Folklore

Famous Ghosts

Captain Kidd purportedly haunts the King’s Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts and the ‘the pond’ on Gardiner Island near New York.

William “Captain” Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701)[has good reason to do some serious haunting, since he was unjustly hanged on 23 May 1701 at Execution Dock. On the  first attempt, his rope broke and he fell into the mud of the River Thames. The executioners proceeded to drag him out of the muddy mess and secure a new noose around his neck. They suceeded on the second try and left him to hang, along side the other doomed pirates, for the length of three tides to wave over their dead bodies.

The Captain’s reputaion as a cutthroat pirate has been refuted by the American author Richard Zacks. He wrote a book entitled The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd, where it is revealed that instead of being a rumored, ruthless criminal,  he was instead a tough New York seaman hired to track down pirates.

William_Kidd

Sources: Captain Kidd

“William Kidd”. UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2003. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5229/is_2003/ai_n19152123.

Real British Ghosts