© Al Behrman/Associated PressUS marshal Brad Fleming displays a wanted poster for fugitive Tommy Thompson in Columbus, Ohio.
- Legal disputes had dogged finder of SS Central America trove
- US marshals pursuing Tommy Thompson after disappearance
One of the last times anyone ever saw Tommy Thompson, he was walking on the pool deck of a Florida mansion wearing nothing but eye glasses, leather shoes, socks and underwear, his brown hair growing wild.
It was a far cry from the conquering hero who, almost two decades before, docked a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, loaded with what has been described as the greatest lost treasure in American history - thousands of pounds of gold that sat in the ocean for 131 years after the ship carrying it sank in a hurricane.
On that day in 1989, Thompson couldn't contain a grin as hundreds cheered his achievement. But his victory was short-lived.
For the past two years, the US marshals service has hunted Thompson as a fugitive - wanted for skipping a court date to explain to investors what happened to the riches. The rise and fall of the intrepid explorer is the stuff of storybooks, a tale receiving renewed attention amid a new expedition begun this year to the sunken ship.
© Uncredited/Associated PressThis undated drawing shows the SS Central America, which sank after sailing into a hurricane in September 1857.
"I think he had calculated it, whatever you want to call it, an escape plan," marshals agent Brad Fleming said. "I think he's had that for a long time."
Around 1983, Thompson grew obsessed with tracking down the SS
Central America. When the ship went down off the South Carolina coast in 1857, 425 people drowned and gold worth millions was lost.
Thompson, an oceanic engineer at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, convinced 161 people to invest in his quest, raising $12.7m (£7.8m). On 1 October 1988, he finally found the treasure, which he would later describe as "otherworldly in its splendour".
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