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2023 Author: Avery Leman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 13:34
You may be an incorrigible skeptic and not believe in supernatural forces, but the mysterious events that we will tell you about will make you doubt your beliefs. We remember the terrible stories of jewelry that literally killed their owners.
Diamond "Hope"
The diamond is known not so much for its beauty as for the tragic events associated with it. According to legend, it was obtained by sawing a 115-carat gem brought by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier from India. It is by far the largest blue diamond ever discovered in the world.
In the middle of the 17th century, the killer diamond was stolen from the temple of the Indian goddess Sita. According to legend, the thief who stole him was struck by lightning while trying to escape. The first owner of the gem was Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who later sold it to the French king Louis XIV. Since then, everyone who owned a diamond either died under mysterious circumstances or went crazy. The treasure hunter Tavernier was torn to pieces by a pack of wild dogs, Louis XIV died of gangrene, the subsequent owners of the stone were also unlucky. Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI were beheaded, Princess de Lamballe was beaten to death by the crowd, Jacques Colet committed suicide, the concubine of the Turkish Sultan Surbayu was stabbed to death by her lover, who gave her a stone, and Simon Montaride died in a road accident with his family.
Despite the bloody trail that the diamond left behind, there were no fewer people wishing to take possession of it. Among the rich, there were also those who tried to forever destroy the curse and cleanse the stone of evil. One such was the American millionaire Evelyn McLean. The woman threw parties and offered guests a game - they had to find the infamous diamond, previously hidden in the walls of the house. Unfortunately, she failed to break the evil spell - the curse overtook her family as well. McLean's son died in an accident, his daughter died of an overdose, and her husband went to another woman, and then died.
The famous jewelry merchant Henry Winston managed to end the series of sad events. He bought the diamond from the last owners and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution. Now no one owns the diamond alone, and therefore his bloody story ended there.
Orlova's black diamond, or Brahma's eye
Another gem that was stolen from an Indian temple and is said to have caused the death of several of its owners. The diamond, also called the Eye of Brahma, adorned the statue of the eponymous god until it was stolen by treasure hunters. In 1932 he ended up in the United States. J. Peris, who brought the stone to America, soon committed suicide by jumping from the roof of a nebsrkeb. The next owners of the jewelry - princesses Nadezhda Orlova and Leonila Galitsyna-Bariatinski - also committed suicide by throwing themselves from a height.
The tragic deaths of the "lucky" owners of the diamond gave rise to a series of rumors and gossip, the curse of the god Brahma was talked about at every corner. The jeweler Henry Winston, the one who "finished" the "Hope" diamond, again undertook to destroy the evil spell of the stone. He sawed it into three parts, inserted the largest into a platinum necklace, complementing it with other diamonds. Since then, not a single person wearing the jewelry has been hurt. In 2006, the bloody stone saw the light again - the actress Felicity Huffman wore it to the Oscars.
Alfonso XII's ring
This ring has become the source of many horror stories. King Alfonso XII of Spain presented a massive ring with opal to his young wife, Princess Mercedes, in 1875. Shortly after the honeymoon, the girl fell ill with tuberculosis. During her illness, she had a miscarriage, and after some time she died without regaining consciousness. The marriage with the king lasted only six months, the young wife of Alfonso died just two days after her 18th birthday. The king, distraught with grief, attempted suicide, but he was saved.
The precious ring passed to Alfonso XII's sister, Infanta Maria del Pilar, who also died suddenly soon after.
Having survived the loss, the king decided to marry again. The choice of couples for Maria Christina of Orleans, to whom he presented the fatal ring as a gift. However, the wedding did not take place - the bride died of tuberculosis, and did not live to see the wedding.
Another death launched a wave of rumors, which only became stronger when Alfonso XII himself died of tuberculosis at the age of 37.
Diamond earrings of Princes Meshchersky
In the family of the Meshchersky princes, diamond earrings were passed from generation to generation, and with them the curse, which said that if the jewelry was worn by an unfaithful spouse, something would definitely happen to her. For a long time, the family legend remained a secret, until one of the princes told his friend Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin about it.
He burned out with jealousy for his wife Natalya Goncharova and was ready for anything to find out whether she was cheating on him or not. The poet decided on a dangerous experiment, borrowed "earrings of truth" from a friend and handed them to his beloved. The earrings did not denounce the woman, but they made Pushkin pay dearly for the truth. Shortly after the experiment, the poet was mortally wounded in a duel.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the earrings went to the wife of Prince Alexander Meshchersky, Catherine, who turned out to be unfaithful to her husband, for which she had to pay a serious price. The spouse died, the lover abandoned, lost position in society, then came the revolution, interrogations, persecution. In the end, the girl decided to sell the jewelry, which brought her misfortune.
The Sancy Diamond
A drop-shaped yellow diamond was found in India, then passed from ruler to ruler in the East for a long time, and eventually ended up in Europe. Over the years, he left a trail of blood, and its owners died tragically.
In 1570, the stone went to the Marquis de Sancy. Fascinated by the beauty of the diamond, the nobleman called it by his own name. The marquis treasured the diamond extremely, but one day, unexpectedly for everyone, he decided to give it to at least someone.
What caused this decision, no one understood, but one way or another, the diamond went to King Henry III of France, who was killed shortly thereafter. The stone passed to the next king - Henry IV. The ruler had nothing to support the army, and he decided to sell the diamond, but the man sent to deliver it to the buyer was killed on the way. The diamond was found, removed from the stomach of the deceased and left in the palace. A few days later, Henry IV was killed.
Then the diamond migrated to the Stuarts, from them to the Bourbons, and to everyone to whom it came, it brought death and misfortune. In 1830 the Ural breeder Demidov became the new owner of the stone and presented it to his wife. After a series of deaths, Demidov's descendants decided to get rid of Sansi and sold it.