answers

The King of Diamonds Book Club Quiz

True or false: The jewel thief sometimes left behind diamond-shaped shoe prints at crime scenes.
False, they were waffle-shaped.
True or false: One of the suspects dated a famous stripper.
True – George Owen was linked to Candy Barr
True or false: Jack Ruby owned the Colony Club downtown.
False – he owned the Carousel Club next door on Commerce Street.
True or false: Police should have used DNA to catch the thief.
False – DNA was not used in criminal cases in the U.S. until 1987
True or false: Dallas children liked to dress up like the King of Diamonds for Halloween in the 1960s.
True, and the police hated it.
True or false: The secret Top O’ Hill casino was a former teahouse.
True
Which oilman had a swimming pool so large that it was dubbed “the Gulf of Mexico”?
Clint Murchison
Which burglary victim had an indoor swimming pool?
Josephine Herbert Graf, who also had a dining table that appeared to float on marble.
Which pizza restaurant was a popular hangout for gangsters during the King of Diamonds era?
Campisi’s
At what nightclub did “millionaires sip Scotch older than their dates”?
The Cipango Club
Where did Clint Murchison Jr. hatch his plans for the Dallas Cowboys?
The Cipango Club
Who helped the piano player at the Cipango sing “Over the Rainbow” one night?
Judy Garland
Which suspect claimed she was the Marquesa del Barrio?
Evelyn Lambert
Which social figure rode into one of her parties on the back of an elephant?
Nancy Hamon
How many of the burglary victims were oil millionaires?
more than a third
What did Dallas women like to say about their big hair look?
“The higher the hair, the closer to God.”
Which famous architect designed one of the suspects’ home?
Frank Lloyd Wright designed John Gillin’s home.
Which famous architect designed one of the victims’ home?
Edward Durrell Stone, who also designed the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., designed Josephine Graf’s house
Whose wife described her marriage to a gambler as “chicken one day and feathers the next”?
suspect Jack Kirksmith’s wife, Tammie
What percentage of the King of Diamonds’ stolen jewels were recovered by police?
None
Who were some of the fictional detectives or actors that the author compared police investigator Paul McCaghren to?
Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade
How many total burglaries did the King of Diamond commit?
The police stopped recording at 40, the author counted more than 80.
What were some of the criminal undercurrents connected to the King of Diamonds story?
Political corruption and graft; sports corruption and illegal gambling; prostitution and sex trafficking; organized crime
Name as many of the people suspected as being the King (or Queen) of Diamonds that you can.
What happened to the main characters in the book?
See Epilogue, page 371