Captain Thunderbolt: The Man, The Myths, The Legend
By William B. Henry
If one ventures out to the small New Haven village of Westville, there’s a calming effect that seemingly exists, separating the area from the rest of the hustle and bustle of the city. However, in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was a well-known and terribly kept secret that Westville was also the residency of the notorious New England pirate known as Captain Thunderbolt. In his book Westville: Tales from a Connecticut Hamlet, local historian Colin Caplan writes that there was a man named Dr. John Wilson, born John Doherty in England, who was believed to have been the man behind the pirate (Caplan 25), with The New Haven Union noting that his pirate name was self-dubbed. There are few known details of the pirate’s background prior to his arrival in Vermont and later Westville, with many of the dates given in Caplan’s collection of sources contradicting one another, suggesting that Thunderbolt was as much a myth and mystery as he was a real historical figure.
Prior to his American arrival, it is known that Wilson had studied medicine in Edinburgh, and after moving to Vermont, opened his own medical practice (Caplan 26). However, despite the fact that he was a respected doctor that fully funded the building of a new school house in Brookline, Vermont, the details of his times in Westville were exaggerated during the twentieth century to the point that they created an immediate and sinister icon that turned Thunderbolt from an actual man to a legend, with dated sightings of him ranging from the 1700s to the mid-1800s. His legend survived centuries after his Westvillian exploits, as even today, there is a condominium complex bearing his assumed moniker, the Captain Thunderbolt Office Condominiums at 88 Bradley Street in nearby Woodbridge.
When reading through the accounts of the alleged pirate, there are two main themes that consistently highlight the many characterizations. The first was his attitude, described as a “notorious British highwayman who robbed his victims with lightning speed,” though he allegedly prided himself on this policy that he didn’t rob women or children (Caplan 25). He was known to have been a regular at a local Westville tavern, where he would often invite people to drink with him, which was described as less of an invitation and more of an order, which usually resulted in Thunderbolt getting a drinking companion, regardless of when he went into the bar. Interestingly, a 1913 New Haven Union article detailed how one of the few men who denied one of the pirate’s invitations was Aaron Burr, who would later be known for his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton, and was something of a local hero based on his defense of Westville from the British raid of 1779.
The story of how he found his bride is even more outlandish, as it essentially described how Wilson stormed a farmer’s house one night, and captured his daughter, bringing her back to live with him. While she was later rescued from Thunderbolt, she was said to have died soon after from the shock of everything that had happened. In an interview with the New Haven Register, even historian Caplan noted that the tale was “too romantic to be true,” highlighting how his story has strayed from fact over time.
The biggest memorialization of Captain Thunderbolt came not from history books, but from the 1974 movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. In this version of the story, the legend was updated for modern times, imagining Thunderbolt as a car and bank thief in Montana, and his onetime accomplice Michael Martin, whose alias was “Captain Lightfoot” as the brains of the operation. The movie was meant to capitalize on the success of movies from the western and heist genre, and kept few actual details, instead describing a heavily fictional version of two bank robbers that happened to share the same names as their real-life counterparts.
In contrast to the movie depiction of Lightfoot, author W.R. Burnett’s 1954 novel account of Lightfoot and Thunderbolt’s exploits highlighted a very different relationship, based in large part on Lightfoot’s deathbed confessional recounting of his life immediately prior to his execution in Massachusetts. In this confessional, Lightfoot described Doherty as “an elegant man, between thirty and forty years old, with an uncommon appearance of muscle and strength, with wonderful expression” (Burnett, 19). Martin’s description of Thunderbolt contradicts the legendary and cartoonish versions of a pirate that had often been purported, instead describing a sharp, cunning man that wasn’t afraid to expose people’s greatest weaknesses and exploit their strengths when they would be beneficial to him. His account presented Thunderbolt as manipulative, and seemed to place a large amount of blame on Thunderbolt for their misdeeds. One problem that should be noted with identifying the true identity of Captain Lightfoot is that there was a second thief operating under the same moniker at the time in Ireland, whose own exploits often get confused with Martin’s, which was partially the case in the film.
In 2009, Thunderbolt was memorialized again, albeit through a slightly more faithful adaptation of the story, when a group of actors known as the Broken Umbrella Theater Troupe got together for a theatrical performance of his tale, reimagining it as a ghost story with a local twist. In this production, the audience would move throughout Westville’s Edgewood Park in a setup similar to a haunted house, adding a highly interactive element to the story. However, the Ryan Gardner, one of the core members of the theater troupe wanted to make it clear that while the story they told was heavily fictionalized, “it’s not like going to a haunted house: there’s an inherent theatrical nature to this tunnel. We’re enlivening it in a way to make it even more theatrical.” The New Haven Register continued by detailing how there were some details that were kept from history, such as Wilson picking out a bride to carry away, though in this case, rather than a farmer’s daughter, it was an audience member.
If one ventures out to the small New Haven village of Westville, there’s a calming effect that seemingly exists, separating the area from the rest of the hustle and bustle of the city. However, in the middle of the nineteenth century, it was a well-known and terribly kept secret that Westville was also the residency of the notorious New England pirate known as Captain Thunderbolt. In his book Westville: Tales from a Connecticut Hamlet, local historian Colin Caplan writes that there was a man named Dr. John Wilson, born John Doherty in England, who was believed to have been the man behind the pirate (Caplan 25), with The New Haven Union noting that his pirate name was self-dubbed. There are few known details of the pirate’s background prior to his arrival in Vermont and later Westville, with many of the dates given in Caplan’s collection of sources contradicting one another, suggesting that Thunderbolt was as much a myth and mystery as he was a real historical figure.
