“Arriving at the gallows, which were at the north side of the State Penitentiary on the western outskirts of Richmond, a massive crowd estimated at 7,000 gathered on a nearby hill called “Oregon,” then ogled and strained to watch the hapless prisoners ascend the platform. A Priest and a Protestant Minister prayed with them through an interpreter. The three requested in Spanish that the people pray for their souls and their bodies be properly buried.
After the ropes around their necks were fastened to the heavy oak crossbeam, an officer pulled the cord that dropped the platform.
But things did not go as planned.”

So reads a portion of a new Medium piece by local writer Dale Brumfield, entitled “Frankenstein and the Three Spaniards”. Brumfield, a Throttle magazine alumnus, has a knack for finding juicy Virginia history- he wrote a book on Oregon Hill’s former neighbor, the Virginia State Penitentiary. He also has a new novel out called “Naked Savages”. While the pirate story has been written about before, Brumfield’s account adds the tantalizing detail that the executed pirates were reinterred in a single unmarked grave in Oregon Hill, where they have remained undisturbed. There’s more history to be uncovered…