Pod Insights So Supernatural MYSTICAL: The Curse of the Hope Diamond About this episode For centuries, the Hope Diamond has haunted history with its timeless beauty and its sinister legends. Over the years, it fell into ownership of kings, queens, socialites, and celebrity jewelers, many of whom were supposedly touched by its curse, and met tragic fates. While the diamond is now safely locked away at the Smithsonian Museum in D. C., there are ancient legends that say diamonds do hold mysterious powers… could the Hope Diamond be one of them?
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:02 Speaker 00 Call me a girly girl, but I love a nice piece of jewelry. Not only can it make you feel like a million bucks, but a good piece can complete an entire look. I mean, think about the movie Titanic for a second. Do you remember a single thing Kate Winslet wore in that film? Probably not, but do you remember that huge friggin necklace her character Rose hung onto till the very end? The one with the big blue stone? I bet you do. Now here's a little fun fact. That prop was actually inspired by a very real-life piece of jewelry. It's called the Hope Diamond. Throughout history, it's been owned by the highest of society: kings, queens, sultans,
0:46 Speaker 00 heiresses, celebrities, I mean, the list goes on. And just like Rose, those who wore it were said to experience some Titanic-sized devastations. Because the Hope Diamond reportedly holds a curse that puts all others to shame. So yes, while they do say beauty comes with a price tag, today's story is about those who paid for it with their life. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.
1:27 Rasha Pecoraro? We're back for another episode of So Supernatural. I'm Rasha Pecoraro.
1:33 Yvette Gentile? And I'm her sister, Yvette Gentile.
1:36 Rasha Pecoraro? And today, we're talking about a hex that's been brewing for centuries: the curse of the Hope Diamond. Now, Rose's plotline in Titanic might be made up, written for the big screen, but the misfortunes suffered by everyone who's ever actually owned the Hope Diamond, well, those all seem to be very real.
1:57 Yvette Gentile? At a massive 45 carats, the Hope Diamond is one of the most famous gems in the world. And while they say diamonds are our girl's best friend, this one might just be her worst enemy.
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3:21 Rasha Pecoraro? So Yvette, with you and I being 11 years apart and me being the baby sister, I know it's always been much more annoying because I'm always borrowing your stuff. But we did have to fight over one big Ralph Lauren puffer polo jacket. Do you remember what I'm talking about?
3:40 Yvette Gentile? Of course I do remember because I bought it.
3:42 Rasha Pecoraro? No, we bought it 50/50. It was $99.99 and I think I might have paid a penny less.
3:48 Yvette Gentile? I don't think so, but that's a whole nother story.
3:52 Rasha Pecoraro? For another day.
3:54 Yvette Gentile? Fortunately, our fights never led to anything too bad happening. But the same can't be said for a certain French king who would have fought tooth and nail for his prized possessions.
4:06 Rasha Pecoraro? Like Louis XIV, also known as Louis the Great. He was the king of France from 1643 until he died in 1715. And for better or worse, Louis was known for his lavish displays of wealth. He was a trendsetter. People wanted to copy literally everything he did. This was a huge reason why demand for exotic diamonds skyrocketed during his reign because Louis XIV was obsessed with them.
4:35 Rasha Pecoraro? So naturally, one of Louis' besties was one of the top diamond merchants at the time, a man named Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Throughout his career, Tavernier brought thousands of diamonds back to France from India.
4:49 Yvette Gentile? So diamonds from India were super sought after at the time, and some of the world's most famous gems came from there, like the Koh-i-Noor Diamond, which today is part of the British Crown Jewels.
5:02 Rasha Pecoraro? And European diamond buyers like Tavernier regularly visited the Indian mines. But they weren't open to just anyone. Since the mines were owned and operated by emperors, only really VIP clients had access to the best offerings. And Tavernier, who represented those elite clients, had his pick of the litter. Now, during one of those trips, Tavernier found something so magnificent, it was destined to become a legend. So in December of 1668, Tavernier brought it back to France to show King Louis. It was a diamond, deep blue in color, and 115 carats.
5:45 Rasha Pecoraro? So for reference, most engagement rings today, including my own, are about one to two carats.
5:51 Yvette Gentile? I mean, that's just cuckoo, 115 carats. I mean, the only person who could come somewhat close, right? Beyonce, of course, 24 carats.
