Voodoo Laird

Witch Doctor, Ships Surgeon

When Cannon-Ball Katy first encounted Voodoo Laird in Haiti, it took her a moment to realize that he was human. Over 80 percent of his body was covered in extensive and provacative body tattoos, his beard reached his waist, and he was chained to a tree. A little investigative work revealed that Laird was a powerful and well know witch doctor who had refused to concoct a love potion for the island's governer. As punishment, he had been chained to a tree and was soon to be executed. Katy rescued him and together they hid in the hills surrounding the city. After shaving his beard and removing his tattoos with a home-made concoction of trinitrotoluene, rum, and vinegar Laird shared his story.

Although his parents were Scotish, Laird had been raised in Japan. As soon as he was old enough, he joined the crew of a whaling ship, where he quickly rose in rank until he was first mate. At the end of one season, after unloading their blubber at South George's Island for processing, Laird's ship collided with an iceberg and promptly sank. Only Laird had had the presence of mind to jump from the ship to the iceberg as the ship was baptized in the frigid antartic waters. He survived aboard the iceberg for two and a half months by eating icicles and penguins. The iceberg was just larger than a wagon when it finally crashed into Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. After walking up the Chilean coast to Peru, Laird decided to recreate Orellana's historic and tragic voyage by canoeing down the Amazon River. Four years later, when Laird emerged from the mouth of the mighty river, he knew more tribal medicine and voodoo-craft than any human alive.

Unfortunately, his paddle was lost as he left the river and he was swept out to sea. By now well accustomed to surviving in such conditions, Laird subsisted on fish and seaweed until his canoe drifted to Haiti, where he set up shop as the islands most powerful witch doctor. After being rescued, Katy and Laird married and purchased three children from Inca gypsies. They then moved to Happy Valley, where Laird works at the Big Hospital when not hunting for treasure.

Cannon Ball Katy

Quartermaster, Logistics

Katy learned supply management and logistics as a matter of survival during the Spanish Civil War. While traveling in south eastern Spain she was apprehended by a more anarchist faction of Franco's political movement. Forced to choose between being thrown to her death from the Puente Nuevo bridge or to become a munitions transporter, Katy wisely chose self preservation. Her natural organization skills and bookkeeping prowess advanced her quickly through the hierarchy of the army. She was placed in command of all clandestine transport in just a few months. Franco himself, upon hearing of her capabilities, personally assigned her the task of meeting the Soviet emissaries that were bringing the financial support promised by Stalin. When Katy returned to Catalina with the "Moscow Gold" packed safely in a short steam train, Franco was ecstatic and proclaimed that the fall of communism in Spain was nearing its end. Katy, while opposed to the wealth retarding economics of communism, could not support Franco's socialism. She had already seen the brutality of his nature that would lead to his future repressive leadership. During the night, Katy, along with some hired accomplices, tunneled under the train and relieved it of its cargo. The gold remained buried under the freight yard in Barcelona until 1975, when Franco's death prevented him from continuing his search.

In the meantime, Katy had fled first to Mexico and then to Haiti, where she met the Voodoo Priest who would become her husband. After marrying him, and removing his extensive body tattoos, Katy and Laird returned to Spain in 1975 to reclaim the stolen gold. Once the gold was safely tucked away in the Family's vault, Katy and Laird used some of the money to purchase three slave-children from wandering Inca nomads: Captain Ethan, Daring Duncan, and Loud Liam.