Diamond Doris: True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne and Zelda Lockhart
Review:
One of the best life stories out there. As a fan of shows like White Collar, I couldn’t have imagined someone was this good of a jewel thief. Yes, Doris Payne unapologetically stole from the time she realized her beaten mother needed a way out. Then she couldn’t stop. She went around the world. She stole from the biggest brands in existence. She fell in love twice (the first was a groundbreaking biracial and polyamorous relationship!).
The chapters are exceptionally written showing both adventure, elegance, and Doris’ hometown southern vernacular. Her prison time is at the end and just as grueling as you’d expect because the jurisdiction didn’t have a nice white collar facility like she had been in before. It was PRISON. Doris was in her 80s, and because of intestinal illness, down to 80 pounds. Looking at that number 80, it’s rough to see how one connotes sickness while the other, a long life.
When I checked, Tessa Thompson was attached to a biopic about Doris Payne, but that was years ago.
If you appreciated Killmonger’s motivations in the first Black Panther movie, you might think Doris Payne was absolutely justified in stealing all those jewels.
Rating: 5 stars
Publisher’s Summary:
Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, Doris Payne was told her dreams were unattainable for poor black girls like her. Doris vowed to turn the tables after the owner of a jewelry store threw her out when a white customer arrived.
Using her southern charm, quick wit, and fascination with magic, Payne began shoplifting small pieces of jewelry from local stores. Over the course of six decades, her talents grew with each heist. Becoming an expert world-class jewel thief, she daringly pulled off numerous diamond robberies.
Doris’s criminal exploits went unsolved well into the 1970s—partly because the stores did not want to admit that they were duped by a black woman. Eventually she was arrested after stealing a diamond ring in Monte Carlo that was valued at more than half a million dollars. But even prison couldn’t contain Doris, who cleverly used various ruses to break out. With her arrest in 2013 in San Diego, Doris’s fame skyrocketed.
Thrilling and rip-roaringly fun, Diamond Doris is the portrait of a captivating anti-hero who refused to be defined by the prejudices of a hypocritical society.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.