The King of Diamonds

The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief

By: Rena Pederson

Narrated by: Erin Dion

Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

As a string of high-profile jewel thefts 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 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.”

©2024 Rena Pederson (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

This is JUICY Texas History!

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: 5 for content, 3.5-4 for narration. I wouldn't call this crime fiction as much as a history of who was who and a what was what in Dallas-Fort Worth back in the '50s and '60s and up to about 1970. For this Fort Worth girl, I enjoyed the vivid descriptions and richly detailed research Rena Pederson gives readers.

The history -- and yes, the mystery -- is not to be missed. We Texans do love our local society scandals (in my day, it surrounded Cullen Davis and the murders at his mansion), so hearing about the gentleman jewelry thief's capers was delicious. (But I feel like I either need to re-listen to the final chapters or get the book in print...it was a huge quantity of information to process by listening only, and I am not certain I know exactly who Pederson pins for the culprit.)

And though it may have been the longest Epilogue I have ever read (with my ears or eyes), I appreciated the wrap-up of the lives of all the major players in the story. And lemme tell ya: there are A LOT of major players, and I recognized so many of the names because these prominent, big-money families continue to have a presence in DFW today. I enjoyed the peeks inside those worlds and some of the background and unscrupulous ties. Who doesn't love a dirty little secret or two of the rich and famous being revealed?

The narrator, Erin Dion, definitely made you feel like you were listening to the author, but there were a lot of awkward pauses and breaks between words when there shouldn't have been, and a few mispronounced words and places that told me maybe this narrator isn't Texan. But she kept the story moving, and I was able to listen at regular speed, so it worked out.

I saw Amazon has this book as an Editor's Choice: Best History and I would agree it is, and it certainly isn't dry or boring history. It's juicy whether your from Texas or not, and it gives great insight to the way our world has changed over the past seventy-five years. Recommended reading.

Incredibly Interesting Book

This book was absolutely fascinating. The amount of research and investigating the author did was amazing. Incredibe insight on the era of Dallas in the 50s and 60s! Very informative and very in depth. I couldn’t put it down. True crime in my favorite city in my favorite era. What a dream book.

Fascinating

As a native Texan, I am familiar with many of the people and places referenced in the book. The author was spot on in discussing the shallow and very glitzy materialism of Dallas as well as its dark underbelly. The large cast of characters was colorful and represented a past era of questionable values. I loved this book.