The notorious Patty Cannon (ca 1760-1829), leader of the Eastern Shore Cannon-Johnson gang of slave catchers, is indicted for the murder of four Black people.
Cannon’s gang, which includes Black members, operates for a decade in Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania in the 1820s, kidnapping hundreds of Blacks, free and enslaved, and selling them south as part of the reverse underground railroad. Cannon is also a serial killer, admitting to at least two dozen murders. Attempts by Pennsylvanians to recapture those kidnapped and stop the gang lead finally to Cannon’s arrest in 1829 after human remains are found on her property. She dies in jail, possibly by suicide, while awaiting trial. Her house, near Preston in Caroline County, has been demolished.
