The Crown’s Perfect Scapegoat - May 23, 1701

On May 23, 1701, Captain William Kidd was hanged twice at Execution Dock in London. History calls him a pirate. The documented record calls him something more troubling: a man who sailed under royal commission, whose exculpatory evidence was deliberately withheld from his trial, and whose wealthy backers watched him die without saying a word. This episode of The Daily History Chronicle follows the money, the mislaid documents, and the pattern that put Oliver North in a courtroom 285 years later.