It's 9 p.m. on a Wednesday night in New Orleans and I'm sitting in a bar

sipping a hard seltzer and watching a small fireplace crackle and pop. I'm here to see a man. But the bar is crowded and loud, and I don't

know if he'll actually come out tonight. In the back corner of an area that looks like

a cobbled addition to the place. A piano player sings Billy

Joel and Elton John beneath strings of blue Christmas lights, and some people sing along.

And as I look around the crowd of mostly tourists, filling every

available seat, I start to worry he'll be a no-show. The man I'm here to see

isn't really one for crowds.

Even though there's portraits of him on the walls of this establishment,

he's hardly ever here.

Also, he's been dead for 200 years.

The bar I'm in is called Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar,

and it used to belong to a violent 18th century French pirate named Jean Lafitte,

and his ghost is said to haunt the premise.

It's one of the oldest surviving buildings in New Orleans. The bar itself was built in the late 1700s as a private

residence and hasn't changed much since then. As I get up to walk over to the man playing tiny dance around the piano, I can feel the uneven

foundation under my feet, adding to the effect the one seltzer had on me.

Even the fireplace in the center of the room is brick and looks ancient.

And I wondered to myself if Jean Lafitte ever tended to it when he was using this place as a front

for his illegal smuggling operations.

There's a reason Jean Lafite is still talked about today in New Orleans.

He was a legend, even in his day.

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