6:02 Rasha Pecoraro? Exactly. It was also flawless, to the point where light passed through it perfectly, which is the sign of a super high-quality stone. Louis was so happy with Tavernier's find, he made him a nobleman. There was only one thing that the king didn't like about the diamond. It was uncut, basically in its natural, rock-like state. Now, at the time, people in India preferred the size and weight of a diamond over its shape, but the French liked to cut their diamonds to emphasize luster and shine. So Louis ended up having it shaped down from 115 to 69 carats.
6:42 Rasha Pecoraro? The process took two years back then, but when the diamond was finished, it gave off this amazing fiery sparkle. It became known as the Great Violet Diamond of His Majesty.
6:56 Yvette Gentile? Which, back in the day, violent meant blue.
6:59 Rasha Pecoraro? Right. So most people just called it the French blue.
7:05 Rasha Pecoraro? Louis didn't wear the French blue as a piece of jewelry, though. He displayed it with the rest of his collection in the Palace of Versailles. There aren't any illustrations of how it looked, but historians say he had it mounted on gold and set on a stick. And for the next several decades, the diamond remained in Louis's possession. That is, until August of 1715, when tragedy struck.
7:32 Rasha Pecoraro? That month, 76-year-old Louis returned home from a hunting trip complaining about a sharp pain in his leg. Doctors weren't sure what was wrong with the king, until a couple of weeks later, when things got much worse. Painful lesions started to form on his leg, which is a telltale sign of gangrene, a bacterial infection that cuts off blood supply and kills tissue. The disease was pretty common back then due to things like poor sanitation, and it took a lot of lives. But still, Louis kept pushing through, performing his kingly duties despite the agonizing pain. Pretty soon, though, it became too much to bear.
8:13 Rasha Pecoraro? Louis was bedridden, and doctors expected him to die any day. Only, it wasn't that quick. Louis suffered for weeks, saying goodbye to his loved ones several times, expecting each day would be his last. It was a horrific way to go. Gruesome and heartbreaking for the king to experience and for his loved ones to watch. The king's once glamorous, all-powerful image was replaced by this weak, vulnerable memory everyone now had of him. Finally, on September 1, 1715, after weeks of horrific suffering, King Louis XIV passed away. After that, his great-grandson, Louis XV, inherited the throne
8:57 Rasha Pecoraro? and all the royal jewels that came along with it.
9:01 Yvette Gentile? Including the French blue. For years, he kept the diamond where it had always been on display. But around 1749, when he was just 39 years old, Louis XV had his jeweler turn it into something even more spectacular. He had the diamond shaped into a brooch, surrounded by a bunch of other impressive jewels. He called it "The Emblem of the Order of the Golden Fleece." It was meant to symbolize Louis XV's power, but it almost seemed like the diamond didn't like the process of change. Because after it was altered, bad things started to happen.
9:45 Rasha Pecoraro? In 1756, just a few years after the emblem was created, the Seven Years' War between France and Great Britain broke out. Then, on a dark night in 1757, as Louis left the palace, he was brutally attacked. A man jumped out of nowhere and stabbed him. The king cried out in pain as the would-be assassin escaped. Luckily for Louis, the wound wasn't too serious. He recovered within a week, but the attack was a dark omen of things to come.
10:17 Yvette Gentile? And boy, oh, boy, did bad things come.
10:22 Rasha Pecoraro? In April of 1774, 64-year-old Louis was hanging out with friends at a chateau he built for one of his mistresses. It was part of the palace grounds and meant to be their haven. But this get-together was the last peaceful night the king would ever know. The next morning, he became violently ill. His whole body hurt, and he had a throbbing headache. He stayed in bed for two days while doctors tried to figure out what was wrong. By day three, they realized it was smallpox.
10:55 Yvette Gentile? Smallpox was also common at this time, but unlike gangrene, it was highly contagious.
11:03 Rasha Pecoraro? Which is why the king's loved ones and other members of the court were kept away, because there was no vaccine at the time. So the king laid in bed, suffering and isolated, for a month. By May 1st, his symptoms had improved, but doctors weren't celebrating just yet. Smallpox was known to get better before it got much, much worse. And about a week later, that's exactly what happened.
11:30 Rasha Pecoraro? Louis's condition took a turn for the worse, to the point where his skin was turning black and he couldn't swallow. In spite of every effort and remedy, the king was in complete agony. And just a few days later, on May 10th, he passed away.
