Jean Lafitte, also spelled Jean Laffite or Jean Laffitte, was a human man.
Description[]
Jean Lafitte was a notorious buccaneer based in New Orleans near the beginning of the 19th century; the Ghost Host of the Haunted Mansion claimed that he crossed paths with him many times during his career as the pirate Captain Blood. “Part pirate, part patriot,” Lafitte was a ruthless pirate to civilians, but also believed in the cause of the United States of America, which he helped defend in the Battle of New Orleans on January the 8th, 1815. However, he was later renounced by the city, and, heartbroken, vanished into thin air; his last known public appearance was in the Texan city of Galveston.
Behind the scenes[]
As documented on Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion, Jean Lafitte's primary claim to fame in the Disney universe was a cancelled masterplan of unifying all of New Orleans Square in Disneyland around the figure of this real-life pirate, whose story would have tied in with The Haunted Mansion but also Pirates of the Caribbean and Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. A barricaded crypt next to the Mansion, marked “1764”, was the only element of the mega-theme to be completed; it would originally have opened into a crypt full of pirate treasure, with a passageway leading into Tom Sawyer Island.
The idea of making Lafitte a central figure may have been inspired by his actual debut in Disney lore, Lafitte's Anchor, a piece of theming which was present in Disneyland from opening day (July the 17th, 1955) onwards.
