OK here is some info on the Joe or Jay Wilson the guy I think may have found some of Lafitte's treasure. He seems to had went by both names but I will just call him Joe here.
A year or so after WWII Joe showed up in Galveston and rented a room in Auntie Rose's rooming house which he keep till Rose died in the 60's. The first year or so Joe spend his time on the docks talking to local fisherman or at the library looking over old news papers he never talked about treasure but had a interest in Captain Campbell one of Lafitte's men that stayed behind. We have a thread about Cap. Campbell so I am not going into it here. Joe finally got a boat from somewhere and started spending day after day exploring the bays around the island but rumor says he spend most of his time around Deer island Virginia Point and Swan Lake all places that Cap Campbell lived over the years. Around 1960 he built a shack at Swan Lake and took to spending weeks on end there only to coming to the island when he need supplies and would spend a few days at the rooming house with Rose. {I have never been able to figure out their relationship but there was only 10 years different in their age so maybe who knows}.
Rose died in 1963 owing everybody in town money so her property was sold off and Joe got the balance of 2 or 3 hundred bucks. The story goes that Rose had been financing Joes treasure hunting for years. After Rose died Joe only came to town every few months and never stay very long but always had money lots of it if you believe the old timers around here,this is when the rumors started about Joe finding some treasure.
When I was a kid I spend a lot of time around Virginia Point and Swan Lake hunting civil war relics and hoping to find some Lafitte treasure myself and remember seeing Joes shack and Joe walking the shore line are fishing around Swan Lake. Never had the guts to try and talk to him everyone said he was crazy and hated people so I stayed away.
Joe's body was found floating in the ship channel in 1975 he had a heart attack fell out of his boat and drowned according to the police report. I was in Mexico at the time but when I got back and heard the story I hightailed out to Joes shack but it had been searched dozens of times by the look of things and there was a bunch of hole dug allover the area. Did anyone find anything I don't know if they did they keep it to their self.
In the 1980's a local shady coin dealer was selling gold and silver coins all dated from around 1800 that he claimed he had bought from Joe over the years. I never believed his story and always figured he may have had some Lafitte treasure but not from Joe. This was around the same time that there was a rumor of a small Lafitte cache being found on the west end of the island. I believe that was what he was selling and just using Joe to cover for the finder.
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Treasure is a Harsh Mistress
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