Gunslinger posted this photo of Prince Monolulu today as part of its “Great Con Artists of the 20th Century” series. I’d never heard of him, so I read his entry in Wikipedia. An interesting character!
Ras Prince Monolulu (26 October 1881 St Croix, Danish West Indies – 14 February 1965 Middlesex Hospital, London), whose real name was Peter Carl Mackay (or McKay), was a horse-racing tipster, and something of an institution on the British racing scene from the 1920s until the time of his death. He was particularly noticeable for his brightly coloured clothing; as a tipster, one of his best known phrases was the cry “I gotta horse!”, which was subsequently the title of his memoirs… He rose to prominence after picking out the horse Spion Kop in the 1920 Derby, which came in at the long odds of 100-6, and from which he personally made some £8,000, a vast amount of money at the time.
UPDATE: Here’s a terrific article with photos and comments from seniors who remember Prince Monolulu.