Titanic Thompson: The Golfer Who Married Five Women and Murdered Five Men

Major Crimes in History

Sporting stars are often colorful characters, but one sport which maintains a relatively sober reputation is golf. However this quietest of sports had stars every bit as lively as anywhere else, and in one case arguably more so.

This is the story of one man who could have been a pro but chose a life of gambling and rigging any game (cards, dice, golf), which made him rich. Yet when he died, he had failed as a con artist but become a golfing legend. Who was Titanic Thompson?

Alvin Clarence Thomas

Before he became Titanic Thompson, the gambler and golfer was born on November 30, 1893, in Monett, Missouri, and his name was Alvin. In the days after his birth, Alvin’s father abandoned him and his mother.

Alvin’s mother remarried a farmer in Arkansas, but Alvin hated farmwork and disliked school even though he was rather intelligent. Alvin had liked hunting since childhood, and he was an amazing shot, playing cards and penny tossing.

When Alvin was 16, he moved out of his home and considered trying to find his father. He didn’t go to see his dad; instead, Alvin worked as a door-to-door salesman in Missouri and became a character actor in a traveling medical show. In the show, Alvin played a Doc Holliday-style character who would perform shooting tricks.

His special trick was throwing a dollar bill into the air and would shoot a bullet through it as it floated back to the ground. Most of these medical shows were to sell fake “medicine,” and the actors would fake their stunts to wow the unsuspecting audience.

Alvin would palm the dollar bill and toss up a bill that already had a hole through it. After tossing the bill, Alvin would shoot at the bullet and miss without the audience knowing they had been duped.

Titanic Thompson in 1915 (Unknown Author / Public Domain)

While being a door-to-door salesman and a character in a traveling show did bring in some money, Alvin would play card games at night with locals, and he realized he could make a lot of money rigging games in his favor. Alvin used to make a mark on the back of the card that nobody noticed and was able to rake in the cash.