11:47 Yvette Gentile? So that's two kings in a row now who've owned the French blue and died slow, painful deaths.
11:54 Rasha Pecoraro? Yes, and the next Louis to inherit the diamond may have had the most famous tragedy of all. Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, ring any bells? Were known for their lavish, frivolous lifestyle. And legend has it, Marie Antoinette let her friend, a princess also named Marie, wear the French blue from time to time, even though it was still embedded in that very important piece of ceremonial jewelry, the order of the golden fleece.
12:26 Yvette Gentile? And that's how you know the royals just didn't care. Because it's like, here you go. Just wear this giant piece of very expensive history like it's some costume jewelry that you'd put on your five-year-old. Right?
12:38 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah, no kidding. Forget cake, give me the jewels. I mean, rumor has it she wore the diamond to parties all the time. In the public eye, she became more associated with it than the king and the queen themselves. Which is maybe why, according to some stories, the diamond seemed to bring horrific things to her when the French Revolution erupted. By 1789, French citizens were disgusted with the monarchy. They were sick of starving on the streets while members of the royal court paraded around in their gemstones. That same year, revolutionaries stormed the royal buildings, rounding up members of the court and other government officials, saying, literally, "off with their heads."
13:23 Rasha Pecoraro? This went on for years. And eventually, a few members of Marie Antoinette's inner circle were beheaded. But for Princess Marie, things got especially gruesome.
13:37 Rasha Pecoraro? After they killed her, the mob put her head on a pike and paraded it outside the queen's window for her and everyone to see.
13:47 Yvette Gentile? And while the queen wasn't the person most associated with the gem, the diamond brought horrific things right to her doorstep, too. It was only a matter of time before Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI ended up on the guillotine.
14:03 Rasha Pecoraro? And once the king and queen were dead, security was weak around the castle. Doors to the palace were practically left wide open, including the storehouse where all the royal jewels were kept. So, a group of thieves broke in over several nights and took off with tons of precious jewels, including the French Blue. Remember, it was still part of the Order of the Golden Fleece at the time, so the thieves took the emblem apart and sold each stone separately. Some of the jewels resurfaced in London in 1797, but the French Blue wasn't among them.
14:42 Yvette Gentile? The diamond went off the grid for two decades, and despite its unique appearance and its infamy, no one knew where it was. Violence and disease wiped out a lot of French high society, so people all over Europe probably never expected to see the jewel again.
15:02 Rasha Pecoraro? Which maybe would have been for the best. After all, anyone who possessed the diamond had suffered a pretty miserable fate, apparently even the people they loaned the diamond out to. But the story doesn't end there, because eventually, the French Blue did resurface, and the death and destruction that came with it this time was undeniable.
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16:02 Yvette Gentile? In 1792, a brooch containing the French Blue Diamond was stolen from the royal storehouse during the French Revolution. And while some of its jewels were recovered throughout Europe, the French Blue's whereabouts were a mystery again for two decades. But it wouldn't stay hidden forever. Because in 1812, a jeweler in London finally came forward with a sketch of a huge blue diamond he'd seen on the market. He speculated it was the French Blue, only it seemed to have shrunk a bit, from 69 to about 45 carats. The thing is, not all historians agree,
16:45 Yvette Gentile? but some believe the jeweler who did the cutting was a Dutchman named Wilhelm Falls. And there's not a ton of information about Falls. But let's just say, this is when the curse seems to get a lot more apparent.
17:00 Rasha Pecoraro? As the legend goes, Falls lost all his money sometime after cutting the gem. Then, in 1815, his son turned on him. Details are super slim here and there's no concrete evidence. But from what we could gather, the younger Falls went to his father one night hoping to steal what few jewels he had left. And there must have been some sort of altercation because on that night, Wilhelm Falls was supposedly murdered by his own son, who later died by suicide.
17:33 Yvette Gentile? So here we go again. We have another series of tragic events for someone who owned the French blue.
17:40 Rasha Pecoraro? And who may have been consumed by greed.
17:44 Yvette Gentile? Yeah, there's definitely a pattern here. But after Fall's death, the diamond's whereabouts became a mystery yet again. And it wasn't until nine years later, in 1839, that a diamond with its exact description was listed in a catalog as part of a jewel collection. One that's owned by a London banker named Henry Philip Hope. Once Hope got his hands on this stunning blue diamond, he wanted to make sure everyone knew who it belonged to, which is why he renamed the diamond after himself, the Hope Diamond. But only a few months after publicly announcing he owned it,
18:27 Yvette Gentile? Henry Philip Hope was dead. And to make matters even stranger, Hope is one of the diamond's most famous owners, but no one really knows how he died. We think that it happened around 1839, but other than that, it's like he gave the diamond his name and then just, I don't know, stopped existing.
