Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land piratePitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
History
Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate
Pitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
Copeland, James, 1823-1857; Criminals -- Gulf States -- Biography
Now, Wages, McGrath and I had all got together again. We had realized
over twenty-five thousand dollars by our hypocrisy, stealing, burning
and murdering. We advised McGrath to change his clothes and put on a
genteel suit, and procure a pair of green goggles, so as to disguise
himself, and we repaired each to our hotels. The next day McGrath came
out in a new suit, with his green goggles, and we should not have known
him ourselves, had we not been on the look out for him. He came to the
same hotel where I boarded. We advised McGrath to leave in the first
boat for St. Louis, where we were to meet him on a certain day; but
each of us was now to travel in separate boats. McGrath set out the
next day; two days after Wages left; and one day after that I took a
boat, and we all met at the time appointed. We remained in St. Louis a
few days, and changed our clothing to that of common laborers.
MURDER OF O’CONNOR ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
We all took passage on a steamboat bound from St. Louis to Pittsburg;
landed at the mouth of the Wabash, and traveled up that river to the
town of ——, where we fell in with an old Irishman by the name of
O’Connor. He was a western trader, and had two large flat boats loaded
with flour, bulk pork, onions, potatoes, butter, some whiskey, and a
variety of other articles, to the amount of over five thousand dollars.
With him McGrath soon formed acquaintance, and came the “country”
over him. His brother Irishman, McGrath, represented to him that our
occupation was that of working flatboats; and that we had made many
trips from Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. We were not long in
making a contract with him, to help him down with his boats. He had
contracted for one hundred barrels of whiskey, which he could have if
he could pay five hundred dollars. We advanced him some money and he
made the purchase and gave his note for the balance. We put the whiskey
on board the boats, and all things being ready we set off down the
river.
He employed two extra hands to help us down to the mouth of the river,
where he discharged them. We went on down, two hands on each boat,
until we passed the shoal at Smithland, the mouth of the Cumberland
river, when we lashed the two boats together and took our watches by
turns, two at a time. We floated all one day and part of a night, and
came to the mouth of the Ohio, between midnight and daylight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account