The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872 (Episode 24)

Join us in the somewhat-settled/somewhat-Wild West of the United States for a tale of a diamond mine that doesn't exist, the gleeful embarrassment of some of the biggest names in finance and politics of the late 1800s, and the unlikely twist of fate that exposed the whole scheme. It's an episode where the "hero" leads a double-life and the criminal masterminds settle down for quiet lives. Step behind the uncut stones for the unvarnished truth in this glittering episode of Relative Disasters!

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Sources:

Diamonds in the Salt by Bruce A Woodard

A Hole In the Ground with a Liar at the Top by Dan Plazak

The Explorer King: Adventure, Science, and the Great Diamond Hoax : Clarence King in the Old West by Robert Wilson

American Lives: The "Strange" Tale of Clarence King, NPR 

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129250977&t=1624938806853

Further Reading:

Passing strange : a Gilded Age tale of love and deception across the color line by Martha Sandweiss