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...curses! |
| As reported in newspapers of 1911 and/or in Maye Yohe's fanciful book, The Mystery of the Hope Diamond, published in 1929, although many (if not most) of these events are unsubstantiated: |
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| Jean Baptiste Tavernier (diamond merchant) stole the diamond from the eye of an Indian idol and was torn apart by wild dogs. |
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| Louis XIV (Sun King of France) purchased the diamond from Tavernier and died of gangrene. |
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| Marquise de Montespan (mistress of Louis XIV) wore the diamond and soon thereafter lost favor with the King. |
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| Nicholas Fouquet (guardian of French Crown jewels) wore the diamond for a festive occasion and was later disgraced, imprisoned and executed by order of the King. |
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| Louis XVI (King of France) inherited the diamond and lost his head during the revolution. |
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| Marie Antoinette (Queen of France) wore the diamond and lost her head during the revolution. |
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| Princess de Lamballe (member of the King's court) wore the diamond and was torn to pieces by a French mob. |
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| Wilhelm Fals (Dutch jeweler) recut the diamond and was robbed and murdered by his own son, Hendrik. |
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| Hendrik Fals committed suicide in 1830. |
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| Francis Beaulieu (diamond merchant) sold the diamond and died in misery. |
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| George IV (King of England) owned the diamond and died deep in debt. |
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| Henry Philip Hope (wealthy London banker) owned the diamond and suffered a long series of misfortunes, including the death of his only son. |
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| Lord Francis Hope (grand nephew of Lord Francis) inherited the diamond and suffered scandal, an unhappy marriage and financial ruin. |
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| May Yohe (wife of Francis Thomas Hope) claimed to have worn the diamond and authored many of these unsubstantiated tales of woe. Died in poverty. |
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| Simon Frankel (New York jewelry broker) bought the Hope in 1901 and met with severe financial difficulties during the Depression. |
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| Jacques Colot (next owner) went mad and committed suicide. |
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| Prince Ivan Kanitovski (next owner) was murdered by Russian revolutionaries. |
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| Mlle. Lorens Ladue (of Folies Bergere) borrowed the diamond from her lover, Ivan, and was then murdered by him. |
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| Simon Maoncharides (Greek jewel broker) owned the diamond and drove his car over a precipice, killing himself, his wife and child. |
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| Habib Bey (Persian diamond merchant) owned the diamond briefly and drowned in the sinking of a French steamer in 1909. |
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| Abdul Hamid II (Sultan of Turkey) paid $400,000 for the diamond and lost the Ottoman Empire in an army revolt. |
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| Abu Sabir (servant of the Sultan) polished the diamond for the Sultan and was imprisoned and tortured. |
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| Zubayda (Sultan's favorite concubine) wore the diamond and was later found stabbed to death. |
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| Kulub Bey (guardian of the Sultan's diamond) was hanged by Turkish mob. |
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| Jehver Agha (an official of the Sultan's treasury) attempted to steal the diamond and was hanged. |
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| Evalyn Walsh McLean (owner of the diamond) purchased the diamond from Pierre Cartier. Her mother-in-law died shortly thereafter; her first-born son died in an auto accident at the age of nine; her husband ran off with another woman, dissipated their fortune, suffered brain atrophy from alcoholism and died in a mental hospital; and her only daughter died of a drug overdose at the age of twenty-five. Evalyn was forced to sell the family newspaper, the Washington Post, and died soon after her daughter's death. |
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| James Todd (mailman) delivered the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian and crushed his leg in a truck accident, injured his head in an automobile accident and then lost his home in a fire. |
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| The American People (current owners) received the dimaond from Harry Winston as a gift to the Smithsonian Institution and suffered economic, natural and political disasters heretofor unexplained until linked to the curse of the Hope Diamond. |
