Female Outlaws

[ChrisL]

One of history’s most influential raiders began her career in a Chinese brothel. Cheng I Sao, or the “wife of Cheng,” was a Cantonese former prostitute who married a powerful corsair named Cheng I in 1801. The husband and wife team soon raised one of China’s most formidable pirate armies. Their outfit boasted hundreds of ships and some 50,000 men, and it preyed on the fishing vessels, supply junks and the coastal villages of Southern China with impunity.

Upon her husband’s death in 1807, Mrs. Cheng elbowed her way into power and partnered with a trusted lieutenant and lover named Chang Pao. Over the next few years, she plundered her way across Southeast Asia and assembled a fleet that rivaled many countries’ navies. She also penned a rigorous code of conduct for her pirates. Rape of female prisoners was punishable by beheading, and deserters had their ears lopped off. Mrs. Cheng’s bloody reign made her public enemy number one of the Chinese government, and in 1810, the British and Portuguese navies were enlisted to bring her to justice. Rather than duking it out at sea, she shrewdly agreed to surrender her fleet and lay down her cutlass in exchange for the right to keep her ill-gotten riches. Mrs. Cheng retired as one of history’s most successful pirates, and went on to run a gambling house until her death in 1844 at the age of 69.

 

[Sgt_Gath]

Sgt_Gath

Fascinating story!!!

The History and Legends of Anne Bonney and Mary Read

Anne Bonney and Mary Read are the most famous -- and ferocious -- women pirates in history, and they are the only ones known to have plied their trade in the Western Hemisphere.

Anne Bonney, born in County Cork, Ireland, was the illegitimate daughter of lawyer William Cormac and his housemaid. They immigrated to America after Anne's birth in the late 1600s and settled on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. A headstrong young woman "with a fierce and courageous temper," she eloped with a young ne'er-do-well, James Bonney, against her father's wishes. James took her to a pirates' lair in New Providence in the Bahamas, but in 1718, when Bahamian Governor Woodes Rogers offered the King's pardon to any pirate, James turned informant. Anne was disgusted with his cowardice and soon after, she met and fell in love with the swaggering pirate Captain Jack Rackham. Disguising herself as a male, she began sailing with him on his sloop Vanity, with its famous skull-and-crossed-daggers flag, preying on Spanish treasure ships off Cuba and Hispaniola. It is reported that she became pregnant by Jack and retired from piracy only long enough to have her baby and leave it with friends in Cuba before rejoining him and her adventurous life on the high seas.

Mary Read was born at Plymouth, England, about 1690. Her mother's husband was a sea-faring man who left on a long voyage and was never heard from again. He'd left his wife pregnant and she gave birth to a sickly male child who died soon after the illegitimate birth of his half-sister, Mary. The mother waited years for her husband to return and when her money ran out, she took Mary to London to appeal to her mother-in-law for financial help. She knew this old woman disliked girls, so she dressed Mary in boy's clothes and made her pretend to be her son. The mother-in-law was fooled and promised a crown a week to help support them. Mary continued to masquerade as a boy for many years, even after the old woman died and the financial aid ended.

Then a teenager, Mary was hired out as a footboy to a French woman. But according to history, "here she did not live long, for growing bold and strong, and having also a roving mind, she entered herself on board a man-of-war, where she served some time; then quitted it." Still disguised as a male, she enlisted in a foot regiment in Flanders and later a horse regiment, serving in both with distinction. She fell in love with a fellow soldier, disclosed her true sex, and began dressing as a female. After their marriage, she and her husband became innkeepers, owning the Three Horseshoes near the castle of Breda in Holland. Unfortunately, he died young and her fortunes soon dwindled.

She knew that life in the 1700s was much easier as a man than as a woman, so she reverted back to men's clothing and started her life over, this time going to sea on a Dutch merchant ship heading to the Caribbean. On one voyage, the ship was commandeered by English pirates with whom she sailed and fought until they accepted the King's pardon in 1718 and began operating as privateers. Soon afterwards, their ship was overtaken by Captain Jack Rackham's Vanity and, bored of the legitimate life, she again turned pirate. Anne Bonney was already part of Rackham's crew, and she and Mary quickly discovered each other's cross-dressing secret and became close friends. Despite her tough exterior, Mary found a lover on board and is said to have saved his life by protecting him from a threatened duel. She picked a fight with his opponent first and, with deadly use of her sword and pistol, ended his life before he could harm her husband-to-be.

