All language subtitles for Historys Greatest Mysteries S06E18 720p WEB H264-JFF[EZTVx.to]

Tonight, one of the most infamous
pirates to prowl America's Gulf Coast,

Jean Lafitte.

He was literally called the Terror of
the Gulf.

There was not anything that Lafitte
wouldn't buy, sell, or steal. Gold,

tobacco, and even people.

But after amassing a vast fortune,
Lafitte, along with his stash, goes

No one is ever found.

All of his treasure.

Millions and millions could still be out
there today.

Now, we'll explore the top theories
surrounding the whereabouts of this

hoard. Did Lafitte take his treasure
with him, or did he stash it on the

for later?

Legend has it they panicked, and having
no better place to hide the treasure,

they took the wagons on their ship and
just kind of threw them overboard.

When he left Galveston Island aboard his
ship, the Pride, His treasure was right

there next to him.

Now the question remains, where did the
pride end up? What became of Lafitte's

lost treasure, and where could it be?

Early 1800s, the Gulf of Mexico.

For merchants and sailors on the open
waters, one name inspires more fear than

any other.

Jean Lafitte.

Lafitte commands a fleet of ships that
prowl the Gulf of Mexico and prey on

unarmed vessels.

They then sell what they steal through a
smuggling network that's based in New

Orleans.

Jean Lafitte was the final version of
pirates.

So you have the Golden Age pirates who
are working for themselves, but he's

effectively working as a cartel or mob
boss.

He has an operation that's moving
millions of dollars worth of

He really caught the imagination of the
American people because he was a bit of

a showman, and he was considered to be
something of a folk hero, like a latter

-day Robin Hood to the people of
southern Louisiana.

The reality of Jean Lafitte is darker,
much darker.

Tobacco and cotton are prized
commodities, but so is something else.

Slaves.

Lafitte would steal slaves off of slave
ships, and then he would keep them in

storehouses up and down the Gulf of
Mexico until he could sell them.

At one point, he was pulling in about a
million dollars a year, so we're talking

about billions of dollars in today's
currency.

He was one of the wealthiest men in the
Caribbean.

And it's a real mystery, not only what
happened to him, but what happened to

that treasure.

The uncertainty also surrounds John
Lafitte's early days.

Some believe he was born in France in
the late 1700s. Others report him as

born around Port -au -Prince.

From a very young age, him and his
brother Pierre become very good seamen.

They're taught.

how to fight with swords, how to shoot a
pistol, how to command a giant sailing

ship. And there's even legends that at
one point they joined the French Navy to

go and fight in the Napoleonic Wars.

Then, in 1803, one of the most
consequential events in American history

place.

Napoleon's France sells the Louisiana
Territory to the United States for

of $15 million.

The United States gains all of the
territory up and down the Mississippi

and west to the Rockies.

It doubles the size of the United States
overall and gives them territory that

stretches from the East Coast almost all
the way to the West Coast.

Strategically, New Orleans is now in a
position where it's one of the major

trading hubs of the United States.

This really transformed the people
living there as well, transformed their

tastes, their desires in certain kinds
of ways.

They're rich or wanted to seem rich. And
this is Lafitte's wheelhouse.

Sensing a big opportunity, the Lafitte
brothers relocate and set up shop in New

Orleans.

Lafitte first emerges, at least in
official records, around 1805. He and

brother Pierre own a warehouse in the
bustling port city of New Orleans, where

they are able to distribute their goods
that they've acquired for various means.

So we're talking tobacco, coffee, some
indigo, cotton to some extent, textile.

He often had those luxury goods to offer
to the population when they couldn't

get them.

Then, in 1807, an act of Congress starts
Lafitte down a darker path.

Amidst the turmoil of Napoleon's wars in
Europe...

American trade vessels are under attack
by both the British and the French. So

the United States passes the Embargo Act
in 1807 that prohibits not only the

importation of foreign goods into the U
.S., but also the importation of slaves.

Because it does not outright outlaw
slavery, what it does is actually

incentivize people who are dealing in
the illegal importation and trade of

slaves. For someone such as Jean
Lafitte,

These acts actually only open new
business opportunities for him.