18:51 Rasha Pecoraro? We do know that his nephew, Henry Thomas Hope, inherited the diamond next. Henry Thomas kept it safely in his possession before putting it on temporary display at the Great London Exhibition in 1851, just for about five months or so. This was basically the predecessor to the World's Fair. Anyway, a few years later, he had a gem expert analyze it, and they believed it was cut from the original French blue, which generated a lot of buzz. People didn't just see the diamond as something beautiful. They saw it as a historic icon. And Henry Thomas made sure to treat it that way. After the great exhibition, he kept it safely stored away in his home.
19:34 Rasha Pecoraro? And the entire time he owned it, his life was pretty happy. He passed away in 1862 at age 54, which is a pretty good lifespan in that day and age. Sources don't say exactly how he died, but they don't mention anything tragic.
19:51 Yvette Gentile? So maybe the fact that he wasn't as flashy with the diamond and he shared it with people through these exhibitions, maybe that made him immune to its curse or something like that. I don't know. So think about this, he didn't try to sell it. He never cut it or made it into a piece of jewelry for himself. I mean, do you think there could be something to that?
20:14 Rasha Pecoraro? It's possible, especially when we think about where the diamond went next.
20:21 Rasha Pecoraro? Because after Henry Thomas Hope passed away, it was inherited by his grandson, Lord Francis Hope. In 1892, Francis met a woman named May Yohi and they tied the knot in 1894. The two went on to live way beyond their means. But unlike Marie Antoinette, May didn't want to loan out the Hope Diamond. In fact, she wouldn't let anyone else touch it. May wanted to make sure that London society associated her with the gem and her only. May wore it to fancy dinner parties with London's elite. At one point, she even said it caught the eye of the Prince of Wales.
21:03 Rasha Pecoraro? At the time, Lord Francis and May were minor celebrities in their own right. But they had no idea that the diamond's curse had weaved its way into their lives. See, Lord Francis loved to live large and he had a bit of a gambling problem. And by 1901, it had gotten completely out of control. He'd blown through his entire fortune.
21:27 Rasha Pecoraro? At the same time, May had racked up a ton of debt from her lavish lifestyle. They had to sell off a bunch of their valuables, including the Hope Diamond, but the curse lingered. Around this time, Lord Francis and May divorced. By all accounts, money caused problems in their marriage, but there were also rumors of infidelity on both sides. And it seems that things only got worse for these two. Because in 1902, Lord Francis suffered a freak accident. Now, I don't have all the details, but I know he lost his foot while hunting, which is gross by all accounts. At the same time, May suffered from alcoholism.
22:12 Rasha Pecoraro? She got remarried a couple of more times over the next two decades, but those relationships didn't last either. Despite all of this, May left one important legacy behind. In 1921, she publicly announced that the Hope Diamond was cursed. Between the violent deaths in the French monarchy, the cruel fate suffered by Wilhelm Falls and her own misfortune, May just didn't see how all of this tragedy could be mere coincidence. And I tend to agree with her. In a book, May said she read the history of the diamond and everything that happened to the previous owners. At that time, she obviously chose to wear it anyway, but now she regretted it.
22:59 Yvette Gentile? May might have initially kept these beliefs to herself, though, because a jeweler named Joseph Frankel had actually bought it from her back in 1901. And apparently, he shelled out 250,000 for the diamond. Y'all, that is close to 9 million bucks today.
23:19 Yvette Gentile? Once the deal was finalized, Frankel brought the Hope Diamond back to the States. Only he couldn't get any decent offers for it. It took years to get rid of the thing. After passing hands a few more times, a bold new buyer set their sights on the Hope Diamond. A famous jeweler by the name of Pierre Cartier, yes, that Cartier. Pierre's family business was already super successful at this time. And guess what? He even had a customer in mind.
23:51 Rasha Pecoraro? Her name was Evelyn McLean, a wealthy DC socialite. She was married to Ned McLean, whose father owned the Washington Post. The couple had bought diamonds from Pierre before, so he instantly thought of them. While the McLeans were on vacation in Paris in 1910, Pierre visited their hotel room. He was carrying a carefully wrapped package. He told them there was something incredible inside. Evelyn opened it and fell completely in love.
