CURSE OF HOPE DIAMOND

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 306, 26 December 1924, Page 3

CURSE OF HOPE DIAMOND

FIFTH HUSBAND OF MAY YOHE SHOT. trial of tragedies. ,:..'.:.:;. -toi.kn" from an Indian TEMPLE. ,'v Miibn A Smuts, cousin of (' >•; :..! :n:;ts, and husband of May N .. ..ne time possessor of the famous I: .! •iiuiid. was mysteriously shot '..-Ii :i loilgins house on November '•■hi : lie bullet penetrated near ;..-;:!; ;■:!■! Ills wounds were danger- -••-. en iionrs elapsed before a doctor •. :- .- i.r.ii i.ned. .-'n, ii - ,u< then rushed to the hosn,':..l and tiic police informed. Mrs. Minus assorted that the revolver .!'-. barged accidentally while her husband '.'.as cleaning it. She was in an adjoining room. Mr. Smuts himself at the hospital gave a -imiliir version of the affair at lirst. i'tit. under persistent questioning by tiic police, exclaimed excitedly: "It makes no difference who shot mc. If you make trouble for my wife, I'll maintain 1 shot myself, no matter what you say." In the search of tbe house the police found a note reading: — "1 intend to shoot myself because I've been unkind to my wife." It was signed "J. A. Smuts," but the wording of the note and the signature were in different handwritings, according to the police. An Incredible Career. Five times married, four times divorced, once the stage idol of London and America, the owner of the famous Hope diamond of tragic tradition, a duchess-presumptive, penniless and a charwoman—such in brief are some of the milestones in the almost incredible career of May Yohe. The curse of her life, to quote her own words, was the Hope diamond, which for more than a century has brought such bad luck to its owners that it has been well named the Diamond of Death. Born 57 years ago, the daughter of a poor dressmaker in Pennsylvania, May was started on a music hall career that was meteoric by its success. By the early nineties she had captivated NewYork and London. In London she met Lord Francis Hope, heir-presumptive to the Duke of Newcastle, and, against the wishes of his family, married him. This brought into her possession the £60,000 Hope diamond. Husband Sells Diamond. If there was a curse in the diamond it was soon at work. The marriage was a failure, and May ran away to "japan with Captain Putnam Strong, of New York. Lord Hope divorced his wife, and sold the diamond. But its bad luck followed May. Her new husband soon threw her over, and most of her jewels were stolen. Strong's share in the curse came when bis mother, furious with his conduct, cut him out of her will, his share in which woud have been £100,000. Twice again May married, and in each case divorce followed quickly. Then during the war she was nursing in South Africa, and fell in love with "one of her patients, Captain J. A. Smuts, who bad been wounded in the campaign in German South-West Africa. So the wedding bells rang for the fifth time. Worked as Charwoman. When the couple went to California Smuts fell ill, and the former darling of the halls had to go out as a charwoman to keep the home going. The curse of the Hope diamond is said to date from the time -when it was stolen from an Indian temple. It found its way to France, and had a tale of tragedy before Marie Antoinette selected it from the Crown jewels for her own use. Several months later the Royal throat on which it glittered was bared for the guillotine. From that time almost every owner of it has encountered tragedy 'of some kind. Here is the record of its owners since it was sold by Lord Hope in 1901:— Prince Kanitovski, a wealthy Russian, assassinated by Nihilists. A Greek jeweller killed in an accident tvith his wife and family. Sultan Abdul Hamid deposed in the Young Turk revolution. Habib, a Persian diamond merchant, drowned in the French liner La Scyne near Singapore. Edward B. McLean, American multimillionaire, lost first his wife and then his son, who was killed by a motor car.