Crime in Sports - #366 - Menace To Polite Society - Alex "The Hurricane" Higgins

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

This week, we look at a a man who played a sport that we didn't know existed. He ended up being the guy to take the sport of snooker from a stuffy, not televised bore, into a televised, slightly less boring event! He was a colorful, charismatic player who was the Happy Gilmore of snooker. He also smoked 4 packs a day, punched refs, threw plates at spectators, beat his girlfriend with a hairdryer, and committed "the slowest suicide in sports history"!!Start hanging out in dive bars at age 10, bring some life to a stuffy sport, and destroy your relationships, career, future, financial well being & health with Alex "The Hurricane" Higgins!!Check us out, every Tuesday!We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!! Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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It's an all-new season. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie. Hello everybody and welcome back to Crime and Sports! Yay! Yay! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us today on a crazy... This is one of the... It's going to be a favorite.

This is one of those where... And it's a sneaky one. It's a sport we've never done. Oh. Didn't even know what it was. It's a guy I've never done. Didn't even know what it was. It's a guy I've never heard of. And sometimes those are the best episodes. Got guys like Ben Cousins and guys like that out of it that we had no idea even existed in the world. This is going to be one of them.

This guy is a party. Let's just say a party. A walking human party. We'll get into it, though, very quickly before we start. First of all, head over to Shutupandgivememurder.com. Tickets to live shows throughout the country for Small Town Murder, especially Chicago, August 12th. Get your tickets. It's already our biggest show ever, so we're very excited.

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So we're going to do that. And then for small town murder, we're going to talk about a subject that a lot of people have requested for Patreon. Happened in the early 70s here, the Stanford prison experiment. We're going to talk about that and a couple of other things that happened after that that were similar. Tell me more. If you don't know what that is,'s uh some for an experiment psychological thing they took a bunch of students and said half of you are guards half of you are prisoners just to see how they would act and it was wild what happened was insane it went bonkers so we'll talk all about that patreon.com slash crime and sports it's really

whacked out so that's a lot of fun get in there and uh i have nothing else to plug oh your stupid opinions is coming soon we're finally we got it all all settled so we're excited we're gonna have a date for you though an actual date because we're gonna i guess there's some marketing they're gonna try to do and we're gonna try to get people to listen to this bad boy you know how that goes so that said let's get into it with our lunatic psychopath asshole of the day here let's do it everybody let's talk about alexander gordon higgins is his name nickname the hurricane yeah the hurricane not the other hurricane the boxer who was in jail and all that this is a different hurricane he is a tiny little irishman so

complete different hurricane like you couldn't get two more different physical human beings next to each other than reuben carter and this hurricane but alex higgins is what he goes by um if you don't know who he is he plays snooker do you know what snooker is i don't know what snooker is it snooker it's trust me it's snooker they are very particular about the pronunciation it is snooker not snooker trust me let me ask you this yeah what size how big do you think the field is that they play snooker on snooker i didn't know they played it on the field is oh well what do you think what do you think what do you think it is tell me what your description is like a baseball diamond no it's a it's smaller think smaller smaller smaller like a pool table it's a fucking billiards game is it really yes i had no idea when i heard snooker i always pictured somewhere between cricket and croquet i pictured that you know what i mean like part walking but then they run sometimes i can't hear you say snooker ever again

it's so weird right but they're so particular about it can't be snooker it has to be snooker it's fucking they're nuts about it over there i'm telling you it's crazy you're telling me that that uh foul-mouthed italian girl from from jersey is not a a champion snooker jimmy superfly snooker because that's how a new yorker would say it i'm playing snooker yeah i'm gonna play some snooker you guys come in off the top rope and shit you know what i mean i i'm gonna go that means that means killing abroad by a roadside motel off the pennsylvania turnpike that's what that's a playing snooker that's what that it's different than playing snooker where you sleep a gal instead of paying her 30 bucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the difference.

She was not. No, that was his girl. She was not a prostitute. Okay. It's worse. It was his girlfriend. Way worse. I thought you were just making like a super move.

No, no. I didn't think about it being Jimmy. Jimmy, super fly snooker. That's a New York snooker. So you sleep your girlfriend. Yeah, and a roadside motel off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. That's how that works. Outside Allentown.

What are the rules to this dumb game? Oh, we're going to talk about it. You don't think we're going to talk about the rules? Remember when we tried to figure out cricket? That was fun. This is way crazier. I was watching this, and I'm like, I don't know what the rules are here. This is crazy.

So I looked them up, and they're more complicated than I could possibly imagine. Anyway, well, Alex Higgins is born March 18, 1949. Yeah, they're pretty weird. He's from Belfast, Northern Ireland here. So that's his hometown. And grows up kind kind of rough and we'll talk about it. Okay, so his parents are Alexander and Elizabeth Higgins and his dad is, so I don't know if he's a junior or not because he's Alexander too. So it doesn't say he's a junior, but his dad's Alexander. We got a possible junior over here, people.

That's something. We don't know. He's got three sisters. And I've seen two of them interviewed, too. And they talk about him all the time. So he's got three sisters. Here's a brief. Here's some snooker talk.

Okay. Here we go. Yeah. I'm going to give you, like, the Wikipedia description of it here. We'll start as basic as it gets. What is snooker Wikipedia? Okay. A cue sport played on a rectangular billiards table covered with a green cloth called bays with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side.

A pool table. It looks like a huge pool table, though. It's like an Olympic-sized pool table. You still a huge pool table though it's like a it's like an like an olympic size pool table he's still talking about olympic size pools it's like an olympic size pool it looks huge it's this fucking giant table so uh they do that first played by british army officers stationed in india in the in in the 1800s and it's played with 22 balls yeah 22 balls a cue ball that's a long game it's a dude matches last a week sometimes yeah there's 11 balls for each part they come back but like the way the it's like frames like tennis too though it's fucking crazy so oh it's it's 22 balls one

which is a white cue ball which is the same as billiards. Then it completely goes on its own way. 15 red balls and six other balls that aren't red. These are a yellow, a green, a brown, a blue, a pink, and a black. And they're called the colors. That's what they call those balls. Those are the colors. So this is what you have.

Already I'm very complicated to remember all these colors and what they do it doesn't make any sense already yeah it's a snooker balls a snooker balls sorry are like billiard balls are are typically like they're resin they're made out of the same shit they're smaller than american billiard balls those pool balls they're smaller a little bit i guess which i don't know what the hell the difference is it gives the actual diameters of what they are we definitely don't need to know about that um there's also uh miniature miniature uh snooker sets they sell for like at home you can put in your basement and shit like that okay this is it says this okay so this isn't me explaining it to you because i have no fucking idea what i'm talking about i'm reading it and then we're going to try to figure it out together learn it together all

of us that's together means collectively as a unit every me you and everyone listening right now besides like 12 british people who are going it's fucking so easy mate you dumb fuck okay you know there's a group over there with their eyebrows furrowed, just like these dumb fucking yanks, man. You dumb assholes. I'm going to beat you up my snooker shoe, mate. Jesus Christ. At the beginning of a frame, the balls are set up in the arrangement shown in the illustration, which is all the red balls in a triangle, just like regular pool. Okay?

Like they have the same thing. And then the other balls are just like kind of around everything, kind of orbiting. Just like sporadically placed like Easter eggs? Well, that's what it says, too. The six colors, those are the other balls are just like kind of around everything kind of orbiting sporadically placed like easter eggs well that's what it says too the six colors those are the other balls there uh are placed quote on their own spots i don't know where that is where they go where yeah you know how it goes on the balk line looking up the table from the balk end the green ball is located where the d meets the line on the left the brown ball in the middle of the line and the yellow ball where the d meets the line on the right yeah wow the order is often remembered by using the mnemonic god bless you the first letter of each word green brown yellow so you remember how to put them that's fucking interesting god bless you finally uh there's a pink ball that's fucked around finally the black

ball is placed on the spot on a spot 32.5 centimeters from the top cushion get out your micrometers everybody we're we're gonna really figure out where this ball goes there better be felt circles on this table showing where this shit goes. Because how the fuck else are you going to do it? A lot of rulers centered from the left to the right. So the brown, blue, pink, and black balls all sit on an imaginary line that bisects the table along its length. Yeah. Does this sound familiar to anybody here?

I don't get it. Okay. At the beginning of each frame the balls are set up by the referee the frame begins with one player taking the cue ball in hand okay that makes sense i understand cue ball in your hand yeah placing it anywhere on or inside the d so on his side of the deal over there, and attempting to hit one or more of the red balls on an initial break-off shot. It's a common strategy. It's a break. A common strategy for this

shot involves placing the cue ball on the balk line between the brown ball and either the green or yellow ball, the break-off alternatives between players on successive frames. Oh my god. Only one player may visit the table at a time. You can have a pass and get in. It would be weird if people were playing at the same time.

Pool would be a very different sport. If you didn't take turns, imagine that game. That's the game I want to see. That's chaos. You got a forearm shiver. Somebody get a shot on that cue. It's just hungry, hungry hippos, man. They're just, well, everybody gets two cue balls, I'm saying.

You just get to fucking go. There'd be shit flying everywhere. Dangerous. Both going for the nine at the same time. Oh, shit, get in there quick. You'd have all this time to line up your shot. That's a better game. That's a game I at least definitely would watch it on TV.

Two cue balls and just trying to clear the table. Yeah, two people bumping into each other. They both have pool sticks to swing at each other. This is going to be fun, right? That's a bar sport. I challenge you to a game of fucking hurricane pool. So, okay, one player at a time. A break is the number of points scored in a single visit to the table.

A player's turn and break end when they commit a foul, fail to pot a ball that just means get a ball in the hole there or when a frame is complete. The ball or balls that can be hit first by the cue ball are called the balls on for that particular stroke. This makes no fucking sense.

And it doesn't. When you watch it, you don't understand who's doing well. Okay. The ball's on. So can you hit the colored balls? I have no idea. A potted color must be followed by a red. Oh, and each player alternates between red and any choice of color until a break ends with a miss. So you alternate.

You've got to get a red in first. Red, purple, red, pink, red, black. And then red, whatever you want. Okay. That's how it works. You have to do all of that. All of the reds are on for the break-off shot and for the first shot of any turn. So you always have to get a red first in which one or more reds are still on the table.

So if there's a red on the table, it has to be handled before anything else is handled. Now, snooker, this is kind of funny. It originated in the second half of the 19th century, like we said. Billiards was already popular. Right. But this game, British Army officers made it up. And one in particular, this game, there was a similar game in the officer's mess of the 11th Devonshire Regiment in 1875. And it put a couple of different games together and made this.

And what they ended up doing a guy named sir neville chamberlain here yeah sir neville sir neville he helped devise and popularize the game here the word at the time was used in the army to describe new recruits it was like fresh meat it was a snooker and inexperienced people and he used to, they said Chamberlain used to use it to deride the inferior performance of somebody at the table. He'd call him a snooker. And somehow it turned into that. It was in 1887.

It was in Sporting Life newspaper in England, and people got a hold of it. And then they ended up saying that's where it came from, and that's where the... It's interesting though so it started out as you know rich people playing this game because it's it's an expensive table and there's a lot of there's a lot of balls you got to have a nice queue it's it's just like pool like pool kind of was a was a a status symbol if you had a pool table in your house you had some money uh or you got it used and it was on right and then it became that i had one in my basement but it was like used and my dad had to like make a base for it because it was like broken that's how we got it because it had

no base and so he made it it's correct it was great it was i loved it growing up i was good at it and shit but i mean it was definitely not like we didn't go to a place and be like pick out the best pool table here it was like his friend was throwing it away, so we decided to make a base for it. Is that real ivory on the diamonds? I will buy nothing less. We'll buy nothing less. Needs to come from an elephant somewhere. Well, this game, the thing, too, is the professional game, they had to wear a white shirt, a bow tie and a waistcoat.

So they all look like waiters at a fucking charity gala. All of them. Every every player looks like they're going to in between getting you some drinks. They're going to go hit a shot or two and then mix a martini. Like mix a fucking dirty gray goose up real quick. Carry a fucking platter of hors d'oeuvres by your table. It really looks like that hold on hold this i'll be there with the fucking cheese puffs in a minute you cunts and just turn

around and pow hold these crab rangoons i'll be right i'm doing well so then they had more snooker clubs would form over the years and kind of got everybody in here. The, I guess the, I don't even know what that means. I'm not even going to say that. So anyway, that's enough snooker history. We don't need to know anything more about that. I'm done with snooker.

Okay. Do we know what it means? No, it's confusing. I'm going to show you some highlights later on. Oh, some stuff, just some quick,

because this guy that we're going to talk about does the craziest trick shots i'm not an expert in pool trick shots and maybe they're not that great but holy shit they made me rewind it several times to go is that how the fuck did that happen physically how do the physics work there like how did he do that it's fucking incredible he's like a magician so he's born in belfast like we said he's the only son three sisters so right away three sisters the only son yeah you know that's a kind of a coddled existence there but they're they grow up kind of uh you know in a poor area they don't have a lot of money it's kind of hard scrabble this is post-world war ii in northern ireland it didn't go well his dad is a wheel tapper oh i yeah so that's the guy that

that's wait i don't know what that is i don't know that feels very british isles doesn't it i don't know what that he he's got like he has soot on his face i'm pretty sure of that but i don't know what he's doing wheel tapper t her i imagine he's putting threads in something right because you gotta that's what a tap is right it could be at a factory he's a who the we'd have no idea it could be a minor we have no beer kegs i don't fucking know i don't know there's a lot of wheels in the world that's the thing when you talk about industry it's made of wheels really it's wheels and belts and things And he could be tapping any of these wheels. How are we going to know? His mother is a – she works as a cleaner now and then to augment the family's income because they just don't have a lot of money.

And they are – he's a decent student in school, but he's not real interested in school. He's got – he likes kind of underground things. He likes – he wants to see stuff he's not supposed to see. He's that real interested in school. He likes kind of underground things. He wants to see stuff he's not supposed to see. He's that type of kid. He needs to, what's in there? I got to look through that. Is there a playboy in there? He's that kind of kid.

So when he's pretty young here, about 10 years old, from what I understand from the family, he goes to a place called the Jam Pot. What is that? which is a pool hall and i saw pictures there's a bbc documentary that i'll show you a clip of in a little while here and the bbc documentary on him is uh they show a picture of this place and it looks like it looks like the back door of a burned abandoned building in the bronx in the 70s oh the back door not even where the customers would come but that's the back door of a burned, abandoned building in the Bronx in the 70s. Oh. The back door.

Not even where the customers would come. But that's the front door where the sign is. Yeah. It looks like a- And it says Jam Pot right over it. There's a little sign off to the left that says the Jam Pot Billiards. And that's it. It looks like a fucking dump.

And he said- Grimy shitty bar. Yeah. Grimy shitty bar. And he said this is not- It wasn't supposed to go in there as kids and stuff. But he would go in there. And at first he would run errands for people.

He's kind of like an errand boy in there. And a lot of those errands included running bets back and forth for his father and for other people. His dad's a bookies. And he's a bettor too. So this whole thing is going on. He's living in kind of this underground world, hanging out in a pool hall when he's 10. He's still going to school, but he gets off school and goes right to the jam pot where the action is. He has no interest in anything other than that.

So he ends up taking up actually playing. His sister said he would have to stand on a box the first couple of years he because he couldn't be able to play to be able to play table he had to fucking stand on a box because he's not a huge guy even when he grows up so you know he uh you know he ends up doing that and he ends up playing in the at the shaftsbury ymca and he they have a table there and he really that and then he can really play a lot because it's not adults playing for money. It's kids playing. So he can run tables. And he hustles money from people, other kids.

Because you can hustle money from older kids if you don't look very big. And they're like, I'll beat you at pool. You're like, fuck you. You're not beating shit. And then he schools your ass because he's been playing at the jam pot. Color of money thing i like it it is and that's that's the thing about this guy is he's not like one of these coddled athletes because it's not an athlete he's a fucking pool player so that's the other thing

if you're going why this isn't a sport why are you playing crime and sports you know what this is episode 366 we're looking for awesome stories and this point, I don't care if a guy's playing jacks. If his story's crazy, I'm going to cover it. So we're going to get into it. Overflowing. Yeah, and this is on TV. It's a sport. Yeah, ESPN shows this shit. If golf is a sport, this is a sport. If darts

are a sport, this is a sport. That's questionable. If bowling's a sport, this is a sport. But it is a sport. It's hard to do. If you had, let's say you were is a sport but it is a sport it's hard to do if you had let's say you were like you know a quadriplegic you couldn't play this well you just couldn't it would be impossible so that's a sport and it's a it's more of a mental sport because knowing the geometry and the angles of where you have to hit that's everything it's fucking incredible that they can actually do it and that's what I'm when I'm watching these videos.

I'm like to get the ball to do the shit that he's getting it to do. And this table's fucking enormous. So it's even harder to get these angles because they're longer and shit. So like to calculate force and angles and all this shit perfectly on the fly and execute it is fucking brilliant. It really is. The angles. There's a shot that he hits that I go, I've never seen that before, and I rewound it 10 times because I was like, that's not real.

Somebody grabbed the ball and put another one on there to do that. That can't be real, and it's fucking real. So like I said, it might be nothing, but it is. It seems crazy to me. So he would spend three or four hours every day after school practicing and playing. Sometimes he would skip school altogether if he could, if he could get away with it. So he became so good that everybody would talk about it. Oh, sure.

