March 22, 1805 - Benito de Soto

Benito de Soto Aboal (22 March 1805 – 25 January 1830) was a Spanish pirate who operated in the Atlantic during the early 19th century. He was the captain of the pirate ship Defensor de Pedro, sometimes incorrectly named as the Burla Negra ("Black Joke"), that was responsible for several piracies in the Atlantic in 1828, in a period of increased piracy following the independence of the new states of South America.

The most notable attacks were on the British Indiaman Morning Star and the American ship Topaz, which involved great violence. De Soto was captured and tried in Gibraltar on 20 January 1830 and he was hanged on 25 January. Other members of his crew were captured in Spain. Their trial there began on 19 November 1829  and ten men were executed on 11 and 12 January 1830.

Content sourced from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito de Soto under CC BY-SA 4.0.