Ohio Treasure Hunter Who Refuses To Reveal Details Of Where Shipwrecked Gold Lies Does 5 Years In Jail.
If you haven't figured out by now I love treasure hunts.
Everything about them.
I think it's due to an unhealthy obsession with The Goonies as a kid but nonetheless anytime I come across a story having to do with treasure, hunts, and/or treasure hunts in 2020 it gets my motor runnin'.
Came across a new one today.
NY Post - A former Ohio treasure hunter is about to mark half a decade behind bars — for refusing to reveal the location of 500 gold coins missing from a historic shipwreck.
Research scientist Tommy Thompson has been stuck in federal prison since 2015 for contempt of court over the lost loot.
“I don’t know the whereabouts of the gold,” Thompson insisted in October, during his latest hearing.
“I feel like I don’t have the keys to my freedom.”
Thompson’s legal saga stems from his 1988 discovery of the S.S. Central America, which sank off South Carolina in 1857, with thousands of pounds of precious metals aboard.
A group of 161 investors had paid Thompson $12.7 million to find the so-called “Ship of Gold” — and later sued him, claiming they never saw any returns.
In 2012, a federal judge ordered the treasure hunter to disclose the whereabouts of the coins, which are estimated to be worth $2 million to $4 million.
Instead, Thompson fled to Florida, living on the lam with a lady friend for three years until US marshals tracked him to a Hilton hotel in West Boca Raton and arrested him in early 2015.
Thompson pleaded guilty for his failure to appear and was hit with two years in prison and a $250,000 fine — though that criminal sentence has been delayed until the issue of the gold coins is resolved.
As part of the plea deal, Thompson has to answer questions about the missing loot and must also “assist” interested parties in finding the coins.
He refused several times, and on Dec. 15, 2015, federal Judge Algenon Marbley found him in contempt of court and ordered him to stay in jail — and pay a $1,000 daily fine — until he responds.
Thompson, 68, has now spent more than 1,700 days in jail and owes nearly $1.8 million in fines — and counting.
Am I crazy or is this basically the plot to Outer Banks?
This guy got paid by investors to go out and find the S.S. Central America that sunk off the coast of South Carolina in 1857, which he did, but claimed he came up empty-handed.
He's put away and slapped with a $250,000 fine and told "just tell us where the gold is and you can go free" but he refuses.
I love it.
Sure makes you think there's a lot more there than 500 gold coins down there no?
This guy Tommy Thompson is sitting in jail, doing time like Sonny Franzese, just waiting to spring loose and head back to the "X" marked on the map inside his head.
Kinda like Andy Dufresne's letter under the oak tree, just far far more lucrative.
If these judges and prosecutors had a brain, they would grant this guy's release and put Dog and Beth on his tracks and have him lead them right to the treasure. Obviously he would probably know he had a tail and would spend a year or two shaking them, but time is money. Do you want this guy to rot in jail and potentially die without ever knowing where this treasure is? Or let him out when he's too old to go and get it?
Suck it the fuck up and let the guy get his gold.
Where the gold at?