Someone had to fill the void. Just
because a supply goes away doesn't mean

the demand goes away. And Lafitte was
right at the heart of that.

By 1809, the Lafittes run a blacksmith
shop in the French Quarter.

But in reality, this is a front for
their smuggling business.

They're bringing in stolen goods and
selling them to merchants and other

business people.

He was smuggling and trading enslaved
Africans using his network, the very

network that he was using for cotton,
indigo, and all sorts of other goods.

To escape the scrutiny of American
customs agents, Lafitte moves his

from the blacksmith shop in New Orleans
to nearby Barataria Bay.

So Barataria Bay is south and west of
New Orleans.

And for Jean Lafitte, it's the perfect
place to hide his criminal enterprise.

Barataria is one of the most confusing
places to go in America.

The canals, the swamps, the sloughs,
they all twist and turn.

And if you got put down there, you were
going to be lost before you even

started. But Lafitte and his men had a
mastery of these values.

And the Baratarians, as they called
themselves, run their illegal goods all

way from the mouth.

of the Mississippi up into New Orleans.

They now have a base that they operate
as their own kingdom, effectively

the power of the law. In addition to
that, they can see any ships that might

sailing past Barataria and strike
targets at will.

Lafitte decides if he can stop the ships
from even reaching the port of New

Orleans, then he can cut off all of his
competition and become even richer and

more powerful.

The Lafites launch full -blown attacks
on other vessels, essentially becoming

pirates.

But to evade the law, Lafite figures out
a loophole by insisting he's a

privateer. The line between pirate and
privateer is thin and very, very blurry.

But essentially, a pirate is illegal and
is engaged in attacking and thieving.

Privateers do similar things, but they
do so under the guise of some sort of

legality.

The difference is this.

Privateers sail under what's known as a
letter of marque, which is something

granting sanction to the stealing of
goods for nations at war.

Lafitte claims to be first a French
privateer and then a privateer operating

under the letter of marque of a small
independent nation called Cartagena. In

reality... He's never taking resources
back to Cartagena.

He was ultimately working for himself,
but becoming a privateer gave him some

guise of legitimacy in case he ever got
stopped by officials that he could not

wit.

Whatever Lafitte doesn't keep, he
smuggles into New Orleans and sells.

By some estimates, as much as a billion
dollars worth of goods in today's

currency flowed in and out of his base
in Barataria.

For years, Lafitte manages to elude
capture.

Then, in 1821, with the U .S. Navy in
pursuit, he torches his secret compound

and escapes into the Gulf of Mexico.

As far as we know, that was the last
official sighting of him anywhere in

American waters.

But naturally, rumors begin to grow, not
only of his whereabouts, but of course

the whereabouts of his enormous fortune.

Lafitte made so much money during his
lifetime that many would say it was

impossible for him to have taken it all
with him. But if he took his treasure,

where is it?

There's one location near and dear to
Lafitte that tops the list of potential

hiding spots.

Lafitte operates mainly out of two
islands, Grand Isle and Grand Terre.

These islands are fully equipped.

They've got bases, warehouses, places
where you could stash anything,

enormous quantities of treasure.

Lafitte lived on various barrier islands
in Barataria Bay.

He warehoused his goods there. He held
auctions there to sell off black market

contraband. generating more loot.

These auctions only add to Lafitte's
wealth, but he has to stash that loot

somewhere. It's not like a pirate is
going to take his loot to the bank.

There are rumors of a large cache of
gold and silver near the home that Jean

Lafitte built on Grand Terre and
lavishly furnished and decorated.

There's a story that at one point a
fisherman was down in Barataria and he

a small chest full of gold earring,
Spanish coins.

and a silver imprint of the Virgin Mary.

It is also believed that a good number
of Lafitte's men made their homes in

Barataria and even raised families
there.

Many Grand Isle families are descendants
of those men, and whispers of potential

burial sites are passed down through the
generations.

This area is well known for its several
hundred -year -old oak trees,

massive trunks.

major landmarks that would be easily
identifiable from the water.

There are persistent stories that Jean
Lafitte hid his treasure in the waters

and that he used certain large trees as
landmarks to tell him where that

treasure was.

Traces of Lafitte's smuggling operation
have been found on Grand Terre.