And then he also couldn't really hustle anybody anymore. He'd have to play straight games because people knew that he could play after a while so he could do that though and he loved to gamble this uh our guy here today things he loves okay pool snooker um uh not jimmy superfly um uh cocaine oh Uh, booze. Hell yeah. Cigarettes. Yep. Uh, women. Yeah. Uh, cocaine.

Yeah. Uh, cigarettes. Yeah. Uh, fighting. Oh, how's he feel about booze? And, and booze is his other main love. The fucked up part is when he's sober, everybody says nicest guy on earth, but it's so rare to find him in that condition that it's it's like yeah he's just a psychopath because he's always shit-faced he's by the way in snooker he's sitting

there off to the side with a fucking pint and smoking in between shots awesome the other guys at the table he's down in a pint and he played shit-faced this is the only sport that you could play on television professionally literally hammered getting and they watch you get shit-faced this is the only sport that you could play on television professionally literally hammered getting and they watch you get shit-faced you didn't show up and like i'm okay you're getting drunk they're watching you get drunker and he got better as he got drunker they all said he was just good at it so yeah he's wild so he likes to gamble a lot he leaves school in 1964 that's at age 15 so that's not real that's not done yet i don't think oh boy so uh he worked as a messenger for the irish linen company oh but then he quit that because it was hard work so then he said that he spotted a newspaper ad for stable boys

at stables and and wantage wantage i don't know Wantage and Berkshire. And he was taken on, and he wanted to be a jockey. He's a small guy. Oh, he wants to ride horses. That's his goal. His idol was Lester Piggott. Oh, yeah, he's my favorite. I was going to say, as an American children, us, we all had Lester Piggott on our walls.

I mean, that's posters. Yeah. My mom thought I was a gay when I was a kid because it was just all my whole room was full of Lester Piggott posters. And they were all everyone was like, you know, are you do you know, is this attractive to you? And I was like, no, I just I'm he's my idol. You know, like any red blooded American boy, Lester Piggott. Wow. So he didn't like that.

He wouldn't like do the shit, though, at the stable. He liked riding horses and shit. But but he didn't want to clean up after him. Don't want to do the hard work. Well, that was the job he had. Yeah. The perk was riding horses also. But after you worked, he just was like, I ride horses and then go home.

He didn't want to work. And they were the lady who hired him. I saw an interview with her. She was like, yeah, you just not do shit. You'd be like, there's still, you know, horse shit everywhere. And he'd be like, oh, I'm done riding by. And he'd be off. You're like, perfect.

Okay, that's not going to work. And he didn't like it was a lot of responsibility. You don't want all the responsibility. And then he became too heavy anyway. He got too big. Oh, is that right? Yeah. It's weird lot of responsibility. He didn't want all the responsibility. And then he became too heavy anyway. He got too big. Oh, is that right? Yeah. It's weird that a kid, it's weird that a child hopes not to grow.

If only I could be five foot two like my idol, Lester Pickett. You don't hear that a lot from kids. There is the surgery to lengthen your legs. They oftentimes do not shorten them. Yeah, I'd love to be fucking five foot two is not a normal thing asked of a surgeon. So he tried to do that. He got fired six times, by the way, from the stable before he finally left. Six times and they kept bringing him back.

His stable boss called him, quote, just a starved little rat from the slums. Oh, my gosh. And that was like a compliment in Northern Ireland, I think, too. That's just a general appraisal that's factual, but it feels fucking insulting. Yeah, that's what it is. I would say. That hurts, yeah. Just a star.

If he said, well, he was a starved little rat from the slums, then it would be like, oh, but just a means not good for anything. Right. Just that. It's not good for anything right just that it's not good for anything else that just really fucking wipes away anything you're gonna say after that so he said that's where the money was though to be a jockey obviously again we all dream of the riches and mansions of all the jockeys that we grew up idolizing but we can't all get there that's the problem no there. Yeah, it's tough. So he leaves for London where he settles.

He gets a flat and he starts playing the game again. Awesome. He wins some money, a little extra income. Here he finds a paper mill where he basically runs a bunch of guys that work at the paper mill and take their paychecks for snooker games. He just blows through them. Yeah. So which is you can make a little score if you got a bunch of guys who think they're good at a game and you know you're better and you're he's 16 years old. So right.

They think he's just works with them. So he's just beating them all day. No, he doesn't work with them. Oh, he doesn't work. No, he just shows up and he's like, oh, guys like to play because he must have seen him in a bar. So who the fuck knows? But he ends up running everybody from a paper mill taking all their money which is pretty awesome here um he he was a little bit i guess he wanted to go home though he's only 16 so he ends up going

home and uh in 1967 though he joins the snooker league at mount pottinger ymca where i guess they got a ymca i didn't know that either that's weird why i didn't know ymca was a like a global initiative here international well it's got the word christian and so it's got to be somewhat funded by a church so then everybody's money yeah you're never getting yeah somewhere in the middle of kenya somewhere on a field there's a fucking ymca that i'm sure of it i'm sure of it so helping you out because we want to launch in our lives donate to us and also have gay sex here that's the other thing if you'd like i mean i mean it's open so he uh he practiced as like six hours a day that's how much he was into it. And snooker? And snooker, yeah. Wow.

Like, work on one shot all day long. Just one shot that he's working on, trying to do. The wait is over. So far, you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience. Quickly, I see that. Bing! The queen of the courtroom is back.

I didn't do anything. You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face. The queen of the courtroom is back. I didn't do anything. You wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face. I see he's not intimidated by anything. I can fix that. New cases. She wanted to fight me. Leave her alone.

Okay, so, um... This is not a so. This is a period. Classic Judy. Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor. You is a period. Classic Judy. Did you sleep with her? Yes, Your Honor. You married his cousin. His brother. That's not him. Yes, ma'am.

I would make a beeline for the door. The Emmy Award winning series returns. How did I know that? I have a crystal ball in my head. It's an all new season. It's streaming. You can say anything. Judy Justice. Only on Freebie.

If you don't know when Crystal Pepsi was discontinued, what was in Al Capone's vault, or which famous meteorologist is Lenny Kravitz's second cousin, then you haven't spent enough time on Wikipedia. But that's okay. I am here for you. I'm Darcy Carden, and I'm inviting you to listen to my new podcast, WikiHole, from Smartless Media. Discover the craziest rabbit holes on Wikipedia with me and my funny friends as we bring the cyber frontier directly to your tympanic membrane. And if you listen to my podcast, you'd learn that that's the sciency term for eardrum. We embark on a hyperlink rollercoaster as we start out on a Wikipedia page and go from link to link to link to link, careening through trivia, oddities, and unexpected connections until we collectively shout,

how the hell did we get here? Follow WikiHole on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to WikiHole ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. He feels, by 1968, he feels like he's ready to compete

in the Northern Ireland Snooker Championships. Awesome. So he defeats Maurice Gill 4-1 in the final. And that's a shame because we all know

what a stud Maurice is. It was his year. I thought it was his year going into it i was like there's no way he's beating maurice you know and then obviously he did so looking back through history obviously i wasn't born yet either of us but historically we all know about it like i said there's beating of snooker mo oh man it was a it was a wild one me. So he became the first player to win the tournament in his first appearance in it. And at 18, he was the youngest winner ever as well. See, he's a prodigy. He's a snooker prodigy. Whereas all the other guys, when he goes into these matches and you see, they'll announce them.

And they say, like, Alex Higgins. And he comes out. And he has a flair of style later on he'll come out with like a big like fucking like a like a big uh like 70s blaxploitation hat on and shit like he's got like fancy hats and he comes out with like a big jacket and a fancy hat makes a big deal out of it and his opponent they cut to and it's like a 48 year old very stuffy british man with a bow tie and he just goes and like nods his head with the premise of barely a grin on it no that's his the equivalent

of going you know just the quickest little thing and that's it and alex alex is whipping off his fedora and swinging it around and like lighting a smoke and down in a fucking pint and you're like this is wild this is he's happy gilmore of snooker it's absolutely what he is he's had they call him the hurricane because everybody else shoots a shot stands there looks at it walks slowly over to the next slowly gets down puts the thing he's fast he works fast he shot boom other side shot they call him the hurricane because he's everywhere he moves at less than a glacial speed which is super fast for this sport so and but the thing about the thing about like uh billiards and and i imagine this game as well

it's all about the very next shot so it's where your next lie is at that's what that's always what you're aiming for what you're going so when you're fast at that that's fucking impressive to be able to leave the ball for your next shot and it's quick and hammer that and then go to the next one too that's fast fast yeah no fucking around he might stop for a you know drag of a smoke or a swig of his pint but other than that it's nothing else is stopping here. Exhausting. It's wild. So a week after this, he won the All-Ireland Amateur Championship and then briefly turned professional but then came back to the amateur ranks and was appointed captain of the Mount Pottinger YMCA team.

So, wow. Here's from 1968. There's a newspaper article here saying that Higgins intends to challenge Jack Ray for the Irish professional title, but then he doesn't. The following year, though, he loses his Northern Ireland amateur title, losing 0-4 to

Desi Anderson, which obviously you're not going to beat Desi Anderson in 69. You're just not going to do it. I mean, come on. You know what I mean? It's like beating Tyson in 87. It's not happening. Desi's on his way to a three pete fuck jesus and then a three some afterwards this is a hot shit sport so higgins also in exhibition matches though because he was more into this because this is how he made some money on the side he defeated the world champion the professional world champion john spencer in several exhibition matches.

Oh. So he turns professional full-time, goes back to England and, you know, where the money is for this. And I don't know. The other thing, too, is I don't know how there's money in this sport because. Sponsorship, James. But at the time he started, like, it wasn't even on TV until like 72, 73. And it was because of him. What products are they selling because of this guy?

Yeah. They have this film footage and it's this dark. You're in a fucking bar. They have the light that's over a pool table. Yeah, that long light. That's how the room's lit. That's all you see they have these like little bleachers kind of set up around there can't be more than 80 people there so ticket sales aren't

the aren't the thing it's not on television so there's no sponsorships there's no commercials like no gambling where's the money coming from here how do these people make money i don't know but they i don't think you have to put up money everybody puts up when you go into a tournament whatever it is but after a while it's on tv and then you get it you're like okay it's on tv so now they have sponsorships and there's money coming in but before that i just don't understand it so he goes to england and there is two guys here named uh dennis broderick and john mclaughlin who see him and go holy shit this's like, he's the best player we've seen, and he's got all this flair, he's a young guy.

He can turn snooker into a sport people will watch. You'd watch this guy. So they decide to be his agents, and they fix him all up. Because, you know, he's a rat from the slums, if you remember here. Just a rat. Just a rat from the slums. They remember here so just a rat just a rat from the slums he they end up buying they get him an apartment they buy him a whole new wardrobe oh they close yeah so when he goes out he doesn't look like a fucking bum they take him to the dentist get his teeth all fixed

they fucking get him nice haircut yeah here they see the potential now you're presentable for television there you go and they stick him out there so and it it really blows up too it works for him here and also during this time and this is something everybody might be if you happen to be in birmingham in england in 1970 on january 29th you definitely want to get this weekend down to J.W. Reeves carpet agent because it says carpets in 1970. Jimmy, there's all sorts of carpets here. Clearance of 27 inch stair length carpets, runners, carpet squares, rugs, rugs, et cetera. Free fitting and measurements. You can't beat this. You can't beat this. So everyone get in there. Free-fitting. You can't beat that. Yeah. So anyway, full-time Alex Higgins, professional at 22, and he said that everybody was what he called percentage players. Okay.

I guess kind of like in boxing, guys that go for the decision win. Yeah. You know, where he's more of a points guy. Yeah, a little style. Yeah. You know, where he more of a points guy. Yeah. A little style.

He said that his, the way he did it was, quote, attack with brute force and scare them to death. Oh. Which I don't know how you do that in pool, honestly. Pillage is a pool table. There's no contact between you. So it's not like you can come and bump him out of the way and take a shot. There's nothing really. You can't dust him off with a fastball under his chin.

You can't knock the shit out of him. Can you run your cue between his legs? Like right outdoors when they're doing their shot and you do yours and they see it pop up between their legs and then turn and it snaps and flies across the room. I believe that is a foul in this game. I'm not sure. You're thinking a nine ball where that's perfectly acceptable i think but i think it's how do you do it like you stare them down and you don't even look at the balls that's what i mean that's what's funny it's like golf that's why they made

golf with happy gilmore of like this guy like how do you make oh he runs up and he smacks it it's still golf he's still just does he get a running start at the ball it doesn't matter what he's doing it's the other guy has an opportunity to do it and quiet and do whatever he wants does he just stab the ball one handed I guess him moving around the table quickly

throws these English people into a real tizzy and they don't know what to do oh no there's these stuffy oh look at him move oh goodness oh me these are like real old stuffy oh my it's too rapid yeah it's too rapid his uh his sister offered to pay the hundred pound fee so he could enter the 1971 snooker championship but he said no thank you not ready yet okay so this is when he meets a woman named joyce fox and starts a relationship with her by the way and uh oh my goodness this is

gonna get crazy pretty fast here his his personal life is off the fucking rails and joyce ignites it no he's he's always been crazy but just when you put someone else in it now they're in a in a tornado sucked up with whatever else is in there. Cows and barns and pickup trucks and shit. Great. Trailers. So 1972, he wins the world championship in his first attempt. First attempt.

First attempt. Championship of snooker. World championship. World champion of snooker. That's me. Best snookers. All the places they play snooker, which world champion of snooker that's me snookers all the places they play snooker which is here and just here but i'm the best of everyone that plays all the snooks here all this

all the stuffy britishmen i'm the best all right of all of them he's the youngest ever to win a title which was um he he did really well that record was held until 1990 when a 21-year-old won. Oh. About 20 years. He wins. What do you think the prize is for being the world champion of snooker? It's the world champion. 1,500 bucks?

480 pounds. 900 bucks. 800 bucks. That is wild. That's what the world championship is worth. 490 pounds. Not even 500 pounds. No, not even 480.

480. So here is from the Birmingham Evening Mail from 1972. And the title is fabulous. It says, his quick play earns him that hurricane nickname. In a game against Graham Miles at West Bromwich two years ago he made 134 break in four minutes wow I mean that sounds wild and the fact that this is yeah fast the fact that he has reached the world final at the age of 22 is unique in itself in itself snooker players usually normally hit their peaks in their late 30s oh again shows you what kind of sport it is when people are the

least athletic of their life oh he just turned 40 watch out he's really going to be a threat now after from now on you got to watch him prime now from now until senior citizenship it's really going to be to watch out for him until arthritis sets in he's in his prime one of the other players said quote he doesn't play a frame of snooker he attacks it yeah he attacks what the fuck does that mean i don't know so he said that the former irish champion who lost his title to higgins said that uh this is the best snooker player to come into snooker since joe davis no not him too and leslie pickett or whatever the fucking jockey's name was all of my heroes are bringing up he's better than all of them old wilson pickett old wilson pickett he said quote he's a fabulous player when he's going well

when he is playing when he's playing around the black his cue action is very good well that just sounds like he's beating up black people with a pool cue when he's playing around the black his cue action is very good well that just sounds like he's beating up black people with a pool cue when he's playing around the black his cue action is very good with the long ones he throws everything into it he moves his head his elbows jut he does everything wrong and yet he knocks the lot in okay that's the thing snooker pool in general he's supposed to stay very quiet no movement boom yeah he's the opposite he does it like like if you gave a six-year-old a pool cue and was like, play pool. And they're like, pow, and their head's up. That's how he plays, but he hits the ball perfectly. It's fucking insane.

Yeah, he's hitting where it's supposed to go. It's wild, yeah. Slap that ball right off the table and break your tie. No shit. So let's find out. He must be living the high life, right? Gotta be. Totally. No, actually, he says life, right? Gotta be. Totally.

No, actually, he says during this triumph of the world, he didn't have a permanent, he didn't have a home at this point, he said. He's a homeless rat. We don't know if it's by choice or by he doesn't have a home, but he said he recently, at this point, lived in a row of abandoned houses in Blackburn. Oh, my. Which were all awaiting demolition so he said in one week he lived in five different houses on the same street and he just moved down one every time they

would destroy his house that he was in that day destroyed it was gone so he come back move in house next door next day you'd have to leave because that one was up for well i guess i live next door now that That is fucking wild. Here's a newspaper article. Hurricane lives up to his name, it says. It says a hurricane called Higgins swept through Leicester last night, leaving behind in his wake a string of beaten snooker players and many new admirers. What is he doing?

It's pool. Crushing souls, James. What is he doing? It's pool. Crushing souls, James. But even with the magic of Hollywood filmmaking, with Bob Seger music playing in the background and pump-up music and Tom Cruise with his big fucking Scientology smile

and Paul Newman's... It's still not an exciting sport. Pool. Even when you put all that into it, you know what I'm saying? And a hot chick he wants to bang and everything else. This is even less. All these people have, you know, they're all old fart, 45-year-old fucking English people with a bow tie on.

If you lose at pool, you have to go, well, at least I'm not as big of a loser as that guy. Yes. That beat me. Yeah. Spends more time in a bar than me. What a piece of shit. The guy who brought his own stick here to the bar.

Not a pool tournament. The bar. Well, at least I'm not you, eh? Yeah. Take this 20 and fuck off. Fuck your mother. Here you go. There you go.

Stick it up your mother's twat, eh? All right. So this article here, Hurricane lives up to his name. I'll read this because it's pretty interesting, actually. A hurricane called Higgins swept through Leicester last night, leaving behind in his wake a string of beaten snooker players and many new admirers. Higgins, who at 23 years old is the youngest world professional snooker champion ever, stunned the large crowd at Lester's YMCA with his magnificent exhibition of skills.

