Dallas Woman’s Forum

Brown Bag Book Club

Thursday August 15, 2024 at 11:30 AM

Alexander Mansion

4607 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas

Please join us at The Alexander Mansion to discuss:

The King of Diamonds, The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief

By Rena Pederson

We’re thrilled to bring back the Brown Bag Book Club sponsored by the Literary Department! Bring your own lunch and we will enjoy discussing The King of Diamonds and maybe we will discover if any of our members in the 60’s were hit by this wily jewel thief.

The King of Diamonds is a story about a string of high-profile jewel thefts that went unsolved during the Swinging Sixties, the press dubbed the elusive thief the King of Diamonds. Like Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, the King was so bold that he tip-toed into the homes of millionaires while they were home, hiding in their closets and daring to smoke while they were sleeping.

Rena Pederson, then a young reporter with UPI, started following the elusive thief while she managed the night desk. With gymnastic skill, he climbed trees and crawled across rooftops to take jewels from heiresses, oil kings, corporate CEOs—some of the richest people of their time. Scotland Yard and Interpol were on the look-out, but the thief was never caught, nor the jewels recovered.

To follow the tracks of the thief, Rena has interviewed more than two hundred people, from cops to strippers. She went to pawn shops, Las Vegas casinos, and a Mafia hangout—and discovered that beneath the glittering façade of Dallas debutante parties was a world of sex trafficking, illegal gambling, and political graft. When one of the leading suspects was found dead in highly unusual circumstances, the story darkened. High society crashed head-first into Mickey Spillane.

The odd psychological aspects of The King of Diamonds give us a different kind of crime story. Detectives were stumped: Why did the thief break into houses when his targets were inside, increasing the risk of being captured? As one socialite put it, “It was a very peculiar business.”

RSVP

Please use the form below to RSVP. Contact Tamara Harrison if you have questions.