Vincenzo Gambi was considered one of the most notorious men in the Gulf of Mexico during the early 19th century and raided shipping in the gulf for well over a decade before his death.
12 Facts About Vincenzo Gambi
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Vincenzo Gambi is briefly mentioned in the 2007 historical novel Strangely Wonderful: Tale of Count Balashazy by Karen Mercury.
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One of Lafitte's partners, Vincenzo Gambi had a long criminal history that preceded him prior to his arrival in New Orleans during the early 19th century.
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Vincenzo Gambi was one of the first men to be approached by Jean Lafitte when he first began to organize the warring factions of the pirates of Grand Terre and the Bay of Barataria.
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Vincenzo Gambi openly defied him however, refusing to this request outright and left the conference.
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Vincenzo Gambi took the prize to Cat Island, roughly 15 miles west of the mouth of Lafourche, with the profits being split between the Lafitte brothers and the rest of the fleet.
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In 1815, Vincenzo Gambi was enlisted by General Jean Robert Marie Humbert and Jose Alvarez de Toledo y Dubois in their conspiracy to invade Texas.
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The crew and passengers of the two ships were held captive in what was described by one of the captives as a "most cruel situation" for four weeks before Vincenzo Gambi send them back in one of the prizes.
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Spanish agents in New Orleans eventually become aware of the intentions of Humbert and Toledo however, especially after Humbert publicly stated his plans in a newspaper article, and both Toledo and Vincenzo Gambi were arrested by Commodore Daniel Patterson for piracy.
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Vincenzo Gambi was one of the hundred or so Baratarians who followed Lafitte after receiving his pardon from President James Madison.
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Vincenzo Gambi was going to be given command of the Victoria, however he left almost immediately after due to a falling out between him and the Lafittes when Pierre Lafitte sued him in a civil suit over a $250 loan on July 2,1817.
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Patterson learned from the crew that they had killed Vincenzo Gambi after learning that he had kept several thousand dollars owed to them they had taken from their latest victim.