From Manhattan Socialite to Loser Rotting in a Gibbet
Kidd’s enterprise seemed a failure, so his crew urged him to attack some passing vessels in order to make the voyage worth their time. They threatened to mutiny if he declined. Under pressure, Kidd reluctantly began to attack ships not covered by his privateer commission. He overcame his early scruples, and by 1698, he was a full blown pirate. That year, he sealed his fate when he attacked a British East India Company ship. The powerful company exerted its influence in London, and Kidd was declared an outlaw. By the time he returned to the American Colonies, Kidd’s public image had gone from charismatic socialite and philanthropist, to that of an infamous pirate.
Worse for Kidd, attitudes towards piracy had hardened in his absence. When he began his voyage, things had been lenient. Now, crackdown was in the air, and the authorities were eager to make an example of somebody. So Kidd was seriously unlucky to return when he did. He was arrested as soon as he docked in Boston, was clapped in chains, and shipped across the Atlantic for prosecution in London. There, his powerful contacts abandoned him. He was swiftly tried and convicted, then hanged on May 23rd, 1701, with his corpse left to rot in a cage on the Thames for all to see.