24:23 Rasha Pecoraro? The Hope Diamond sparkled like nothing she'd ever seen before.
24:28 Yvette Gentile? It's unclear if Evelyn knew all the rumors about the curse, but Pierre was happy to lean into the stories anyway. He felt that a good story would only seal the deal further. Because he knew that Evelyn loved a supernatural story. Pierre even added to the legends, telling the couple that John Baptiste Tavernier, Louis XIV's diamond merchant, had stolen the gem from a Hindu statue and was later killed, this is what he told her, by a pack of wild dogs when he was touched by the curse. It did the trick. Evelyn was smitten with the Hope Diamond. But she said if it was going to be hers, it needed to be truly special.
25:13 Yvette Gentile? Pierre said that he would design something completely one of a kind for her. Fast forward to 1911, when the McLean's were back in DC. Pierre arrived from Paris with the new and improved Hope Diamond. It had been reset on a chain with 16 other stones surrounding it. And of course, Evelyn loved it.
25:37 Rasha Pecoraro? Here's the thing, though, the stories Pierre told her. Well, she'd been thinking about them a lot since she last saw him. And she decided she didn't really want a cursed gem after all. She was too scared to wear it around. Now Pierre wasn't pushy. He was a Cartier after all. So he told Evelyn she could take a few months to think it over. He even let her keep it in her possession over the weekend. Maybe she could prove there was no curse after all. Let's just say Pierre's plan worked. Evelyn stared at the diamond all weekend. And eventually, she just couldn't resist. She had to try it on. It was almost as if it had sort of cast a spell on her.
26:24 Rasha Pecoraro? She needed that diamond to be hers. But before she could tell Pierre she was keeping the necklace, she had to run it by one more person, her trusted mother-in-law. Now Evelyn's mother-in-law had heard all the horror stories about the diamond. So when Evelyn told her she was buying it for herself, her mother-in-law nearly fainted. She couldn't bear the thought of her family being subjected to the same fates as the French monarchs. She scolded Evelyn, said the diamond was cursed, and that there were better things she could do with her money. Evelyn didn't listen, though, and she and Ned paid for the diamond. She kept the diamond and wore it out to DC's social functions.
27:06 Rasha Pecoraro? Sometimes she even let her dog wear it on his collar as a little party trick.
27:12 Yvette Gentile? Russia, could you imagine if I put that on Peanut's neck? My little chihuahua's only six to seven pounds. I mean, her neck would literally be on the floor.
27:22 Rasha Pecoraro? She'd fall right over. And then compare it to Lilo, my 50-pound lab hound mix, and she would trot around like nobody's business.
27:33 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, all goes to say, the Hope Diamond's new ownership became a newsworthy event. But over time, Evelyn started receiving dozens of letters from total strangers, each of them warning her about the diamond. One man even said he nearly drowned to death in a shipwreck and that he believed the Hope Diamond was on board at the time. Evelyn ignored the cautionary tales from strangers, but her defiance came at a devastating cost. Because her experiences with the diamond proved far more tragic than any of its previous owners.
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30:06 Yvette Gentile? In 1912, Evelyn and Ned McLean airs to The Washington Post, "Purchase the Hope Diamond from Pierre Cartier." And for a while, things were going fine for the McLeans. But within one year of owning the Hope Diamond, it seemed like the curse had struck again.
30:25 Rasha Pecoraro? First, a close family friend died suddenly of a mysterious illness. In her autobiography, Evelyn didn't give a lot of details about it, mainly that this friend died while they were on a yacht and that Evelyn could only watch helplessly as her friend slipped away. But soon after, another tragedy happened. Ned's mother, who warned Evelyn about the diamond's curse, died of pneumonia. Evelyn was left wondering. Had her desire for the Hope Diamond brought this darkness upon them?
30:56 Yvette Gentile? It felt like some cosmic connection when Evelyn got another letter in the mail, this time from May Yohi, the woman who first publicly stated the diamond was cursed. In it, May begged Evelyn, from one woman to another, to get rid of the Hope Diamond. May said that was the only way to, quote, "break the spell." Evelyn couldn't lie. She was starting to think she had invited an evil curse into her life. But the diamond was so pretty. She wondered if there was a way to break the curse without having to get rid of it. And that's when a light bulb went off.
