Remembering Herndon's History: Tommy Thompson's Missing Gold

Tommy Thompson’s Missing Gold

By Barbara Glakas

In September of 1857 the S.S. Central America sank off the coast of the Carolinas at the hands of a horrendous hurricane. This side-wheel steamship was captained by the town of Herndon’s namesake, Commander William Lewis Herndon. It took the ship about two days to sink and during that time the calm Commander Herndon was able to get many women and children off onto life boats. But much like the well-known story of the RMS Titanic, there were not enough life boats. Hundreds of passengers and ship’s staff died when the Central America sank, including Commander Herndon himself. At the time it was the worst disaster at sea in American history.

The sinking of the SS Central America (Library of Congress)

But there was another type of precious cargo on board that was lost – gold. Lots of it. Weighing 9.1 metric tons, the gold was valued at about $2 million at the time, the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in today's money. The gold was a product of the California gold rush and was being carried by ship to banks in New York. The gold came in the form of bars, chips, and newly minted coins.

The location of the sunken ship had frustrated treasure hunters for generations. The sinking was a deep water sinking at 7,200 feet deep (1.36 miles) and – again, like the Titanic – it took many years to find the location of the sunken ship. That historic discovery occurred in 1988 by the Columbus-America Discovery Group of Ohio, a group that was formed in 1885 and led by a man named Thomas G. Thompson.

Tommy Thompson aboard his ship (Doral Chenoweth III, Columbus Dispatch)

Thompson was born in 1952 and was described by author Dylan Taylor-Lehman as “a whiz kid who’d been tinkering and engineering from the earliest years of his life,” who became an “Edisonian genius” and treasure hunter, “an American hero, a mix of brains and daring in the tradition of the scientist-adventurers of yore.” He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in ocean engineering. His desire was to develop technology for underwater deep research, and one way to do that was to look for treasure. For his mission to find the Central America he and his team designed a seven-ton remotely operated submersible, remotely controlled robot called Nemo which was capable of withstanding deep-ocean conditions up to 10,000 feet. The robot looked like an unenclosed device the size of a refrigerator, full of wires, circuits, and metal pieces, with arms and cameras that would give the team the ability to explore the wreck site.

Thompson spent years analyzing the route of the Central America, developing technology, working with experts to develop scientific search theory probability grids, and enlisting investors to finance his search and salvage operation. After the discovery in 1988, he and his crew spent about three years recovering gold and many other historic artifacts from the site. The gold he recovered was worth tens of millions of dollars but only represented a small percentage of the total lost gold that still sat at the bottom of the ocean.

Not surprisingly, it was not long until many insurance companies – who were involved with the Central America in 1857 and paid out damages at the time - filed suit to lay claim on the gold. Recovery operations were suspended in 1991 due to the lawsuits. A judge ruled in favor of the of the Columbus-America Discovery Group, granting them 92% of the treasure and the rest was to be paid to the investors.

SS Central America gold (Shipofgoldinfo.com).

But the investors who had financed over $12 million dollars for the exploration effort later said they had not yet received payment from Thompson, the return in on their investment. Some of Thompson’s crew members also claimed that they had been cheated out of money as well. And to make matters worse, in the year 2000, Thompson sold about $50 million worth of gold bars and coins to the California Gold Marketing Group, not having informed anyone he was going to do this until after the sale was complete.

Thompson ultimately fled to Florida. In the year 2012 a warrant was issued for his arrest. A judge ordered Thompson to produce the coins or swear under oath that he did not know where they were. Thompson told the judge that he had never personally had them and that they were likely in a trust that he did not have access to. He stopped coming to court. He and his girlfriend, Alison Antekeier – who also had a warrant out for her arrest - went into hiding. Their images were places on fugitive wanted billboards.

Tommy Thompson wanted billboard (WSYX-TV).

In 2015, the U.S. Marshalls found Thompson and Antekeier in a Boca Raton hotel where they had been hiding in a suite for about two years. They had no gold on them, but many thousands of dollars in cash. In court Thompson said he had been very ill for a number of years with a type of encephalitis, an overactive immune system, and sensitivities and allergies that would be exacerbated if he were to leave Florida and be taken north.

