THE GREEN HAT

James Cassidy was a notorious bootlegger and rum runner from South Florida. Witty and charismatic, he always got out of trouble with his skills of persuasion and charm. Cassidy went by many names. The US Marshals called him the “rum pirate of the Bahamas”. Local Floridians referred to him as, “the man in the green hat”, since he loved donning his lucky, green fedora. 

James spent most of his time running from the law, as he smuggled illegal alcohol from the Bahamas to South Florida. Slipping through the grips of the US Coast Guard added to his notoriety, and was made possible by his speed boat, The Leviathan, the fastest sea vessel in the Atlantic.

During one summer, James was intercepted by a US Coast Guard cutter, as he was attempting to transport rum from Bimini to Fort Lauderdale. A major tropical storm was brewing over the Atlantic, and relying solely on his gut, James sped through the storm in an attempt to lose them. 

Both boats were pummeled by the endless barrage of 30 foot waves until the Coast Guard cutter capsized. After the storm, the soldiers sat patiently atop their overturned vessel. A piece of wood, covered with seaweed, slowly floated towards them. One of the soldiers curiously retrieved the piece of wood and wiped off the seaweed, revealing that it was actually a piece of the boat’s stern, with the words, The Leviathan. 

The case of the Man in the Green Hat was closed, and the search was over, as everyone believed that he perished in the middle of that tropical storm.

Many myths and stories sprung from that legendary chase. Some say James was shipwrecked due to the storm and lived off of the rum until his demise. Some say he was transported through the Bermuda Triangle to another place in time. Some say he was taken by beautiful sirens as he was lost at sea after the storm.

Years later, a group of men hunting for wild boars noted that they spotted a mysterious person, possibly a bootlegger, living deep in the swamps of South Florida. They added that the person wore a peculiar green fedora.