José Gaspar

Mythical Spanish pirate
the Spanish footballer

José Gaspar, also known by his nickname Gasparilla (supposedly lived c. 1756 – 1821), is a fictional Spanish pirate who terrorized the Gulf of Mexico from his base in southwest Florida during Florida's second Spanish period (1783 to 1821). Though details about his early life, motivations, and piratical exploits differ in various tellings, they agree that the 'Last of the Buccaneers" was a remarkably active pirate who amassed a huge fortune by taking many prizes and ransoming many hostages during his long career and that he died by leaping from his ship rather than face capture by the U. S. Navy, leaving behind his still hidden treasure.

In some versions of the story, Gaspar began life as a poverty stricken Spanish youth who kidnapped a young girl for ransom. Captured and given a choice between prison and joining the navy, he chose to go to sea, where he served with distinction for several years before leading a mutiny against a tyrannical captain and fleeing to Florida with a stolen ship.

In all versions, the renegade settled along the virtually uninhabited southwest coast of Spanish Florida around 1783 and turned to piracy aboard his ship, the Floriblanca. Different versions of Gaspar's legend relate to various episodes in his piratical career. One of the most famous involves a Spanish princess (or Mexican, depending on the version) named Useppa, who was a passenger on a captured ship. The noblewoman rejected the pirate's advances until he threatened to behead her if she would not submit to his lust. Still, she refused, and he killed her in a rage (or alternately, because his crew demanded her death). Gaspar instantly regretted the deed and took her body to a nearby island, which he named Useppa in her honor, and buried her himself. Some versions identify the lady with Josefa de Mayorga, daughter of Martín de Mayorga, viceroy of New Spain from 1779 to 1782, and contend that the island's name evolved. However, no evidence has been found to support this claim. Gaspar has also been associated with Henri Caesar and "Old King John", other semi legendary pirates for whom there is little to no historical evidence.

Most versions of the legend agree that José Gaspar met his end in late 1821, soon after Spain transferred control of the Florida Territory to the United States. Gaspar had decided to retire after almost four decades of pirating, and he and his crew gathered on Gasparilla Island to split the enormous treasure cache he'd collected over his long career. During the distribution process, a lookout spotted what appeared to be a vulnerable British merchant ship sailing nearby. Gaspar could not resist taking one last prize, so he led his crew aboard the Floriblanca to pursue their prey; however, when the pirates fired a warning shot, their intended victim raised an American flag to reveal that it was no merchant vessel, but the United States Navy pirate hunting schooner USS Enterprise in disguise. A fierce battle ensued in which the Floriblanca was hulled several times below the waterline and began to sink. Rather than surrender, Gaspar wrapped an anchor chain around his waist. He leaped from the bow, dramatically shouting, "Gasparilla dies by his own hand, not the enemy's!" before plunging into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico within sight of the shore. There is little evidence that pirates of any era based their operations in southwest Florida. The vast majority of loot taken by real life pirates consisted not of Aztec gold or Inca silver plundered from massive Spanish galleons but of easily liquidated trade goods such as food, tobacco, and lumber taken from small merchant vessels. Despite claims that he was the most feared pirate in the Gulf of Mexico for several decades, searches of contemporaneous American newspapers have found no mention of the name "Gaspar" or "Gasparilla" or of a pirate ship called Floriblanca, and searches of U. S. Navy archives have found no mention of Gaspar in ships' logs or official court records of the many well documented piracy trials of the era. The various versions of the Gaspar legend claim that he constructed a "regal" home base there, with the initially written account claiming that his hideout consisted of over a dozen buildings plus a tall watchtower perched atop an "ancient Indian mound filled with gold and the bleached bones of his victims". However, no physical evidence has ever been found to support these claims. Gasparilla Island became an active shipping point soon after phosphate was found nearby in the late 1800s, and modern port facilities, along with a railway and the first bridge to the mainland, were constructed at that time. Excellent sport fishing waters nearby helped the area transition to less industrial uses with the opening of the Gasparilla Inn & Club at the end of the railroad line and the establishment of the resort town of Boca Grande in the early 1900s. Hundreds of homes along with a golf course and Gasparilla Island State Park were constructed over the 20th century, and though virtually all of Gasparilla Island above the high tide line has now been developed, no trace of Gaspar's "pirate kingdom" has ever been uncovered. As explained by the Boca Grande Historical Society, Calusa and other Native American sites in the Charlotte Harbor region have suffered "unimaginable damage" at the hands of "looters in search of a non pirate's non treasure."