Both Anne and Mary were known for their violent tempers and ferocious fighting, and they shared a reputation as "fierce hell cats." Their fellow crewmembers knew that -- in times of action -- no one else was as ruthless and bloodthirsty as these two women were. Captain Jack, nicknamed "Calico Jack" for his love of colorful cotton clothing, was a well-known pirate in those days, but his reputation has survived through the ages primarily because of these two infamous women pirates on his crew.

In late October 1720, Rackkam's ship was anchored off Point Negril, Jamaica, the pirates celebrating recent victories in their typical hard-drinking tradition. Suddenly a British Navy sloop -- the man-o-war Albion, headed by Captain Jonathan Barnet -- surprised them. The drunken male pirates quickly hid below deck, leaving only Anne and Mary to defend their ship. The women yelled at their pirate mates to "come up, you cowards, and fight like men," and then angrily raged against them, killing one and wounding several others. But the women were eventually overwhelmed by the British Navy, and the entire crew was captured and taken to Jamaica to stand trial.

Captain Jack and the male members of his crew were tried on November 16, 1720, and were sentenced to hang. Anne was allowed to visit her lover in his cell before his execution, and instead of the consoling, loving words he was undoubtedly expecting, her scathing comments live on throughout history: "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog."

Anne and Mary were tried one week after Rackham's death and were also found guilty. But at their sentencing, when asked by the judge if they had anything to say, they replied, "Mi'lord, we plead our bellies." Both were pregnant, and since British law forbade killing an unborn child, their sentences were stayed temporarily.

Mary is said to have died of a violent fever in the Spanish Town prison in 1721, before the birth of her child. Other reports say she feigned death and was sneaked out of the prison under a shroud.

No record of Anne's execution has ever been found. Some say that her wealthy father bought her release after the birth of her child and she settled down to a quiet family life on a small Caribbean island. Others believe that she lived out her life in the south of England, owning a tavern where she regaled the locals with tales of her exploits.

And yet others say Anne and Mary moved to Louisiana where they raised their children together and were friends to the ends of their lives.

Sounds like something out of a movie![emoji38]

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

 

[Alex.]

"Jean Wilson had numerous convictions for housebreaking and theft. She preferred stealing jewellery as it could be easily pawned for money. She also robbed her employer. Wilson was charged with larceny, for which she served a 12-month sentence. Aged: 23"

 

[ChrisL]

During a time when most women were denied an education and kept restrained to their homes, pirate Grace O’Malley led a 20-ship fleet that stood up to the might of the British monarchy. Also known as “Granuaille,” or “bald,” for her habit of cutting her hair short, O’Malley was born into a powerful clan that lorded over the coastlines of western Ireland. After taking the reigns in the 1560s, she continued a family tradition of piracy by plundering English and Spanish shipping vessels and attacking rival chieftains. Her escapades were legendary—one tale claims she did battle at sea only a day after giving birth—but they also drew the ire of the authorities. She was forced to repel a siege against her stronghold at Rockfleet Castle in 1574, and later did 18 months behind bars after she was captured during one of her raids.

O’Malley resumed her marauding after her release, but more trouble arrived in the early 1590s, when British authorities impounded her fleet. With nowhere else to turn, the 63-year-old buccaneer appealed directly to Queen Elizabeth I for assistance. During a famous royal audience in London, O’Malley portrayed herself as a tired and broken old woman and begged the Queen to return her ships, release one of her captured sons and allow her to retire in peace. The gambit worked, but it seems that “Granuaille” didn’t keep up her end of the bargain—records show that she and her sons continued pirating until her death in 1603.

 

[ChrisL]

Sgt_Gath

Fascinating story!!!

The History and Legends of Anne Bonney and Mary Read

Anne Bonney and Mary Read are the most famous -- and ferocious -- women pirates in history, and they are the only ones known to have plied their trade in the Western Hemisphere.

Anne Bonney, born in County Cork, Ireland, was the illegitimate daughter of lawyer William Cormac and his housemaid. They immigrated to America after Anne's birth in the late 1600s and settled on a plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. A headstrong young woman "with a fierce and courageous temper," she eloped with a young ne'er-do-well, James Bonney, against her father's wishes. James took her to a pirates' lair in New Providence in the Bahamas, but in 1718, when Bahamian Governor Woodes Rogers offered the King's pardon to any pirate, James turned informant. Anne was disgusted with his cowardice and soon after, she met and fell in love with the swaggering pirate Captain Jack Rackham. Disguising herself as a male, she began sailing with him on his sloop Vanity, with its famous skull-and-crossed-daggers flag, preying on Spanish treasure ships off Cuba and Hispaniola. It is reported that she became pregnant by Jack and retired from piracy only long enough to have her baby and leave it with friends in Cuba before rejoining him and her adventurous life on the high seas.

