Philip Maunier, Claude Pain, John Edwards, and Henry McDaniel

Maunier, Pain, Edwards, and McDaniel were among the multinational crew of a ship sailing from Charleston, South Carolina to Bordeaux, France, carrying a shipment of indigo and rice.

Not long after setting sail, the men carried out a plan to kill the ship’s captain and mate with the intention of selling of the cargo. Their plan failed when they were unable to sail the pirated vessel.

Captured by another vessel while still off the coast of the Carolinas, they were brought into port in North Carolina. There they were tried for murder on the high seas before the Circuit Court for the District of North Carolina, convicted, and sentenced to death.

The convictions of Maunier, Pain, Edwards, and McDaniel were upheld on appeal and they were executed by hanging before a crowd of thousands in New Bern, North Carolina on July 6, 1793.

Author: Bill Lofquist

I am a sociologist and death penalty scholar at the State University of New York at Geneseo. I am also a Pittsburgh native. My present research focuses on the history of the death penalty in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pa. View all posts by Bill Lofquist