us. But basically what they are is there these pop-up events, like ticketed pop-up events where professors and experts of all different kinds go to different bars and they give you a 45 minute lecture on different things like their area of expertise. So you can go out to a bar and have a drink. And meanwhile, listen to this presentation given by this expert on they have, it's not just history. I actually went on their website and I wrote down some of the lectures that they've done because they're really cool. So some of the subjects include the history of cannabis, the lost subways

of North America, modern Christmas, evolutionary psychology, spiritualism and the illustrious Fox sisters, wine and cinema, the science of happiness, tales from the Milky Way. Like, you get it. Cool. There's just a lot of a variety of topics. Right. And it's like you just want to go out and have a drink and also learn something new. It's just so fun. What a sophisticated way to go to the bar. Right. It makes me feel like it gives vibes of, I'm going to go to the bar alone and have a glass of wine. and bring a book. Bring a book and read a lecture. Read a lecture.

Listen to a lecture. Listen to a lecture. But anyway, so I thought it was a really amazing idea. And I really hope that they expand and maybe like come into Boston because I would totally go to one and I don't know. Lectures on tap. People, if you are listening, please reach out to me. I love you.

And to wrap up, you know, what's a pirate story without treasure? Yes. You know, like we talked about gold coins like once, which is not enough. Show me the treasure. So what about it? You know, where is this long lost treasure that everyone talks about when you're talking about Jean Lafitte? So if John Lafitte really did indeed live until his 90s, rumors of his stash treasure were already running rampant when he was still very alive and well, which I think is so funny. Right?

It's like if he did have some, they're like he could kind of keep tabs on what's going on. Like if somebody was getting close, he could have moved in. He's out of bar and someone's telling him about this legend. of a treasure and they're like bringing up all these ideas and he's just like, oh yeah, that sounds wild. Like, I don't know. Where could it be? Sounds like quite the guy. Yeah, sounds like a tell me more about how much you love him. Almost immediately following Lafitte's quote unquote death, tales of secret locations where he stashed caches of treasure, gold coins, expensive goods, etc. For safekeeping, popped up all along the coast of Texas and up into the swamps and marshes of

Louisiana. Lafitte had warehouses for storage, of course, which, as we discussed earlier, held millions of dollars worth of goods. But as any good pirate knows, you never keep all your eggs in one basket. And there are accounts, mainly by word of mouth, of various places that he himself or his men that he had hired, buried hordes of his wealth along the smuggling routes that they used to use as transportation through the bayous and throughout the swamps of Louisiana. And for as many years, these whispers have persisted in potential locations, these reported stockpile treasures may lay buried. There are just as many treasure seekers dedicating their lives to finding them. One of the first documented accounts that pops up is from a book published in 1930 called Coronado's Children, Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasure of the South West.

In this book, a New Orleans printer referred to as Newell spent years searching for this treasure and ultimately died doing so. The story goes that Newell's father had befriended an old sailor who upon his impending death gave him an old map that supposedly was originally drawn by Lafitte's men who were enlisted to bury the treasure. So this is like a firsthand map allegedly. Wow, that's cool. And it points out to an area. known as Lake Bourne, which is a lagoon in southeastern Louisiana where apparently some of this treasure can be found. So Newell was gifted this map by his father because the sailor gave it to the father, the father gave it to Newell, and he became absolutely obsessed with trying to find this treasure.

He bought a small fishing boat and camping gear and set off for this lagoon. He spent nearly 20 years shoveling sand, all in hopes that the next swing of his shovel would thump into a wooden chest. In the summer of 1871, despite an impending hurricane, Newell was witnessed aboard his ship heading out in search of this treasure. The next day, his boat was found bobbing empty on the waves and his lifeless body was discovered shortly after. So he died looking for the treasure. And I just want to note, I did say 1930, and it might be confusing, but that's when the book was published with this story. So he, this story was actually happening, yeah, in the 1850. which again if Lafee is alive like that he knows all this is trippy he might know of all

happening yeah or maybe he just moved on and didn't care because he knew where his treasure was and it didn't matter you know one would find it yeah you can look over there yeah have fun for 20 years another account brings us to Padre Island west of Corpus Christi Texas which surprise has a national seashore on it because the national park service is everywhere in this story a group of young men teamed up with a local surveyor who apparently had a tip on where some of Lafitte's treasure was stashed. As the men were told, about a hundred years earlier, one of Lafitte's ships got cornered by an enemy ship among the treacherous sandbars in a narrow, twisty channel that they were using as a hideout. While trying to evade this enemy vessel, the ship got stuck in the sand and was unable to outrun her

pursuers. So in response, Lafitte ordered all the men to flee the ship, keeping back two of his most trusted men to help carry off a chest, reportedly full of a million dollars worth of gold and jewels. Due to its weight, the men were not able to carry it very far and made it less than a half a mile east of the Lavaca River and into a salt grass flat, where they buried it. And as any good pirate would do, with a treasure, you mark the spot. Which Lafitte did with not an ex this time, but a long brass staff. So he pounded it deep into the ground until only about a foot of it was sticking out out of the ground. And he took note of the surrounding landmarks before he and the two men fleed the scene. After days of traveling, he decided to part ways with them. He was like,