Mary Read was born at Plymouth, England, about 1690. Her mother's husband was a sea-faring man who left on a long voyage and was never heard from again. He'd left his wife pregnant and she gave birth to a sickly male child who died soon after the illegitimate birth of his half-sister, Mary. The mother waited years for her husband to return and when her money ran out, she took Mary to London to appeal to her mother-in-law for financial help. She knew this old woman disliked girls, so she dressed Mary in boy's clothes and made her pretend to be her son. The mother-in-law was fooled and promised a crown a week to help support them. Mary continued to masquerade as a boy for many years, even after the old woman died and the financial aid ended.

Then a teenager, Mary was hired out as a footboy to a French woman. But according to history, "here she did not live long, for growing bold and strong, and having also a roving mind, she entered herself on board a man-of-war, where she served some time; then quitted it." Still disguised as a male, she enlisted in a foot regiment in Flanders and later a horse regiment, serving in both with distinction. She fell in love with a fellow soldier, disclosed her true sex, and began dressing as a female. After their marriage, she and her husband became innkeepers, owning the Three Horseshoes near the castle of Breda in Holland. Unfortunately, he died young and her fortunes soon dwindled.

She knew that life in the 1700s was much easier as a man than as a woman, so she reverted back to men's clothing and started her life over, this time going to sea on a Dutch merchant ship heading to the Caribbean. On one voyage, the ship was commandeered by English pirates with whom she sailed and fought until they accepted the King's pardon in 1718 and began operating as privateers. Soon afterwards, their ship was overtaken by Captain Jack Rackham's Vanity and, bored of the legitimate life, she again turned pirate. Anne Bonney was already part of Rackham's crew, and she and Mary quickly discovered each other's cross-dressing secret and became close friends. Despite her tough exterior, Mary found a lover on board and is said to have saved his life by protecting him from a threatened duel. She picked a fight with his opponent first and, with deadly use of her sword and pistol, ended his life before he could harm her husband-to-be.

Both Anne and Mary were known for their violent tempers and ferocious fighting, and they shared a reputation as "fierce hell cats." Their fellow crewmembers knew that -- in times of action -- no one else was as ruthless and bloodthirsty as these two women were. Captain Jack, nicknamed "Calico Jack" for his love of colorful cotton clothing, was a well-known pirate in those days, but his reputation has survived through the ages primarily because of these two infamous women pirates on his crew.

In late October 1720, Rackkam's ship was anchored off Point Negril, Jamaica, the pirates celebrating recent victories in their typical hard-drinking tradition. Suddenly a British Navy sloop -- the man-o-war Albion, headed by Captain Jonathan Barnet -- surprised them. The drunken male pirates quickly hid below deck, leaving only Anne and Mary to defend their ship. The women yelled at their pirate mates to "come up, you cowards, and fight like men," and then angrily raged against them, killing one and wounding several others. But the women were eventually overwhelmed by the British Navy, and the entire crew was captured and taken to Jamaica to stand trial.

Captain Jack and the male members of his crew were tried on November 16, 1720, and were sentenced to hang. Anne was allowed to visit her lover in his cell before his execution, and instead of the consoling, loving words he was undoubtedly expecting, her scathing comments live on throughout history: "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog."

Anne and Mary were tried one week after Rackham's death and were also found guilty. But at their sentencing, when asked by the judge if they had anything to say, they replied, "Mi'lord, we plead our bellies." Both were pregnant, and since British law forbade killing an unborn child, their sentences were stayed temporarily.

Mary is said to have died of a violent fever in the Spanish Town prison in 1721, before the birth of her child. Other reports say she feigned death and was sneaked out of the prison under a shroud.

No record of Anne's execution has ever been found. Some say that her wealthy father bought her release after the birth of her child and she settled down to a quiet family life on a small Caribbean island. Others believe that she lived out her life in the south of England, owning a tavern where she regaled the locals with tales of her exploits.

And yet others say Anne and Mary moved to Louisiana where they raised their children together and were friends to the ends of their lives.

