Peter Alston

Peter Alston (after 1765 – February 8, 1804) was an American counterfeiter, horse thief, highwayman, and river pirate of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

[1] His father had three wives: Mildred McCoy (Peter's mother), Temperance Smith, and Mary Molly Temple.

According to Alex C. Finley, in The History of Russellville and Logan County, Ky, Peter Alston used the alias "James May".

Alston, gang leader Samuel Mason and Peter's father Philip all moved to Stack Island on the lower Mississippi River.

Although Mason claimed he was simply a farmer who had been maligned by his enemies, the presence of $7,000 in currency and twenty human scalps found in his baggage convinced the Spanish he indeed was a river pirate.

Setton and May were recognized and identified as wanted criminals, Harpe and Alston were arrested, tried in U.S. federal court, found guilty of piracy, and hanged in Old Greenville, Jefferson County, Mississippi Territory in early 1804.