Descendants claim to have discovered
things like coins, broken pottery, and

shell heaps, but nothing amounting to a
massive treasure has been found.

People have really focused on Barataria,
hoping that Jean Lafitte left treasure

there. But the Barataria Bay area is
made part of sort of the national park

system in 1966, and so you can't just go
in there and start looking for treasure

wherever you want anymore.

Some treasure hunters... suggests there
is no silver, there is no gold hidden in

these islands, and it's because he never
hid his treasure there in the first

place.

By 1814, despite being a wanted pirate,
Jean Lafitte is revered by many

New Orleans residents.

The people who settled this area of
Louisiana were not necessarily loyal to

American government.

Local law enforcement in Louisiana
simply let Jean Lafitte be, and most

didn't care that he was engaged in
illegal activity.

When Lafitte is charged with piracy in
1814, he knows that he could at any

moment have to flee his base in Grand
Terre.

He needs to get as far away from
Barataria Bay as possible, somewhere

law can't find him, and somewhere,
presumably, he could stash his treasure.

This opens up an endless list of
possibilities.

For the first few years following the
Embargo Act, customs officials pretty

turn a blind eye to most illegal
smuggling activity.

However, over time, the smuggling
activity becomes so rampant and so

that it begins cutting into their tax
revenue.

So while the locals may have been
turning a blind eye to Lafitte's illegal

operation, the American government
certainly wasn't.

And Lafitte drew the ire of one very
prominent governor of Louisiana named

William Claiborne.

Claiborne, that's off on a mission to
end Lafitte's pirating operations once

for all.

Lafitte has become public enemy number
one.

Claiborne took it upon himself to post
wanted posters for the outlaw Lafitte,

offering a bounty of $500.

Lafitte was thoroughly undaunted. And
not only did he evade arrest, but he

himself had posters printed. And those
posters said, wanted Governor William

Claiborne and offered a reward of $5
,000.

Governor Claiborne's not amused. He's
coming in and trying to impose some

He's trying to have the people of New
Orleans respect the U .S. government.

And so it's a direct affront to Governor
Claiborne's power.

Their conflict reaches a boiling point
on September 16, 1814, when the Navy

sends the USS Carolina to lead an all
-out assault on Lafitte's base in

Barataria.

Now, this is a massive show of force by
the U .S. Navy.

Lafitte is surrounded by the USS
Carolina and six gunboats.

The USS Carolina enters Barataria Bay
and absolutely batters Lafitte's pirate

camp with heavy artillery fire.

It seems that Lafitte's caught off guard
by this. He ends up losing 80 men in

the process, and he loses a number of
sailing vessels as well.

Lafitte's men abandon their ship. The U
.S. Navy burns several of them, and

they're able to capture $500 ,000 of
Lafitte's stolen goods, which would be

somewhere in the neighborhood of $10
million worth of goods today.

However, what they don't capture is
Lafitte himself.

He's able to elude arrest by fleeing
into the swamp.

It is said that Jean Lafitte sneaked
away and found a special hiding place, a

tiny little place called Orange Island,
which is 130 miles northwest of his

primary base in Barataria Bay.

Orange Island is right on the shores of
Lake Pinier. It would have been a safe

and easy place to go because it is
reportedly owned by Jean Lafitte's

-in -law.

The U .S. Navy did recapture a
tremendous amount of wealth, but there's

absolutely no way Lafitte allowed them
to capture all of it.

anywhere that Lafitte is rumored to have
been, there's rumors that that's where

he stored his treasure, including that
he brought his treasure with him to

Orange Island, and that's where it still
is today.

The theory goes that he was able to make
his way to this new location in the

Louisiana Delta.

It was a good place for him to recover
from the defeat.

It does make sense as a possible
location where Lafitte might have taken

However, as far as actual excavations
go, nothing really that can be tied to

Lafitte has ever been found.

Until there was a particular instance
back in 1921 when some construction

workers found some mysterious pots that
had been bricked up and filled with

lead. And when they broke them open,
they did find that there were gold and

silver coins that were associated with
Spain and Mexico.

The news of this discovery hits the
papers and people go into a frenzy.

