It was April 4, a warm night downtown, and a sold-out audience at the Dallas Museum of Art huddled together as Lena Pederson told her true crime story. king of diamonds.
“An extremely talented jewel thief, like Houdini, stole millions of dollars from the wealthiest people in Dallas and got away with it,” she said, sitting in an armchair under a giant overhead screen. he told the crowd in a Texas accent. Hair that catches the light. “So who was he? How did he do it? And why couldn't they catch him?”
I've seen many literary giants cast spells at Arts & Letters Live, including Chuck Klosterman, David Grann, and Lauren Groff, but never before have the audience been so snugly in the palm of the speaker's hands. It was the first time I'd seen it slip in. Although the author himself was in good health at the age of 76, many of those in attendance were living his AARP side of life. Gray hair, tortoiseshell glasses, silk wraps, pressed slacks.
Perhaps that's because the drama in this book was so familiar to me. The real-life Diamond King harassed Dallas' high society from the late 1950s until the 1970s, raiding the drawers and boudoirs of the city's untouchables on upscale streets with names like Channel, Park, and Beverly. The clams made headlines and confused police. The Murchisons, Hunts and Richardsons, whose names are carved on bridges and buildings, often sneak in through side windows or back doors to social events in the city, after debutante balls and charity galas, to escape the clutches of cunning cat thieves. It was a sacrifice. Steal a rare diamond ring or an eye-catching necklace that you wear to be noticed.
king of diamondsThe gripping story, released earlier this month, intersperses Pederson's own tenacious quest to solve a 50-year-old cold case, but it's more than local connections that captivated audiences. did. Based on his 200 interviews conducted over six years, the former Dallas journalist explores the best of Dallas' pre-Kennedy glory days, including Jack Ruby, Candy Bar, Carlos Campisi, and the Dixie Mafia. Discover legendary figures. Some of the names were unfamiliar to me, but they shouldn't be. Nancy Hammon is a socialite who once rode an elephant to an extraordinary party.
A giant screen behind Pederson displayed vivid photographs, but few were as breathtaking as the stunning interior of the Graf House, an early target of the jewelry thieves. The modernist mansion in Preston Hollow, designed by Edward Durell Stone (the man behind New York's Museum of Modern Art), features luxury that can only be found in Dallas, such as an impossibly large dining table placed on a circular slab in the middle of the interior. was proud of. Swimming pool, dinner party on the world's smallest island.
But as Pederson gets closer to the story, he begins to see the seedy underbelly of the city, which still holds many secrets. Mafia, spies, celebrities, gambling dens, sex trafficking – all wrapped up in the glittering ribbons of high society.
“This is one of the best books about Dallas I've ever read,” bestselling author Brian Barrow told me via email. He has become quite an authority since his 2009 book. millionaire Covers similar areas.Mr. Barrow, it's been a while. vanity fair A contributor who lives in Austin was the first to tell me about Pederson's new book, which was saved in PDF format on my laptop until a journalist friend texted me about it. “I don’t know the last time I devoured a book like this,” she wrote, and thus began my own obsession.
I was only halfway through Chapter 11 (of 41 episodes) when I stepped into a crowded elevator in a DMA parking lot earlier this month. There, wealthy ticket holders speculated about who had done it. I covered my ears like a child who had cursed too much.
Rumor has it that Pederson named the real-life King of Diamonds in his book. She solved the case! As stragglers made their way to their seats in the busy theater, I passed true crime great Skip Hollandsworth, his arm casually draped over the wooden arm of his chair.
“Why is this book so good?” I asked, and even more authors texas monthly I don't want to name the barn burners, but at least two of them. barney and future hitmanwhich has been made into a movie – blinked a few times as if I had asked a very simple question, and then said, “Because it’s just her story.”
I met Pederson inside the Statler, the midcentury hotel featured in her book and next door. dallas morning news office. Although Pederson currently lives in Austin, near her grandchildren (this book is dedicated to them), she spent much of her career in Dallas, where she was the first female editorial page director and , and later served as editor-in-chief and vice president. news. As I entered the Over Easy, an upscale diner on the ground floor, I found her tapping away on her cell phone.
“Isn't that the great thing about mail?” she asked me as the hostess led us into a long booth. “You always have friends.”
