These four men were sailors aboard Plattsburgh, a Baltimore-based merchant schooner. On a voyage to Turkey that began in the summer of 1816, the four men were part of a group who killed Captain William Hatchett and sailors Thomas Baynard and William Gaison and absconded with the ship’s cargo.
They were apprehended in Denmark and returned to the United States to face trial in federal court in Boston.
The men were convicted of murder and piracy on December 30, 1818, and sentenced to death on January 21, 1819.
John Williams, Francis Frederick, John Rog, and Peter Peterson were hanged together near Boston on February 18, 1819.
See Niles Weekly Register, November 16, 1816
The Federal Death Penalty Project 