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This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.

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The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily

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the only ones to the mysteries we will examine.

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One and a half million dollars worth of diamonds at Cutter's wholesale level.

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If you were to try and carry a million and a half dollars worth of gold, you would have

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to have a carload to carry it away.

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This could be put into a small cigarette package.

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Throughout the ages diamonds have inspired poets and smugglers, gentlemen and thieves.

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The diamond is most precious of all gems and may be the most dangerous to possess.

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For many diamonds are said to carry a curse.

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There is on earth a stone more brilliant than the sun, a symbol of love everlasting,

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an icy crystal holding the seeds of betrayal.

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The diamond is a paradox whose beauty veils a black heart.

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From the days of ancient sorcerers and mystics, when magic was a blend of trickery and alchemy,

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diamonds were considered the source of mysterious powers.

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Many believed that diamond dust could neutralize the strongest poison, guard against insanity,

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turn off evil spirits and weave an unbreakable spell.

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Diamonds were used from everything to cure colds to sterility.

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The interesting fact is that in 1532, Pope Clement VII died from an overdose of diamonds.

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His doctors at that time subscribed him to take spoonfuls of diamond dust.

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After his 14th spoonful, he died.

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Diamonds have often summoned tragedy, not good fortune.

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Is there such a thing as a diamond curse?

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Diamonds were first discovered in India, and there the greatest diamond curse might have

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been born.

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In the 17th century, a diamond merchant named Jean Tavernier heard tales of a legendary

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diamond of deep blue.

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Stories told of an ancient statue guarded by priests of the god Ramasita.

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It was said that whoever desecrated the sacred blue diamond would set an ancient curse in

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motion.

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Years later, Tavernier would be torn apart by wild dogs.

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The world's greatest blue diamond would come to be associated with kings.

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The French courted Versailles would be next to fall under its influence.

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King Louis XIV wore it as a symbol of the monarchy.

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He died from smallpox.

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Louis XVI wore it and lost his head in the French Revolution.

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Three years after that revolution, the blue diamond was stolen in the most spectacular

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jewel theft in history.

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In search of cameras, recreate the story.

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Teddy thieves discovered an open lock and slipped into a museum warehouse where the French crown

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jewels had been stored.

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They told friends about the gems they had found.

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Night after night, they were able to return unnoticed.

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Paris was still in social turmoil following the revolution.

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The loot consisted of every personal possession of Louis XVI and his queen.

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Everything.

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Statues, pictures, furs, as well as jewelry.

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By the eighth night, the hit-and-run raids had turned into a boisterous party, and the

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jewel theft became an act of revolutionary defiance.

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Outside, the people of France were cold and hungry.

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But inside the warehouse, the robbers celebrated with a beggar's banquet.

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By the time the theft was discovered, the burglars were long gone.

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Some of the jewels were later recovered, buried under a tree, but not the great blue diamond.

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Spain was believed to be the next stop on the diamond's journey.

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Seven years after the robbery, the artist Goya painted a portrait of the Spanish queen Maria

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Luisa, wearing what may have been the French blue diamond.

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Soon afterwards, she was forced to abdicate and flee the country.

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In 1830, a 45-carat diamond of the same deep blue appeared in London.

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Henry Philip Hope purchased it for $90,000.

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Was this the missing stone from the French crown jewels stolen from the forehead of an

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Indian idol?

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Curator of gems at the Smithsonian Institution, Paul Desotel.

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There's no question in my mind that the hope diamond, as we know it now, is what's

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left of the French blue.

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Now, I can't say that with any kind of proof, or certainly because there is no proof in

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existence that we're aware of.

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However, too many coincidences involved.

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Was the curse still operative?

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Henry Philip Hope died childless.

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The diamond passed on to his nephew, whose wife ran off with another man.

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The Hope portion was dissipated, and the last of the hopes died bankrupt.

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The blue diamond was put up for sale in 1901.

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According to legend, many of us fell under its sinister influence.

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The Greek broker who bought it fell off a cliff and died.

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A Follies-Bergère star wore the Hope.

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Her fate was sealed by a jealous lover.

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The next owner was a Turkish sultan whose reign was cut short by revolution.

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In 1910, Evelyn Walsh McLean purchased the Hope diamond.

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When told of the curse, Mrs. McLean replied that unlucky things always brought her good

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luck.

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A personal experience from Beatrice Burley-Myerson.

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My father was assistant secretary of state.

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One night after going to dinner at the Mexican Embassy, we went on to a party at Evelyn Walsh

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McLean.

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Mrs. McLean came up to us and suggested that I like to wear the Hope diamond.

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I think she was trying to do something nice for a very small girl at her party.

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She put it around my neck and I was very taken with the color of the diamond.

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I just wore it for a few minutes.

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I'm sure she was not trying to curse me.

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I don't know what she felt about it for herself.

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I know that she was a very unhappy woman.

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Did Evelyn McLean believe the diamond she wore carried an evil curse?

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Yes, she sincerely believed in the curse.

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As a matter of fact, Evelyn at one time took the Hope diamond to St. Patrick's Church,

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the local church here, to have it exercised.

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And to please her, it was done.

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Nevertheless, Mrs. McLean's life was plagued by tragedy.

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Shortly after she purchased the Hope, her young son was struck and killed by a speeding

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car.

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Mr. McLean was implicated in the teapot dome scandal.

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His business and personal life in ruins, Edward McLean died in a mental institution.

