Lost Treasure: The Graff Jewels and the Marlborough Diamond
The Original Graff Diamond Caper Was an Audacious Grab for the Chicago Mob
It has all the makings of a hardboiled classic. With Chicago mobsters and a significant heist, you could be forgiven for thinking the tale of the Marlborough diamond affair is one of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade novels. The theft of the diamond, worth £400,000 (£1.5 million in today’s money) was, however, all too real, with the loot vanishing into the depths of the mafia underworld.
It was on the morning of September 11, 1980, at the Graff jewellery shop in London’s exclusive Knightsbridge that a security guard let a well-dressed man into the premises, no doubt believing that another customer was about to make a purchase. Some say he was dressed in a fedora, others as an Arab sheikh. Perhaps he had been attracted by the display of the impressive 45-carat Marlborough diamond that adorned Graff’s window. Once inside, however, the man immediately pulled a gun and ordered staff and customers onto the ground, letting in an accomplice armed with a hand grenade.
