The curse of the Hope Diamond supposedly affects anyone in possession of the gem. Legend has it that Jean-Baptiste Tavernier stole a much larger blue diamond from the eye of a Hindu statue, and Hindu priests conferred the curse. The 115-carat diamond called the Tavernier Blue was later cut down to the 45-carat Hope Diamond. And terrible things befell those who owned it -or even touched it.
9. EVALYN WALSH MCLEAN
Evalyn Walsh McLean was a spoiled heiress who lived a charmed life ... until she bought the Hope Diamond. She happily wore the diamond, and there are even stories that she would affix the jewel to her dog's collar and let him wander around the apartment with it. But wearing the Hope Diamond came at a steep price: First her mother-in-law died, her son died at the age of nine, her husband left her for another woman and later died in a mental hospital, her daughter died of a drug overdose at 25, and she eventually had to sell her newspaper, The Washington Post, and died owing huge debts. Evalyn's surviving kids sold the diamond to Harry Winston. Nine years later, Winston mailed the gem to the Smithsonian for $2.44 in postage and $155 in insurance.
10. JAMES TODD
James Todd, the mailman who delivered the diamond to the Smithsonian, apparently had his leg crushed in a truck accident shortly thereafter. He also suffered a head injury in a separate accident. Oh, also, his house burned down.
Is the Hope Diamond really cursed? It's possible that there were people who came in contact with it and never had any bad luck. Then again, bad things happen to everyone sooner or later. Read about the rest of the 10 victims of the Hope Diamond curse at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives)