Rena Pederson’s critically acclaimed true-crime book, The King of Diamonds, was released in April 2024. It deserves the rave reviews it has received. But Ms. Pederson’s connection to San Angelo and brilliant career make her tale even more interesting.
Rena Pederson, “Rene” to her friends, began her career in journalism even before graduating from Central High in 1965.
During high school, she had a foot firmly in two worlds. She shone as the popular girl. Yet, she also moved easily in the world of the student scholar.
Even though she was president of the senior class, and elected “Wittiest Girl,” she served as co-editor of the school newspaper, The Campus Corral. She also wrote a weekly column for teens.
She found a job at the San Angelo Standard-Times recording births, deaths, and official records. This led to her being an unofficial police mascot, riding in police cars in her time off. This was an apt beginning for her “Sherlockian” writing career.
Rena Pederson’s Career Takes Off
After an uber successful high school career, she went to the University of Texas, majoring in journalism. She graduated Cum Laude and capped her formal education with a master’s from Columbia. After graduation, she landed as a wire-service reporter for United Press International (UPI). She spent her nights organizing news bulletins printed by the Dallas office’s teletype machine. There she first learned about a thief raiding local mansions and absconding with mounds of precious jewels.
King of Diamonds
Now over fifty years later, her book based on those burglaries reveals a Dallas few of us knew about.
Besides here career at UPI and King of Diamonds, Rena Pederson has made a name for herself on several fronts. She was the first woman editor for the Dallas Morning News Editorial Page and the only woman in the Houston Chronicles Bureau in Washington.
She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Pederson even served on the Pulitzer Prize Board of Directors. She is the author of 4 other non-fiction books. She has been a featured guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Texas Monthly named her one of the “most powerful women in Texas.” She also served as a senior speech writer and advisor at the U. S. Department of State. In other words, she’s the “real deal.”
As a veteran journalist, experienced researcher, and seasoned interviewer, Rena Pederson spent six years on the trail of this story. She conducted interviews, library and internet research, and did plain ol’ gum shoe detective work to track down her story.
Unlike most other true crime literature, however, this author places herself squarely into the story as a character.
Her opening lines read “The King of Diamonds disappeared like a magic trick – poof ! – just as I arrived in Dallas.” And she’s off! “It was 1970. Fresh out of grad school in New York, I was starting work at United Press International. I drove into deepl– y conservative Dallas with everything I owned in a red VW convertible.”
Master Burglar To The Rich And Famous
The story delves not just into the break-ins, but also into the lives of the rich and famous in Dallas. The reader will recognize Clint Murchison, Sid Richardson, and H. L. Hunt.
She takes the readers on a deep, deep drive into the underbelly of Dallas. The reader will recognize Jack Ruby, J. Edgar Hoover, and Candy Barr.
It was a world of graft, corruption, organized crime, killers, and gamblers favorite hangouts – Top of the Hall, Colony Club, the Egyptian, and Cipango. Rena gives credit to all of these for Dallas’s sordid reputation as it climbed from a little cotton town to the apex of oil wealth.
That wealth is a fascinating facet of the book. There is a thankful patron who gives her hairdresser a Corvette, a chandelier so mammoth that it had to be lowered into place by a helicopter, and walls painted with Revlon nail polish, ordered in 50-gallon pails.
Interwoven through the glitter and grift hovers an elusive thief who baffles the dedicated policemen as he stacks up 40+ robberies stretching over more than a decade, totaling loot of more than $ Six Million in today’s dollars.
The Mystery Grows
The author/sleuth’s “clue board” grows as the pages flip. The thief uses creeks, climbs to a 2nd story, hiding, entering through sliding glass doors, leaves waffle boot prints, breaks up sets of jewelry, smokes on the job — the list grows.
This jewel thief knows his goods – a 48-carat ring that “was so large Mrs. Windgohr has difficulty bending her finger.”
Through her interviews with the two Dallas PD detectives on the case for years, Walter Fannin and Paul McCaghren, Ms. Pederson becomes a recognized criminal investigator in the case. Dusty files open for her. Victims and their kin remember for her.
Does she nab the thief? Good question – you’ll have a great time with Ms. Pederson on her beat! Enjoy!
5 stars to this book – also reviewed by Texas Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Crime Reads and others.
2 Comments
Great Review, Kay. I will read this book. Thanks.
Jamie and I will be reading it for sure. Intriguing!