Stunned them. Stunned them. It's pool. How? stunned them it's pool how he said the highlight of the evening was a superb break of 128 in which he potted every ball on the table except for the first red that sounds good every every one just ran the table just ran the table yeah but every ball okay so it's just one round though 100 you can score 128 points in one round? Yeah, I mean, it's probably like bowling.

I'm sure it's one pin and it counts. It starts multiplying. And it multiplies. And if you get three strikes in a row, then it's more. You know how it works. The turkeys come out and it's totally different. He says, Higgins broke, splitting the pack wide open, but conceded four points to his opponent, George Selko,

a local amateur when the cue ball went down selko then sank one red but that was his only contribution to the frame higgins went on to pick off the remaining 14 reds in each color with almost disdainful disregard for his opponent's pride he was angry about his pride he was like look staring at him while he was shooting pow like that bitch, I'm going to do it again. Higgins is not just simply a brilliant snooker player,

he is an entertainer and a good one at that. He kept up a constant stream of chatter and wisecracks that helped break down the tension after he had lost the two opening frames.

Do you give lessons, inquired the world champion after an opponent had played a particularly fine shot and it was his sardonic irish wit that was never better illustrated than when leading one opponent 98 nothing with only the colors remaining he turned and asked are you a strong finisher he's talking he's a shit talker which in england in absolutely, they were like, pardon? That did not exist in this game.

We're having a proper gamesmanship here. Yes. This is a bunch of stuffy guys in bow ties, you know? It's a gentleman's sport. Yeah, absolutely. He said, Higgins was brought up in Northern Ireland and took up snooker at the age of 12. 10, more or less. At 15, he gave it up blah blah blah he returned

to belfast here we go quote i hadn't played the game for two years but i improved phenomenally getting better and better it was a bit of a fairy story really i don't think he thinks that means what he thinks it means fairy tale you mean i think that's what he's going for and the next the author of this paragraph helps him out quote Quote, the tale doesn't end there. Just to let you know, that's what he's talking about. Not a story. Just, you know, yeah. A fairy tale, a fairy story is a very different thing.

That's a different section of the 80s video store. The Dewey Decimal System gets sticky over there. Yeah, a little bit. He said, but the tale doesn't end there. Last February, he beat John Spencer. Here it is. Higgins has no doubts about his ability. Quote, I don't play trick shots.

They're excuses for bad players, and I'm not a bad player. So he said, I want to win the title again next year to show it wasn't a fluke. Son of a bitch is how dare they think he's a fluke. He wants to repeat. He wants to have a repeat. They said, why do you do? Because they're talking about all of his travel and all this type of stuff.

He just was on a 12-hour train trip and all this. And he says, quote, for the love of the game and the money. All that big money that comes. The prize money. I'll have 480 pounds. They said, do you have any regrets? And he said, yes.

I would rather have been a champion jockey than a champion snooker player because there's more bread in it yeah more dough there we go i wish i had stayed in school or something i made money well no he wanted to be a jockey yeah yeah so they they talk all about him in this thing, and I guess Hurricane they keep talking about. Quote, he scampered around the table, potting balls in rapid succession with a minimum of fuss. Oh, a minimum of fuss. That sounds awesome. With his speed and power, it was clear that his nickname was indeed appropriate.

In one memorable break, he scored 71 points in just 135 seconds. Yet, with odd exceptions, his power was always controlled, and he revealed remarkable skills in all departments of his play. His control of the cue ball was astonishing. Astonishing. Yeah. After he beat one guy, he said, quote, Go to bed.

That's awesome. Holy shit. Here's a quote from a guy named uh john rolling here another player higgins would sniff twitch and fidget at the table by the way he's always at his nose like a coke head he's always wiping his nose like he is a coke head but later but even when in like 1971 when he was poor and i don't think there was a lot of coke around, he's still always at the nose and fidget at the table while careening around it with a near manic zeal, speed and almost comic chaplain-esque gait. Oh, chaplain-esque.

Yet, when he set himself to pot balls and build a break, no other player can have shown a greater natural aptitude, nor can any have taken more delight in the moment of victory. Oh. short of mesmerizing. Oh my goodness. Jesus Christ. Apparently the Irish professional championship, the guy he beat had held the title since 1952. Jesus! Yeah. 1952. So that summer they made a half hour documentary for

Tames TV called Hurricane Higgins. And during an exhibition match in Bombay he showed up shit-faced before playing hammered he's an indian was super hot he's hammered he got so fucking hot sweaty that he just he took his shirt off and played okay you can't even take your waistcoat off never mind your shirt he just played shirtless like he was at the beach or some shit and he was fine 200 200 pounds for that as a goddamn coat and a bow tie yeah took it off and that's the other thing he'll get into is he always uh later on he won't wear the bow tie he'll just rip it off in the

beginning it makes a big show of it and the crowd cheers and then they fine him for it you know so and then later on it became in snooker where you weren't allowed to wear a white shirt with a black bow tie because you get fined for that because they got off of that shit later on. It was funny. So weird thing. So 1973, he made his debut appearance on Pot Black, which is a BBC show. But he lost the first game and got pissed off and stormed off the set. But he lost the first game and got pissed off and stormed off the set. He was convinced to return and finish his other games,

but friction between him and another player made him that he didn't end up coming back on the show for five years because he pissed the host off. Five years? Five years. So this is from May 15, 2021, a Mirror.UK article here. So just it's a retrospective. It's not from the time. It's from recently about the time. So it said snooker wild man Alex Higgins had three prostitutes sent to his dressing room while filming at BBC Studios, it is claimed.

The hurricane was filming for Pot Black at Pebble Mill. That's why he's not invited back not because the host didn't like him in birmingham hookers to the green room yep when the call girls turned up as his guests the show's director jim dummigan in his new doc told a new documentary uh quote one of the recording nights three young ladies showed up at a reception and said they were alex's guests let's say they represented a well-known birmingham escort agency or at least that's what they told me you don't expect to be confronted with situations like that it was a little tricky oh yeah yeah so he pissed those people off uh doing that he would he missed a shot and he cursed on tv

the other thing he cursed he's got prostitutes he's running off the set so you know he's kind of a loose cannon here so the oh he's great that's the thing and some of the a lot of the players hated him but there's this one player they talked to on this documentary the bbc documentary and he was like an established guy at the time like he i think he was the 71 world champ or something or 70 and he said he showed up doing all this and cursing and drinking he goes i loved it i thought it was bloody brilliant he said i thought it was so much fun it was great hilarious it's like this is great this guy's fun like you know he just went along he was laughing while he was talking about him he's like that he did this

crazy shit can you believe it it's fascinating that and because it's so long ago the the swearing on tv during whilst playing a gentleman's sport is certainly frowned upon today fuck man you can't zoom in on a head coach during a play oh jesus christ they're swearing their fucking balls off this fucking pussy goddamn quarterback piece of shit mother can read their lips children's dick off when he gets home this mother how dare this motherfucker this motherfucker fuck my fucking plays up i called this cunt shit fucking piece of shit motherfucker can't even can't even they don't have to turn up the volume they don't have to mic them i know what they're saying i see in you hear every goddamn word yeah you tear it all i love seeing motherfucker come out of their mouths and just reading their lips. It's constant.

Fuck. Drop a ball. So the director of the show said, quote, it's been suggested he was red carded and we didn't have him back. I don't recall that at all. People close to him made it clear that he wasn't going to play, which is a great shame because he had a lot of talent. And this guy also said, quote, i don't think that i don't think pot black was his forte the certain things we asked of the players like where to stand and so on and so forth for camera angles and stuff you could see a guy makes sense and he wanted nothing

to do with it no he was like i'm fucking gonna go drink my beer over here eat shit like he just wasn't doing that so this is a guy named cliff thorburn tells this story this is the 1980 world champion cliff thorburn and he said that he never liked alex higgins since they met each other in the early 70s didn't like him he said quote our first big uh off table clash came in 1973 when i got involved in a card game with him and a few others. Higgins borrowed apparently 50 pounds from this guy to more to gamble and handed over his wedding ring in return, his collateral.

Here's my wedding ring. Let me borrow 50 pounds. Later that night, Higgins and his first wife came looking for the ring. Okay? This is from Thorburn again. Quote, Alex pretended to fall down in a faint. I attempted to pick him up, then turn my back on him, and he went for me with a bottle.

What? I grabbed him, threw the bottle down, got him around the neck, and just pounded his head until my fist was sore. Jesus Christ. Oh, so he fucking tried to fool him. Oh, I fainted. Oh, let me help you up. And then he starts trying to hit him with a bottle. To get his ring back?

To get his ring back, yeah. Because his wife is probably like, you fucking put your ring up, you idiot. Go get it back. And he's like, I'll beat this guy with a bottle because I got to go home with her. He stole my ring, baby. You won't believe it. ring baby you won't believe it another time after uh after alex beats thornburn and thorburn in a match alex called him quote a canadian cunt and walked off so they got they got a rivalry i like that's fun as shit uh april 18th 1973 this is fucking hilarious, this whole thing. Higgins here. This is from The Guardian.

Alex Higgins, the reigning world snooker champion, attired like a pied piper, played snooker to match his dress in the second round of the World Professional Championship yesterday. He moved and potted so quickly that his green and red shoes, white flared trousers, green waistcoat with matching bow tie seemed to blend with the balls. Higgins arrived 20 minutes late for the evening session and was given a hostile reception. They had to wait for him. Showed up late dressed like an asshole.

He showed up. Yeah, he's like Michael Jackson showing up for court. Like, you can't do that. Show up late dressed like Captain Crunch, as Chris Rock said, and expect the court to take you seriously. And moonwalk on the roof of a limousine. Oh, my God. The organizers gave him a reprimand and a warning that a further occurrence was likely to bring his disqualification. The crowd was soon warmed to the Belfast player when his first frame after the delay made a break of 78 against Pat Houlihan of London.

A magnet seemed to be operating under the table for the Irishman's benefit. After each pot, the cue ball rolled into place for another strike. Higgins kept pouncing and potting, leaving Houlihan as an interested spectator, and the crowd bewildered at such artistry. Wow, not bad. Jesus Christ, that's wild. So he would be fined for turning up and also fined for wearing white trousers, which was against the rules as well. Obviously you can't wear white trousers while you play the game, Jimmy.

I'm surprised they're not investigating him after an author accused him of cheating he's so good it looked like he was cheating looked like there was a magnet under the table anybody looking for magnets for his benefit only maybe maybe you could look for magnets so i'm gonna say grace right now right this is i mean yeah it's it's he's happy gilmore with the big giant checks in his car driving around. It's all working in his favor. You know what I mean? It's all going well. That said, let's certainly, I want to show you these trick shots here that he's making

because you are going to shit your pants when you see these because we've played pool. And imagine if you pulled this off at any time in your life. I'm pretty good at pool. How you would feel. I love pool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm real good at it. I am too.

Let's see. Okay. He's got a nice haircut. There we pool. I'm real good at it. I am too. Let's see. Okay, he's got a nice haircut. Taylor Swift is soaring high, her every move captured in the news cycle and devoured by her devoted fans. She's broken billboard records and made Grammys history, not to mention becoming a billionaire in the process. But along the way, Taylor has had to wage war, first by taking on a very powerful, very famous manager, Scooter Braun, and then by going up against the biggest live events company, Ticketmaster. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery Show Business Wars. We go deep into some of the biggest corporate rivalries of all time. And in our latest season, Taylor Swift will shake

up not only the music business, but Hollywood and the NFL. Follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. Let's see. Where am I? I'm going to turn the volume on. Okay, there we go. Okay, here we go, Jimmy. Let's show you what we got. Alex Hattick and Higgins.

Hattick and Higgins. Okay, that's... This isn't a trick shot, but... Here it comes. Watch. He's doing this cool shit. That's all normal, but now he starts with all this weird shit. Okay, now he's got angles and...

Okay. Watch this, though. Not that. Although he has set himself up nicely. Look at that. Oh, hey. Not that. Although he has set himself up nicely. Look at that. Oh, lay. Makes it dance around one. That.

This is cool, too. He does it on purpose. Look at this. Oh, brings it all the way back. All the way back, so they almost hit each other. That's one of his specialties there. What the hell was that? How did that do that?

What? Yeah, we're going to rewind that. Hold on. He hit the ball. Hold on. He hit the fucking ball. Off the goddamn table. Then it went, the one that he did, I don't know how he made it stop and go backwards.

But then the one hopped up on here, on the side. Not this. Okay, it's coming. On the side. I don't even know what to say about this. This. This one. How did that happen? This, look, it went up on the side. He got it's coming. On the side. I don't even know what to say about this. This. This one. How did that happen?

This, look, it went up on the side. He got it to crawl and go, what the fuck is that? Unbelievable. And there he is always smoking and drinking. So that, well, we should explain it to the people at home. Those are legal moves? No, no, those were trick shots he was doing there. The one was in a game.

The one where he hit it in the red ball. I don't know what it did. He put so much English on it, it bounced. The English made it bounce back. And then it was still spinning, so it curled another direction. That was crazy. The ball moved like seven different ways alone. Alone.

By itself. But there's another one where the black ball there is kind of down toward the corner, and he hits it, and somehow the cue ball makes the black ball jump off the table onto the side. Right. Where the chalk is. Right. And it fucking rode the fucking entire thing and went in the pocket that way. I've never seen that done before. That's insane.

You can't do that. How the hell do you do that that's what i mean you have to be like a geometric genius to do this right and the way the pool table uh is set up it kind of slopes to the outside you gotta you have to have you gotta to ride the fucking rail all the way to the cup that's what that's been that is that's crazy so okay uh he goes on to lose the 1973 finals of the world championships to eddie charlton in these so he loses that he also lost his cue apparently here um he's going to use a new cue it's his 13th since he won the world title a couple years ago oh and he said yeah it's really hard um he said that um i guess there was um he i guess something happened to his other stick he said perhaps it will be lucky 13 for me he said that's what he told the the uh the press guy here he said since i lost that cue

nothing has gone right it's a tragedy i dream every night about finding another one like it i'd give a thousand pounds if I could. Where'd he leave it? The right cue. Who the hell knows? He said, you've no idea how terrible it is knowing you are the best, yet not being able to prove it, because you don't have the right cue. He says, yes, this is

not a quote, but this is a quote from the article. Yes, Higgins, lean and nervous, almost running around the table in his eagerness to get with the game, to get on with the game, really believes he is the best in the world, and it doesn't sound like a boast. Quote, you should have seen me when I won the title against Spencer, he said. He got a 60 break, and there were 61 left. I cleared the lot.

One fellow was so impressed he wrote a poem about me. It was beautiful. So there were 60 on that break and he beat him by one with six by one yeah he says now the cue's gone i'm not sure yeah he said i like to play i like to please people and make big breaks and let's face it i'm the number one draw with my charisma and personality so it's good of him to notice you yeah i just need the right cue but until i get the right cue i'm having to fight with myself inside you've no idea what it's like this is this is a mental thing you got brother that's wow so they talk about him being uh there a quote but there is no doubt he has been good for the game, dispelling its ultra dignified, stuffy image with his trendy clothes, big cigars and glamour boy image.

Last night, for instance, he drew a capacity crowd to the Ashton court and caused a gasp of excitement of excited surprise when he appeared in billiard cloth, green trousers and shirt and a red bow tie and huge platform shoes. Pants made of the felt from the table. Yeah, billiard cloth. I don't know if they were made of that, but that color. And a shirt of the same color and a red bow tie. This guy is crazy, Jimmy. He's crazy. He's out of control.

Platform shoes. Out of control. He's been banned from pot black, they said, because he refused to play at 11 p.m. They didn't mention the prostitute. He said, quote, I hate watching Snooker, and I didn't think it was right that every time I was on, I had to hang out for hours to play. That's TV.

Everything takes ten times as long as it should. But the decision not to play me was diabolical. When I talked to Joe Davis, this is the article again, talking to Joe Davis, the greatest this is the article again, talking to Joe Davis, the greatest snooker man of them all a few weeks ago, he predicted that Higgins would burn himself out quickly unless he changed his ways and practiced more. He said he was right in one way, wrong in another, said Alex. I agree I need to practice, but I don't get time. I've done 16,500 miles in two and a quarter months from one end of the country to the other. I need to practice but I don't get time I've done 16,500 miles in two and a quarter months from

one end of the country to the other I used to practice 11 hours a day now I need two hours I try to play more frames each night to make up but I won't disappear from the scene I want my title back too badly one day my dream will come true and I'll get the right cue again

then just watch me this is fucking wild so I guess he started to add more and I'll get the right cue again. Then just watch me. Goddamn stick, I need it. This is fucking wild. So I guess he started to add more tactical shit to his game, less out of control by 74. Eurosport.com here. This is fucking fun here. Here's a guy named Barry Hearn, who's the chairman of World Snooker since 2010.

Jesus. Okay. He said there's a memorable scene from the 1981 World Championships after this Davis guy, another guy, Steve Davis, beat Doug Mountjoy for the first of his six world titles.

He said Hearn bounds down to almost ragdoll Davis with as much glee as a punter with a few bob on... Okay. He hugged him for the non-english people the guy won and he picked him up and hugged him and got real excited about winning so that's how it went that's what they that's how they describe it it's very jesus very difficult it must be said hearn whose match room sport business promotes 11 sports, including snooker and darts with a turnover of 70 million pounds is a fabulous raconteur in recalling the days of his life.

