Samuel Mason (Ohio River pirate)

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Samuel Mason (1739 – 1803)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Mason

Samuel Ross Mason, also spelled Meason, was a Virginia militia captain,
on the American western frontier, during the American Revolutionary War.

After the war, he became the leader of the Mason Gang, a criminal gang of river pirates and highwaymen on the lower Ohio River and the Mississippi River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Spanish Louisana government officials arrested Samuel Mason and his men, early in 1803.

Mason was to be handed over to the American authorities in the Mississippi Territory, as all crimes he had been convicted of appeared to have taken place in American territory or against American river boats.

Mason was shot in the head attempting to escape.