A liking for colorful characters, including history professors, and a weakness for barbecued chicken, led Gene Marshall, an associate professor of languages at McNeese State Univer...ver maisA liking for colorful characters, including history professors, and a weakness for barbecued chicken, led Gene Marshall, an associate professor of languages at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to a conversation at a McNeese State History Department picnic with Dr. Tom Watson, recently retired Head, about a manuscript in French alleged to have been written by Jean Laffite. Though he is the object of a two-week-long festival in Lake Charles, Laffites renown comes from his role in the Battle of New Orleans.
Dr. Watson wanted to know if Marshall would take a look at a photocopy of the Laffite manuscript and use his literary background and knowledge of French and Spanish to help solve the mystery of the origin of the Journal of Jean Laffite? A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, and the publication of the Memoirs of Jean Laffite is only a continuation of the voyage of discovery started on that May afternoon in 1998.ver menos