How About Italian Pirates?
Most pirates that you are familiar with are of French, English or Spanish heritage. So what about Italian pirates?
The list is actually fairly extensive and like most, held positions of power working for various governments, went in and out of favor with said governments, had huge impacts in the course of history and then were mostly executed once captured after falling out of favor with their employing governments or even their own crews.
Some Italian pirates, such as Vincenzo Gambi, actually assisted Jean Lafitte and the US government in the Battle of New Orleans, against the British Army.
Gambi was definitely Lafitte's most rebellious and unruly partner. Gambi had a long criminal history that preceded him prior to his arrival in New Orleans. Gambi had become one of the major pirates active in the Gulf of Mexico and was said to have personally killed dozens of his victims with an axe. He was one of the first men to be approached by Lafitte when he first began to organize pirates of the Bay of Barataria.
After assisting in the battle, Gambi was granted American citizenship by President James Madison, and then followed Lafitte to Texas, but parted ways almost immediately after being sued by Lafitte's brother, Pierre, for a $250 loan.
Over the next four years, Gambi continued his attacks and plundering through the Gulf of Mexico until, he himself was decapitated by his own men, with his own axe, after he kept several thousand dollars owed to them which they had taken from their latest victims.
His ship is said to be the last active pirate ship in the Western Gulf of Mexico.
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