All the treasure hunters in the area
descend upon Orange Island. They start

digging up anything and everything, and
the newspapers report that they found

other coins in the area, both English
and French.

So that could have possibly come from
Lafitte's treasure trove. However,

nothing definitive.

A more likely candidate seems to lie
further west.

By the end of 1814, Jean Lafitte and his
brother Pierre are no longer working

together. And Jean is a wanted man,
accused of piracy and run out of

Barataria Bay by the U .S. Navy.

But his fate is about to turn.

A war breaks out between the United
States and Britain.

The Americans and the British were doing
battle over a course of about two years

between 1812 and 1814.

The British wanted to take New Orleans
so they could control the North American

interior. And in order to take control
of New Orleans, they knew they were

to need some help.

The British approached Lafitte and
offered him the equivalent.

today of what would be about $2 million
in funding in order for him to side with

them and attack New Orleans from that
back entryway that he was using to

goods. Lafitte is no patriot.

He's looking out for number one. And he
sees a unique opportunity.

And so he tells the British he needs two
weeks to think over their offer. But

secretly, Lafitte has other plans with
the other side.

He now can use this leverage from the
British as a get -out -of -jail -free

with the United States in order to allow
them to live free after the war is

concluded.

Future U .S. President General Andrew
Jackson is wary of Lafitte, but he's

desperate to gain the upper hand.

The British Navy rules the seas.

General Jackson is facing absolutely
impossible odds against the sheer size

the British force.

Jean Lafitte goes to General Jackson.

He says, I can give you my men, I can
give you my boats, I can give you my

cannon, I can give you the knowledge of
these waterways.

And General Jackson sort of has to make
a deal with the pirate Jean Lafitte.

In exchange for the Baratarians joining
Andrew Jackson's army, Andrew Jackson

agrees to pardon all of the Baratarians,
including Lafitte, if they survive the

battle.

Lafitte and the Pirates of Eritrea bring
a lot to the table.

They are incredibly skilled with
artillery, and they have maps, they have

charts, they have local intelligence.

They're more like a seasoned military
force.

On January 8, 1815, Great Britain
launches its invasion of New Orleans

with 8 ,000 soldiers and dozens of
ships.

Lafitte's men help Jackson form a
defensive line that extends all the way

the river to the nearby swampland.

The British army becomes an easy target
for Lafitte's cannons.

Thanks to his very skilled cannoneers,
he and his men are able to help defeat

one of the greatest armies to ever walk
the earth.

The British continued to fight for
another 10 days just at the mouth of the

Mississippi River, but then they
couldn't hold their ground and had a

retreat from the region altogether, and
it marked a definitive American victory.

The win not only puts Andrew Jackson on
the path to the presidency, but casts

Lafitte in an entirely new light.

It's a transformative event for him.

Prior to the Battle of New Orleans, he's
a bandit. In fact, he's the worst of

the bandits. He's a pirate.

When the smoke clears, Jean Lafitte,
pirate, is now an American hero.

Andrew Jackson publicly credits him with
saving the city of New Orleans. And

none other than President James Madison
himself pardons Lafitte for his crimes.

For a short time, Lafitte returned to
the city of New Orleans, and it really

looks like he has changed his ways and
is a reformed man.

But it takes less than a year.

For the rumors to begin to circulate
that he has returned to his life of

and in order to avoid arrest, he
ultimately flees the city.

This time, Lafitte operates out of the
bayous around Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Many people speculate that it's here
where he stashed a good chunk of his

treasure, in an aptly named location.

Contraband Bayou.

This was Lafitte's backyard.

Almost one quarter of the state is
underwater.

So this part of Louisiana is really an
endless water landscape.

He knew this area of Louisiana better
than anyone.

There are people living in that area who
have, for generations, passed down

legends of Lafitte and his treasure.

Filks and jewels, silver bars, and
Spanish gold coins.

There is lore that suggests that Jean
Lafitte actually seized a Spanish

ship. He took the gold and the treasure
from this vessel, but not before being

followed by a United States warship.

Lafitte knew that that U .S. warship
could not access the smaller waterways,

he slipped into Contraband Bayou to
elude capture.

According to legend...