He said, quote, Steve's idea of a risque night was whether to or not it was whether to drink two glasses of milk before bed where Alex would want to drink the place dry and have a fight with someone. Oh, that's Alex's thing too. Yeah,

that's the night's not complete till i have a black eye and i don't remember anything he said quote somebody never forgets me yeah oh no never most of my job early doors was making sure alex never got anywhere near steve because alex was very unpredictable steve was very uncomfortable around him i had i had to have a word with the organizers when we were up in Scotland to tell them Alex wasn't allowed within six feet of Davis. Just scared him. In Romford, we had a room

there, which we opened up in about 1974 or 5, which we called the Match Room. The Match Room was outside the main billiards hall. We put in a Riley Oak Imperial table, the best in my opinion. Obviously, Jesus Christ, what are we talking about? And benches to seat about 300 people. There were no windows or fire

exits. Oh, this sounds very safe. Sure, everyone's smoking. This is very good. There was one tiny door to get in and one tiny door to get out. If it would fail every type of planning application these days, there was no air conditioning, so everybody smoked and you could hardly see across the room. It was like a Bangkok kickboxing venue. Bloodsport, essentially. Kumite. Modern day cockfighting. It was mayhem, but the people were daft about snooker.

Loved it. I used that room to encourage steve by bringing down all the greats of all time world champions ray reardon john spencer cliff thorburn and of course alex higgins the biggest draw of the lot davis became almost unbeatable in the match room he says i used to gamble a lot when i was younger me and davis came from council houses and didn't have any money i used to pay davis 25 pounds a night for these challenges but said i would give him a bonus if i won money from betting on him and davis always won they'd have no respect for the opponent they'd be shouting miss and jeering i don't know what that means but that was the

working class environment alex would walk in the first question he'd ask would be what odds am i tonight it started by alex giving davis 14 points of a start because he had never heard of steve davis he gave him a handicap he said fucking let's play to 11 i'll spot you five bitch that's what he said i don't know yeah i'll beat you yeah after two or three games of alex losing his money it became an even match and eventually you could get decent decent odds on alex the highlight of all those matches was the last one played over four days and nights, best of 65 frames. I have no idea what they're talking about. Until this

day, those lucky enough to be there will tell you they have never seen Snooker like it. Oh, I've never seen Snooker like I did back in that day. 64 fucking times these guys had to play. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Almighty. They talk about some money they won.

They said, most of the time, I would have to spot him $50 for his bus fare home. But you were okay with it because of the entertainment he brought to the crowd. Alex would lose all his money always, even though he'd win a lot. They said, at the penultimate session in the race to 33, Davis was up 31-20. The crowd had been giving him stick, alex was on a short fuse he turned and said you bunch of wankers that's the fucking last time you see of me that's the last you see of me and if you bought a ticket for tonight tough shit and he stormed out a bunch of wankers a bunch of wankers this is to the crowd he said this he said we went downstairs where alex was having a

drink it ended up with me and him having a row, and I had him up against a wall. He's always fighting everybody. It was chaos because Alex would have a fight with anyone. I thought, we'll never see him again. Two hours later, he turned up bang on time. Hi, Barry. Everything okay? He was Jekyll and Hyde.

We just fought, sir. Yeah. I'm going to steamroller. He said, quote, I'm going to steamroller he said quote i'm gonna steamroller this ginger cunt that's amazing he couldn't resist the chance to entertain a crowd taking away his ability to entertain the crowd was the worst thing you could have done to him he was so uh he would go for flash shots because he was a crowd pleaser if alex was on a train, you saw him walking down the aisle, you'd hide behind your newspaper because of the thought of sitting next to a madman for three or four hours.

If you were out there watching Snooker, you'd bite your arm off to watch him because he did nothing anybody else, he did things nobody else could do. Davis respected him for that, but realized in longer matches he was very beatable. So as it went on he would start to falter because he's drunk too right as you pollute yourself you you see you don't see as well no 1975 alex and his girlfriend joyce fox have a son named chris and they separate a few months later after perfect it's exactly how yeah you want to do oftentimes babies ruin relationships i get it like this isn't as fun anymore what's going on this is weird so it's always what is that crying all the time i'm he always hearing april of 1975 he he marries a woman though he

marries australian-born cara hasler who is the daughter of a racehorse trainer. Look at that. Oh, that makes sense. They end up having a daughter named Crystal as well. He reaches the finals again in 76 facing Ray Reardon. He led 10-9, but he ended up losing the whole thing here. Higgins was also the runner-up to Cliff Thorburn in 80 after losing again. He started out ahead and then lost here's one uh 1978 this newspaper article quote I'll say one thing that's extraordinary for fisticuffs I'll say one thing for that extraordinary fisticuffs that developed between snooker stars Graham Miles and Alex

Hurricane Higgins considering Alex Higgins was yelling, Baldy, and get a hair transplant, it did show what girlish little bitches men can be when they're roused, doesn't it? That's from a newspaper in 1978. Bitches. Bitches. Girlish little bitches men can be when they're roused, doesn't it? He was calling the guy, Go ahead and shoot, Baldy.

Why don't you get a hair transplant against his opponent until they fought there's a bunch of bald jokes this is once again stuffy old british men what what now that's a bold that's oh my it's hereditary i believe it's i'm sorry he called him shiny he called him shiny on top called him shiny top uh 1978 he wins the benson and hedges masters of course they sponsor they just give you they give you a year supply of very long thin cigarettes that's what you get very long thin expensive cigarettes you give them to your aunt, who's very excited about it. She goes, thank you so much, sweetheart. Oh, my God.

Congratulations on your win. They keep going up and up in price, these things. I appreciate it. This will last me at least a month and a half. So 1979, he divorces Kara. She divorces him. Somebody divorces somebody, but they're fucking divorced. So that's how that goes.

June of 79, he is arrested on an assault charge. Here we go. Former snooker world champion, Alex Hurricane Higgins, appeared before Plymouth magistrates today to accused of assaulting a woman at a hotel in the city.

Oh, God. He was facing committal proceedings on a charge of assaulting a 26 year old wendy dring causing actual bodily harm okay that's one article yeah here's another article here about the same incident said differently that the 30 year old snooker ace picked up blonde wendy dring in a nightclub quote he took her back to his hotel room and said the girl described as a spitfire went wild because he kept waiting he kept her waiting for her 30 pound fee she claimed he beat her up because he was angry at losing 800 pounds gambling

so he didn't want to pay her because he lost a bunch of money gambling and probably didn't have 30 pounds anymore way more than what i'm what i owe you when he agreed to pay her because he lost a bunch of money gambling and probably didn't have 30 pounds anymore way more than what I owe you when he agreed to pay her 30 pounds he had 800 pounds and then he lost it all and I was like oh you don't understand I would have 770 left over I don't have it

I have nothing here so September 79 this is stuff from a trial here Higgins and Blonde in hotel fight is the headline. Fists flew, a dinner tray crashed to the floor, and a knife and whiskey bottle were brandished. As Alex Hurricane Higgins, former world snooker champion, battled in his hotel room with a blonde described as a, quote, little spitfire, a jury was told yesterday. Feels like a hot damn. This is awesome.

Mrs. Wendy Dring, 21, claimed that Higgins, bitterly upset after gambling at a casino, suddenly went haywire and punched and kicked and slapped her during an attack that lasted for 20 minutes. Oh my God. That's a sustained attack. She accused him of pulling her hair so hard that chunks were still falling out days afterwards oh wow finally she said he dragged her by the hair and dress and threw her into the hotel corridor dumped her in the hallway mr henry graham defending at plymouth crown court said mrs dring was a prostitute, quote, little spitfire who had fought like a tigress and later grotesquely exaggerated the injuries she received in this struggle.

So he's saying she got mad about the 30 pounds and started attacking him. Who knows if he shoved her around. She could take a punch is what I'm saying, Your Honor. Get out. Come on. She's not weak. She's not a little fucking daisy. Just a little wilting daisy.

This isn't her first day slobbering for cash. So she's fine. Higgins said he denied the charge of assaulting her, causing her actual bodily harm. He said he acted purely in self-defense. Oh, because, yeah yeah she's a badass he said that he picked her up in a quote not very reputable nightclub that's good uh she was sitting alone in a black lorex dress i don't know what lorex is but it sounds like something prostitutes would wear while they're out it's the guy that cares for the trees lorex sounds like like a

condom brand so i assume it's made of like black rubber is what i pictured it's shiny i guarantee it yeah he said they agreed on a 30 pound fee quote her short time price oh you know if you want to make it stretch out a bit yeah and went on to a casino before taking a taxi back to his hotel there he made several telephone calls for up to two hours in an attempt to delay a payment of a 650-pound check he cashed at the casino because he thought he'd been cheated at a card game at a casino. Higgins then told Mrs. Dring he wanted to sleep, told her to take her money and go. This appeared to insult her, he said. He said, just take your money and get out.

After the incidents, he told the police officer, I don't want to be akin to a knight in shining armor or anything, but by the same token, threatened with a bottle and a knife, chivalry takes second place regardless of a man or a woman to staying alive. She had both. Yeah, he said, she attacked me. I had to take it away from her. You know,

they said that Mr. Anthony Drone, or Don, prosecutor, said Mrs. Dring had been subjected to a vicious attack and there was no evidence to suggest she was a call girl. She might well have agreed to accompany Higgins back to his hotel

because he was famous, he said. She's a star fucker, not a prostitute. There's a difference. $30 or 30 pounds. She wanted it. Apparently that's what he says though. That's not what she says.

When this was put to Higgins, he replied, I'm not Georgie best. I'm just a snooker player. Um, in other words, like she wouldn't fuck me cause I was famous. I need to,

I have to pay for it is what he said. I don't have groupies. I have to pay for it. That's exactly what he said i don't have groupies i have to pay for it that's exactly what he said yep so um he's ended up tonight september 79 he's cleared in this beating here all all everything's all fine here um he's all good no problem they don't care yeah he's okay cleared no time served nope This is from the Daily Mirror from 79. Quote, The hell raising life of Hurricane Higgins has been snookered by love. And last night, the girl who has tamed the wild man of the green bays said he won't break out again.

This is because he's had a girlfriend while this is going on. Yeah. Higgins was yesterday cleared by a jury of beating up a woman in his hotel room after hiring her for sex. After the trial, his blonde fiancee, Lynn Robbins, who has lived with the fiery Irishman for three years, gave him a kiss and said, I forgive him. She told how life with Higgins has become hushed as a billiards ball. Basically, he's a quiet, homely person who likes to stay at home watching tv she said oh that's nice uh i have no problems with him when he's away playing snooker this was the first incident that's ever happened i was mad with him when he told me but it's all forgotten

now so yeah as long as you're normally fine you can beat up a prostitute once in a while in your room and i mean this is the first incident j Jimmy. Has anything like this happened in your relationship yet? Not yet. Then you have a freebie going. So you have a freebie. She'll forgive you. It's fine. Keep that in your back pocket.

Can you imagine she's not upset because he didn't sleep with her is the thing. He beat her up. He beat her up after he said he would pay to sleep with her and decided he didn't want to. Wow. So the jury was found not guilty by a jury of assault here. He, quote, Higgins last night

sipped champagne, hugged his bride to be and said, I've learned my lesson. I have left my hell-raising days behind me. No, he hasn't. It's a pity this all happened because I've been a good boy and quiet over the last four years. Now I enjoy staying home with Lynn. If we go out, it's to have a Chinese meal and a quiet drink. We never go to a disco or club.

Says Higgins, who intends to marry Lynn next year, added, Really? Snooker is all about living out of suitcases. It is a big strain. He told the court that after 10 days on the road giving exhibitions he had missed lynn and needed female company i only got her because i missed you so much that's what it is 10 days a dry dick isn't that's nine days too long i I miss being inside. I mean, I missed you. I missed you. Ten days, sure.

Eleven, no, sir. Can't hack it. Can't hack it. I will fight for some pussy at that point. Oh, man. He said, my game has suffered because of this trial. The charge has been hanging over me for seven months. Wow. So the girl, it says says last night the girl in the case was

also trying desperately to forget higgins miss dring a 21 year old mother of two said quote i'll have to move house because of this i'm not a prostitute the whole trial was a farce and i've had my name dragged through the mud oh she just says i'm just a single mother out there having some fun higgins lawyer henry graham had accused the girl of grotesquely exaggerating her story. And in summing up, recorder Lionel Jervis said, this case does involve you making some decision about the character of this young lady. Was she just prepared to go spend the night with Mr. Higgins for fun? Or was she, in fact, a professional lady who was going to do it for money?

Okay. December 1979, Wendy gets stabbed. What? Wendy Dring. Yeah, it's Spitfire Stabbed is the headline. What? This poor girl. She's just known as the Spitfire.

How many guys are into her now? Like, ooh, Spitfire. That sounds kind of good. And she's tough, too. And it says... She's known as a spitter, though. That's not a good prostitute. No, Spitfire Stab.

Girl in the Hurricane Higgins court case, in parentheses, under it, in case you don't know. Wendy Dring, the Spitfire in the Hurricane Higgins hotel fight trial, has been seriously injured in a stabbing incident. The 22-year-old... Oh, she had a birthday. That's nice. She's so young. against hotel fight trial, has been seriously injured in a stabbing incident. The 22-year-old, oh, she had a birthday. That's nice. She's so young. She said 21 before. Mother of two was found lying in a pool of blood in a house near her own flat at Davenport, Plymouth. She was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency operation, then taken to intensive care.

Her condition was described as very serious jesus christ she claimed she had been well she claimed or obviously she had been attacked by higgins before not this time um so this is fucking afterwards by the way after the trial her quote was i am no angel but i'm certainly not a prostitute okay so yeah then she gets stabbed so she's had her she's got a she's having a tough life she's got a... She's having a tough life. She's having a tough time here. It's definitely a bad year. Then here's...

He says, why I get the kisses by... This is by Prince Charles here. Okay. This is, by the way, in response to... They're talking about how Alex Higgins smokes four packs of cigarettes a day. He smokes 80 cigarettes a day, they say, which is four packs of now. You're never not smoking. That's two at once sometimes, right?

One in your ear. Like, how do you smoke 80 cigarettes in a day? The time it just takes to do that. He's a chain smoker, total chain smoker. You'll never see a footage of him where he doesn't have a cigarette in his hand. Ever. Ever. Or drink most of the time. Yeah. It says

quote, girls who kiss Prince Charles enjoy it more because he is a non smoker, he explained today. Prince Charles. All the girls want to kiss him. He revealed that he had been kissed by three girls during his two day visit to Nottingham. One of them kissed me particularly aggressively, which gave me enormous pleasure, he said.

Jesus. But he added, it's just as well as just as well. I suspect that I don't smoke. Otherwise, her reaction might have been different. So that's in response to that. January 1980, he marries Lynn Robbins. He probably should marry a girl who forgives him for that. Do whatever she wants. They met at a Manchester wine bar.

She said she found him, as this is how most women describe the love of their life when they first meet him, quote, cocky and weird. Repulsive. Repulsive. I don't know. Short, strange, odd. He asked if he could buy her a drink, to which she replied, no, I can buy my own. Smitten, he later tracked her down to her office in the airport. That's stalking.

That's stalking. Yeah, that's not good at all. Lynn said it was Alex's perseverance. He asked her out three times before she accepted. This is the thing, though. Wow. This is why it's hard. Yeah. Okay?

This is why it's hard, because you can ask a girl out and she will say no and then you say, okay, fine, and walk away and that's fine and everybody's happy because she might actually be repulsed by you. But she might just like you and this is the thing. Some women back in the day, I don't know if they do it now. They try harder. They play hard to get because they want to see if you actually – how hard you're going to try for him or if you're just taking a stab in the dark and like oh maybe i can fuck this lady tonight you know what i mean so then you find a guy who'll ask her out three times which can result in marriage like this or charges at a police station when he shows up at a job yeah this is a restraining order or you get married there's nothing in between here so this is why the world is weird and there's a lot of gray area because she's a good-looking woman

who married him for doing this so we want steve urkel do it every goddamn show for 30 minutes goddamn time every time how many movies are like that and we've talked about a lot uh she said i couldn't help but like him because he had such a lovable side. He said that he took her to expensive French restaurants and presented her with an antique ring, but she twice refused his proposals of marriage too. It's the third. She needs you to do it three times

to make sure that you're serious. It's the third time's a charm, both times. I was happy the way things were. I felt I had the upper hand when we weren't married, and I didn't want things to change, she said. There's the answer. Oh, wow, that's odd. She said that to the newspaper. Talk about honest.

That's some shit you'd say to your therapist, and they'd go, well, you've got to work on that. That's not really good, right? She's proud of it. She said she wanted to have children, though, and that changed her mind, So they had an extravagant white wedding, she said, in 1980. And the daughter was born early the following year. She said they have an enviable life traveling together to engagements around the country where Alex could pocket more than a thousand pounds in cash in a single night. Which for showbiz is sports is not exactly a lot. Often a chaotic figure.

He valued the motherly order she brought to his life. He did love me. She said, Lynn says, I think he realized I was a steadying influence. He appreciated the fact that I'm very grounded and normal. It would never let him get away with anything, but he was the focus of everything,

at least until Lauren was born. So they married and she said, he's been a model of restraint, except for the whole beating up the maybe a prostitute thing. That one time, yeah. Oh, that one time. She said they enjoy dinners out with some of his snooker friends, or they eat wholesome meals such as mince and potato on nights at home. He's just like everybody else.