Nonetheless, they were extradited to Ohio. Under questioning, Antekeier revealed that “she had transported the 500 gold coins over a period of four years (2006 – 2010) between California and Jacksonville, before Thompson asked her to bring them to a self-storage unit in Fort Lauderdale. She then testified that she handed the coins, contained in four to five briefcases, over to a stranger, who was supposed to transfer them to an irrevocable trust in Belize. Thompson claimed he did not know where the coins ultimately ended up.

Ultimately, both Thompson and Antekeier had been charged with, and plead guilty to, civil contempt, an action meant to compel them to appear in court. They were also later charged with criminal contempt. Antekeier – who faced a year in prison - agreed to admit to the charge and was sentenced to five months, including two months of house arrest and two months credit for time served. She still lives in Columbus, Ohio. Thompson was also charged with criminal contempt and was given a two-year sentence. He agreed as part of a plea deal to assist the prosecutors in the recovery of the 500 gold coins. But Thompson never did reveal the location of the gold and the judge ordered him to stay in prison until he did.

Thompson periodically appears before a judge by video conference. In 2016 he appeared before an Ohio judge and was questioned about the location of the proceeds from the $50 million sale in 2000, as well as the location of the 500 missing gold coins. According to an MSN News article, “Thompson told the judge the coins were in held in trust in Belize but wouldn't divulge their precise location, and that the $50 million he'd received from the sale in 2000 had been swallowed up by legal fees and outstanding loans that were taken out to finance the salvage operation.” The judge has kept him in jail and fines him $1,000 for every day he refuses to divulge the information.

While all this was going on, another exploration group, called Odyssey Marine Exploration, was awarded the contract to salvage the wreck of the Central America in 2014 and has been busy recovering more treasure. By 2018, they had salvaged thousands of artifacts, including more gold, which they sold to the same company that had bought Thompson’s found gold – the California Marketing Group. That group paid the original investors.

The California Gold Marketing Group put the gold on exhibit in Long beach, California, in 2018 before it was sold. Most of it was sold but S.S. Central America gold continues to command high prices at auctions today.

By 2019, the 13 members of the original exploration group who helped find the gold over 30 years ago were awarded money to compensate them for the work they had done.

In 2017 Thompson filed an appeal in federal court to be let out of prison, arguing that limit imprisonment for uncooperative witnesses to is normally limited to 18 months. But an appeals court rejected his argument, finding that Thompson has failed to perform the requirements of his plea agreement, including failing to attend a debtor’s examination and truthfully answer questions in good faith, as well as failing to sign a limited power of attorney that would allow the government to probe the contents of the Belizean trust.

In October of 2020 Thompson once again appeared by video for another hearing. He was asked again if he was ready to reveal the whereabouts of the gold. He said, “Your honor, I don’t know if we’ve gone over this road before or not, but I don’t know the whereabouts of the gold. I feel like I don’t have the keys to my freedom,” claiming that he can’t give away information that he does have it, as the gold is supposedly still in a trust that he doesn’t manage. He said he has short-term memory issues due to chronic fatigue syndrome and simply repeated that the coins were turned over to put in a trust in Belize.

Tommy Thompson has been incarcerated in a Federal prison in Milan, Michigan, since 2015. And the 500 pieces of S.S. Central America gold are still missing.

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About this column: “Remembering Herndon’s History” is a regular Herndon Patch feature offering stories and anecdotes about Herndon’s past. The articles are written by members of the Herndon Historical Society. Barbara Glakas is a member. A complete list of “Remembering Herndon’s History” columns is available on the Historical Society website at www.herndonhistoricalsociety.org.

The Herndon Historical Society operates a small museum that focuses on local history. It is housed in the Herndon Depot in downtown Herndon on Lynn Street and is open every Sunday from noon until 3:00. Visit the Society’s website at www.herndonhistoricalsociety.org, and the Historical Society’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/HerndonHistory for more information.