Treasure Hunter Changes Mind on Returning Gold

An imprisoned treasure hunter has taken back a pledge to turn over 500 missing coins minted from gold found in a shipwreck off the South Carolina coast, the AP reports. Tommy Thompson agreed last week to deliver the coins to a court-appointed receiver by Sunday to settle a lawsuit brought by an investor, reports the Columbus Dispatch. The paper says the deal fell apart when Thompson said he has no idea how to obtain the coins. Thompson found the SS Central America in 1988 after convincing more than 100 investors to fund the voyage for nearly $13 million. Thompson never repaid the investors. He became a fugitive in 2012 and fled to Florida. (After his recapture in 2015, he claimed that he couldn't reveal the location of the coins because he was having memory problems.)