Gamblers and other liars have told stories about Titanic Thompson for decades. As a sportswriter spending some late nights with pro golfers and poker players, I heard them all — how the legendary hustler escaped the sinking Titanic by sneaking onto a lifeboat dressed as a woman. How he threw a peanut over a three-story building, pulled Al Capone’s pants down, conned Houdini, beat Ben Hogan playing golf right-handed and then turned around and beat Byron Nelson left-handed.
I kept waiting for the movie. It seemed there had to be a movie—maybe with Clint Eastwood as the tall, flinty-eyed Titanic, a shadowy figure who crossed paths with some of the most famous men of the 20th century.
By 2008 there was still no movie, and I was between books, so I decided to see if I could separate the legends from the truth. In a year of following his tracks, from his birth in a log cabin in Arkansas in 1892 to his death in Texas 82 years later, I turned up the facts behind the tallest Titanic tales.
—Kevin Cook discusses Titanic Thompson and his new book at the Powell’s Books blog
Legendary gambler Alvin “Titanic” Thompson (1892-1974) traveled with his golf clubs, a .45 revolver and a suitcase full of cash. He won and lost millions playing cards, dice, golf, pool and dangerous games of his own invention. He also killed five men. “But they’d all tell you they had it coming,” he said. He married five women, each one a teenager on her wedding day.