Even then, she had no time for his regular grand gestures. He showered her with money and gifts presenting her with an expensive i can't even pronounce that some french name watch when lauren was born to this day it remains unworn she's just so down to earth and you know ah and instead she was the one who quietly collected the loose cash he left lying around the house and put it away for deposit on a bungalow. Higgins bought Lynn at least four cars during their five-year marriage. He gave her a Mazda, a Mercedes, a Hillman,

and to Lynn's horror, the Rolls Royce. I told him... The man's got Rolls Royce money? He's got snooker Rolls Royce money. Wow. That is wild. That's insane, man. I told him I'm 5'3". I'm grounded and normal. I'd have to

sit on a cushion to even drive it. If you think I'm driving that through Chattel Village in a Rolls Royce, no way. So they took the car back. They said he was always a heavy drinker, although she denies he's an alcoholic, even though he drinks heavily every day. She says he was a binge drinker.

He just changed personalities. When he drank, he wasn't the same person I knew. It's called an alcoholic. Yeah. Is what that is. That's when your chemical makeup changes. And he can't help but do it is also part of it. The first rows were over Alex's inability to control his gambling, usually when he's drunk.

Well, it seems like drinking is the main problem here. Feels like it, yeah. Yeah, he'd have tantrums after losing heavily in casinos. She'd find 500-pound betting slips around the house. Later, they'd fight because of his drinking. Lynn says, quote, Alex was the nicest person when he hadn't had a drink. He'd hoover the house. He'd go and cook.

He'd takeuren out for a walk help change the nappies i think those are diapers he was just like a normal father he was just like a normal father wow but when he had a normal father no apparently not but when he had a drink he could remember something you'd said three weeks ago and would bring it up but he never knocked me about it. It was all verbal. He never beat the shit out of her is what she said. It was all verbal, our arguing. Sometimes verbal arguments are worse.

They grind you down. When Lauren was born, he was so happy. He doted on her. But when she was little, I stopped traveling with him so much. Until then, all my focus had been on him and we'd travel everywhere together. All of a sudden, he had to stay in hotels on his own. had been on him and we'd travel everywhere together. All of a sudden, he had to stay in hotels on his own.

He used to try to get home as often as he could, but it was a lonely life. So he started to drink more, and then they would fight more, and she said he was never violent, though. Oh. So, 1980 here, he wins four tournaments and finishes runner-up in the world championships

to Cliff Thorburn. 81 wins the Masters again, but is forced to check into the Highfield Nursing Home to recuperate from something. I don't know what here. 1982, he wins his title again here. Apparently, he's called his wife and baby daughter on stage to share in his glory. The three of them are captured forever in that moment, baby Lauren waving at the crowd from her father's arms. Lynn, blonde and pregnant with their second child,

looks doe-eyed and proud, although already noticeably more tense than in their glamorous wedding photo of just two years earlier. Well, she's got a one-year-old and a fucking she's pregnant. I'd look tense, too. In two years. Yeah, I'd look tense, too. the picture the shit they don't look do you want to see the picture here roll over here for a second roll your chair look at this oh that poor lady she just looks tired yeah she just looks yeah she looks panicked she just looks a little tired

yeah it's like hoof i was up a lot of the baby woke up last night. Yeah. Got a lot of gas going on. Digested a decent meal in months. The man hasn't been able to digest a decent meal in six weeks. Good fellas there. So, 1983 at Preston Guild Hall, he came back from down 7-0 against Steve Davis to win the 83 UK Championship final in15 he said quote Davis sends spectators to sleep spectators have no point of contact how can you relate to a robot I'd rather have a drink with Idi Amin what that was because Idi Amin would buy him more drinks

is what Davis said in return in other words that yeah edie amin would get along better with him because he's a psycho like edie amin is what he said so yeah in 83 higgins helps a young boy from manchester who is a fan of his who's been in a coma for two months after yeah apparently this kid's parents wrote to him and said my our kids you know you're his biggest fan he's in a coma you want to hang out? So he recorded messages on tape and sent them to the boy. Oh, that's awesome. And then he later visited the boy when he woke up and played a snooker match that he promised to have with him when he recovered as well.

So there you go. 1983, second child's born, Jordan. And Lynn can't take him anymore now. Now it's getting a little out of hand. She's had enough. She's had enough. She moves back in with her mother, takes the kids with her.

Uh-oh. So what do you think he's going to be doing while she's gone? Oh, boy, it is time to check the yellow pages. Yeah. Yeah. And check the yellow pages. For a friend.

Shortly afterwards, Alex pleaded with her to join him at his friend Oliver Reed's villa in Majorca to discuss things. So Lynn said she didn't know. She had a three-year-old. She left the baby with the parents, but she said she went anyway. When they reached the villa, Alex wanted to go out to celebrate. When Lynn refused to leave the baby, then they got in an argument. And Lynn said, quote, it was a wet and windy night. When Lynn refused to leave the baby, then they got in an argument.

And Lynn said, quote, it was a wet and windy night. Lauren was in my arms being sick, and he and I were rowing. I said to him, I'm going home. I don't want to be with you anymore. Then she said he started stuffing prescription sleeping tablets into his mouth, is what she said. stuffing prescription sleeping tablets into his mouth. Oh, is what she said. So Lynn was holding her daughter,

tried to grab the tablets from him, but he broke free, ran away from the villa, holding a handful of pills and a half drunk bottle of champagne. I'm going to take these with this and just ran away. Yeah. Before he left, he left a note and thrust it at Lynn and it said, quote, I love you and i leave you everything okay so that sounds like he's gonna go kill himself with sleeping pills yeah

she eventually found him lying unconscious on a beach yeah and called an ambulance and he was on life support for three days after this wow yeah she saved his life um five months later somehow he convinced her to come back to him wow she said you could really be angry with alex but he could always turn me around i guess so yeah uh so he ends up buying a house a six-bedroom mansion in a wealthy village of presbury cheshire how does he afford a fucking mansion? A mansion and a fucking Rolls Royce and all these cars? Holy shit. How does he...

And kids. A mansion with two acres of land and eight foot electric gates. I want eight foot electric gates. 500 pounds a match? That's what I'm saying. And the neighbors are all millionaires and footballers.

And the house later sold for two million pounds. So I don't know, man. How does he have that? I don't know. Lynn said she hated the house, hated it. Alex thought that house would be a fresh start for us, but everything went wrong when we moved in. I just didn't feel at home.

He said one night a big fight turned violent after Lynn refused to entertain a drunk Alex and his friends that he invited. He invited friends home from the pub, and he was like, everyone's coming over. Make those snack things with the crackers that you make. And she's not having it.

I'm pregnant. Yeah, so she said we ended up having a row and then he locked the gates and just sort of started kicking things in the garden. So I just took the nanny and children upstairs and he locked the gates of the house. He came in the house and the nanny and children upstairs and he locked the gates of the house.

He came in the house and started smashing things. Now it's turned into the shining here. I locked the bedroom door and then he was trying to hammer at the door. He just started shouting,

this is what you, this is what I think of your Waterford glass and then threw it through a window. Okay. Now he starts breaking expensive shit.

Breaking crystal. He moved on from crystal to throwing television sets out the window oh boy which are pretty heavy so lynn called her father from the bedroom and told him to call the police why wouldn't she call the police if she has a phone to call her father fighting back tears later on she says lauren was saying to me granddad's going to come my dad's going to be mad or my dad's going mad he's going crazy the police arrived before my dad she says this is lynn alex just lost it he was trying to fight with the police shouting win tell them to stop which is the what every i just saw on uh on patrol like last week this guy was beating the

shit out of his girlfriend in an apartment complex she's sitting in front of the door just her head in her hands crying all messed up and shit and he's like what i do what i do and the cops had to fucking tie his ankles up and carry him away and he's yelling at the woman who's crying through bruises going this is what love is to you this is what love is yo tell them to is what love is? Yo, tell them to stop. Tell them I didn't hit you. And they're like throwing him in a car. He's kicking at cops and shit.

It's crazy. It's very obvious what happened, sir. Fuck. So Lynn said, I packed my stuff and left. The next day I told him, Alex, I'm never coming back, and you will go downhill from here. Oh. She moved in with her parents.

She said she gave all the the gold and the jewels that she gotten gave it all to her mother including her wedding ring oh uh 12 months later she bought a little house for 67 000 pounds and that's where she lives and she likes it done too simple too simple for him yeah she's very nice and down to earth she said the children loved it because they could see people passing in the street and the ice cream man outside. At Delvern, you were on your own grounds. Sure. Alex, though, would stop by late at night for a long time.

Oh. She said, I was really stressed about everything. I'd never lived on my own. The children were really young. Alex used to knock on the door and ring me constantly. It got so bad i was having panic attacks yeah he's like well it worked the first time i tried to fucking get with you i shouldn't have let him stalk me damn it yeah i've given him the impression he enjoyed i enjoy a good

stalking and i'm impressed with that all right fuck she said there was a space of a year when i rarely let him see the children he was drinking then He might see them twice in a month, but he had to see them in my house. Now, Alex said, quote, my mind was shot to pieces. This is him about this time period. There was no way I could think of anything but how to get the family back together. I was living on tea, lager and fags, and my weight dropped a stone in one month. A stone is 14 pounds beer tea and cigarettes and cigarettes 14 pounds in a month that'll do that to you yeah you need food also that's right that helps by 85 he continues to go downhill here um they end up divorcing obviously alex admitted to a charge of offensive behavior in court during the marriage and um now he's really from here on

there's no lynn kept him somewhat he had to be somewhat on a keel for a while but now it's sale now there's no sale on this boat no now it's just rudderless completely so uh they divorce like i said it's a mess he starts really all the headlines of their fights make it worse and worse and worse. And it seems everything starts to unravel here. In 1986, there's a guy named Paul Halthrell, who is a WPBSA representative, which is, I think, the World whatever the fuck, Professional Billiard Snooker Association or some shit. Wow. Higgins was asked to provide a urine sample at the uk championships you have to they do drug tests on this who cares what drug is making you better at this what drug yeah ritalin like for folk like what drug is gonna nothing is performance

enhancing in this sport nothing at all so you can cork your cue like what the fuck man so they said what he asked for a urine sample which is standard apparently alex responds by headbutting the man in the face okay that's one that's not it that that's kind of saying i'm on drugs watch yes and then he fucking smashed a pint glass and threatened him with it as well. Oh my. Threatened to cut him with it after he head butted him. Then he, there was people all around.

He started throwing plates at them. Okay. Like dinner plates. He was throwing them at him like Frisbees, which is very dangerous. You could really hurt someone. Here's a woman named Ann Yates who was in charge of the press room that night. She said that, quote, everyone believes it was a simple case of Higgins nutting Hathorol because he had been asking to supply a urine sample for a random drug test.

But it went much deeper than that, and it was, without a doubt, the most difficult, most frightening time of my life. She said that Higgins had been a pain all night after he'd won a match. Quote, he'd obviously had a good drink and was spoiling for a fight after being asked to take the test by Hathorall. The next thing was that the doctor appeared looking shaken and he said he'd been threatened physically in the cubicle. Then Alex went back to the players' room, complaining to Ann that he was always being picked on

and that he had already taken a test earlier in the tournament. I tried to explain to him that the tests were predetermined long before the tournament had begun, but he would not listen. He bleated that his life was a misery because his wife had left him again, taking their two children with her. He then demanded a private meeting with David Harrison, who's the tournament administrator. When Harrison took Higgins, Higgins, by the way, has a fresh pint by now,

into the tournament office across from the players' room, they were like, oh boy, quote, After a few minutes and some heated words, there was an almighty crash as Alex shovedved david into a filing cabinet a cabinet against a partition wall he punched alex off him angrily sending him across the room still clutching his pint he didn't fucking he got punched in the face and didn't spill his beer that's an alcoholic and delivered a punch or two and a show those are guys that like catch a foul ball at a baseball game without spilling a drop

and like they had to reach over two people but they kept the beers their body just automatically like knows how to adjust it's yeah knows how to adjust its arms so the bill doesn't beer doesn't spill that's him across the room uh quote some time had elapsed by now and hathor all was getting curious uh and not knowing what had transpired. The doctor guy. He wandered back into the office to see what was going on. And when Higgins saw him, he dropped the glass, grabbed Paul by the tie and smashed him with his head by the side of his eye, opening a nasty cut. Oh, God.

He fucking Zinedine Zidondem there. That's rough he said uh with uh with the blood pouring out and spattering a splattering paul's shirt higgins tightened his grip on the tie and started to choke him he's strangling him by then a security guard had arrived on the scene there was a standoff for a moment as higgins hesitated then stormed back into the players room where john virgo john spencer and dell simmons attempted to calm him down wow but higgins wasn't finished no no he punched a hole in the wall and another three in the door as they tried unsuccessfully to restrain him he then stormed out into the corridor followed by the three players and grabbed a hold of a pile of

dinner plates the caterers had left behind he started skimming them at us like flying saucers and we had to duck all over the place to avoid being hit the reporter said he is a just a menace everywhere and plates are his thing that there's no yeah anything yeah anything heavy higgins then started taking swings at everyone in sight anyone standing around eventually security officer frank baker wrapped his arms around him and told him to calm down but he was way out of control and the reporter says there was a huge ball of foam in his mouth that i'd never seen anything like it in my life he just lost his mind yeah then higgins started stubbing his cigarette out on frank's hand oh jesus the guy who wrapped him up the security guy that was it virgo told harrison

to call the police because we had no other option alex was dragged from the building face up face up and heels dragging by two police officers one woman but not before he gave us a urine sample, which tested negative anyway. He did this for no reason. There's nothing in his piss. It's the, is it the, why does he do it? Pissed off. Yeah.

Drunk and pissed off. How dare you tell me I'm doing this illegally? Is it that? He should be good and liquored up and pissed off by now. It's just, that's what he is yeah so they had a emergency board meeting to consider what action to take later that afternoon um higgins then conducts his own press conference outside his house that evening of course everyone listen they said quote wearing a ludicrous biggles type flying hat with fur trim and an ankle-length coat.

He showed up looking like Dolomite to fucking give a press conference in 1986 after he beat everybody up. Curiously, Higgins was allowed to carry on in the event and won one more match, earning him 18,000 pounds before Steve Davis stopped him in the semifinals. Paul Hathorall says, quote, Alex was never the easiest of people to get on with, especially when he wasn't winning, and we all used to dread his presence at a tournament. The crowds obviously loved him, but he was just a pain to us.

Oh, God. Quote, there was a chilling follow-up during the WPBSA Awards dinner at London's Groves... Grovesner? Grovesner House house uh hotel hathorall recalls it was a dazzling affair a celebration of the previous season's achievements by the players and we were all enjoying ourselves dancing followed a sumptuous meal and my wife jillian and i were out strutting our stuff when alex appeared with his girlfriend, Siobhan. Okay. They made their way to us on the dance floor,

and Alex leaned over and apologized to Jillian for what had gone on at Preston. Before she could even acknowledge his apology, he muttered in my ear, and you're a dead man. I'm so sorry for all the shit I caused in making your husband a headbutter, and that's really shitty. I'm terribly sorry, terribly sorry. You're dead to me, mother. I'm going to fucking kill you. I'm very sorry for all the shit I caused in making your husband. I headbutted him. That's really shitty. I'm terribly sorry. Terribly terrible. You're dead to me, mother.

I'm going to fucking kill you. Very sorry I did that. You're a dead man. Wow. He ended up being fined 200 pounds for assault and 50 pounds for damage to the door later on for that whole thing. Four months later, though, a disciplinary tribunal fined him 12,000 pounds and banned him from five tournaments for the preston incidents and various others hathoril says that higgins was not a monster all the time and did have a fine sense of humor when things were going well he said i'll never know whether he was kidding or not after he won the uk championship in 83

because he insisted with a straight face that he wanted alexander gordon alexander gordon higgins inscribed on the trophy although he didn't get his own way i'm sure he was chuckling inside of the thought of getting me going again okay even ann yates doesn't believe higgins is all bad the reporter and says that uh they've been friendly for years quote as bad as he was as wicked as he could be, I still have a soft spot for him because he would make me laugh. Wow. When he's not, shit-faced.

I feel like when he's sober, he's fine, and when there's a window of when he's having fun his first few drinks and he's getting a buzz on and everything's fine, and then it gets dark after a minute here. You've got to really keep an eye on what he's doing and the character that's out right now because yeah once there's got to be a trigger showing you know what i mean it's gotta be something once you see you go get everybody get out yeah shortly shortly after this happened he report uh repeatedly called her a bimbo and she had to report her to bosses and they fined him

for it because she wouldn't talk he wouldn't talk to her. Quote, he was brilliant at crosswords and I'd be struggling like mad to do one in the Daily Telegraph. All of a sudden Alex would peep over my shoulder and rattle off seven answers. He could be extremely witty and a great one for one-liners. Wow. He's a smart fuck so though she's concerned for alex's present plight she'll never forget how he tormented her for 10 years this reporter this is hilarious i always used to say after one of his slaggings that i would worship the ground coming to him but that was just a saying you wouldn't wish that alex got on anyone but that's not uh but that's

not to say i'd want to make peace with him because he was an absolute bastard to me. He did his best to wreck my life and to a large extent he succeeded since I knew I was never allowed to hit back. Jesus, they said referees hated to handle his matches

because he would complain when he lost and he would even bitch when he won. So, all sorts of shit. His ex-wife Lynn said, quote, he attacked the official he would even bitch when he won. So all sorts of shit. His ex-wife Lynn said, quote, he attacked the official after getting off the phone to me. I'd served him an injunction to stay away from me and the children. He just wouldn't leave us alone. For five years, I went through hell.