Sounds like something out of a movie![emoji38]

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

Yarrr!

 

[ChrisL]

Female pirates? Could anything be more awesome than that?

 

[Alex.]

"Known as The Flamingo as well as "Queen of the Gangster Molls," Hill became notorious as the girlfriend of Brooklyn mobster Bugsy Siegel. She came from a poor background, telling people she didn't own a pair of shoes until age seventeen. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, she moved to Chicago to seek fame and fortune. She found a bit of both working as an accountant for Al Capone.

When she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting ambitions, she met Siegel, for whom she'd soon be lover and courier. He'd later name his Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas after her. But this proved a bust business, bringing an abrupt end to Siegel's career, and arguably his life. He was gunned down in Hill's Hollywood home on June 20, 1947.

Hill was coincidentally out of the house, and claimed, "If anyone or anything was his mistress, it was that Las Vegas hotel. I never knew Ben was involved in all that gang stuff. I can't imagine who shot him or why." Her underworld dealings had her take the stand increasingly as the years went on. In 1961, Hill was found dead in an Austria snowdrift, the victim of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills—although some speculate this too was a hit.

Though Hill never made it as an actress, she did make it to the big screen in 1991, when Annette Bening portrayed her in Bugsy."
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58626/10-female-gangsters-you-should-know-about

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen.

Indian bandit and politician who , was the notorious “Bandit Queen” who became legendary for both her acts of revenge on those who had abused her and her Robin Hood-like activities to aid the lower castes. After being imprisoned, however, she became a member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, where she continued as a champion of the poor and oppressed. Devi’s life story was a mixture of fact and legend, beginning with her arranged marriage at age 11 to a man three times her age. A year later, having been brutalized by him, she returned home, an act her family considered disgraceful. By the time she was in her early 20s, she had joined (or been kidnapped into) a gang of dacoits (bandits), been sexually assaulted numerous times—once by upper-caste landowners, Thakurs, in the village of Behmai—and left barren, and become the mistress of a dacoit leader. On Feb. 14, 1981, Devi led a notorious act of revenge known as the Saint Valentine’s Day massacre; some 20 of Behmai’s Thakurs were rounded up and shot in retribution for her gang rape. This act intensified both her status in modern folklore and the police search for her.
Phoolan Devi | Indian folk hero

Thanks for this, you know I'm sure I watched a documentary about her a few years ago. Maybe it's now on You Tube, I must look.

 

[ChrisL]

Rachel Wall’s biography is peppered with myths and legends, but if certain tales about her are true, she was one of the first and only American women to try her hand at piracy. As the story goes, Wall was a Pennsylvania native who ran away from home as a teen and married a fisherman named George Wall. The couple settled in Boston and tried to scrape out a living, but constant money problems eventually led them to turn to a life of crime. In 1781, the Walls procured a small boat, teamed with a few low-life mariners and began preying on ships off the coast of New England. Their strategy was as ingenious as it was brutal. Whenever a storm passed through the region, the buccaneers would dress their boat up to look like it had been ravaged by rough seas. The comely Rachel would then stand on the deck and plead for aid from passing ships. When the unsuspecting rescuers came near, they were promptly boarded, robbed and murdered.

Wall’s siren song may have lured as many as a dozen ships to their doom, but her luck ran out in 1782, when a real storm destroyed her boat and killed George. She continued her thieving on land, and was later arrested in 1789 for attacking and robbing a Boston woman. While in prison, she penned a confession admitting to “Sabbath-breaking, stealing, lying, disobedience to parents, and almost every other sin a person could commit, except murder.” Unfortunately for Wall, the mea culpa was not enough to sway the authorities. On October 8, she became the last woman ever executed in Massachusetts when she was hanged to death in Boston

 

[westwall]

Here's a little known one..


A gunfighter, gambler, performer, and alleged prostitute, Kitty Leroy, born in 1850, was best known as one of the most proficient poker players in the Old West. Thought to have been from Michigan, she was performing as a dancer by the age of ten and as she got older, began to work in dancehalls and saloons, where she picked up a number of other skills, specifically proficiency with weapons and at games of chance.



When she married her first husband, legend has it that he was the only man in town with the nerve to let her shoot apples off his head. But, Kitty was restless and wanting to take her "show” on the road, she headed toTexas, leaving her husband behind.




