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Pirate House
privateering and now in his late fifties, who returned to peacefully live out his final years on the Coast he loved? The residents of his day seemed to think so and to support
their story there is, also, the bayou on the property he was supposed to own, known as Bayou Jean et Pierre, which was very coincidentally the names of the two famous
Brothers Lafitte.
Was "Lafitto" of Bay St. Louis the famous corsair? Well, this writer who has been researching Lafitte for nearly fifteen years is inclined to agree with those old-timers - on the basis of logic alone. No historian has yet been able to prove when or where Lafitte died.
All theories
advanced have been based on supposition or legend. Only the records at Bay St. Louis have turned up as "provable evidence" that Jean Lafitte may well have retired to the
Coast to end his days quietly. His career as a privateer, or pirate if you prefer, was over...in fact the days of privateering were at an end. He had led a full and dangerous life and was now in his late fifties.
And while he was never able to regain any of the fortune confiscated by the U.S. government at Grand Terre, having been the most successful privateer of his day, he
undoubtedly had sufficient means (he was a hard-headed businessman) on which to retire.
"Lafitto" of Bay St. Louis acquired sizable property holdings, lived unostentatiously but very comfortably, and
was rather a mystery to his neighbors.
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Pirate House Document (094)
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