Titanic Thompson

Common card · No. 333483

Alvin Clarence Thomas (November 30, 1893 – May 19, 1974), better known as Titanic Thompson, was an American gambler, golfer, and hustler, who killed five men but was never charged with a crime. Thompson traveled the country wagering at cards, dice games, golf, shooting, billiards, horseshoes and proposition bets of his own devising. As an ambidextrous golfer, card player, marksman and pool shark, his skills and reputation were compared to "Merlin himself". Writer Damon Runyon allegedly based the character Sky Masterson, the gambler-hero of "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (on which the musical Guys and Dolls is based), on Thompson. In 1928, Thompson was involved in a high-stakes poker game that led to the shooting death of New York City crime boss Arnold Rothstein, then called the "crime of the century". The following year he testified in the trial of George McManus, who was charged with Rothstein's murder, but later acquitted.

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