That's what happened. That's when he got off the phone with her, saying that you can't see me or the kids. That's when he freaked out and did all that. So a little more with Alex and Lynn and Siobhan here, the new girlfriend. Yeah. He would still show up drunk and angry outside Lynn's house, demanding to see the children shit-faced in the middle of the night. Where are my babies?

At one point, she had to call the police because he threw a skateboard through the window of Lynn's parents' home. Well, that's how he got there. Wow. She said, my children knew the local police officers by name, Lynn said, because they'd have to come so often. So in 86 is when he starts going out with Siobhan Kidd, who is 13 years younger than him. And he refers to her or she refers to him.

He refers to her as his last great love. He said they met in a club in Manchester where all great love stories start. That's where they began, yeah. Yeah, this is when his relationship with Lynn was, quote, very much on and off. Lynn said no. She said not at all, that we weren't on at all. That was when he would show up screaming at my house, but that doesn't mean we were on. She said that she remembers having to placate Siobhan,

who was convinced Alex was still in love with Lynn because he'd show up in the middle of the night at her house. Lynn says, I think she felt threatened because he used to go on about the kids a lot. I think he wanted the family unit back. So November 5th that year, Alex arrives at Lynn's house with a box of fireworks. I think you know where this is going.

A gleeful Lauren, then age seven, and Jordan, age five, watched as their mom and dad set them off in the back garden. They said, it's a picture of blissful domesticity. Alex was being so well-behaved,

Lynn invited him in for coffee. Okay. Yeah. Then she learned that for the last two hours, Siobhan had been in a hospital bed after taking an overdose. What? He just came over to play with the kids. Wow. Lynn said, why are you fucking here playing with fireworks when she's in the hospital?

It's your wife or your girlfriend. Lynn took it upon herself to phone the hospital where she was and she was in stable condition and lynn says i couldn't believe it that he just sat in my house and not even done anything unbelievable 1986 a video game comes out titled alex higgins world snooker what he's on the cover check this fucking video game box i I love 80s video games. Roll over here. Look at it. All pixelated. That's a game. That's a game. Alex Higgins World Snooker. 1986. Made by Lindemsoft.

That's the maker of the game. What game console is that? I think it's a computer game. It's probably a handheld thing. PC game because it says press any key. There you go. 1987. He's fined $500 for being abusive toward tournament director Kevin Norton at the Irish Masters. They move in together, he and Siobhan, in 1987.

March 1988, he's got some problems. He gets arrested again after a big fight with his girlfriend here. I guess they got in a fight and Siobhan wouldn't let him back in the apartment. i guess they got in a fight and siobhan wouldn't let him back in the apartment so i guess he wakes up the neighbors by yelling and screaming at the door and beating it trying to break it down yeah siobhan said the whole thing is over and it told him that days earlier but he believed that she was seeing another man so a neighbor called the police they came and as he's being taken away he was heard screaming, I'll get bail in a half hour. I'll be right back.

I'll be right back. And eyewitnesses said, quote, he managed to get through the security front door by ringing someone else in the complex. Yeah. UPS. It was well after midnight and he was ranting and banging on the door, screaming about taking back gifts if she didn't let him in. I want my shit back. It was the second time in a matter of weeks that this happened, but this time it was far worse. When Higgins saw the police, he turned his collar up, pointed down a passageway and told them he's gone down there.

You just missed him. He turned his collar up. It wasn't me. It was the guy with the collar down. Wow. You're looking for a down collar, man. That's not me. He's down there.

I'm an up collar guy. Totally different guy. Same clothes. Collar up. He's over there. Yeah. Fucking bloody fists from beating on a door. He then jumped into his car

and his mate started to drive off the police realized they'd been conned and stopped him they believed him he said he went that way and they were like thank you mate and they fucking took off and then he ran the other way like a like a french farce i think we've been had wow Wow. Holy shit. Check his wallet, mate. Is it just Hunt's ketchup labels? Oh, no. Oh, my God. Siobhan said, it wasn't me who called the police. I have no comment to make. So he still lives in a big, giant house.

He sold it recently, but still lives there. Yeah. Renting it from him, I guess? I don't know. I don't know. He said, quote, an incident at siobhan's flat no comment sir now ta-ta that's what he told a reporter ta-ta june 29th 1988 everything is fine in the alex again siobhan relationship again it's all good now it's it's good now um they said it

was a little little, but come on. It's okay. They said they're back together and happy. Siobhan said it's been four months now and said that she also has a new business that she set up as a picture restorer. She said, Alex is behaving himself, and I'm really into my work. The nice thing is that he understands how much time I have to put into it. The nice thing is I can be gone 18, 20 hours a day and not have to deal with him much. I come back when he's sleeping.

It's very good. They said, indeed, the fiery Irishman seems to have turned over a new leaf and sat contentedly close to kid throughout the whole of the two hour show in the VIP box. Just in front of your loyal diarist, this writer. Love the two-hour show in the VIP box, just in front of your loyal diarist, this writer. He told me of his new culinary delight since I complained of feeling a bit peckish. I've already eaten, he said with a grin, a pound of cold tripe with just a little vinegar. Ew. No, that's not good.

A pound? A pound. Thanks. He said that lovely stuff, especially in the hot weather, he said. Yeah. Meanwhile, here, there's an engagement ring on her finger here. And, yeah, there you go. Quote, she's also got a hat. And she said, it's a real Australian shepherd's hat, she told me, tilting the headgear.

Alex got it for me from a band who were playing at a club in london she added proudly uniquely making higgins appear to blush just for a second wow what it is to be in love the article says okay it's a hat made out of dog i don't know what the fuck it is i guess yeah i know it's a shepherd's hat oh it's what shepherds wear in australia not an australian shepherd hat no no i don't think it's made from an australian shepherd i think australians i think australians who also are shepherds wear the hat got it yeah he made this he's gonna get me a golden retriever hat next week he said that one i'm really waiting for it can't wait it's the hat the mom and don't don't tell the don't tell mom the baby yes there you go when she comes home i think so yeah when she comes home after her completely irresponsible two months away from her

house full of children sorry lady you got about 10 years before you're doing international months long vacation sweetheart australia yeah shouldn't have had those last three you know what i'm saying the other two were primed and ready to leave the house the other three that's on you sorry just gonna take out your fuck off with a dude you just met dude i'm to ps i hate this movie we did an episode on it i love the movie but holy shit we really ripped her apart for that we're like are you and they call her and she's like guys you can't call me every day this is mom's vacation gee sorry for interrupting you for fucking five minutes we got a corpse on our hands ma jesus yeah we got literally a body that we're dealing with here we're dealing with bodies you're getting plowed by some rich guy what are we talking about

some rich guys took you away from your kids and can't afford to take us to jesus it's not fair yeah what's up with that we're not even in school right now we could go anywhere so july 14th 1988 everything is wonderful except the police are called to the home again oh police were called to the home of fiery snooker star alex higgins shares with his girlfriend after neighbors heard a blazing row. Oh, boy. Oh, man. Today, his girl Siobhan laughed off the incident at the love nest they share. Siobhan, who works at a city art gallery, said, quote, I was surprised as everyone else when the police arrived. We were not really having a row.

Just one of those things that happens between couples. Everything is fine between Alex and me. Probably someone overheard us having a little row. A neighbor complained, a neighbor complained of noise from the flat, which there's been crazy shit going on there. You hear noise. They're just like, oh, call the cops again. They said that Siobhan said they may have heard other people arguing and over and mistakenly thought it was Alex. Could have been somebody else. Who knows?

She yeah, she said, I don't know how anyone can say there are rows every weekend because i'm always away at the weekend three officers were sent to the flat there they spent about 15 minutes talking to everybody it is understood the incident was dealt with as a domestic and no further police action were taken their neighbor who lives below them said she called the police she says she suffers from a heart condition and said, quote, the noise was terrible. It made me feel ill. I heard a woman screaming out of the window. Someone with a heart condition was scared to death of this.

This is, I mean, it sounds like, I don't know what she's scared of. She recently put her flat up for sale because of the noise, she said. She added, I can't bear it any longer. The rows usually start on Thursday or Friday and continue most of the weekend. Oh, man. She said, in the past, I've heard a woman shouting for help. 1988, he said that, you know, he's going to start a new season as a solo performer instead of being a member of the Howard Kruger's framework team. Oh, wow.

They said certain sponsors have not been keen to be associated with Alex. In fact, I did not want his reputation to rub off on the other players, is what the team leader said. So he's going to have to go solo here. He said the new arrangement will give me the freedom that a flamboyant character like myself requires. I need to be alone because otherwise it'll my teammates will start beating up their wives no shit 1989 he beats stephen hendry and they're gonna ass kickings are gonna spread like wildfire

and uh he beats this guy to win the irish bensonedges Masters in 89. They said that Alex was always by Lynn, by the way. He's still stalking Lynn, even by 89. He stormed into an Indian restaurant when she was having a birthday meal with her family. And in a blind rage, he ordered her to, quote, get home with the children before he threw her out. Later that night, he fell out of his apartment window and broke several bones in his foot. Yeah. Not his apartment, an apartment.

She said that he was coming back to harangue her. Quote, I used to have the kids watched at school because he threatened that he would take them to Dublin. She says, if I went out to dinner with friends, he'd have me watched. Jesus.

So January 89 is when he breaks his ankle in a fall from the flat here. He's taken to the hospital. It is his flat. Okay. That he was fell out of a patrolling. Policeman found him lying on the ground shortly before 2 AM. He was taken to the Manchester Royal infirmary where he had stitches in his head and ankle,

his ankle set before being discharged. A spokesman for the police said there's no suggestion that it was anything other than an accident. Holy shit. This is him in Siobhan's place, which obviously he's been arrested at all the time. So they said the snooker star had a cup of tea poured over him and threw an ashtray against the wall and a violent row that ended with him spending the night in police cells.

This is a different time. He was bound over in the sum of three hundred dollars to keep the peace after magistrate advised him not to let drink get the better of him. In the same week, just before Christmas. Wow. Higgins had a bankruptcy case filed against him adjourned after offering to pay off a hundred thousand dollar tax debt by installments over six months. He was also threatened with prison over maintenance arrears of fourteen thousand six hundred forty six dollars owing to his ex-wife Lynn for their two children. But the threat was lifted when he made payment. Holy shit.

He's ordered to pay a lump sum of a thousand dollars and or 1,000 pounds and 300 pounds a month to Lynn. Higgins is here, they said. He also has Siobhan, stormy relationship. She says, I'm very proud of Alex. He has a lot of troubles lately, but I can help him to put his problems behind him. I can fix him, is what she said. Wow. He's my favorite mess.

He can do it she said that um he the reason why he fell was siobhan said he was drunk and she'd locked the door from trying to stop him from going to the pub so he climbed out a window and fell out and broke his ankle that's because he's too drunk to get out the window jesus karen i'm'm still going. I'm still going to go. Yeah. So February 1989, it says, quote, it's Hopalong Higgins. Sorry. Fucking talk.

Hopalong Higgins. That is fantastic. He was down and out. Oh, my God. He was down and out. His face freshly scarred. His left foot shattered. He looked like a wino begging a penny. Alex Higgins, 39, sometimes snooker genius and life loser, was setting off to a place where nobody wanted him.

This is fucking amazing. This is from the Daily Record. He says, quote, I'm snookered, he admitted. I'm hard up and the doctors say i may never walk properly again so he was ignoring everything and just hobbling around anyway going to a tournament to pocket 875 pounds for some european tournament here in normandy he said this is a weird quote he constantly fingered the 12 stitch scar and rubbed the leg injury sustained falling 25 feet from his flat gross how about you keep your fucking fingers off of an open wound finger it

i'm gonna finger it though put some chalk on it make it feel better fingering the stitches gross he insisted he didn't fall out of the window because he was drunk he just leaned against an unlocked window and he fell out yeah as we all do real leslie neilsen moment yeah just bloop right out the window real nordberg action here and so he said he didn't injure his hands which is the important part because that's for the game you know what i mean so yeah he said that the doctors told him he could be a cripple if he played or perhaps worse a clot or embolism could be released. Go to his lungs or heart and kill him. But he said, I don't care.

I need 875 pounds. Yeah, I'm broke. Yeah. He said, quote, the last trip was meant to be from Liverpool to Belfast, but I got drunk and ended up in Dublin instead. He said that he has a minder named Sean who he said, quote in demolition that's his business he's in demolition business he said they were late arriving to this tournament because they took a wrong turn so he said I don't drive

I was doing the navigating I guess it's my fault he said you know all he shows up to a tournament late limping on crutches with people fucking driving him around and yeah it's a it's he's a goddamn disaster all over there's a guy named john parrot oh my god he said quote i wonder if alex would mind if i jumped up on his shoulder and everybody laughed they can teach kangaroos to box so maybe

they can be taught to play snooker as well and they laughed he's a peg-like pirate he's a peg leg pirate he's a yeah exactly so they said he has a huge um i guess giant like a fluid thing around his ankle it's disgusting so they also said that they had him saying that it was unfair to let alex play being that he had been banned from the tournament because his foot had been in a fucking in a cast so he keeps going on he says it's nobody's business but mine fuck he once he woke up the next day they asked him again and he told a reporter to fuck off and walked away fuck off not interested oh my god so anyway he's betting on himself as well which is nice here um he settled everything he He actually won some money one night and did well with the cast on. He won money and did well.

So April 15th, 1989, cops are looking for Alex. Oh? The headline is Higgins Search Drama. The fiery snooker star Alex Higgins was being sought by police after he made a late night call at his ex-wife's home detective swooped in at dawn at the moreland cottage he shares with his girlfriend but the uh former world champion was not home neighbors in this close-knit village of holcomb near bury said that higgins was soon leaving seen leaving last night with siobhan police want to talk to the snooker star about a visit to the Harold, or Heald Green

home of his ex-wife Lynn early yesterday. In the latest incident, Jesus Christ, he I guess he showed up and at her modern detached home, Lynn angrily refused Alex's visit. Her father, who lives nearby, said

this, quote, Lynn is tired and weary of the whole business and it's become a constant nuisance and she's had enough this uh he's a mess obviously he gets arrested again at one point in 1989 lynn was awarded a six-figure payout after alex gave a libelous interview about her to a newspaper so say anything in the uk you can't it's libel laws are don't way different yeah so they said he also his management company framework is declared bankrupt owing him 450 000 so he's fucked somebody owes him all that money september 3rd 1989 the uh headline is snooker star higgins goes wild in Hong Kong.

Oh, Jesus. How did he get there? Oh, boy. He rampaged his way through a tour of Hong Kong in a shocking display of bad boy behavior. Hotel staff and Snooker tournament officials were appalled by Hurricane Higgins' antics here. His trial of mayhem, Jesus Christ, included refusing to pay a hotel bill of almost a thousand

pounds. Okay. Locking his girlfriend out of their hotel room wearing just her underwear. Okay. Getting involved in a physical skirmish at a disco. Last night he said, quote, I can't say I have been too impressed with Hong Kong. I can't wait to get back to England. What? You seem like you're having a ball you're the problem there fuck man four days later oh okay yeah he was knocked out he's penalized okay so he's out of the tournament anyway higgins

claimed he was being victimized for his reputation and said he felt like giving up the game more trouble followed when he locked siobhan out of their hotel room wearing only a bra and panties. The spokeswoman for the plush hotel said Siobhan was screaming in the corridor. Then there's the bill. They were having a fight and it became public disturbance, which annoyed other guests. Staff said Higgins later refused to pay a hotel bill of almost $1,000 and left it in the hands of the tournament organizers. The hotel spokeswoman said, quote, He made quite a scene it

was only 12 noon but higgins appeared to be drunk he just left without paying he then stormed out of hong kong for a six-day con uh contest in thailand but then returned this newspaper is so hard to read i'm sorry it's like it's like raptor it like was bent when it was scanned in, so it's like in a weird wave. So he returned, blah, blah, blah. Soon after arriving, he was caught up in an incident involving a girl at the Joe Bananas Disco. Joe Bananas? Joe Bananas Disco. Complaints were made about his behavior, and he was asked to leave.

Shit. And then he was scheduled for an interview and with hong kong's top tv hostess 23 year old american sue brooks she said higgins turned up two hours late and was drunk he was supposed to play a few trick shots but arrived without his cue when jimmy white refused to let him use him he his he walked out his manager brought him back a few minutes later and we managed to get a few words out of him. Then he asked me if he could take me home for the night. I replied it would be a short night and he told me to go and get fucked.

I wasn't insulted because I just don't respect the guy. He's just a pathetic has-been. Oh, Jesus. Oh, man. He denied the allegations about his antics in hong kong he said this is all crazy when approached by the sunday mirror he said i don't know what the tv girl is talking about nothing happened and i don't know anything about any incident at any disco he says quote there was no row with siobhan she has simply returned to the

uk for work i'm sick and fed up with all this controversy. So they asked Siobhan, and she said, I don't know what you're talking about. I was not locked out of the hotel room. Alex did not miss any engagements while I was with him. He did not get drunk. Everything was just fine. Then she turned and then turned back and said, quote, there are a dozen red roses in my living room that say there is nothing wrong between us. Because guys never get flowers when they've done something stupid that never happens only reason we do wow was it

valentine's day was it your birthday's anniversary then he fucked up did something fucked up so october 1989 here the relationship with siobhan ends after he allegedly beats the shit out of her yeah she told police had that he held her down and broke her cheekbone. There are different articles that say cheekbone and jaw. It goes back and forth. And how did he do this? With his fist, you might say. Well, you don't want to hurt your hands if you're Alex.

