What the world knows as the “Elizabeth Taylor Diamond” – the Tour Professionals of Las Vegas know it by its original name – The Krupp Diamond. Sold at auction for $8.8 million. Almost 3 times the appraised value of the ring the late actress wore in almost every appearance.
Diamond History
The diamond ring is part of Las Vegas history. German socialite Vera Krupp brought the ring over when she immigrated and divorced her industrialist husband who was not allowed in America for his ties to the Nazi war machine. (Krupp – Think coffee makers)
At the time, she owned what is now called Spring Mountain Ranch and raised Brahma bulls there. Back than, the only road in was from Blue Diamond and it wasn’t paved!!
According ot the FBI story “on April 10, 1959, on her sprawling ranch about twenty-six miles southwest of Las Vegas. She and her foreman were finishing dinner when three men knocked on the door offering to blacktop her long driveway. Within seconds they’d forced their way in, ripped the ring off Krupp’s finger (to the point of drawing blood) and tied the pair blindfolded back-to-back with wire from a lamp. The robbers had done their homework. They rifled the ranch house like they knew it well—stealing along with the ring about $700,000 in cash, a revolver, and a camera.”
Now, if you have been to the ranch and heard the story, the ending differs a little from the FBI story. ” Six weeks later. An agent in Newark, New Jersey, heard a rumor from a criminal informant that a local grocer was asking around, trying to sell a big diamond. Our agents quickly located this man, and he led us to one of the three thieves, James Reves. Agents searched his hotel room in Elizabeth and found the center diamond in the lining of his coat hanging in the closet.”
As for justice being served?? On November 20, Reves and two others were found guilty. A few weeks later Hagenson and the other suspects were convicted as well. Hagenson—the alleged mastermind—later beat the rap on appeal.
The Diamond Becomes Famous
Vera Krupp sold the ranch in 1967 to billionaire Howard Hughes . After her death in 1968, the diamond was part of her estate when actor Richard Burton it for $305,000 as a gift for Elizabeth Taylor, a two-time Academy Award winner who many called the most beautiful woman in the world.