The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks: The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to whicHicks, Albert W.
History
The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks: The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe's Island, New York Bay, on the 13th of July, 1860, for the Murder of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on Board the Oyster Sloop E. A. Johnson. Containing the History of His Life (Written by Himself) from Childhood Up to the Time of His Arrest. With a Full Account of His Piracies, Murders, Mutinies, High-way Robberies, etc., Comprising the Particulars of Nearly One Hundred Murders! to whic
Hicks, Albert W.
Burr, Capt. (George H.), -1860; Hicks, Albert W., approximately 1820-1860 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Piracy) -- New York (State) -- New York; Watts, Oliver, -1860; Watts, Smith, -1860
I woke him up, and
he immediately began to sweat—God, _how he did sweat_! I charged him
with passing counterfeit money, because I did not want his wife to know
what the real charge was. We got his baggage together, and took him with
it to the watch-house. I searched him, and found in his pocket the
silver watch, since identified as Capt. Burr’s, also, his knife, pipe,
and among the rest, two small canvas bags, which have since been
identified as those used by the captain to carry his silver. In his
pocket-book was $121, mostly in five and ten dollar bills of the
Farmers’ and Citizens’ Bank of Brooklyn. There was no gold in his
possession. I didn’t take his wife’s baggage, and I felt so bad for her
that I gave her $10 of the money. Poor woman! as it was she cried
bitterly, but if she had known what her husband was really charged with,
it would have been awful. I took the $6 from the landlady that he had
paid in advance, because I didn’t know but the money might be
identified. When we got him to the watch-house, I told him to let me see
his hands, for if he was a counterfeiter, and not a sailor, as he
represented, I could tell. He turned up his palms, and said, “Those are
sailor’s hands.” I said yes, and they are big ones, too; and then I told
him I did not want him for counterfeiting, and he replied, “I thought as
much.” So I up and told him what he was charged with, and he declared
upon his soul that he was innocent, and knew nothing of the matter, and
was never on the sloop. I don’t think his wife knew anything about it.
Some time before he had picked up a yacht, and was to get $300 salvage,
and when he came home so flush with money he told his wife he had got
the prize money. I asked him if he would go on to New York quietly with
us, or stay in jail ten or fifteen days for a requisition. He said he
would go with us, and we started at 7 o’clock in the morning. He behaved
so coolly and indifferently that I at one time almost concluded we had
mistaken our man. At the New London depot there was an immense crowd of
people waiting to see the prisoner, and, when we went through the crowd,
they cried out, “There’s the murderer; lynch him—lynch him!” I told him
that I would shoot the first man who touched him. At every station after
that, as we came through there were large crowds curious to see the
prisoner.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PRISONER.
Soon after the arrival of the prisoner, the man John Burke, with whom he
had lived in Cedar street, was confronted with the prisoner, whom he
identified at once as William Johnson, the man who, with his wife and
child, had left No. 129 Cedar street on Wednesday afternoon, and went on
the Fall River boat. Mr. Simmons also stepped forward, and recognized
the prisoner as one of the hands who sailed from this port with Captain
Burr on board the sloop E. A. Johnson. Upon being asked if he knew
Captain Burr, he said he did not, he never saw him, and never sailed in
the vessel commanded by him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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