Theresa Wanderone (Bell)

Untold Stories: In Search of the Real Rudolf Wanderone

Fats likely grew up in this tenement building in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood. Plenty is known about what happened next: He made appearances on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson; he hosted his own television programs; and he appeared in a series of highly rated and highly hyped challenge matches with Willie Mosconi. In 1984, Fats left his wife, Evelyn, and moved from southern Illinois to Nashville, Tenn., where he lived at first in a posh hotel, and then later at the suburban home of his second wife, Theresa Bell.

He died at Bell's house on Jan. 18, 1996.

But getting a handle on Fats' life before 1961 is a bit trickier. You can look to Fats' own statements in his autobiography, "The Bankshot and other Great Robberies," as well as those he made to various newspaper and magazine writers. The problem with this, of course, is that everything Fats said was suspect. Everything. So one must make a judgment as to why Fats said what he said, and whether he made specific claims in the service of entertainment and self-aggrandizement, or whether he made them to convey real and true information. Then you throw back the fishy facts and keep the good ones.

For instance, take Fats' claim to have played the Shah of Iran before there was an Iran - throw it back. But his claim to have been born and raised in Washington Heights in New York City - that's the truth.

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