If you were in the marketing world and wished to appeal to young adult males in turns of the myth of marketing, you would like to pick James Bond and some of the movie roles played by Cary Grant. Both of the people easily moved in society parties; each were well dressed and carried themselves well. The women were attracted to the characters and each had a dark side which the audience typically cheered for. In the case of James Bond, he was working for the British government or a spy to stop bad guys. In the case of Cary Grant one of the roles in the movie To Catch a Thief was he stole jewels, but nobody was injured. The owners might be alarmed and ordered more security and made insurance claims but Cary Grant did not kill anyone.

In a book called The King of Diamonds by Rena Pederson published by Pegasus Crime, New York, 2024, the author investigates the mysterious case of a jewel thief stealing diamonds in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas, Texas is the banking center of Texas founded on cotton farms and cattle ranches. The cattle ranches are some of the biggest in the US because everything is big in Texas. When oil was discovered, the center of financing of oil cemented Dallas over Houston where outside the city the refining of the oil is done. The huge deposits of oil in Texas made many millionaires and eventually they bought large homes and enjoyed social gatherings. Often times there was a gala season for money to be raised for arts and culture and men wear tuxedo and women were gowns and jewelry. If you are wealthy, the jewels were worth thousands in the 1960’s and would be worth millions today.

In Dallas, someone was going to the most expensive homes in the city, breaking into the homes, and stealing some jewelry but not everything. The person(s) was very particular about what they stole and many times left expensive jewelry. Often times, the thefts occurred after a gala event where the owners would come home take off their jewels and leave them on the table to put them in safekeeping the next day. This led to many questions of information needed to do the heists.

The author of the book, Rena Pederson was a former journalist, and she looked back at the events and tried to piece together what were the circumstances that led to nobody being convicted on the heists? If you think about oil and gas industry, for those looking to drill it is a process to determine where the best place to drill is to find oil that pumps out in commercial amounts. In some ways it is gambling. hopefully with more information, but nevertheless it is gambling. In Dallas as well as every large city there has always been the lawful side of the city (where most of us live) and the unlawful part and prior to the legalization of gambling – there were plenty of places to gamble. They were often referred to as clubs. Who ran the gambling joints, it tended to be the mafia or those connected to crime. If you live in Dallas, legalized gambling was a 3-hour flight away to Las Vegas or a day’s drive.

In Dallas and every other city, when the wealthy become wealthy, they have a different relationship to the police and most of the time it means having all the protection but no publicity about their affairs. In politics, all politicians are dependent on raising funds and when the wealthy give it is not only to influence potential laws, but to run interference to stay out of the limelight. Sometimes it works, sometimes the activities become public. In the book, the author comes to the conclusion that the thief was likely someone that came from a wealthy family or wealthy neighborhood and they were not really stealing to raise money by selling all the jewels, it is likely they were keeping it, perhaps to admire the jewels or the thief was one of their own.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, most of us own stocks to become wealthier and have the income on a consistent basis. For some the money can be spent on a lavish lifestyle because the quarterly dividends come up to pay money that is spent to maintain a lifestyle. It is one of those individual choices people can make, knowing the dividends are coming quarterly. Having the option from a financial point of view is the most important element of the financial plan. After you have the option, you can debate how the world works or should work for the better?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.