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In 1946, Mrs. McLean's daughter took her own life.

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Evelyn Walsh McLean died the following year.

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Mrs. McLean continued to wear the Hope until her death.

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In her autobiography are these words.

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What happened to us all was just about as tragic as if each one, instead of only I,

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had worn a talisman of evil.

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An ancient curse from an angry god?

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For three centuries, the infamous blue diamond has left behind it a trail of tragedy.

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The Hope is not the only diamond associated with a curse.

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A fabulous necklace of diamonds cast the shadow of scandal and doubt on a royal house, and

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may have helped trigger a revolution.

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The ancients believed that stars could fall from the skies and shine on earth as diamonds.

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It is ironic that the rarest gem is forged from the most common element on earth, carbon.

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Over millions of years, intense heat and pressure transformed the carbon into a crystal unique

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in all of nature.

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Paul Desertel

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One thing that makes a diamond different from anything that exists on the earth is that

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it's hard.

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It is the hardest thing known that transcends everything else that can be said of that diamond.

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It's because of that that everything else has come about.

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The name diamond, by the way, means indestructible.

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People thought they were, and they had special mystical significance.

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Diamonds were prized by the mogul amperors and by very early potentates.

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They were not valued so much for themselves as for what they could do or what they represented.

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In ancient India, one diamond symbolized power.

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It was the coup d'etat cursed with a 600-year history of bloodshed.

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Legend held that whoever owned this diamond would rule the world.

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In 1739, a powerful Persian Shah conquered India and eagerly looked forward to possessing

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the coup aneur.

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The defeated emperor kept his social position, for royalty was always royalty, regardless

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of a war's outcome.

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The conquering Persian Shah would uphold this royal code.

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Having been guaranteed personal safety, the emperor had hidden the diamond in his turban,

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believing his mysterious power would help him regain his throne.

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Meanwhile, the Shah had ransacked the city, searching for the coup aneur.

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Successful, he convinced servants in the emperor's court to spy.

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The conqueror learned where the diamond was hidden, but he had to devise a plan that would

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not violate the emperor's royal status.

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With clever strategy, the Shah proposed a formal truce to the emperor and arranged a

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public ceremony.

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An exchange of turbans was a rarely used but traditional gesture of peace.

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The emperor realized he had been trapped, but he could not refuse.

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When the British annexed India, the coup aneur would change hands for the last time, for

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it was to be set in the English crown jewels.

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Throughout the ages, the lust for diamonds has inspired men and women to the most ruthless

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of acts.

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Indeed, it has been written that the history of diamonds is a chronicle of treachery and

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deceit.

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Can it be only coincidence that diamonds are so often associated with violence and evil?

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Perhaps in the diamonds exquisite beauty, we see the dark reflection of our own designs.

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Rarely have diamonds so greatly influenced the course of history as in the story of the

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Queen's necklace.

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Two jewelers to the French court of King Louis XVI designed a magnificent necklace of diamonds

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gathered from all around the world.

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Only a queen would wear such jewels and only a king could afford them.

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The jewelers hoped King Louis would buy the diamond necklace for his queen Marie Antoinette.

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Their timing was poor.

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France was in turmoil.

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Louis and Marie could not risk such extravagance.

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The diamond necklace caught the eye of the Queen's lady in waiting, the ambitious Countess

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Lamotte.

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What happened next set off a scandal that rocked France to its very foundation.

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The Countess had risen from poverty through her marriage to a wealthy Count.

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Together, they hatched a plot to swindle the jewelers and take the necklace.

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The Countess would pretend that the Queen had instructed her to arrange a secret purchase

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of the necklace.

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She had no difficulty persuading the jewelers that she was acting on behalf of the Queen.

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A meeting was arranged for the stroke of midnight.

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When the Countess came disguised as the Queen, the jewelers relinquished the stunning necklace.

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The swindle was complete.

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Diamond necklace affair, what it did was to bring into the open the frivolity and the

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extravagance and the life of the court of Versailles.

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It's very interesting.

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Professor at the University of Southern California, Dr. A. Lloyd Moot.

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The diamond incident is probably the most spectacular of all the events of the court

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during this period of time in the image of people.

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It's a glamorous event.

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It has cloak and dagger elements.

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It has love elements, scandalous elements.

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In the sense that we have a dramatic event which in itself does not create the French

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revolution, no one in that can create something like that.

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But it does crystallize opinion for and against, in this case largely against an entire regime.

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Years later, Napoleon would write that the diamond necklace was the trigger that set

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off the French revolution.

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When the jewelers presented their bill to King Louis, he naturally refused to pay.

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It might all have ended there if he hadn't made a fateful error.

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He insisted the courts publicly try the villains.

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By calling attention to the necklace, Louis helped cause his own downfall.

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And what happened to the necklace itself?

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It disappeared from the French court forever.

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The diamonds were broken down and sold separately.

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Today, they are once again scattered throughout the world.

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They wonder what curse, if any, they have cast upon their new owners.

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In 1958, the United States established its first national collection of gems.

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It is housed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

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Today, the undisputed star of that collection is the Hope Diamond.

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Curator Paul Desotel adds an unexpected chapter to the Hope's recent history.

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It has brought only good luck to the national collection.

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It's a remarkable thing and people come from all over the country to see it.

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As a matter of fact, when I say people, I mean lots of people, millions of people.

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I can't blame them. It is a fantastic story.

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Perhaps the ancient gods have been appeased and have at last withdrawn the diamond curse.