The origin of the Gaspar legend is still being determined. Local folklore about an earlier age featuring the native Calusa people, Spanish explorers, and pirates developed in southwest Florida in the late 1880s as small settlements in the area grew into towns. At the time, the undeveloped Ten Thousand Islands to the south were a refuge for isolated pioneers and real life outlaws, though these were land based criminals in hiding, not sea going buccaneers. Local folklore was spread informally, and little written documentation of these stories survives. In the early decades of the 20th century, some pirate tales coalesced into the legend of Jose Gaspar, who was obscure even in the Charlotte Harbor area but who would soon become much better known further north along Florida's Gulf coast.

John Gómez (also known as Juan Gómez and Panther John) was a real person who became entangled with the legend of José Gaspar. In the late 1800s, Gómez lived in a shack with his wife on otherwise uninhabited Panther Key, a small spit of land near Marco Island in the Ten Thousand Islands region of Southwest Florida. He was well known along Florida's Gulf coast as an expert hunting and fishing guide, boat pilot, and an eccentric teller of tall tales, mostly about himself. His self reported age and birthplace varied, even on official documents. In the 1870 United States Census, he was born in 1828. However, during the 1880 US census, Gómez claimed to have been born in France in 1785. In 1885, he told state census takers that he had been born in Corsica, and reported to the 1900 US Census that he was born in Portugal in 1776. Meanwhile, various contemporary letters and news articles report that Gómez claimed at different times to have been born in 1778, 1781 or 1795 in Honduras, Portugal, or Mauritius. The brochure consisted of two parts: a telling of the legend of José Gaspar followed by a promotional section touting the Gasparilla Inn and the Charlotte Harbor area in general. It was freely distributed to guests at the Inn and northern markets to draw attention to the recently opened tourist destination. Assuming that Gasparilla's story was authentic, Bradlee included many details in his book Piracy In The West Indies And Its Suppression without attempting to verify the information. However, none of these claims were true, as no treasure, murder victims, or other physical trace of Gaspar's exploits has ever been found in the area, and John Gómez drowned while fishing alone, making a deathbed confession impossible. Beater published several additional books about southwest Florida; some marketed as fiction, some as non fiction, and some as guidebooks for tourists, all including tongue in cheek dramatic tales about Gaspar and other pirates. His works and the writings of other local authors with similar themes expanded the story of Gaspar further while also sowing confusion about the integrity of the legend. However, upon examination, experts at the Tampa Bay History Center determined that the box contained several non precious old coins, souvenirs from early Gasparilla parades, and a plat map from the 1920s with local streets, businesses, and landmarks from that time clearly depicted. The origin of the hand remained a mystery, though the curator of the history center opined that it might be a mummified monkey hand. Under the guise of "Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla" (YMKG), an organization modeled after the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes, the "invaders" donned pirate costumes and rode through the streets on horseback encouraging residents to follow them to the festivities. The event was a hit, and the following year, the Krewe organized a parade in which all 60 of Tampa's cars rode through downtown. The first seaborne "invasion" came in 1911, and YMKG has organized a theatrical pirate invasion and parade almost every year since. The mayor of Tampa then surrenders the key of the city to the "pirate captain", and a "victory parade" ensues down Bayshore Boulevard. Dozens of other Krewes have joined the festivities over the years, becoming one of the United States' largest parades. An average of over 300,000 people attend the event, which contributes over $20 million to the local economy.

Since no one organization controls the names "Gaspar" or "Gasparilla", they are used by many businesses, organizations, and events in the greater Tampa Bay area. Others have names inspired by the mythical pirate, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League, who began play in 1976. Another sports related example is the Gasparilla Bowl, a college football bowl game once played in Tropicana Field as the "St. Petersburg Bowl" that changed its name when it moved to Tampa in 2018. The legend of Gasparilla has been featured in several television shows and publications. Recent examples include September 2019 episodes of the TV series Expedition Unknown on the Discovery Channel and Code of the Wild on the Travel Channel, both of which followed amateur treasure hunters (unsuccessfully) searching for Gaspar's treasure in the Charlotte Harbor area.