The Luckey Brothers - Newly Discovered Photos

A Winecoff Fire reader has agreed to share these newly discovered photos of her great uncles, King & Frank Luckey. The Luckey brothers are believed to have been among the group of gamblers who occupied room 330 of the Winecoff Hotel at the time of the fire.

Frank Luckey

She also made this surprising revelation: "I've talked to my aunts and uncles and from things that were said in the family or things they've heard from family members or rumored in the family was that King and Frank started the fire. One uncle heard that they escaped from a third room window and climbed on the roof top of a building next door. He also said that he heard the reason was because they were accused of cheating while gambling that night. Now whether or not this is true we will never know."

King Luckey

In interviews with Winecoff Fire authors Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin, two Atlanta newspaper reporters also put credence in the idea that the fire was somehow tied to the poker game in room 330.

In 1993 Atlanta Constitution reporter Keeler McCartney said, "It was the card game. Somebody got thrown out and then came back. But I never could nail it down and neither could the police."

In 1985 Atlanta Journal reporter Aubrey Morris said, "I remember the stories that allegedly someone in the poker game got mad and set fire to the place."

Both of the Luckey brothers are now deceased.

This and other arson theories are examined in Chapter 10 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.