William Kidd
Explorer
Scottish explorer who was executed on charges of piracy by the English Parliament in 1701. However, the accounts of his actions as a pirate contained more fiction than fact.
The first records of his existence date back to 1689, when he was a member of a pirate crew who sailed the Caribbean.
The remains of the Quedagh Merchant, the ship he abandoned, were discovered in 2007 and displayed at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis in 2011.
His father, Captain John Kyd, was lost at sea.
The pervasive belief that he hid buried treasure led to the writing of Treasure Island by Robert Stevenson.