Once the danger has passed, Lafitte
makes his way to an island in Contraband

Bayou, now known as Money Hill, where he
stashes the loot from the Spanish ship.

The allure of this story is so strong
that treasure hunters dug all around

Hill, really up until the 1940s, but
nothing was ever found.

In addition to that one little island,
treasure hunters dig all over Lake

Charles, the Calcasieu River, Contraband
Bayou.

never turning up any of Lafitte's lost
millions.

Now, some would say that it is still
there.

It's just much harder to get to.

In the modern era, Lake Charles has been
turned into a sort of resort town and a

golf course, so it's possible that
people are playing golf on top of

hidden treasure.

Given how many efforts have been made to
find the treasure in this region and

come up empty -handed,

We have to admit the possibility that
maybe Lafitte may have taken it with him

when he had to leave the United States.

200 years after John Lafitte is last
seen, rumors of his buried treasure

swirl. And while most searches focus on
areas in and around New Orleans, some

believe his riches lie one state over in
Texas.

Soon after the Battle of New Orleans,
Lafitte heads west to Galveston Island,

which is itself a 30 -mile thin strip of
sand and is infamous for the thousands

of venomous cottonmouth snakes that
inhabit the island.

Galveston Island is this extraordinarily
dark and gloomy place, and Lafitte took

every advantage of its isolation, of its
supposed uninhabitability, to set up

what would become a flourishing pirate
colony.

Most importantly, it's beyond the
authority of the United States of

At this point, Spain controls all of
Texas and Mexico.

Spanish Texas at the time is conflicted
territory. You have the Mexican

revolutionaries fighting their war of
independence, which puts them at odds

Spain. Lafitte can now play both sides
in this situation to allow him to

his privateering operations.

Lafitte really had a knack for creating
something out of nothing, and he created

a colony, which he called Campeche,
right there on the island. Over 200

structures were built by Lafitte and his
men.

Thousands of crewmen lived there, and
they commandeered at least 20 vessels.

This was probably one of the largest
private fleets in history, and that

happen without money. You need enormous
wealth.

Campeche is a huge colony, and it is
funded entirely by Lafitte's pirate

operation, which makes him essentially a
king. And everyone who lives there has

to pledge their loyalty to him and must
help him raid ships in order to increase

his wealth.

For whatever reason, Lafitte wanted to
give the appearance of legitimacy to his

operations, and in exchange for people's
loyalty, he would offer them letters of

marque.

In the minds of everyone working for
him, this was a real privateering

But these were fraudulent letters of
Mark, and everyone was actually

in reality as pirates.

Legend has it that the newly minted
pirate King Lafitte scores his most

lucrative robbery in 1816.

It's alleged that Lafitte captures a
Spanish treasure ship called the Santa

that has $2 million worth of silver on
board.

And the only way to escape is to
navigate a pretty treacherous route up

Sabine River.

The Sabine River is a river that runs
right along the border between Texas and

Louisiana. It stayed on the Spanish
side, but still out of the authority of

U .S.

and with the help of traders in the
interior, was able to move the treasure

the river.

But apparently his men got spooked by a
band of indigenous people or potentially

by a U .S. vessel that was in the area.
Legend has it they panicked, and having

no better place to hide the treasure,
they took the wagons on their ship and

just kind of threw them overboard and
let the treasure settle at the bottom of

the river.

Locals hear this legend and pass it on
for generations.

And while the legend lives on, no one
ever dredges up any treasure from the

river. That is until 1895, when a local
fisherman pulls up silver in his fishing

net. This is in the middle of nowhere.

And so everyone immediately recalls the
story of Lafitte's treasure.

Once the story hits the newspapers,

Treasure hunters descend on not only the
Sabine River, but also nearby Hendricks

Lake, where some think the treasure may
have washed up.

There at Hendricks Lake, treasure
hunters have tried a variety of

methods of trying to see what might be
buried there.

One of the earliest attempts was by a
man who had the grand vision of trying

drain the lake.

This man not only has an entire
operation of pumps, drills, and conveyor

to help him reach the bottom, he also
has a nasty temper.

And so when one of the locals begins
criticizing his efforts, he loses it and

murders it right there on the bank of
the river and is

arrested.

But fortunately, subsequent treasure
hunters have been much more level

Still, everyone comes up empty.

