Where did pirate Captain Kidd bury his treasure?
In the Caribbean? Africa? Some far-off island?
Well, he did choose an island, right in the middle of the swanky area of the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, the summer playground of Wall Street honchos and Hollywood celebrities. If only they knew that the buried gold, silver and priceless jewels had been stashed right under their noses … in 1699.
And if Captain William Kidd and wife Sarah were still around today, they’d be hobnobbing with the socialites sipping gin and tonics and playing golf. Yes, he was married. And they had two daughters.
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“They were New York’s power couple,” Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos said. “He was a very, very stellar member of New York society. He owned a great deal of real estate. They had dinner parties. They had silver. They had china and fine linens.”
Captain Kidd’s surprising story is told in the new series, “Crazy American History with Eric Shawn,” now streaming on Fox Nation.
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A pirate who was married with two kids and a big mansion. That’s crazy!
“It’s easy to believe the lore of pirates because people find it kind of sexy. You know, these are really hyper-masculine men who are out there, swinging swords and cutting people to pieces and coming around with bags of gold. And that’s kind of like, you know, dashing and dark and it’s all of that,” said Geanacopoulos, who wrote the biography, “A Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd.” “He was a normal guy.”
And that treasure? 40 pounds of gold, silver, silk and precious rubies and stones?
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“He hides the treasure on Gardiner’s Island,” said Samuel Marquis, author of “Captain Kidd: A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal.” He also is Kidd’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson. (That’s the ninth great-grandson.) Gardiner’s Island is a privately owned property on New York’s Long Island still in the hands of the same family as when Kidd buried his booty there. Marquis says Kidd also stashed valuables elsewhere, including Connecticut and Rhode Island. New Jersey is also a suspected spot.
We will show you the pirate’s secret spot where he buried his booty and go along with a man who still thinks more may be out there on the East Coast.
The American who you certainly do not know — the posh pirate — a crazy and curious story we tell in the third episode of “Crazy American History with Eric Shawn” now streaming on Fox Nation.
