Curses have been terrifying humans for centuries. Death, injury, financial ruin, and other misfortunes have plagued “victims” of curses. However, there is one curse that has centuries of bloodshed and misfortune behind it: The curse of the Hope Diamond. Despite the fear of the superstitious and skeptics alike, the Hope Diamond is not cursed, and was not the cause of the unfortunate events that befell its owners.
Most people agree that the Hope Diamond was plucked from an idol in a mine in India. That said, there are still incongruities in the story concerning the person who committed the act of removing the diamond from the idol. Some sources report that Tavernier himself, the first documented owner of the diamond, removed the gem from its …show more content…
In 1910, upon first seeing it, Mclean was not impressed by the setting. Cartier had the diamond reset and allowed Mclean to keep it for a week to choose whether or not she would like to buy it. After adding in a story that he had fabricated about a deadly curse, Cartier eventually sold the Hope Diamond to Mclean in 1911. She was especially interested in the story of the curse. Mclean had said that other people’s unlucky items turned out to be lucky for her. She wore the Hope often, and can be credited as the person who brought the most attention to it and its curse. However, throughout her ownership of the Hope Diamond, she and her family suffered tragedy after tragedy. Her oldest son, Vinson, was killed in a car accident when he was nine years old. Her husband, Ned Mclean, heir to the Washington Post and its fortune, was an alcoholic. He left her for another woman, spent every last penny of their family fortune, and died an insane man in a sanitorium. Evalyn Walsh Mclean soon lost another child, her daughter Evalyn Washington Mclean, to a drug overdose at age twenty-five. Evalyn Walsh Mclean died of pneumonia in 1947, and was the sole owner of the Hope Diamond up until the time of her …show more content…
The divergences in the origination of the curse show that those who say that the Hope Diamond is cursed are ignorant of even the basic origins of their claim. One source claimed that the Hope Diamond became cursed after the death of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded. However, another source which agrees that there could be a curse refutes their own claim by saying that Tavernier suffered from the curse (killed by wild dogs). Tavernier had possession of the diamond well before King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, so saying that he suffered from the curse when, supposedly, it had not existed until years later, is
Most people agree that the Hope Diamond was plucked from an idol in a mine in India. That said, there are still incongruities in the story concerning the person who committed the act of removing the diamond from the idol. Some sources report that Tavernier himself, the first documented owner of the diamond, removed the gem from its …show more content…
In 1910, upon first seeing it, Mclean was not impressed by the setting. Cartier had the diamond reset and allowed Mclean to keep it for a week to choose whether or not she would like to buy it. After adding in a story that he had fabricated about a deadly curse, Cartier eventually sold the Hope Diamond to Mclean in 1911. She was especially interested in the story of the curse. Mclean had said that other people’s unlucky items turned out to be lucky for her. She wore the Hope often, and can be credited as the person who brought the most attention to it and its curse. However, throughout her ownership of the Hope Diamond, she and her family suffered tragedy after tragedy. Her oldest son, Vinson, was killed in a car accident when he was nine years old. Her husband, Ned Mclean, heir to the Washington Post and its fortune, was an alcoholic. He left her for another woman, spent every last penny of their family fortune, and died an insane man in a sanitorium. Evalyn Walsh Mclean soon lost another child, her daughter Evalyn Washington Mclean, to a drug overdose at age twenty-five. Evalyn Walsh Mclean died of pneumonia in 1947, and was the sole owner of the Hope Diamond up until the time of her …show more content…
The divergences in the origination of the curse show that those who say that the Hope Diamond is cursed are ignorant of even the basic origins of their claim. One source claimed that the Hope Diamond became cursed after the death of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded. However, another source which agrees that there could be a curse refutes their own claim by saying that Tavernier suffered from the curse (killed by wild dogs). Tavernier had possession of the diamond well before King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, so saying that he suffered from the curse when, supposedly, it had not existed until years later, is