Black-bearded, with a gold earring in his pierced right ear and gold bangles jangling at his wrists, the man who called himself Ronald Chesney looked every inch the pirate he claimed to be. He habitually arrayed his strapping, 6-ft. 1-in. frame in the generously sweeping gestures of the quarterdeck, and boasted homerically of his vast appetites for food, drink and women. When asked his profession, "Old Ches" would reply with a huge guffaw: "Smuggling." Men and women in all walks of life fell easy prey to Ches's flamboyant charms, and after failing to see him for long stretches, old friends would...
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