Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne
I have never heard of Doris Payne before coming across this book on Hoopla. The cover with a black woman that said “the true story of the world’s most notorious jewel thief” was all I needed to see to peak my interest. So I searched for it at my local library and checked out the book.
This book is the story of Doris Payne, who grew up in Slab-fork, West Virginia, the daughter of a coal-miner. Doris tells her story growing up poor with a father that abuses her mother. Her love for her mother and her belief of a better life, lead her to aspire to finding a way to get her and her mother out of Slab-fork. She discovers her “gift” of distracting people so that she can take what she wants and uses it to finance her plans to live a different life with her mother. Her crimes went on to be unsolved into the 1970s and she was finally arrested in 2013 but not for all of her crimes. I found this story so engaging.
I am also impressed with how much research and preperations Doris made for each heist. She was not a petty thief by any means. I found out that there was a documentary made but I believe that it was unauthorized. So I will wait for the the movie and hope that it does get her sign off before watching it. This is another example of why books are so wonderful, that this story that I have heard nothing of, should come to light. Read it!