31:40 Rasha Pecoraro? In 1912, Evelyn brought the Hope Diamond to a Catholic priest to be blessed. And I think that's the first thing I would have done if I had ever come into possession of anything that was rumored to be cursed. But anyway, on the day of the ceremony, Evelyn and a servant met with the priest. And when he began to pray over the diamond, she said an intense thunderstorm broke out. Then, just as quickly as the storm erupted, it ended, right when the priest finished praying. For Evelyn, this miraculous event confirmed the curse was broken. So she carried on with her life and kept wearing the Hope Diamond.
32:20 Yvette Gentile? And for a while, the McLeans lived tragedy-free, until 1919.
32:28 Yvette Gentile? That year, while the McLeans were away on vacation, their nine-year-old son, Vincent, was playing outside with a friend back home. And the two boys were running around, and Vincent ended up running into the street. A passing car hit him, but he seemed okay. I mean, a family friend picked him up, dusted him off, and brought him back inside. To be safe, as parents would do, they called the doctors to the house just to check him out. They said Vincent seemed fine, but within the span of a day, Vincent suddenly became paralyzed. And within a few hours, he died of what was likely internal bleeding.
33:09 Rasha Pecoraro? After this, as you can imagine, Evelyn was inconsolable. Ned lost control of his drinking habit. Things went on like this for 10 more years, until 1931, when Evelyn couldn't take it anymore and filed for divorce. Ned was later admitted into a psychiatric hospital, and The Washington Post was sold to trustees. In 1941, Ned died in that same hospital. Evelyn, alone and without much money left to her name, got one happy day in 1941, when her 19-year-old daughter, Evie, got married. But the curse seemed to return. Five years later, Evie was found dead in her bedroom.
33:53 Rasha Pecoraro? She had overdosed on sleeping pills. Evelyn was devastated. She mourned for the next few weeks and then, as if things couldn't get any worse, she came down with a severe case of pneumonia, just like her mother-in-law. In April of 1947, Evelyn McLean died. At that time, she was still the owner of the Hope Diamond. With Evelyn gone and no kids to inherit her estate, all of her belongings went up for sale. Not many people were lining up to buy the Hope Diamond with its spooky reputation, but one guy stepped up to the plate, another famous jeweler named Harry Winston.
34:37 Rasha Pecoraro? Harry was a jeweler who'd worked his way up from a small family business. He saw diamonds as symbols of hard work, not just as symbols of wealth. In fact, he thought the Hope Diamond, with its elaborate global history, should belong to everyone. So in 1958, he donated it to the Smithsonian in Washington DC. And that is exactly where it sits today, seemingly harmless behind its glass case. But the question remains, was all that misfortune just a coincidence? Or is the Hope Diamond actually cursed?
35:15 Yvette Gentile? Okay, we have to admit that in the 18th and the 19th, and even the early 20th centuries, life was a bit different than it is now. With illness and disease being far more common and medical advances we take for granted today still out of reach. Think about it. Louis XIV died from gangrene in his leg, a terrible fate for sure. But gangrene was pretty common back then. They had no antibiotics, not so great sanitation, bacterial infections were like the common cold. As for Louis XV, smallpox took him down. Again, a horrible way to go. But smallpox was a major killer before vaccines became widespread
35:59 Yvette Gentile? and it took hundreds of millions of lives in the 20th century alone. Even other misfortunes like accidents and financial troubles weren't unheard of, especially among the wealthy and the powerful who lived way too extravagantly. I'm just saying, maybe their fast lives meant dangerous consequences. Diamond or no diamond?
36:23 Rasha Pecoraro? Okay, yes, I totally hear you. But it's hard to ignore the sheer number of unfortunate events linked to this one particular diamond. So maybe there's something more to it after all. According to the Giant Book of Superstition, published in 1979, there are plenty of supernatural beliefs about diamonds, ones from all over the world that go way back in history.
36:47 Yvette Gentile? Okay, let's stop there for a second because can we just get our hand on the Giant Book of Superstitions?
36:53 Rasha Pecoraro? Yes, that would be amazing with so supernatural.
36:56 Yvette Gentile? Let's make that happen.
