WANTAGH, N.Y. \u2013 An amateur historian has stumbled upon a provocative clue to the enduring mystery of what became of a notorious pirate who raided a royal Indian treasure ship centuries ago, implicating a co-conspirator whose name is familiar to many New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
James Bailey, who five years ago made headlines<\/a> after unearthing ancient coins believed to be linked to English pirate Capt. Henry Every, now says that colonial-era documents suggest the \u201cKing of the Pirates\u201d and his violent crew got an assist from Thomas Jones, the namesake of Jones Beach, New York\u2019s most visited<\/a> state park after Niagara Falls.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have millions of visitors and generations of New Yorkers going to this beach,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cNobody knew that he was actually a major player in arguably the biggest heist in the history of piracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Since his big find, Bailey has pored through documents to dig even deeper into the bloody 1695 raid of the Ganj-i-Sawai on the Red Sea and the mystery of what happened to Every. <\/p>\n The pirate crew is said to have tortured, killed and raped<\/a> those aboard the royal ship, sparking global outrage and what is considered the first worldwide manhunt. Some were caught and executed, but many others, including Every, were never heard from again and are believed to have scattered to Europe and the American colonies. <\/p>\n Documents, including depositions from Every\u2019s associates, suggest Jones was recruited to serve as a \u201cwheelman,\u201d helping the pirates evade authorities after they made off with tens of millions of dollars’ worth of gold and silver, according to Bailey. <\/p>\n Other documents show that New York\u2019s governor, charged by the British crown to crack down on piracy, investigated Jones years later after he\u2019d remade himself as the wealthy proprietor of a whaling operation on the barrier beach on Long Island that now bears his name.<\/p>\n Ghost stories and tall tales after Jones’ death<\/p>\n Bailey\u2019s research, which he hopes to have published, sheds light on a part of Jones\u2019 checkered past long alluded to but never quite fleshed out in local history books, says John Hanc, author of \u201cJones Beach: An Illustrated History,\u201d which includes a chapter on Jones. <\/p>\n Jones was a major in the English military before moving to the American colonies, initially settling in Rhode Island before eventually becoming a prominent businessman and landowner in New York. Jones owned thousands of acres of land on early Long Island, then just a rural expanse well east of the rapidly growing New York City.<\/p>\n But rumors of how he\u2019d initially made his fortune persisted long after his death in 1713. Before it was demolished in the early 1800s, his crumbling mansion was said to be haunted by ghosts<\/a> and strange occurrences. Jones\u2019 grave was repeatedly desecrated by robbers searching for buried treasure before it was relocated to a family burial plot behind a nearby church.<\/p>\n