Dead man’s hand

I’ve come across this story a couple of times on the Internet. It appeared in Robert Ripley’s Giant Book of Believe it or Not, Warner Books, 1983.
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In 1958, a poker game turned deadly. It seemed a man named Robert Fallon had been cheating, and the men from whom he had won the $600 pot decided to take matters into their own hands. They shot Fallon in his seat. But now, according to the men, the $600 was unlucky . . . no one wanted it. So the group of outlaws decided to find a new player to replace Fallon. They did, and giving the new player Fallon’s hand and $600, continued to play. By the time the police arrived to answer the reports of a murder, the new player had won over $2,000. The police wanted to confiscate the original $600 to pass on to Fallon’s next-of-kin.

But guess what? Much to everyone’s surprise, when the police took the new
player’s name, it was discovered that he was Robert Fallon’s son and the rightful next of kin. Even more amazing, Fallon’s son had not seen his father in seven years.