The Pirate

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The Pirate by Harold Schechter

This is short, engaging, informative read. Author Harold Schechter covers the story of a brutal murder of the crew of an oyster sloop in the waters of New York in 1860. The murders were bloody and sensational. The murderer, Albert Hicks, was callous and indifferent to the enormity of his crimes. Hicks was quickly captured and rapidly executed.

Schechter covers this story in an efficient fashion, offering the right amount of background. What I've found in reading historical murders is that the murder story offers an entry point into the different world that was the past. For example, in this case, we learn about New York's fascination with oysters, the oyster business, the underside of New York, and a culture where relocating from New York to Providence was all that a criminal needed to do - or so he thought - to elude the police. We get introduced to a conniving P.T. Barnum, who commercialized Hick's notoriety for his emporium of wonders by obtaining a cast of Hick's features and buying Hick's clothes to display on the wax statue of the murderer. We also learn that Albert Hicks' notoriety reached into our own age; he was featured as a character on Rod Serling's Twilight Zone.

Schechter has a nice way of telling the tale. This is a short and fascinating book. If you are looking for a quick read on a morbid subject, or a short survey of history from a different angle, this is a good book to read.