# He Found $150 Million Dollars // The Tommy Thompson Story Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041/he-found-150-million-dollars-the-tommy-thompson-story Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041/he-found-150-million-dollars-the-tommy-thompson-story.md Podcast: [Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041) Published: 2026-06-23T14:55:32+00:00 Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/raywilliamjohnson/episodes/He-Found-150-Million-Dollars--The-Tommy-Thompson-Story-e3l684o Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO9379757857.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041/episodes/he-found-150-million-dollars-the-tommy-thompson-story Duration seconds: 497 ## Resource Tommy Thompson is an American marine engineer who made history in 1988 by locating the SS Central America, a California Gold Rush-era steamship that sank in 1857 with tons of federal gold. While initially celebrated for recovering millions in treasure from the "Ship of Gold" using deep-sea robotic technology, his triumph quickly soured when the 161 private investors who funded his expedition sued him for failing to share the profits. Instead of complying with a 2012 court order to reveal the whereabouts of a missing batch of 500 gold coins, Thompson became a fugitive, living under aliases in Florida hotels ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041/episodes/he-found-150-million-dollars-the-tommy-thompson-story/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/ray-william-johnson-true-story-podcast-7212041/he-found-150-million-dollars-the-tommy-thompson-story.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.