Welcome to Brain Stuff, a production of I-Hart Radio.

Hey, Brain Stuff, Lauren Volabom here.

And Bonnie, convicted of piracies, felonies and robberies on the high sea in the 1720s,

was a real life pirate of the Caribbean.

Like Blackbeard, she took part in the golden age of piracy.

A time when Europe's colonial powers had to constantly contend with pirates, buccaneers,

and privateers.

It lasted from about 1650 to 1726.

Even back then, true crime narratives were popular among readers, and the public was

hungry for stories about the exploits of criminals and plunders who terrorized the seaways.

Books were written to meet this demand, and a great deal of ink was spent recounting

the lies of Anne Bonnie and other female pirates from the golden age.

Unfortunately, in Bonnie's case, rumors tend to overshadow the facts.

It doesn't help that the latter are somewhat few and far between.

A very little information about her life was documented firsthand, leaving ample room for speculation.

A legend has obscured reality.

The 1724 book, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Natorious Pirates,

sometimes just called A General History of the Pirates.

A popularized, buried treasure, wooden legs, plank walking, and just about every other pirate

stereotype you can think of. Aside from the voice that we think of today for Pirates,

which was popularized by English actor Robert Newton, but that's a different episode.

Anyway, the authorship of this book is a mystery. The listed author is Captain Charles Johnson,

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