With a hairdryer. Jesus. She didn't go to the cops until two months later and said he broke my cheekbone or jaw with a hairdryer. Jesus. She didn't, she didn't go to the cops till two months later and said he broke my cheekbone or jaw with a hairdryer. So October, 1989, um, this is crazy.

So, um, they said he's the owner of a black cab, which he bought for no better reason than because he loves its design. And with absolutely no intention of installing a meter or applying for trade. However, the taxi buff was somewhat startled recently while waiting for the traffic because he loves its design and with absolutely no intention of installing a meter or applying for trade. However, the taxi buff was somewhat startled recently while waiting for the traffic lights to change late last night when one of the vehicle's passenger's doors swung open wildly and a rather disheveled Higgins slumped into the back seat.

Some guy has a taxi that's not a taxi. He just likes the design of a taxi, so he bought that car, painted it black. Higgins thought it's a fucking taxi. He just likes the design of a taxi. So he bought that car, painted it black. Higgins thought it's a fucking taxi. He jumps in the guy's backseat. It's like if you drive a Prius around a major city, people just get in your car and go, Uber? And you're like, no, fuck away from me. Are you looking for Jimmy? No.

What are you talking about? What are you talking about? So many times. Let's go. So the command, quote, Lumcar Road followed. And when the driver protested that the cab wasn't for hire, he was showered with seven five pound notes and told to get a move on. Or words to that effect. Deciding that the hour for reasoned argument was long past, the motorist just fucking put the money in his pocket and drove him there. Took him where he needed to go.

He just did a fair. He said it was five minutes away. It was right there. He said it pocket and drove him there. Took him where he needed to go. He took him, he just did a fair. He said it was five minutes away. It was right there. He said it was just right fucking there. He said it was less than a five-minute walk, he said, even. So it was like the next block. After losing a first-round championship in the 1990 World Championships, he's heavily intoxicated, shit-faced,

and punches the WPBA, PBS press officer Colin Randall upon arriving for his press conference then gives a slurred shit-faced tirade in which he announces his retirement from not from professional play and also being abused by the media and he's out fuck you fuck you fuck you you're cool I'm out so anyway um he then reaches an amicable out of court settlement with siobhan um here apparently uh he obtained or she obtained an order a possession order on the 75 000 cottage they lived in and he was due to appeal it and i don't know what ended up happening here they said she um they didn't speak to each other they both left apparently they came to a settlement we don't know what it is that's good

so he finally gets a divorce from lynn in 1990 it's finally finalized yeah she gets full custody of the kids of course and she says slowly he realized that was it it only took him years to realize it then another incident follows uh at the World Cup where he would confront a guy named Dennis Taylor, who's another player, and say, look, look, you. If I had my gun in my hands, I'd blow your brains out. I come from I come from Shankill and you come from Colas land. And the next time you're in Northern Ireland, I'll have you shot. You can't say that. We're both from,

not usually. He said, we're both from Northern Ireland, so I'll get you there. He then also in quote, insulted Taylor's recently deceased mother. Oh God. Jesus.

Oh my God. He's a menace. He's a fucking menace. The man's mom just died just died lynn says he was probably having a nervous breakdown because we just got divorced so he was fined 5 000 pounds and docked 25 ranking points and banned for the majority of the season and he's also starting to play shittier as well. Sure. Physical decline. Yeah. He drinks like a fish all day long and just smokes and smokes and smokes. So he said that when he'd get shitty, he would start to complain. He would yell at the referee.

He'd yell about the table, the cloth on the table, the temperature of the arena. Yeah, that's what he'd start to do here. Meanwhile, he's just starting to suck. Oh, boy. So he gets suspended as well. He, for a while, like we said, from this whole deal, he suspended. And, you know, for one of his outbursts, probably punching the press guy. During the 1991 World Trick Shot Championships, he referred to the black ball as, quote, Muhammad Ali in front of a live TV audience.

Oh, boy. I don't know. In the 90s? In 1991. I mean, what? Muhammad Ali, that. All right. Isn't it?

Wow. And then he, I don't know what he was thinking. Why did he do that? Yeah, that is fucking wild, man. Holy shit, that's fucking funny. Here's another thing. I don't know where it goes, so this is where it's going here. In his memoir, Stephen Hendry, one of the players, said he was fond of Higgins.

He's the guy who said he was doing all this shit, and I loved it. It was fucking hilarious. He said that he recalls one occasion they played each other in the first round of the UK championship, and he said, quote, Alex likes to have enemies. Now I'm winning. Not everything, but a very good percentage. His laser eyes have locked on me. Everything he says appears to have a barb attached to it.

Resentment pours out of him like a spilled pint. He is the one, the talent, the genius. Woe betide anyone threatening this. Alex comes in, walks in toward me, and I. Woe betide anyone threatening this. Alex comes in, walks in toward me, and I offer my hand for the customary shake. He takes it, looks me right in the eye, and says, shake hands with the devil.

That's what he said. The best way to deal with the aggression is to ignore it and to try to get the match over as soon as possible. I beat him convincingly, 9-4, and throughout the game, he's snapping and snarling. At the end, I offer my hand again, and again he takes it,

giving me the death stare, and mutters, Up your ass, you cunt. Yeah. In the aftermatch press conference, the journalists who've noticed Alex muttering things in my direction ask him what he's been saying. Quote,

Oh, I was just saying, Well done, you were a bit lucky, he replies. Looking like butter wouldn't melt. Cool as a cucumber. Up your ass, you cunt. I was just telling him good job. Well done. Bit lucky there. Get you next time, mate. 1994, he

has a cancerous growth removed from his mouth. 1996, he has another cancerous growth removed from his mouth. Okay. 1996, he has another cancerous growth removed from his mouth. March of 1996, he assaults a 14-year-old boy. Yeah, I mean, that seems logical. Yeah, this is fucking crazy. I don't know why.

He's out of his mind, but he's on assault charges here, accused of assaulting a boy of 14 years old, and he's bailed out. This is fucking crazy um so he ends up uh he is unfit to attend a court hearing in stockport he's found okay so he ends up rather than getting fit for it he goes for a weekend in spain yeah might as well might as well yeah he was spotted at the bar of a restaurant near Malaga on Saturday night, a day after failing to appear before the magistrates for medical reasons. Yeah.

He's been due to face a charge of assault, causing bodily harm to a teenage boy. He was arrested last month at the home of his former wife, Lynn. Jesus Christ. He went back there again, dude. That late. He's 96. 96, dude. They've been divorced for five years, six years.

Yes. Wow. After the police were called, the case was adjourned until next month after a note from the Central Manchester Health Care Trust was presented to the court saying Higgins was not fit to attend following an operation. The next day, Higgins appeared at the Spanish village of Puerto Cabo Pino near Calahonda on the Costa del Sol and headed for the restaurant bar before chatting to diners and a singer. His lawyer, Robert Falvey, Robin Falvey, said he's recuperating after an operation. If you have an operation, you might be fit to go off to the sun while you might not be fit to work. Right. That's a good point.

Yeah. You're fit to go out and drink. December 22nd 96 he's he has a plea for help he's got no money he's totally fucked here he says that he requested money from the benevolent fund of the world professional billiards and snooker association so he's requesting money because he's got no fucking money. So, yeah. 1997, he's with a woman named Holly Hayes, H-A-I-S-E, who's a former prostitute. Oh, yeah. And she lives in Manchester, and they live together for nine months, okay? She's going to attempt suicide. That'll happen. to attempt suicide that'll happen um then later in the year he's kicked out of a player's lounge and then attacked with an iron bar after a heated argument in a nightclub not by her by somebody

else so he's recovering from being beaten with an iron bar outside of a nightclub during his recovery holly his girlfriend here stabs him three times. Oh, my. This is fucking crazy. Twice in the arm, once in the stomach. He suffers no permanent damage and later joked of the incident, I've been stabbed so many times in the back that I didn't feel a thing. Okay.

So, you know, it's normal for him. In 1997, he is again, his cancer is back here. Smoking 80 cigarettes a day will do that to you. That's crazy, right? That's a wild amount of cigarettes, dude. Any amount

is bad for you, but 80 is like... In a day? Huh? I couldn't imagine... If I smoked two packs in a day, if I did that, I'd be like, I wouldn't be able to swallow. I'd feel sick. Forget that. I'd feel disgusted. Your lungs feel worn out the next day.

You'd feel awful. Because I've smoked two packs in a day and it doesn't feel good. Four? Are you kidding? Oh, man. Jesus. So he's got throat cancer now, too. Yeah.

So Lynn said it was a big shock. The kids were very upset, but he didn't want to go in and have treatment straight away. We had to push him. I think he was frightened about the whole experience. Yeah. Fuck. So October 97, his girlfriend's charged with stabbing him. That's good, I guess.

Jesus Christ. Stabbed him twice in the arm and once in the stomach. So, yeah, the injuries could fuck him up worse. He said she got a court order at that point forbidding him from molesting, assaulting or communicating with her. OK, the stabby, the stabber. And this is the third woman in a row to obtain a restraining order against him. It's a three in a row from From a July 31, 2010 article, it's called Don't Meet Your Hero.

Emily Horicon is the name here. She said that, quote, Alex Tiggins was a teenage hero of mine. For a couple years during the early and mid-80s, snooker was a big deal in our house. This story's amazing, by the way. Interviewing fading hell raisers is standard stuff for

Ladd's magazines, so when Dare O'Brien, then editor of himself, Ireland's first men's magazine, suggested Alex Higgins as a cover story for the first issue, the idea was greeted enthusiastically, especially by me. Yeah. At the time, I was too young to know just how

disappointing it usually is to meet your heroes, especially when time and life have not been kind to them. We met in a temple bar. At first, the change in him seemed largely physical. He was just a couple months away from being diagnosed with throat cancer and was already very slight. He looked older than 49 and was remarkably fey, darting off in every direction magpie-like, attracted by a poster, someone wearing a coat he admired, or a magazine rack. He refused to answer any questions or simply just ignored them.

Instead, he talked about his many injustices at the hands of the world professional snooker and billiards association and the women who had let him down, never prepared to admit the part he himself played in the downfall of his dreams. We went to Eden. Dare O'Brien, his wife, Jesus, Claudina, Claudina? I don't know what the fuck that name is. Higgins and I. I don't think so. C-L-I-O-D-H-N-A.

Whoa. Your guess is as good as mine. And I. Your guess is as good as mine. And I. Higgins refused to order any food, telling Dare that he would just take bites off his plate. I don't want to run up a bill. Wow.

He barely sat down longer than five minutes at a stretch. Instead, he wandered around the restaurant, chatting to other diners, then darting back to us, telling us what they'd said. What? The few times he did sit still, the disjointed conversation was all about his grievances. What? What kind of interview is this? This is nuts. It gets better, dude. At one point, he took exception to our waitress i think she suggested she suggested he might like a starter at least maybe just a starter

if you don't want an entree and with quite remarkable vitriol hissed he hissed that she was an ugly lesbian and he didn't want her anywhere near the table. Wow. Maybe I can just get you a starter. Out of my table, ugly lesbian. I don't want you by me. What the fuck? I'm not hungry.

I'm hungry no more from the pussy on your breath. Oh, my God. You boss-licking twat. Get away from me. I can smell it. You just had some fanny, didn't you? Yeah, oh my God. Luckily, the manager was graciousness personified and redeployed the waitress, instead serving us herself.

But it was a nasty incident. A reminder that underneath the fey but still charming exterior was a frightening level of rage and paranoia. By then, the long-standing rumors of violence against women had been corroborated by a vile incident in which he had fractured the jaw of girlfriend Siobhan Kidd with a hairdryer. Higgins and I went to Bad Bob's, where he was greeted like a hero by a certain type of Dublin lad.

They bought him whiskeys and formed a kind of guard of honor around him. When a hefty American asked me to dance and didn't seem and didn't seem to want to take no for an answer higgins went up close to him and muttered something in his ear i'm guessing something along the lines of words to his fellow players i come from shankill next time you're in northern ireland i'll have you shot yeah because the guy at least twice his size looked rattled and backed off the lads patted him on the back in approval when i finally decided it was time for me to leave higgins asked would i not come back to his hotel room with him to quote scrub his back and make him feel good he asked rather wistfully

without much conviction it seemed to me and took refusal without rancor it's just a habit to ask to be disgusting and ask everyone to fuck you i guess come back to my room with me rub me oh my god um not so his not so his phalanx of supporters one of whom told me it was my job to go home with higgins wow obviously deputy magazine editor and slut were pretty much the same thing in his eyes i left Higgins there with another whiskey on the way, looking fragile and old and a far, far cry from the dashing figure he once cut. What one paper has dubbed as the longest suicide in sporting history was by then well underway, and the most charismatic snooker player ever, the man Steve Davis called the one true genius that snooker has ever produced, was clearly never going to make the comeback he kept talking of. My little brother asked me to get higgins autograph but in the end i didn't bother

he'd probably have charged me for it anyway the longest suicide side that's it longest suicide wow in his sporting history june 29th 1990 or june 20th 98 he says he has throat cancer. He announces it. He says he's very sore. And he says that his friend said he was in complete denial about it, and it's making him unstable. I've been his friend for 25 years, but I'm drained after a day of dealing with him. He's been involved with all sorts of arguments and all this type of shit. The cancer treatment worked, apparently. But he became, I mean, you've got to see him. He looks 80 when he's 49. He like an 80 year old man and and the poison put in

there has to be so strong if you if you've got like super aggressive shit too so yeah and he probably does so yeah he that's the thing he's gotta it's gotta be just have eaten them half of them up inside too he says that he still shows up in local pubs and snooker clubs where he tries to hustle for money and drinks. Yeah. Then he went to Belfast to live close to his childhood home. Oh, boy. And all of his teeth fell out. Yep.

And he was living on baby food. Yep. So Lynn kept in touch. That shit destroys your teeth, man. Oh, it destroys your whole body. So Lynn kept in touch, and she destroys your teeth, man. Oh, it destroys your whole body. So Lynn kept in touch, and she said, it was so sad to see him. I'd look at him and find it hard to see the charismatic, funny, warm person I once knew. He raised loads of money for charity.

I've seen him go to hospitals. At one, a little boy was in a coma and loved Alex. You couldn't help but like him because he had such a likable side to him. And then there was this bad side that came out. So July 1999, he appears in a documentary called Tobacco Wars. Oh. Talking about he, yeah, he said that he had no urge to quit. He famously rallied against the snooker authorities for allowing tobacco companies to sponsor major events.

And there, even though he was smoking. Because he wanted the money. He was still smoking with throat cancer. Oh, my God. Yeah, still smoking. He was diagnosed with the cancer, and he chose to appear on this. And he said that he's speaking in a whisper. He said he hates the tobacco industry, and it has nothing but disgust.

He says the tobacco companies in Snooker were thick as thieves, like NASCAR. You know what I mean? They were the Winston Cup for that long. Obviously, I think they've gotten their advertising for a song for 25 years. Cigarettes are everywhere in Snooker. Freebies everywhere. Most players were given free cigarettes. So, yeah, he says he says though he's still smoking

2005 he appears at the irish professional uh championship but fails to get past the first round he's making a comeback still looks terrible though june 12 2007 he punches a referee at a charity snooker match this man has cancer and he's a charity match punching people it was it was it's a charity match a raise arranged to raise cash for young players it's a friendly game just in a leisure in this at the spenny more leisure center none of this matters it's fucking insane um apparently he punched a guy in the stomach here um 58 year old two-time world champion snapped when referee terry riley called a foul when the player touched the blue ball the official restrained higgins and spectators came from their seats to split up the confrontation

holy shit higgins uh one witness said higgins was drinking pints of guinness between frames every now and again he would do a dance and a little jig at the table. There was obviously friction between himself and the referee, who was a lovely man, very calm and collected. Between frames, the referee sat down to calm himself. At the point where it all happened, Higgins touched a blue ball, a blue, and the referee was going to let that go because it was an exhibition match. But White said foul stroke, but being only jokey. Then the referee called foul, so Higgins turned to the referee,

glared at him for a few seconds, went up to him and punched him in the stomach. Jesus Christ. That is... Can a man have brain damage from this sport? Because it feels like he has some CTE. From liquor.

2010. 2010. Yeah. He talks and they said. Yeah, he said he's talking about, you know, he's being very honest and he's saying that, you know, his flat, he said that his biggest fear was that he would die alone without any women in his life. So he said he needs some women.

He says this mattress hasn't seen any action in years i'll die celibate the man wants sex yeah it's all he wants sex and and liquor and cigarettes he said but i fucked up now i'm on my own celibate i've been celibate for years and years which is he's loves he's been trying but he just can't get anybody to like him anymore so and who knows if he can you know physically who knows what his deal is. Instead, he would have swept into a room dressed in a loud, oh, in his prime they're talking about. Okay.

So they're saying, he said, quote, he said, what do you like to do now? He said, I love to sit and watch a bit of cash in the attic. What is that? Like Antiques Roadshow, basically. Yeah, that's hot. Yeah. He had to puree his meals. he was forced to eat that way he said that his 10 sets of dentures were too painful to wear so he said that he um yeah he weighs just

six stone seven pounds is what he said he weighed which is 14 times six times four 84 91 pounds that would be he said that he struck, they said he struggled to move and spoke in a rasping voice. And they said, he's just a disaster physically. It just looks terrible here. He says he now turns to the Bible to help him battle suicidal thoughts. He hasn't had sex in more than 10 years. Yeah.