Kitty Leroy - Lady Gambler and Gunfighter

 

[ChrisL]

Sadie Farrell [1] (fl. 1869) was an American criminal, gang leader and river pirate known under the pseudonym Sadie the Goat. She first came to prominence as a vicious street mugger in New York's "Bloody" Fourth Ward. Upon encountering a lone traveler, she would headbutt men in the stomach and her male accomplice would hit the victim with a sling-shot and rob them. Sadie, according to popular underworld lore, was engaged in a longtime feud with rival female bouncer Gallus Mag. Mag bit off Sadie's ear in a bar fight.[2][3][4][5]

Leaving the area in disgrace, she ventured to the waterfront area in West Side Manhattan. It was while wandering the dockyards in the spring of 1869 that she witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang unsuccessfully attempting to board a small sloop anchored in mid-river. Watching the men being driven back across the river by a handful of the ship's crew, she offered her services to the men and became the gang's leader.[5] Within days, she engineered the successful hijacking of a larger sloop [6] and, with "the Jolly Roger flying from the masthead", she and her crew reputedly sailed up and down the Hudson and Harlem Rivers raiding small villages, robbing farm houses and riverside mansions and occasionally kidnapping men, woman and children for ransom. She was said to have made several male prisoners "walk the plank".[2][3][4][6]

Sadie and her men continued their activities for several months and stashed their cargo in several hiding spots until they could be gradually disposed of through fences and pawn shops along the Hudson and East Rivers. By the end of the summer however, farmers had begun resisting the raids, attacking landing parties with gunfire. The group abandoned the sloop and Sadie returned to the Fourth Ward, where she was now known as the "Queen of the Waterfront". She made a truce with Gallus Mag, who returned Sadie's ear. Mag had displayed it in a pickled jar at her bar. Sadie afterward kept it in a locket and wore around her neck for the rest of her life.[2][3][4][5][6]

 

[Alex.]

"A pretty young woman with bobbed hair and a sassy tongue was sticking up stores throughout the city, aided by her bruiser husband. Their spree lasted from January to March, and the hold-ups were mostly small-time affairs - small grocery stores and pharmacies.

witnesses got a good look at the couple, including the fact the woman was pregnant. Three weeks later, authorities caught up with Edward and Celia Cooney in Jacksonville, where they had fled to a rooming house. Their newborn daughter had died there and the couple was turned in by the undertaker who buried the baby. Thousands of New Yorkers showed up at Penn Station as police brought them back to face justice. As they awaited trial, Celia was paid $1,000 to write her story for the Hearst newspaper chain. She described growing up in Brooklyn in poverty, and wrote that they started robbing so they could enjoy a better life. The couple served seven years in prison. Ed died of tuberculosis in 1936, while Celia raised her two boys on her own, never got in trouble with the law again, and died in Florida in 1992. "

On this day in Florida history - April 21, 1924 - NY's infamous 'Bobbed Haired Bandit' caught in Jax - Florida History Network - Your one-stop source for celebrating and preserving Florida's past, today

Celia Cooney with her husband Edward Cooney in Syracuse, New York sees husband for the first time since they parted seven years ago to serve jail terms.

 

[ChrisL]

Women who became pirates to avoid marriage

Two such women in history were Rusla (The Red Maiden) and her sister Stikla. These women of Viking heritage became pirates and were famed for raiding ships off the coasts of Iceland, Denmark and Britain.

The Red Maiden
Rusla spent many years involved in conflict with her brother, King Tesondus, because she felt it was his incompetence that led to him losing his crown to a Danish King. In revenge, she sent her fleet of pirates to attack Denmark. In her anger at her brother, she sank his ship but let him escape. However, once the King return to regain his kingdom he had his sister. Rusla beaten to death with the oars of a ship.

Stikla
Of Stikla less is known; she was the sister of Rusla and Tesondus who followed her sister into piracy because she “preferred the state of war to the state of marriage”. This might seem to be a dramatic response to the suggestion of matrimony, but the truth is that, if a woman wanted freedom, marriage was not a hugely viable option because it put them at the mercy of their husbands.

Alwilda
There is also the story of Alwilda, a 5th century Viking women who refused her arranged marriage to Prince Alf of Denmark. Instead she sailed with the Saxons to help in their fight against the picts of Scotland, afterwards she became such a fierce and infamous pirate that Prince Alf set sail to stop her in her tracks. In an insidious twist of fate, however, she found that after he captured her she liked his bravery and skill so she agreed, finally, to marry him!

