Discover more from Real Pirate History
Alexander Tardy was French-born and grew up on the island of St Domingo (present-day Haiti), the eldest son of a merchant. He lived there for many years without incident. When the revolution of 1791 broke out, he decided to leave for the United States. He settled in Philadelphia where he became a respectable member of the mercantile industry there until around his late 40s.
Tardy was a small and neat man, with a dark complexion and delicate features. Although he could become animated in conversation, he never laughed. At the most, a twitch of his lips indicated his amusement. He spoke several languages, with a low tone of voice. He articulated himself very well. Most of all, as we shall discover, Alexander Tardy possessed a supreme and unbounded confidence in his personal resourcefulness.
Sometime before 1813, his business failed. Probably embarrassed about a rare fall from grace, Tardy sought ways to maintain his lifestyle. He persuaded an acquaintance, Captain Smith of the frigate Congress, to accept his services as his steward. Soon after they set sail, Captain Smith died, allegedly of a pulmonary complaint. No-one knows what became of Captain Smith’s possessions.
Tardy next moved to Boston, where he became an apprentice to a German dentist. But his debts soon overtook him and he began to steal to make ends meet. The German dentist caught him and Tardy then served a three year prison term for stealing a pocket-book.
After his release, Tardy went to New York to escape his debtors. He took a passage on a schooner commanded by Captain Latham. During the voyage, eight passengers mysteriously died. Tardy, presenting himself as a key witness, quickly accused the ship’s cook of murdering the passengers by poisoning their food.
Despite the cook’s protestations of his innocence and other people onboard attesting to his good character, he was a black man accused of killing white people. It is worth noting here that this statement comes from the original account of Tardy’s life, not me.
The court quickly convicted the cook of murder and executed him in Charleston.
Meanwhile, Tardy remained in Charleston. He gained employment but quickly amassed debts and alienated friends and acquaintances. Unable to repay his debts, he took passage to Boston and, based on his brief training as a dentist, joined the schooner Regulator as the ship’s doctor. Before long, everyone onboard fell ill. Everyone but Tardy that is. One passenger, a German national, died. At the time, the other passengers considered themselves fortunate to have a ‘doctor’ onboard and dutifully took the ‘treatment’ Tardy offered.
Tardy then told the surviving passengers he had detected arsenic in the sugar and accused the ship’s steward of the German’s murder. The steward was another black man of good character. This time Regulator’s Captain and the ship’s owner shed doubt on Tardy’s accusations. Suspicion then fell on Tardy himself when he insisted that the dead German passenger had bequeathed him all his possessions in return for his medical services. Tardy was arrested and convicted of poisoning.
He spent seven years of hard labour in the Walnut Street prison of Philadelphia. In prison, he boasted frequently of committing several more murders to other inmates.
Up next: Tardy arrives in Cuba