36:57 Rasha Pecoraro? We will. But, back to the story. For example, in ancient India, diamonds weren't just seen as pretty gems, they were thought of as vessels of divine power. This was deeply woven into the spiritual beliefs and mythology of the time. Even in the history of Indra, a major Hindu deity, she was seen as the bravest of gods, the ruler of rain and storms. Indra wielded a legendary thunderbolt weapon that was said to be forged from, wait for it, diamonds. But it wasn't just Indra's diamonds. People in ancient India believed all diamonds held the power to amplify spiritual energy.
37:40 Rasha Pecoraro? They were incorporated into religious idols and royal crowns, symbolizing divine favor and cosmic strength. At the same time, people in ancient India also held fears about cursed diamonds. A diamond that had been obtained in a treacherous way, like, hmm, say robbery, violence, the black market, was thought to carry negative energies, that makes total sense to me, including that of greed, murder, or betrayal. The people we talked about today were beheaded, murdered by their own family, lost all their money, perfect examples of those negative energies.
38:22 Rasha Pecoraro? And remember how Jean Baptiste Tavernier brought the Hope Diamond from India?
38:26 Yvette Gentile? Of course, I mean, how could I forget that?
38:30 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, here's the thing. No one really knows how Tavernier actually got it. He kept detailed notebooks about his travels and diamond deals, but there were some missing pages, right where he would have explained how he got his hands on the Hope Diamond. So historians are basically left guessing.
38:50 Yvette Gentile? Do they think he stole it?
38:52 Rasha Pecoraro? In a nutshell, yes.
38:55 Yvette Gentile? Treachery, betrayal, deception. Like, we got all the things.
38:59 Rasha Pecoraro? Exactly. And if those legends are to be believed, that may be what kickstarted the curse.
39:06 Yvette Gentile? Okay, yes. The ancient mythology is hard to ignore, I'll give you that. But it also makes you wonder, did the Hope Diamond cause all of those terrible things to happen? Or did all those terrible things inspire legends of the curse in the first place? Like the chicken or the egg scenario? Because if the latter is true, maybe this whole story is just, I don't know, meant to teach us a lesson, to warn us against greed and mega wealth? To scare us into being good people? Just think about it. Almost everyone who owned the Hope Diamond was obsessed with wealth and power. And look how that all turned out for them.
39:51 Yvette Gentile? It's like a cosmic reminder that true happiness doesn't come from jewels, but from being a decent human being. And so I think Harry Winston was trying to send this exact message when he displayed the Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian. Considering he was maybe the only one who ever offered to donate the jewels instead of hoarding them for himself. And guess what? He never seemed to be affected by the curse.
40:20 Rasha Pecoraro? And speaking of looking at it, you can actually see the diamond for yourself if you travel to DC. As of this recording, the real Hope Diamond is still on display at the Smithsonian. And Yvette and I actually took a trip to Washington DC in 2018. We were invited to be guests on the set of Wonder Woman 1984, and we got to see the Hope Diamond in person, and it's absolutely stunning. It sits in the center of a glass case on a rotating pedestal under a spotlight. It's so beautiful and so mystical in my eyes.
40:58 Yvette Gentile? Now, okay, don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, but it's just, I guess it's not really my style.
41:04 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, you better be careful of saying that, Yvette, or the ghosts of Pierre Cartier might come back and haunt you.
41:10 Yvette Gentile? No shade to Pierre, I just wish I could see the OG, the original emblem of the Order of the Golden Police. Now that sounds like something that I might wear. Talking about OGs, Leonard Nimoy said something powerful on the History Channel's documentary about the Hope Diamond. He said, "In the diamond's beauty, we see the dark reflection of our own design."
41:36 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, I will say this, while diamonds can definitely make any situation brighter, I don't see a world where I'd risk my life for them. So curse or no curse, I'd still make sure to keep the Hope Diamond far, far away from my own personal collection.
42:04 Yvette Gentile? This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at So Supernatural Pod and on our website, sosupernaturalpodcast.com. So Supernatural will be off next week, but we'll return the following week with a brand new episode. So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
42:31 Yvette Gentile? I've been having a hard time trying to explain
42:34 Speaker 06 What Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot?
42:37 Speaker 00 Your podcast is amazing. It's such an amazing show altogether. You guys have actively ruined all other audio dramas for me. You can't get people to understand the humaning that happens in this damn show.
42:48 Speaker 07 Keep doing what you're doing because it's awesome. You might not think it, but you are far more important than you realize. Thank you.
42:54 Speaker 06 At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app or just go to weopenat6.com.
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