Female pirates came from all background and joined crews for many reasons, but it is true that for a great many, piracy was an escape route from the binding reality of feminine life, and the female role in marriage, in past centuries!

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

"Known as The Flamingo as well as "Queen of the Gangster Molls," Hill became notorious as the girlfriend of Brooklyn mobster Bugsy Siegel. She came from a poor background, telling people she didn't own a pair of shoes until age seventeen. Born in Alabama and raised in Georgia, she moved to Chicago to seek fame and fortune. She found a bit of both working as an accountant for Al Capone.

When she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting ambitions, she met Siegel, for whom she'd soon be lover and courier. He'd later name his Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas after her. But this proved a bust business, bringing an abrupt end to Siegel's career, and arguably his life. He was gunned down in Hill's Hollywood home on June 20, 1947.

Hill was coincidentally out of the house, and claimed, "If anyone or anything was his mistress, it was that Las Vegas hotel. I never knew Ben was involved in all that gang stuff. I can't imagine who shot him or why." Her underworld dealings had her take the stand increasingly as the years went on. In 1961, Hill was found dead in an Austria snowdrift, the victim of an apparent overdose of sleeping pills—although some speculate this too was a hit.

Though Hill never made it as an actress, she did make it to the big screen in 1991, when Annette Bening portrayed her in Bugsy."
10 Female Gangsters You Should Know About

Yes she committed suicide outside Salzburg, in Koppl, it's the only thing Koppl is famous for. Virginia Hill is buried in Friedhof Aigen in Salzburg - Aigen Cemetery in Salzburg.

She married Hans Hauser, a ski instructor and Alpine and Nordic Skier, you know his brother Max Hauser was friends of my Great Uncle Ludwig-Ferdinand, Hans went to America in maybe 1939 I think, but Max stayed in Austria.

Here is the picture of resting place....Frau Maria Hanser, the Mother, then Hans, then Fräulein Friedl, the sister, then you can just see through foliage the name Virginia, this Virginia Hill.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

Women who became pirates to avoid marriage

Two such women in history were Rusla (The Red Maiden) and her sister Stikla. These women of Viking heritage became pirates and were famed for raiding ships off the coasts of Iceland, Denmark and Britain.

The Red Maiden
Rusla spent many years involved in conflict with her brother, King Tesondus, because she felt it was his incompetence that led to him losing his crown to a Danish King. In revenge, she sent her fleet of pirates to attack Denmark. In her anger at her brother, she sank his ship but let him escape. However, once the King return to regain his kingdom he had his sister. Rusla beaten to death with the oars of a ship.

Stikla
Of Stikla less is known; she was the sister of Rusla and Tesondus who followed her sister into piracy because she “preferred the state of war to the state of marriage”. This might seem to be a dramatic response to the suggestion of matrimony, but the truth is that, if a woman wanted freedom, marriage was not a hugely viable option because it put them at the mercy of their husbands.

Alwilda
There is also the story of Alwilda, a 5th century Viking women who refused her arranged marriage to Prince Alf of Denmark. Instead she sailed with the Saxons to help in their fight against the picts of Scotland, afterwards she became such a fierce and infamous pirate that Prince Alf set sail to stop her in her tracks. In an insidious twist of fate, however, she found that after he captured her she liked his bravery and skill so she agreed, finally, to marry him!

Female pirates came from all background and joined crews for many reasons, but it is true that for a great many, piracy was an escape route from the binding reality of feminine life, and the female role in marriage, in past centuries!

They are all amazing women.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

View attachment 62213 Lizzie Borden & the infamous axe murders (1892) - Click Americana

Oh no, I watched documentary about Lizzie Borden, too scary

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

View attachment 62213 Lizzie Borden & the infamous axe murders (1892) - Click Americana

What is this a picture of? I'm not sure I should look at link.

 

[ChrisL]

View attachment 62213 Lizzie Borden & the infamous axe murders (1892) - Click Americana

Oh no, I watched documentary about Lizzie Borden, too scary

I've been to her house in Fall River, MA. Boo!! Lol.

 

[Lucy Hamilton]

View attachment 62213 Lizzie Borden & the infamous axe murders (1892) - Click Americana

Oh no, I watched documentary about Lizzie Borden, too scary

I've been to her house in Fall River, MA. Boo!! Lol.

Uh-oh

 

[froggy]

View attachment 62213 Lizzie Borden & the infamous axe murders (1892) - Click Americana

What is this a picture of? I'm not sure I should look at link.

Do you mean the hatchet?