In October 1835, dozens of men from the Jersey Shore were brought before a federal judge in Trenton and tried for piracy. These men, known in the press as the “Barnegat Pirates,” were accused of looting three stranded vessels both north and south of Barnegat Inlet. Their leader, a Monmouth County judge, William Platt, had jumped bail and vanished, leaving his men alone to face the charges. The New York Commercial Advertiser reported from Trenton that on Oct.