In person, Pederson is 5'1″ tall and effortlessly stylish. As she writes, king of diamonds, “I was modest, like Agatha Christie's rumpled Miss Marple, but without hats or knitting.” Rumpled, no, but modest, yes. I couldn't help but think of Joan Didion's line in “ lean forward toward Bethlehem: “My only advantage as a reporter is that I'm so small, so reserved in temperament, and so nervously inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence is against their interests.” And that's always the case. The last thing to remember is that writers are always selling someone short.”
Pederson wasn't crisp either. (For that matter, we never met for breakfast, though I don't think Didion did.) When Pederson and I were chatting over lattes, she was right in print It gave me the same impression as described. A hardcover copy sat on the edge of the table, its striking orange cover catching the eye of a random man who stopped at the table.
“She wrote that,” I told him, and he looked twice at the little white-haired woman, then said, “Oh, snap.”
Lena Pederson first encountered the King of Diamonds, as most people did at the time, through the headlines. She was 23 years old when she moved to Dallas in 1970, graduated from graduate school in New York, and worked at United Press International, better known as UPI. Back then, journalism was all about teletype machines and chain-smoking at desks. Pederson was working the night shift when she read about the movie Cary Grant-like Robbery's Unsolved Mystery. to catch a thiefhad committed the perfect crime.
There were a variety of theories about who the King of Diamonds turned out to be, including an architect, a social writer, and the wayward son of a Las Vegas casino owner, but Pederson's career was ignited and he was followed by several others. For ten years the road disappeared.she became a heavyweight news and interviewed Margaret Thatcher, Fidel Castro, and Princess Grace. During the Bush administration, she worked as a senior speechwriter and advisor at the U.S. Department of State. In 2001 she wrote her first book. What's next? , About a woman reinventing herself in middle age, and how she landed oprah winfrey show.
“Should I send her a note saying I finally followed my own advice?” Pederson later emailed me. “I think so.”
Pederson was effectively retired by the time he cracked his knuckles. king of diamonds 6 years ago. However, she is still a writer to the core, and since her teenage years she has worked as a writer. San Angelo Standard Time. She was too young to drive her car, so police would stop by the newspaper office and pick her up in the event of her crime. Nothing beats this kind of adventure, and at its core it's all about discovery. king of diamonds It might come close.
It is strange that the police never pursued the perpetrator even though they were close to him. The book details the enormous efforts detectives went to to catch this man, but in November 1963 there were other mysteries left to solve, such as the assassination of the president. Ta.
Half a century later, as the story of this epic jewel thief threatens to fade from memory, Pederson can't stop pulling the strings. “Since 1970, I have endured five publishers, a husband, two rambunctious sons, and a lifetime of newspaper deadlines,” she writes in the foreword to her book. . “I was able to look for the thief with an experienced eye.”
And she used to be. king of diamonds is a how-to manual for aspiring journalists. Strangers hang up on Pederson, sometimes in anger. She researches records and court papers, sends flowers to subjects who don't want to talk (it doesn't work), and eats fried okra with quiet cops in a golden ranch (it goes well). In other words, she exhibits the nimble fingers and cunning of the jewel thief herself, whose true identity is revealed at the end of the book, but I don't have the courage to spoil it. (Obvious question: did he act alone? he?)
But it wasn't all “catch me if you can” times. Dallas' underground shopping malls haven't been lit for decades, and there's a reason why. Pederson was sniffing out mob connections when strange events started happening. A message was sent to her home telling her to “look elsewhere.” Her computer was mysteriously hacked. She decided to get a dagger tattoo on her right ankle. Her talisman and warning to those who underestimate her, she has also acquired a better warning system.
“I may be short, but I'm a tough old man,” she said during the interview portion of the Arts & Letters Live event, speaking with fellow Dallas media pioneer Lee Karam, DMA. told the audience.
“These women are so inspirational,” Michelle Witcher, director of Arts & Letters Live, whispered to me as the show began. Tough, beautiful, intelligent, and funny. Who would be afraid of getting old when you're growing old like this?
There was one question everyone wanted to know. “Do you have any plans for a movie?” an audience member asked.
“God, I hope so,” Pederson said without missing a beat. “Does anyone know?”
