Kentucky Barracuda: Parker H. French

Parker Hardin French was certainly an adventurer and entrepreneur who engaged in elaborate, bold, and ambitious exploits but he was also a magnificent con-man-a barracuda. Those who followed his exploits were variously exasperated, captivated by his audacity and nervy cheek, or humored by his latest escapade. He was judged an incorrigible scoundrel, labeled a chronic megalomaniac, or peddled as a misunderstood victim of his enemies. Many believed him a hero- many just thought him insane.

Some of his efforts may have begun as legitimate endeavors, but they inevitably resulted in double-crossed partners, betrayed allies. and swindled creditors. French was reported killed five times-twice killed in gunfights; executed in Mexico by both hanging and firing squad; and once killed in Nicaragua. For a short while there was a lapse of interesting press reports, so many just presumed that he was already dead, the victim of retribution or excessive alcohol. He ultimately died of natural causes-in his bed.

In the era of steam, sail and horse, the rapidity of French's movement and breadth of his adventures is almost mind-numbing. As a runaway kid he fought in the British Navy in the first Opium War. When he was just 22 years old, he was a commission merchant and, a year later, built the first ocean going ship on the upper Mississippi. Before he was 30, he was the leader of an infamous gold rush expedition; implicated in an irregular invasion of Cuba; jailed bandit and then a paramilitary hero in Mexico; lawyer, district attorney, legislator, journalist, and political enforcer in California; member of an American cabal which governed Nicaragua; and, appointed but rejected Nicaraguan ambassador to the United States. He did not slowdown in his 30s: he was a real estate developer; lawyer; journalist; part of a conspiracy to invade Mexico; suspected seditionist agitator and Confederate agent; jailed as a political prisoner; and, lawyer and purveyor for Union troops. His final days were spent in obscurity but the period was still peppered with the occasional swindle that garnered both regional and national attention. First and foremost, he was always a barracuda.