But that doesn't stop hopeful fortune
hunters from continuing to look.

Although the legends surrounding the
Sabine River and Lake Hendricks have

a lot of treasure hunting activity over
the years, perhaps the most sustained

and legitimate excavation attempts have
come from the documentary filmmaker

Christian B. Roper.

Roper came in and used even more
sophisticated equipment.

including some deep -sea sonar to
investigate this area of Hendricks Lake.

Using aerial flight to determine the
most likely smuggling route through the

lakes, Roper is able to narrow his
search, and he begins diving.

This is the most exhaustive search of
the lake yet, and it is still ongoing.

And with every dive, Roper gets...
closer and closer to where he believes

treasure lies.

Incredibly, he has found a portion of a
wagon that could have been used to haul

some of Lafitte's treasure, but the
treasure itself has yet to be found.

A lot of historians think that if
there's anything to be found, then it's

to be something closer to home and
closer to Lafitte's heart, quite

location where he spent his happiest
days.

By 1819, John Lafitte's pirate commune
on Galveston Island, Texas, is a

operation.

Lafitte founds his pirate colony of
Campeche. This was more than just a

pirate shantytown. This was an actual
colony, and this becomes a hotbed for

pirating, smuggling, and privateering.
At the height of its operations,

is bringing in millions of dollars a
year in resources and money for Lafitte,

and he has at least 1 ,000 privateers at
any given time operating from his base.

It has between 100 and 200 permanent
structures, but the most stately of all

them is Lafitte's own residence, Maison
Rouge.

Lafitte brings everything that he holds
dear, including his common -law wife,

Katish Biard, and their children, to
Maison Rouge.

It's believed he also brings something
else important here.

He has a cannon on the roof.

36 -pound cannons poking out of the
windows and 40 -pound cannons encircling

home. It's basically Pirate Fort Knox.

It was here at Maison Rouge that Lafitte
spent his happiest and seemingly safest

days as a pirate.

For Lafitte, a man who has made his
entire career smuggling prized luxury

to the citizens all along the Gulf
Coast, Maison Rouge was the place where

finally settled down and enjoyed some of
those finer things.

Rumors have it that he stocked his
mansion with the finest brandies, finest

wines, most expensive Chinas, and
everything that you could imagine

from the European marketplace.

But this cushy period of Lafitte's life
comes to an abrupt end in 1821.

Lafitte's domestic bliss was once again
to be short -lived because he really

couldn't stop pirating. So he made the
decision to attack an American merchant

ship.

This was something that, of course,
could not be tolerated by the United

The U .S. government has finally had
enough.

It doesn't matter that Lafitte is living
outside of U .S. jurisdictions there in

Galveston Island.

What matters is that he has now become
this irredeemable thorn in their side.

The USS Enterprise arrives there in
Galveston Bay and tells Lafitte that he

go quietly or he can go out in a bang.

Lafitte realizes that if he makes a
stand, he's going to die.

So he strikes a deal with the U .S. Navy
to leave Campeche without a fight.

Lafitte orders an evacuation of the
island, sets his colony on fire, and

away.

So the question arises, did Lafitte take
his treasure with him, or did he stash

it on the island for later?

Some believe that it's stashed in the
ground underneath the foundation of

Rouge.

His home of Maison Rouge was burned to
its foundation.

So today, what one sees is only a
remnant, an echo really, of Lafitte's

Galveston Island.

Although a pirate mansion seems like an
intriguing place to look for treasure,

it hasn't really spurred the same kind
of gold -hunting frenzies that other

locations have.

In fact, as far as we know, only a
handful of attempts have been made to

anything of value at Maison Rouge.

Supposedly in the 1940s, two men were
hired to clean up the property of Maison

Rouge. They did the job for a few days
and then disappeared. One of them

resurfaces years later in East Texas.
He's now the owner of a big farm.

The other is killed in World War II and
leaves behind for his family an estate

worth more than $60 ,000.

Now, that's an enormous sum of money in
the 1940s. One can only speculate that

they maybe found a bit of pirate
treasure.

In 1984, there was an archaeological
investigation conducted by the

of Houston around the site of Maison
Rouge, but all they found there were

bottles from the 1880s and no signs of
any of Lafitte's treasure.

