Albert W. Hicks

Albert W. Hicks
Conviction(s)	Piracy
Criminal penalty	Death by hanging

Albert W. Hicks (c. 1820 – July 13, 1860), also known as William Johnson, John Hicks and 'Pirate Hicks', was the name of the last person executed for piracy in the United States (though the execution of the slaver Nathaniel Gordon in 1862 was under the terms of the Piracy Law).

Description

In person Hicks is tall and strongly built, being about five feet ten inches in height, with a slight stoop in his shoulders. His arms are long and sinewy, and his hands very large and much hardened by work; his complexion is dark, and he has high cheek bones, and a stout crop of straight, black hair. His eyes are black; and rather small, with an unsteady and revengeful expression. He is a native of Foster, R. I. and is 32 years of age. He has several brothers, residing in that and the neighboring town of Killingly, Connecticut some of whom are wealthy farmers. His father and mother are dead, and he has led a roving life for several years, having left home on account as he say[s], of a difficulty with the family.

It is stated that a brother of the accused, named Simon Hicks, was the murderer of Mr. Crossman at Chepatchet (sic), several years ago, and after being convicted and sentenced for the crime, he escaped out of prison and has not been heard from since.

He had a wife and a ten-year-old child, residing in Providence, Rhode Island, where he was arrested.

Confession

"The affair occurred," said Hicks, "about half past nine or ten o'clock at night, while Captain Burr and one of the Watts boys were asleep in the cabin. I was steering at the time, and the other Watts was on tbe lookout at the bow. Suddenly the devil took possession of me, and I determined to murder the capiain and crew that very night. Creeping forward softly I stole upon the boy at the bow, and with one blow knocked him senseless. I believe be died in a few minutes after I struck him. The noise attracted the attention of the other Watts, who jumped out of bed, and came up the companion way to see what was the matter. Just at that moment I struck him a beavy blow on the head with the axe and soon he was dead. Then I went down in search of the captain, and upon going into tbe cabin we immediately came in contact. Captain Burr,. who was a strong, able bodied man fought hard with me for several nunutes; but at last I brought him down, and he, too, was soon dead. After rifling the captain's money bags, I commenced to throw, the bodies over board. They had been dead about an hour at this time, and sank into the sea the minute I threw them over the rail.

The knife marks found on the gunwale of the sloop were not made by me. I had no occasion to make them, as the men had all been dead an hour, and could not have clung to the rail, as was supposed. I should think we were about fifty miles at sea at the time, so that it was improbable that any of the bodies will ever be recovered. While I was on board the sloop the devil was always by my side and sustained me, but while I have been locked up here he has deserted me, and I feel bad."

Evidence

In March 1860, Hicks was drugged and shanghaied onto the oyster sloop A.E. Johnson. Hicks confessed to murdering the skipper Captain George H. Burr and the two other crewmembers, Smith and Oliver Watts, throwing the bodies overboard. During his escape, he collided with the schooner J. R. Mather. He then took all the money on board (about $500) and abandoned ship in a yawl, landing on Staten Island. He also claimed to have killed 97 others in California gold camps, as well as having committed a similar piracy in South America. He was found to be in possession of the watch of Captain Burr, several money bags and a coat of Watts’s containing a daguerreotype belonging to Oliver Watts. He gave his reason as "...the devil took possession of me."

He was executed by hanging, on Bedloe's Island, now known as Liberty Island. An estimated ten thousand people viewed the event from boats anchored in New York Bay. His last wish was to see the steamship Great Eastern, which was docked in New York at the time. Soon after his burial, grave robbers stole his body. Some thought that he had survived, but his body was actually sold to medical students.

A ballad was written about him by Henry Sherman Backus, titled Hicks the Pirate in March 1860. P. T. Barnum’s American Museum featured a wax image of Hicks. Barnum also arranged for Hicks to be hung in a silk pirate costume, which he later charged admission to view.

His name became a slang gambling phrase, meaning "Six on a pair of dice."

Discrepancies

There are several discrepancies between this account and that found in Herbert Ashbury's classic crime history The Gangs of New York - an Informal History of the Underworld (1927, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.)

Most notably, Ashbury gives Hicks's name as "Albert E. Hicks" (not "Albert W. Hicks") and says that he commonly went by the nickname of "Hicksey".

Furthermore, Ashbury say that the name of the sloop was the "E.A. Johnson" (and not the "A.E. Johnson").

He also says that "four human fingers and a thumb" were found on the deck of the sloop. And that in his confession Hicks said that after "decapitating" the second Watts brother and driving his axe "deep into the side of the captain's head", that he "went on the deck were he found the Watts boy he had first assaulted struggling to his knees. The gangster [i.e., Hicks] knocked him down and then carried his body to the rail, where he hoisted the lad over the side of the sloop. But young Watts clutched the rail, whereupon Hicks raised his axe and calmly cut off his thumb and fingers, and Watts fell into the sea. Hicks then threw the other bodies overboard..."

And regarding P.T. Barnum's role, Ashbury writes that "Among the first [visitors to Hicks while he was held in "the Tombs"] was Phineas T. Barnum,the great showman ... Barnum asked for a private conference with the prisoner, which Hicks granted ... Barnum informed the pirate that he wished to obtain a plaster cast of his head and bust for exhibition in [Barnum's] Museum ... and after an entire day of haggling an argement [sic] was reached whereby Hicks agreed to pose in return for $25 in cash and two boxes of five-cent cigars. Early next morning the cast was made, and that afternoon Barnum returned to the Tombs with a new set of clothes, which he traded to Hicks for the one the pirate was then wearing. Later Hicks complained to the Warden that Barnum had cheated him, for the new garments were shoddy and not nearly so good a his old ones."

References

• Fowler, Lorenzo Niles. The Life, Trial, Confession and Execution of Albert W. Hicks, The Pirate and Murderer, Executed on Bedloe’s Island, New York Bay. (New York: Robert M. De Witt, Publisher, 1860?) Illustrations from the book
• Hicks, Albert W. Story Of My Life
• Steelwater, Eliza (2003). The Hangman's Knot. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN 081334042X.
• Thorn, John. "Murder and Mayhem, Tra-La! The Saugerties Bard." VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore, Vol. 31, Fall-Winter, 2005.
• Vincent, Francis. Vincent's Semi-annual United States Register, 1860
• July 14, 1860 edition of the New York Tribune

External links

• Photo drawing of the scene of the execution