I'm going to go north and you guys should go back to New Orleans. Take this opportunity to begin a new life with a clean slate. And they did so. They took the opportunity and ran with it. He also, before he departed, he was like, hey, so after three years, if you can remember where we just put that treasure, you can come back and take whatever you want from it. Oh, okay. So, like, all right, sounds like a good deal. So fast forward, and the men do go back to life in New Orleans. One of those two men had a bit of a deathbed confession to a local bartender about the whole treasure situation. And the other man had gone on to marry and have two sons, who were in turn told by their father about the treasure, kind of just like a story passed down from fathers to sons. And somehow,

some way those two sons and that bartender that was told the story from the other man met up and were pleasantly surprised to discover that they were both told the exact same story. Wow. So it seems like there's some legitimacy and truth to this story. So they're very excited about it now because it's a good treasure story and it's fun to hear. But until it's corroborated, you're kind of like, can I really take this? Yeah. Yeah. Of course, they're all hightail it out of there and they're like let's go and try and find it. It's truly out there. But they never, they never did find anything and nothing ever came of that. However, fast forward some years and a rancher acquires the land that the treasure was supposedly buried on. His ranch hand

was out walking the range when his shin slammed into something hard sticking out of the ground. It was a brass rod sticking out about a foot from the soil, not recognizing it or knowing its potential significance, he pulled it out of the ground and took it back to his boss at the end of the day. No. No. Why? His boss, who was very familiar with the local legend and knew that his land potentially was the spot of this treasure. He's like, take me back. He's like, what do you mean? Take me back immediately. Yeah. And the guy could never find the exact spot. And, That was the end of that. No, really.

Yeah, truly. Yeah, that was it. Amateur and professional treasure hunters have taken to the shores and swamps of South Louisiana and Texas for generations, eager to uncover what Lafitte had supposedly stashed. In a 2018 episode of Expedition Unknown, host Josh Gates follows the path of various treasure hunters, looking for this treasure. He visits Fleming Plantation, today an abandoned dilapidated shadow of the grand estate at once once. was in its heyday, tucked in the bayous along one of Lafitte's smuggling routes. Legend has it that he buried some of his treasure there, which was a location used as a way station along the smuggling route for one thing.

But it's also rumored to be a rendezvous spot where he was allegedly meeting up with the governor's wife in secret. Scandalous. Scandal. So that it makes like the sign thing even more funny. Like, you know, because they're posting signs, like wanted signs for. each other all over New Orleans. He's like, yeah. He's like, I'm actually also sleeping with your wife. Right. Yeah. But there's not much weight to that. I just had to include it because I thought it was kind of

kind of funny. But it wasn't just gold coins and silver bars that people are after. In the same episode, he meets up with the Hicks brothers, a trio who believe they are distant really related to Lafitte and who are in search of his long lost ship, the pride, which they believe he intentionally scuttled outside of Galveston. Then there are professional explorers such as Christian Roper. Founder of the Subsea Society, a Texas-based research organization dedicated to the study of Caribbean piracy and aquatic folklore, Christian has been enamored with Lafitte's story since he was a kid. He appeared on History Channel series Beyond Oak Island and led an expedition into the swamps with his team of divers to search for the lost loot. Over the years, dozens have stepped forward claiming to know the

location of the swamp, the cave, the sandbar, the grove of trees, wherever this treasure is supposedly buried and just waiting to be found. Some have lost their lives. Others have swindled money from gullible investors and wound up in prison. Others spent decades of their lives committed to the hunt and without a doubt, hundreds more have kept their searches quiet, scanning the swamps without drawing attention to whatever knowledge they have or think they have about the alleged locations. But it isn't all about tangible treasure. Gold, silver, jewels, and long-lost ships are nice, but for some people enamored with Lafitte's story, uncovering truth to the dozens of question marks that surround his life and death is the real treasure. There is still so much to discover about

Lafitte, but whether or not we ever do will remain a mystery. By all accounts, it appears that he intentionally muddled the waters, leaving a lot of confusing information, myths, and legends about his own life to throw people off of his trail, going to great lengths to leave little trace of his true life. He did a hell of a job, but as Dr. Oliphant says, quote, even when it comes to very old historical figures, there are new things to be said about them. And truly, truly, to wrap it up, I had to, you're like, okay, this is National Park After Dark, where's the National Park? Yes, tell me, I've been waiting one whole hour. Sorry to bury the lead.