Prior to his American arrival, it is known that Wilson had studied medicine in Edinburgh, and after moving to Vermont, opened his own medical practice (Caplan 26). However, despite the fact that he was a respected doctor that fully funded the building of a new school house in Brookline, Vermont, the details of his times in Westville were exaggerated during the twentieth century to the point that they created an immediate and sinister icon that turned Thunderbolt from an actual man to a legend, with dated sightings of him ranging from the 1700s to the mid-1800s. His legend survived centuries after his Westvillian exploits, as even today, there is a condominium complex bearing his assumed moniker, the Captain Thunderbolt Office Condominiums at 88 Bradley Street in nearby Woodbridge.
When reading through the accounts of the alleged pirate, there are two main themes that consistently highlight the many characterizations. The first was his attitude, described as a “notorious British highwayman who robbed his victims with lightning speed,” though he allegedly prided himself on this policy that he didn’t rob women or children (Caplan 25). He was known to have been a regular at a local Westville tavern, where he would often invite people to drink with him, which was described as less of an invitation and more of an order, which usually resulted in Thunderbolt getting a drinking companion, regardless of when he went into the bar. Interestingly, a 1913 New Haven Union article detailed how one of the few men who denied one of the pirate’s invitations was Aaron Burr, who would later be known for his infamous duel with Alexander Hamilton, and was something of a local hero based on his defense of Westville from the British raid of 1779.
The story of how he found his bride is even more outlandish, as it essentially described how Wilson stormed a farmer’s house one night, and captured his daughter, bringing her back to live with him. While she was later rescued from Thunderbolt, she was said to have died soon after from the shock of everything that had happened. In an interview with the New Haven Register, even historian Caplan noted that the tale was “too romantic to be true,” highlighting how his story has strayed from fact over time.
The biggest memorialization of Captain Thunderbolt came not from history books, but from the 1974 movie Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges. In this version of the story, the legend was updated for modern times, imagining Thunderbolt as a car and bank thief in Montana, and his onetime accomplice Michael Martin, whose alias was “Captain Lightfoot” as the brains of the operation. The movie was meant to capitalize on the success of movies from the western and heist genre, and kept few actual details, instead describing a heavily fictional version of two bank robbers that happened to share the same names as their real-life counterparts.
In contrast to the movie depiction of Lightfoot, author W.R. Burnett’s 1954 novel account of Lightfoot and Thunderbolt’s exploits highlighted a very different relationship, based in large part on Lightfoot’s deathbed confessional recounting of his life immediately prior to his execution in Massachusetts. In this confessional, Lightfoot described Doherty as “an elegant man, between thirty and forty years old, with an uncommon appearance of muscle and strength, with wonderful expression” (Burnett, 19). Martin’s description of Thunderbolt contradicts the legendary and cartoonish versions of a pirate that had often been purported, instead describing a sharp, cunning man that wasn’t afraid to expose people’s greatest weaknesses and exploit their strengths when they would be beneficial to him. His account presented Thunderbolt as manipulative, and seemed to place a large amount of blame on Thunderbolt for their misdeeds. One problem that should be noted with identifying the true identity of Captain Lightfoot is that there was a second thief operating under the same moniker at the time in Ireland, whose own exploits often get confused with Martin’s, which was partially the case in the film.
In 2009, Thunderbolt was memorialized again, albeit through a slightly more faithful adaptation of the story, when a group of actors known as the Broken Umbrella Theater Troupe got together for a theatrical performance of his tale, reimagining it as a ghost story with a local twist. In this production, the audience would move throughout Westville’s Edgewood Park in a setup similar to a haunted house, adding a highly interactive element to the story. However, the Ryan Gardner, one of the core members of the theater troupe wanted to make it clear that while the story they told was heavily fictionalized, “it’s not like going to a haunted house: there’s an inherent theatrical nature to this tunnel. We’re enlivening it in a way to make it even more theatrical.” The New Haven Register continued by detailing how there were some details that were kept from history, such as Wilson picking out a bride to carry away, though in this case, rather than a farmer’s daughter, it was an audience member.
 |
| Martin, Captain Lightfoot, 1926 |
Bibliography:
Beach, Randall. “New Havener’s Book
Travels Back in Time to Tell Westville Tales.” New Haven Register, 08 May 2009.
Canalori, Richard. “The Development of
Westville.” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, http://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1979/3/79.03.01.x.html. Accessed 18
April 2018.
Caplan, Collin. Westville: Tales from a Connecticut Hamlet. History Press, 2009.
Cimino, Michael, director. Thunderbolt and
Lightfoot. United Artists, 1974.
“How Captain Thunderbolt the Fierce Pirate of
1770 Terrorized Quiet Westville.” New
Haven Union, 22 June 1913.
Martin, Michael. Captain Lightfoot: The last of the New England Highwaymen: A narrative
of his life and adventures, with some account of the Notorious Captain
Thunderbolt. The Wayside Press, 1926.
Shelton, Jim. “In a Spooky Part of
Edgewood Park: ‘Pirate of Westville’ comes to Life in ‘Thunderbolt.’” New Haven
Register, 29 October 2009.
Comments
Post a Comment