And he says that he, he, he, his eyes feel filled with tears when he thinks about how he treated his last great love, Siobhan. Yeah, he said, it's been terrible. I fill with tears. You got to kind of feel bad for the guy at this point. I mean, but he threw it all away. But still, you feel bad for him. But not nearly as bad as you feel for software engineering Alex Higgins.

Yeah. His thing says, quote, software engineering shouldn't be painful. That's perfect here. Yeah. That is fucking hilarious. There's that guy. Where is he? In England, too.

Wembley, England here. Build a softer air dryer. Yeah. Alex Higgins, vice president of operational excellence and transformation and leadership in London as well. Alex Higgins, student at Thousand Islands High School in Jefferson, New York. Alex Higgins, electrical engineer specializing in instrumentation and controls in Madison, Wisconsin.

Holy shit. So yeah, he keeps talking. He said now he's just a world of regrets and heartbreak. He said, I've never had a woman in this flat and there isn't a day goes by when I don't wish Siobhan was by my side. All I've got now to stop the feelings of loneliness and depression and suicide,

all I've had is my Bible my mom gave me when I was 15. Holy shit, this is a... And that is tough to wank to. Oh, that's a tough one, man. Holy shit. So he said that the last woman he mentioned sleeping with in his autobiography

is a sultry singer marianne faithful he says in his book that he had a night of passion in 92 with this woman who was i guess mick jagger's ex-girlfriend as well he instead he insists every day that siobhan was still his one true love who's on his mind every day i wish she was here to look after me now but i fucked it it up. Now I'm on my own. Celibate. Not a day goes by I don't think of her. She was a lovely brainy blonde, but the rouse and the drink and the hairdryer incident

were all nails in the coffin of that one. Yeah, the hairdryer incident. It's tough to smack a girl in the face with that and fracture facial bones. Yeah, when you break a face with a hair dryer, it's kind of difficult. It's over. Yeah, 2010, May 20th, charity dinner guests are horrified by his appearance and how skinny he is. I'm going to show you him, Jimmy.

Oh, boy. You saw him before, remember? Yeah. Look at him now. Oh, dear God. Yeah, he looks like he died six up six months ago like that yes his shirt collar is like eight sizes too big for him it's like an old shirt yeah he looks like a child wearing an adult suit holy shit friends hope the dinner will raise twenty thousand dollars to pay for tooth implants

so he can start eating properly again they said it's his friend said so sad. Until we do something, he could be facing death. They said, he's just skin and bone. He looked bad for a long time, but I've never seen him look this bad. Hold on. The man can't eat, and we're going to raise money at a dinner? We're going to make him come watch us eat to get him teeth? Why don't we just donate money and let him eat? Oh, I can't.

You'll have teeth soon. Don't worry. And he keeps eating. Oh, I can't. This minceme soon don't worry and he keeps eating it's i can't dismiss meat pies delicious oh my god so uh he had been through all this he's taken to the hospital a few weeks before that because he had pneumonia and all this type of shit they said he earned four million in his career four million pounds but it was all he coke booze, women. He couldn't afford the twenty thousand dollar implants. So he couldn't get the teeth down. They friends raised twenty thousand dollars for the new teeth.

But he's too frail for surgery for a while here. So instead, he continues to smoke pack after pack of cigarettes and drink heavily with Guinness, a substitute for some of the nourishment he should have been getting from food is the way he puts it. So his sisters are looking after him. He is surviving on 200 pound a week disability allowance with, you know, people. He plays all comers at pubs and shit, too. He does that. So it's yeah, he had they said he had tons of food, but he couldn't eat a bite. You know, he's couldn't eat a bite.

He's having such a hard time. He said, I have enough food to feed an army, but I can't eat a bite. It's too painful to swallow this stuff now. Wow. Holy shit. He said, I want back up to about 10 stone. Right now, I'm six stone, seven pounds. I take liquid meals and gravy and mix these protein milkshakes.

Oh, God. Holy shit, that's bad, man. He said that, yeah, he's a, he said, quote, I'm getting old. I'm the walking dead. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fuck, man, that's horrible. June 24th, June 24th, 2010, he's found dead in his home in Belfast. June 24th, 2010, he's found dead in his home in Belfast. They said there were bouts of anorexia and addiction to sleeping pills,

nights out and good time girls, even a possible suicide bid, where he swallowed 150 tranquilizers with champagne. That's how many he swallowed that night, back in the day, and was in a 48-hour coma. But he dies of throat cancer. People say he's the original. He's the guy who made Snooker like that. People other than stuffy people noticed it. They've never had a superstar of it since then.

Yeah. He was the Happy Gilmore. People were showing up with a beer helmet with fucking tubes in it. And they were like, get these people away from our sport. But they're paying money, unlike other people. So, yeah, he's got a lot of problems, obviously, and he's dead.

That's it. His sister, it was one person, his sister Ann had gone around to see Alex in his little flat in Belfast, ex-wife Lynn said. When she couldn't get an answer, she phoned me right away. She said, I think he's dead. Ann entered the flat and found her brother dead in his bed. It's believed he died several days earlier

Possibly from malnutrition Jesus I went up Oh man This is from Lynn I went upstairs and told Lauren Lauren I've got something to tell you And she said my dad's dead isn't he

They knew And so Yeah it was very very sad So It's awful man It's awful shit What the shit But he did have I mean as crazy a life as you could possibly fucking had Yeah, it was very, very sad. So it's awful, man. It's awful shit. What the shit?

But he did have, I mean, as crazy a life as you could possibly fucking had. Oh, he spent every dime of four million, too. Oh, he spent every goddamn dime. Yeah. He's fucking very sad. There's articles at him afterwards about people, you know, retrospectively saying how in awe of him they were and all that kind of thing. Lynn watched proudly as lauren read a moving tribute at her father's packed funeral and their his funeral was a fucking event really it wasn't there was crowds of people around the sides of the entrance and when the snooker guy

showed up there was big cheers going up and shit like they had a big thing of flowers that said the people's champion they called him and they cheered when they put it up outside like he had a hero's funeral it was wild so everybody loved him these people loved him they loved they really liked him because he was fucking nuts he was the only guy like that Lauren said I will smile whenever I hear

your name and be proud you were my dad so that's nice oh here it is by the way if you roll your chair there's the people's champion thing they put up that's pretty cool and a Oh, here it is, by the way. If you roll your chair, there's the people's champion thing. Look at that. That's pretty cool. And a triangle, you know, red ball triangle symbolizing flowers, whatever the fuck you do with that. So there he is.

There's his he's got a cool headstone, too, with him on the pool table there. So there he is. Alex Higgins, everybody. He's a lunatic. That's a that's snooker. And that's a crazy fucking story. So I'm sorry. Snooker and their players are unhinged.

They're unfucked. They're next. Just him, though. Everyone else is normal. And then he shows up. Oh, he cunts. Fucking takes his hat off, slams a Guinness, punches the referee, lights a smoke, and takes a shot. He's fucking crazy.

And slaps a lady and then takes home a prostitute and smacks her, too. Gambles the money away that he just won and doesn't pay her. What a life. What a life. So that's Alex Higgins. If you enjoyed that story or any of our stories, get on Apple Podcasts or wherever. Not just there. Any app you listen on.

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That's what gets people to listen to it. It helps a lot. Also, you guys should be listening to Small Town Murder if you're not. If you guys are just crime and sports people, check out Small Town Murder because there's been some wacky shit going on there that you definitely want to check out. So do that. Also, head over to ShutUpAndGiveMeMurder.com. Get your tickets for live shows for Small Town Murder. Rest of the year, Chicago, August 12th.

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Follow us on social media, at Crime and Sports, Sports on Facebook and Twitter at Small Town Murder on Instagram. You definitely want to do that. And you want to do Patreon. Oh, holy shit. Patreon dot com slash Crime and Sports is where you're going to get all of the bonus materials. Anybody. Five dollars a month. A cup of coffee.

A mere cup of coffee a month or above. You're going to get access to the whole back catalog. Couple hundred episodes. Two new episodes every week, one crime and sports, one small-town murder. You get access to it all. This week is going to be a fun one, too. We're going to talk about, for crime and sports, we're going to do part two of theme park disasters.

It's so good. Because it was crazy, and people are like, no, I need it now, don't wait a few months. So you know what? Fuck it, we'll give you what you want. You pay for it. Why not? So you'll get it.

Then for small-town murder, we're going to talk about something that we've been asked to talk about a ton, is the Stanford prison experiment where they take Stanford, the college. They took groups of students, broke them in half, and said, you're guards. You're prisoners. And just see what psychologically ensues from there. And it is a very disturbing look into human nature. It's also a fucked up test that was done with no controls either, which is really stupid. No guardrails on Ivy League kids like this?

Jesus. But the shit they find still, even when they do the test correctly, still comes up, wow, people are monsters. So we'll talk all about that. Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports is where you get all of that. And a shout-out. When do those shout-outs happen, Jimmy? Right motherfucking now.

Jimmy, hit me with this shit like a pint of Guinness to the face. Hit me with these names right now. This week's executive producers are Wanda Lovejoy and her 50th birthday. Happy birthday, Wanda. Happy birthday. Christian Aguilar's birthday, too. I think he's 27 i can't remember i didn't write it burda's sick get well the denver show's uh coming up for you you better

be there burda or we're there if you've already if you haven't heard this yet if you hear this later if you don't listen early right larry butterfest is getting married james congrats lairberry good for you Larry. Good for you. That's awesome. Good for you. He's a good dude. He is. William Inskeep in San Diego and his disabled friends he hangs with.

Disabled vets he hangs with. Why did I say friends? Not just his. They might be friends, too. Not just his pals. My friends are all in wheelchairs because that's how I roll. Get it? Ha.

What joke did I say? Yeah. Jesus Christ. Thanks, Will. That's just who I like to be with. Jesus. Thanks, Will. Kyle Norweg, Shelby Merlin, Gerald Adams, Mrs. Radret, I believe, and Lucy, the truck dog. Thank you guys so much for everything.

Other producers this week are WWF jobber Steve Shitstain King. What? I don't know. Steve King, he's a shitstain, evidently. Do you know who he is? I don't know. Nice. Steve King? He's a Shittestain, evidently. Do you know who he is? Apparently. I don't know. Peyton Meadows, Captain Frank Ferrio, OJ TV, Dennis Mello. Who's Dennis Mello?

Was that the guy from what? That's the wire. Yeah. The wire, yeah. Captain Frank Ferrio? I don't know him. He's the OJ guy. Oh, yeah.

Mello is the guy who was with Colvin doing Hamsterdam. He's the actual Jay Lansman. Oh, got it. The guy who plays the fat sergeant, his actual person. Okay, there you go. Also, Chico's Bell Bonds. Chelsea, no, Kelsey. Oh, of course. Kelsey Clark, clearing her debt.

Thank you, Kelsey. That's very nice. Janice Hill, David Benincoso, Andy Pruitt, Drew with no last name, Anthony Bustos, James Smith-Williams, Aaron Ross, Lindsay Gutierrez, Tim Watcher, BMF210, Mary Lou Lopez, Tyen Butcher, Ashley Baum, Dan Merritt, Sonia Lewis, Anna Hodgkin, Sarah Zimmerman, Hale Sagan, Dahlia Galendez, Tom Menefren, Melanthin, Melanie F., Allie May, Catherine Schneider, Amelia Carr, Megan Denyer, Chuck the Sniffer, Eric Zimmer, Raymond Mattis Jr., Kelsey with no last name, Briley Skanks, Shank's, sorry, Briley, Carissa, Carissa Herzberg, Christine Bergersen, Bergersen, Bergersen Smith, Christine with no last name. Christine, lucky he didn't call you cocksucker, Christine.

It starts with a C, so. They're so close. He's all messed up. Christine. they're so close Christine Brina Crothers Alexa S Jamie B Brick

Glenna Doyle Claire C Pamela Watrous Fitness Ben Streeter Lauren McCarthy Chris Heil Ryan Rolfs Michaela Hendricks.

Time. Guiazdon. Okay. Laura Employ. Employ. Cecilia Watson. Anthony with no last name. Mallory Morrison.

Christine Mahoney. Blair Parker. Dakota with no last name. Pacific Chick 63. Lily. His hand's on his forehead right now, which means he's in great peril and just a real anxiety. You have no idea. Do you see the hand going forward?

Lily's Jericho. Kobe Booth, maybe? I don't know. Cynthia Rizzicatullo. Hunter Van Valkenburg. Something Italian. I don't think he was even Italian. I don't know what that is.

Alright, I'm not even going to try again. William Hogg, Deanna Deacon CJ, I think. Iandino Sereni, Carmen Hackworth, Sheila Boulot, Todd Marocco, Sarah Sloan, Tim A., Scott Hunter, Kitty Sherry, Hayden Parrish, Bruce the Weak Sauce, Madison Folsom, Christy Martin, A Little Taste of Peter.

That's disgusting. Emmanuel, Emmanuel Belgard, Wesley Gregorius. It's a Family Guy reference. Oh, is it? A Little Taste of Peter. Oh, all right. Yeah, it's a Family Guy reference. Oh, is it? Thanks to Peter. Oh, all right. Yeah, it's a family guy reference. All right, there it is.

Emmanuel Belgard. I think I said that. Wesley Gregorius. Cynthia Wolfe. Jake Durancy. Kevin Jensen. Ty McMinney. Eric Esquizavastigard.

Marcella Fletcher. Shazza H., Lindia Lydia Langford, Matthew Dodds, Jalissa Williams, Dakota Morgan, Betsy Garcia, Kyle Rudy, Amasine, I think, Amasine, Keith Zamorin, Ryan with no last name, Tyler Anders, Melissa Markowski. Wicked Witch of the Whorehouse. Of the Warehouse. Oh, that's probably more. That's another one. Sorry. It's a reference from something. Jonathan Stout. She might work at a warehouse.

Voxan. Diana. Not a whorehouse, as you put it. Diana Merlino. Garden Wyckoff. Gardoneino. Garden Wyckoff. Gardone. Gardone Wyckoff. Kimberly Ward.

Senior Meth Falcon. Josh Peters. Derek Brocks. Bella Kropachacher. Oh! Good. David Dillard. Steven Albinski.

Cynthia Brubaker, Saul Attud, Maria Thompson, Dickie James, Gwendolyn Steele-Longo, Rory Jr., Craig Bertridge, Betridge, Jeanette Maganana, Diana Foti, Andrew Nauf, Jessica Spangler, Sinister Cindy, Janice Wostenberg, Blake Allen, Mabel with no last name, Jim Anderson, Erica Kenney, Kara Wallen, Nicole Ford Thompson, Thomas, shit, Tyson, Runkle, Saren Elk, Ek, just EK, Brett Gerlich, Chris Sharp, Carly Pearson, Joshua Murphy, Brandon Kirk, Naima, Louise Wallace, Adam Hudson, Legzi Arison, Melissa Bailota, Kajorge29, Marissa Rivers, Lisa Liu, Melissa Whetstone, Emily Eichstead Mendelsohn, Dahlia Arriaga, Krista Willoughby, Glockovelli, Lena Ikula, Adam Booker, Nicholas Stewart, Stephanie Porth, Annie Bailey, Devin Kendall, Abby with no last name, Chris Emil, Jaws with no last name, Chris Powell, Jessica Dieters, Mitch and Jetty, Mitch and Letty, Lynn Miller, Teal1991, 1991, Mark Woods, Crystal with no last name, Pierre Norman, Hannah Wright, Roz McKee, JoJo Blonde, Norma, oh boy, Bayers, Jessica DePriest, Chelsea with no last name, Austin R., Jeffrey Still, Debbie Burns, Matthew Ricciardi, Richard Chardy, Holly Black. Cardy. That's it.

Elena Swanson, Timothy Ridgway, Ryan Locke, Lockie maybe, Jessica, Lussier, Magalyn D, Michelle Smith, Kate O, Julie Laughter, I think, maybe Loder, Ben B, Jan Summers, Jalen Creighton, Kevin Newman, Burnt Everson, Johnny Grafeo, Nancy Parker, Miss Miyagi. We never hear about her. She's around. Where the hell is she? She died. She did die. That's right.

Rebecca Trongard, Christina with no last name, Macy Stockwell, Audrey Tiller. Mr. Miyagi's got some new pussy. Sorry. Wasn't it? I don't know. It's very weird. Audrey Tiller. Lionel with no last name.

Chase Stanley. Mitch with no last name. Jamie Frost. Erin Flores. She's turned into a cabinetmaker. Michelle Aerosmith. Hey, make them cabinetmakers. Not that Aerosmith.

All right. Tanya Edwards. Corey James. Lauren Estrada. Audrey Forrest, BC with no last name, Shana Atkinson, Jill Helmy, Alison Grouch, Couch, Alison Couch, Amy Graham, Denise Anderson, and all of our patrons. You guys are amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody, you wonderful, wonderful bastards out there.

Thank you for all that you do for us. We couldn't tell you how much we appreciate it. Thanks for everything that you do. Thanks for hanging with us. Keep hanging with us. You want to follow us on social media? Real easy. Shut up and give me murder.com.

All the links are right there. All the links to everything are right there. Get yourself a t-shirt and sit back and wear it. And I don't know, wipe your ass with it if you want. I don't give a fuck. It's your shirt. So enjoy. Thank you so much.

And until, well, no, that's the other one. Yeah. Live from the Crime and Sports studios, we will see you next week. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.