He wore a blue velvet frock coat, carried a cane and was small of stature with fine features and a dark complexion.

[citation needed] Alexander Tardy was the eldest son born in France in about 1767 to a wealthy family which fled to Saint-Domingue escaping the French Revolution.

In Philadelphia, PA by 1797, Tardy had opened a tin shop which he advertised in the local paper, at 51 North 3rd Street.

Tardy was brought back to shore at Norfolk, VA, after being publicly flogged aboard ship, for stealing the captain's property and selling it to other officers.

Tardy was officially dismissed March 8, 1814, at Portsmouth, NH, having fully served the term of his enlistment from the U.S. Navy.

That same year, he moved to Boston where he apprenticed under a dentist, who dismissed him after finding Tardy to be more interested in the application of the various medications, than dentistry.

In Boston Tardy was caught stealing Captain George Washington Balch's pocketbook from the Eastern Stage House, managed by Benjamin Hale, at 45 Ann St. (now North St.).

On December 3 after Tardy was released from prison, he boarded the brig Maria, a ship bound for Charleston, SC.

He poisoned Captain Latham and 7 others aboard the Maria, secretly putting arsenic in the hash served for breakfast on the morning of the 7th.

One victim, Godfrey Daniel Lehman, a 35-year-old German citizen (from the French military service) on his way to visit his brother in Philadelphia died.

Courro), Jose Hilario Casares (aka Pepe), and Felix Barbieto, intending to steal a ship and flee to Africa or Europe with its cargo.

Tardy and his co-conspirators boarded the brig Crawford at the port of Mantanzas, Cuba, as two separate parties, Felix with a large trunk he claimed contained $17,000 in gold.

The Crawford sailed May 28 with mate Edmund Dobson, Norman Robinson, a North Kingstown RI carpenter named Eldred Holloway, an Irish carpenter, Ferdinand Ginoulhiac, Nathaniel P. Deane, cook Stephen Gibbs, Joseph Doliver, Asa Bicknell, and Oliver Potter.

Victims Captain Brightman, Mr. Robinson, the American and Irish carpenters were sleeping in the cabin, Ginoulhiac, Dobson, Deane, and Doliver were on deck; and Bicknell, Potter and Gibbs were in the forecastle.

Dobson who had awoken to the screeching, ran to the forecastle, where he saw Pepe with a knife in his hand prepared to strike, attempting to avoid the blow he was stabbed in the left shoulder.

Tardy explained that the Captain had refused the Spaniards access to the trunk, causing them to suspect it had been put ashore in Matanzas.

They determined that rather than continue to the United States they should instead sail for Europe and if Dobson would assist them he would be well paid for his services when the ship's cargo was sold.

Shortly afterwards, Potter fell from the rigging landing heavily in the water with no struggle, causing Dobson to assume he was either dead or had fainted.

As dawn arrived, Pepe and Courro came on deck with two muskets intent on shooting the Gibbs who had fled to the fore topmast.

Pepe then descended into the cabin with a rope and returned to deck dragging behind him the dead Irish carpenter, who was then thrown overboard.

Tardy told them he was a Spanish vessel from Matanzas, bound for Hamburg, he refused to take a pilot, saying he knew the bay.

Tardy and Ginoulhiac lowered the boat, taking advantage of the moment Dobson then sculled quickly toward shore.

On reaching shore he related the occurrences aboard the Crawford to the officers at Fort Monroe, who then took possession of the vessel.

(From Find a Grave) On August 1, 1827, Dr. Brereton of the Washington Phrenological Society requested Tardy's skull for study.

The cast sent to Dr. George Combe is now in the collections of The Anatomical Museum of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

[6] The Eulogy of Captain Henry Brightman play Alexander Tardy: The Poisoner, Or Pirate Chief of St. Domingo by M. M. Huet published by T.B.