This opens up another possibility.

Maybe he took it with him.

We have to consider that Lafitte was not
going to leave his treasure along with

his colony and that he actually did
manage to load it all up onto his ship

to sail off into the distance.

When John Lafitte is forced to leave his
Galveston base in 1821, it's believed

that he fled aboard his flagship, the
Pride, with his family and a cargo hold

full of treasure.

There's very little historic record of
what happens to Lafitte after he leaves

Galveston Island.

There are some prevailing theories,
however, that suggest different outcomes

him. One is that he ended up in the
Yucatan and continued his pirate

there in the Gulf of Mexico for many
more years. Another theory is that he

down with the pride.

Probably in a hurricane, as one legend
says.

There is some historical evidence that
he made his way to Gran Colombia and

there obtained for the first time a
truly legitimate letter of marque to

pursue Spanish ships.

Until he picked a fight with a warship.

and died at sea.

Some people say that he rescued Napoleon
from Elba and they both make their way

back to Louisiana together.

However, there are other people that
believe he may have faked his own death.

The most interesting theory is that he
simply changed his name, gave himself a

new identity, and moved to North
Carolina under the name of Lorenzo

no one ever heard from Jean Lafitte
again.

No one knows for sure what happened to
Lafitte or his treasure.

It may have been that he didn't get very
far and that his life of piracy caught

up to him.

But there's one more possible theory
that interests modern treasure hunters.

One legend says that after his encounter
with the U .S. Navy at Galveston

Island, Lafitte sailed his ship, the
Pride, into Trinity Bay.

He sailed into Trinity River there
because the Gulf access was blocked.

by the United States government.

Then Lafitte sank the pride to the
bottom of Lake Miller with all of his

treasure aboard, most likely with the
intention of returning to claim his

treasure.

The theory that Lafitte sailed the Pride
up the Trinity River has attracted a

lot of attention.

So according to local legends down there
in Galveston Island, in the 1850s, a

cotton gin operator claimed that his
logs had gotten stuck on some kind of

wreckage there in the lake. This
supposed underwater shipwreck is where

is said to have sank the Pride. And the
cotton gin operator claims that he even

walked on the ship's deck.

But this remains just a family story.

because there's no way to bring this
ship to the surface.

Then, in 1949, two businessmen mount an
expedition to explore Lake Miller.

They discover what they believe is the
hull of an old ship, somewhere beneath

feet of mud and moss at the bottom of
this lake.

And they go to the Corpus Christi
newspaper with that information.

There is a frenzy of treasure hunting
excitement around this. In response, the

state land commission ends up shutting
off permits to search Trinity Bay for

remains of Lafitte's ship.

So the operation gets called off about
two weeks later because too many people

are coming out looking for lost pirate
treasure and no other search has been

mounted since.

This is a theory that... It has not been
debunked necessarily, but the pride was

his flagship vessel. It was a pretty
substantive ship. So there's some doubt

to whether he really would have been
able to navigate the tiny lake path in

order to get to Lake Miller.

One thing we can say is that Lafitte
really began and remained a man of great

mystery. And this element of mystery, of
his origins and of his final destiny,

is part of what makes his legend so long
-lasting.

To this day, if you go to Galveston
Island or you drive through southern

Louisiana, you're going to see Lafitte's
name on anything and everything.

Trinkets at the gas station, souvenir
shops, golf courses.

From Texas to Louisiana, the legend of
Lafitte's lost treasure is certainly

alive and well.

Jean Lafitte, in a lot of ways,
represents what people perceive as

it also masks who Lafitte actually was
as a person. In reality, his actions as

pirate and as a human trafficker would
have limited the freedoms of thousands

people in the areas that they were
operating in.

So we have these two very diverse
aspects of Lafitte.

You have someone who is an antihero.
He's a criminal.

But so much lore surrounds him because
he was rich, and we don't know what

became of his treasure.

His story is unfinished.

Joan Lafitte leaves behind a legacy of
tales and a wealth of treasure that may

still be out there somewhere, to be
found by those willing to brave the

and bayous he knew so well.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching.

History's greatest mysteries.