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Whatever Happened to the Infamous Hope Diamond?
by Karl Needan
http://www.flavadiamond.com
Evalyn Walsh MacLean was the last private owner of the Hope
Diamond. She died in 1947 at the age of 60, and she left
behind one of the most beautiful and well-known pieces of
jewelry known to man. This diamond had a tragic history
that appealed to the public and made headlines for many
years. It was a massive diamond of incredible
beauty and unimaginable value, but today is like any other
old lady, leading a rather uneventful existence.
After she died, Ms. MacLean's staff were unsure about how
to deal with the famous diamond , since it had such a rich
and remarkable history, in addition to its superb value.
They decided to contact a friend of Ms. MacLean's, Frank
Murphy, who they thought would advise them best. This Mr.
Murphy, in addition to being an old friend of the MacLeans,
was an Associate Judge of the United States Supreme Court.
Judge Murphy very quickly secured the jewels in the MacLean
collection as soon as he came to Ms. MacClean's house the
night she died. He immediately left by cab, but since he
couldn't think of a safe place to put the the diamond at
twelve o'clock at night, he decided to ride around in the
cab until the banks opened in the morning.
Murphy requested that the collection be deposited, when he
approached a bank officer at the Riggs National Bank that
morning, The officer wanted to know what was in the sack,
but when Judge Murphy informed him that one of the items
was the notorious Hope Diamond, he didn't believe it. So
he asked for proof that it was, indeed,the Hope Diamond
among the jewels. Upon viewing the diamond, and realizing
that a judge of the U.S. Supreme Court was the courier of
this parcel that had just picked it up at midnight from the
MacClean mansion, he decided that it must indeed be the
famous Hope Diamond.
Riggs National Bank accepted the responsibility of holding
this incomparable gem, and agreed to store the diamond. At
a certain point, Murphy bought the gem himself, from the
estate with a sealed bid; no one else seemed interested in
buying it. As the years passed, no one else seemed to want
to buy this rare gem, so he it stayed in his possession
for several years, until Murphy donated it to the
Smithsonian. The unique history of this diamond continued,
since Murphy decided to transport this priceless gem to the
museum via the U.S. Postal Service.
Today, the Hope Diamond continues to rest in its case at
the Smithsonian, for all the world to see, a rather
anti-climactic end to a history filled with greed,
corruption, tragedy and insanity. It should be noted
however, that during the mailing processing, one
particular mail carrier who was unfortunate enough to be
charged with the delivery of the diamond was in two
separate car accidents, ultimately resulting in serious
injury. It seems that the Hope Diamond continued to wreak
havoc up until the very end, all 45 carats of her.
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