Blackbeard is remembered as the ultimate bloodthirsty pirate, yet before his final battle there are zero verified accounts of him ever murdering a captive. This episode dismantles the mythology to reveal the calculating, literate businessman behind the most famous facial hair in history.

From a likely respectable Bristol upbringing to apprenticeship under Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach built a terrifying brand that made violence unnecessary. We follow the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the Charleston blockade, his strategic downsizing, and his violent end at Ocracoke Inlet.

• How his smoking-beard persona was a calculated psychological operation
• Blockading Charleston and demanding a chest of medicine as ransom
• The suspicious grounding that let him strand and rob his own crew
• His money-laundering arrangement with a North Carolina governor
• Lieutenant Maynard’s trap and the legal chaos his shipwreck still causes