Jim Nonus is a fifth-generation Galvestonian, BOI (born on island).  At a very early age his head was filled with pirate dreams and the visits to the old Maison Rouge site at 14th and Water Street were never enough.  In the late 1960s while working at the University of Texas Medical Branch in the eastend, he had the chance to pass the site daily.  He started collecting every book on the Laffites he could find and made many trips to New Orleans in search of the Laffite saga.

In 1995 Jim, Dale Olson and a handful of people founded the Laffite Society.  In July of last year he decided it was time to serve as President and was elected to that position.

His connection to the Laffite story runs deep and he has used his sixth sense to help uncover the mysteries of the past.  Once at the Notarial Archives in New Orleans he asked Sally Kay Reeves, the Archivist if she had any Jean Laffite signatures.  Her reply was “Only those of Pierre.”  Jim used his sixth sense to uncover a misspelled “Jean Laffite” in an Index and then turned to the signed document and said, “You have one here.”

Jim is currently working on a romantic non-historical musical about Laffite as he continues to search for period newspapers, maps and publications about the Laffites.