GREENOCK, Scotland, July 5 (UPI) -- Historians in Greenock, Scotland, and descendants of the pirate Captain Kidd are incensed with a new U.S. book that claims he was born elsewhere.
In "The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd," author Richard Zacks claims the 17th century pirate was not born in Greenock, but rather Dundee, and further angered the town by suggesting Kidd wasn't the vicious pirate history suggests.
"The mistake about Kidd has snowballed through history to the point where Blackbeard and Kidd are the two most famous pirates who ever lived," Zacks said. "Blackbeard deserves it, but Kidd doesn't at all. At most he made a couple of questionable captures, but there's no way he should go down as the most bloodthirsty pirate."
That sparked outrage in Neil Bristow, a spokesman for a local heritage group, the Greenock Telegraph reported.
"We totally, totally refute that. We have had a look at original trial documents that show Greenock as his place of origin," Bristow said. "We defend Greenock's right to have a folk hero."