But Jean Lafitte has a very real national park connection. In fact, there's an entire National Historical Park named after him. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park in Preserve is located in Louisiana and is divided into six separate units that are scattered across the southern half of the state. Established in 1978 after the merge of an existing National Historic Park and a state park, there are three units that I just really want to. to highlight. First, the Shalamette Battlefield and Cemetery, located about 20 miles south of New Orleans, is the site of the Battle of New Orleans in which Lafitte was recruited for during the War of 1812. So that's why that's included. Today, as with many historic battlefields, the unit hosts historic reenactments, complete with period accurate weapons and uniforms. Then there's the Barataria Preserve

unit, which protects over 26,000 acres of wild wetlands that include swamps, marshes, hardwood forests, and bayous, much of which Lafitte and his organization utilized in the 1800s as smuggling roots. Then there is the French Quarter Unit, the location of the Parks Visitor Center, and it's located smacktab in the heart of the city's oldest neighborhood and the old stomping grounds of Mr. Lafitte. They say there is no place like New Orleans, and with so many hundreds of years of layered history and so many cultures and stories mixed into one big pot, if you were to visit New Orleans, you may get caught up in all there is to see and do. Between tossing or receiving Mardi Gras or eating bignets or getting swept up in the jazz, amazing art scene, elegant architecture,

and above ground cemeteries, keeping your eye out for remnants of a long dead pirate may just not be a priority. But you don't have to look hard because he is everywhere. John and Pierre's house, on the edge of the French quarter is now a hotel. Their blacksmith shop is now a famous bar. The jail that once housed Lafitte, Pierre, and many of their men is now a museum. And the coffee shop that Lafitte and General Jackson supposedly met up in to strike up a deal is now Pierre Mespiro's, one of the oldest restaurants in the city. There is a portion of the city, nicknamed Pirate Alley, located between the museum and the St. Louis Cathedral, which today is listed on many of the must-see lists of New Orleans, if you're to look it up today. Once again, it's up for debate whether or not this

section of the city was truly a pirate's den of debauchery and illegal activity, as it is remembered today. But regardless, its lampposts, bookstores, beautiful architecture, and pirate-themed bars draw thousands of people every year to go visit. The other units of this national park, I should mention are equally as important and interesting, and they serve to interpret the Acadian and Cajun cultures of Southern Louisiana. And lastly, which I know I don't have to say out loud, but supposedly every location that I've discussed today is haunted. I knew it. It felt haunted that whole time. It's like, come on. It has to be. Right? It did have a haunted feel. It did. For sure. And New Orleans is very haunted in general. Yeah. Yeah. You can take boat rides through the

Park's protected swamp lands on Jean Lafitte tours, which seasonally take on a little bit of a haunted twist, depending on, like, if you go during the fall, you can get some ghost stories thrown in there. There is various haunted pub crawls through the city conducted almost every single night that stop at their old blacksmiths shop and their old house that is now a hotel, the Jean Lafitte Hotel, and obviously goes into depth about their stories and the paranormal happenings that are said to happen there. Amateur and renowned ghost hunting groups from around the world visit here due to its infamous reputation for being so haunted and so paranormal, so active paranormal wise. There are disembodied voices, ghostly women dressed in white and moving objects, and that's all kind of the norm everywhere. And of course, the swamp has its own creepy air to it as well, depending on as they do.

Not only is his name scattered around New Orleans, an actual town in the state. of Louisiana was named after him as well. It's clear that he left his mark between the enduring mysteries, suspected treasure, haunted buildings, and spooky swamps, all of southern Louisiana knows about Jean Lafitte, and now you do too. And that's the end. Well, thank you for telling that story. That was so interesting. I had, like, we had mentioned him before, but I didn't know in depth, and I also just think it's so interesting that all this stuff happened and he may have been alive, while everyone was debating his life and what happened to him and coming up with all these theories of how he died or when he died or whatever. And then turns out he's just hanging out in North Carolina.

Yeah. I think that's kind of the one of the coolest aspect of this story. I mean, what a life that this person led. And clearly he did some not so great things. Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't describe him as a good guy by any account. But an interesting guy for sure. Yeah, and I just think that it's just so funny because when I first dove into the story, I'm like, okay, well, everything that I'm kind of clicking on and getting into at surface level is all about this lost treasure. So I was thinking it was going to be like this grand, like we all know that it's out there. It's just kind of a matter of where. And the more I researched it, the more I was like, we're not even sure if a treasure exists. Yeah, there are different things that could be deemed as treasure.

stumbled upon the pole. I know. But that's lost. I mean, imagine being the boss. You're like, oh, my God. You just lost me millions. Millions. Like, you blew it.

You blew it. Yeah. But anyway. So, yeah, that's John Lafitte's story. And I just really wanted to kind of circle back on it because I said I would. And now felt like a good time. Well, I'm glad you did. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Yeah. And now I want to, um, I know, I know I've have said this before at some point, but I do have a little pirate's treasure of my own. What do you mean? Like actually. I have a coin from the atocha, which was a ship that wrecked in the 1600s off the coast of Key West. And when I was in Key West, I went to one of the museums there and I didn't buy it. My stepdad bought it for me. I certainly had no money. But it's, It's a silver coin, and you could see the stamp, and it's kind of all messed up.

But it's on a necklace now, a gold necklace. That's really cool. Yeah. And it's kind of like, I don't want to just like wear that to safe way, but at the same time, or like, shaws, but it's like, I don't know where to wear it. You have some pirate treasure, just hanging around your neck. It's like, you don't know this, but this is real. It's from the Atocha. And if you, if I talk to anybody, I would tell you, but I don't.

But I'm silent in public, so. True. Yeah. Okay, great. Well, thanks everyone for tuning in. And we will see you next week. In the meantime, please enjoy the view. But watch you're back.

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