Front Porch Mysteries with Carole Townsend
Author and veteran journalist Carole Townsend shares remarkable tales from the South, tales of mystery, terror, and wonder. Townsend has built a career on the premise that truth really is stranger than fiction.
Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated Southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the South and shame and courage and, make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction, and I'll turn on the light. You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my front porch.
Front Porch Mysteries with Carole Townsend
Diamond Doris: Unveiling a Southern Jewel Thief's Legacy
Could a life of crime be born from the pages of a fashion magazine? Join me, Carole Townsend, as we uncover the thrilling story of Doris Payne, the woman who turned the allure of Harper's Bazaar into a blueprint for an extraordinary life as a master jewel thief. Raised amid the challenges of poverty, domestic violence, and racial inequality in 1930s West Virginia, Doris defied the odds stacked against her. From her audacious heist of a $20,000 diamond ring to the international escapades that followed, Doris's story is a fascinating mix of charm, skill, and boldness, each step drawing her further into the spotlight of Southern folklore.
Doris Payne's life wasn't just about the jewels she took; it was about the intricacies of a woman navigating a world eager to pigeonhole her. Discover her daring heists from Pittsburgh to Monte Carlo, and the personal relationships that shaped her path, including her bond with her mother and a mysterious Israeli associate. Despite brushes with law enforcement, her cunning ensured she remained a step ahead, turning her life into an unforgettable chapter of Southern history. With insights from NPR’s 2014 feature, we invite you to explore this captivating tale and subscribe for more stories that unravel the mysteries and allure of the South.
I love hearing from listeners. Please write a review and rate the show. And please, tell your friends and share episodes on your social media.
Your support helps us continue to research and share these fascinating stories from the South.
Thank you!
You can connect with me by clicking the links below.
Welcome my friends, to the twelfth episode of Front Porch Mysteries with me, Carole Townsend. To those of you who have listened from the beginning, I thank you. To those who have just recently joined us, I welcome you to this fascinating journey throughout Southern history, one that spotlights the extraordinary people and the unique circumstances that have shaped this intriguing region of the country. Up until now, the true historical cases we've examined have largely centered around crimes, murders and unexplained disappearances in this podcast. If it's true and it happened in the South we'll take a look at it Tonight. Join me as we turn our gaze to a woman named Doris Payne, an African-American woman born in 1930 in Slab Fork, west Virginia. Woman born in 1930 in slab fork, west Virginia, doris decided at a very young age that she would not let her humble Appalachian roots define her. She would not let her race or her gender define her. The steps she took to make sure she lived a life draped in finery, dotted dotted with world travel and spiced with excitement are truly stunning, intriguing. True crime and history don't always end in murder or in disappearances. Sometimes they end in a captivating adventure and sometimes they never end at all.
Carole Townsend:History. It's a subject that, in my opinion, gets sold short. Too often what comes to mind when we mention history is the rote memory of name, date and place. At first glance, history is flat, dry and forgettable, but that's because we forget that it's people who make that history. It's people, it's greed, it's desire, it's lust. It's people. It's greed, it's desire, it's lust. It's anger and shame and deceit. It's pride and courage and passion. It's fascinating and sometimes it's ugly. The names and dates, my friends, are merely window dressing.
Carole Townsend:As an author and a journalist, I have investigated Southern history and crime for more than 20 years and I know that it's anything but boring. There's something different about the South, and if you've ever spent any time here you may know what I mean. The air is thicker, the soil is heavier, the colors is thicker, the soil is heavier, the colors are richer. The history of this region is laden with mystery, with intrigue and often with astounding surprise, even shock. Southern legends are often spoken in whispers, in close circles and among friends. Spoken in whispers, in close circles and among friends, lest the ghosts of those who walked before us begin to stir and take notice.
Carole Townsend:The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.
Carole Townsend:Any child born in Appalachia during the Great Depression knew hardship, they knew hunger and they knew poverty. Not only had the Depression decimated communities, but the Great Southern Drought of 1930 hit mountain farmers especially hard. A child of color born into that region nearly 100 years ago had limited prospects, and a female child of color had even fewer. Even the coal mines wouldn't employ women at that time. Doris Payne was born one of five siblings to parents David and Clemmie Gilbert Payne. Her African-American father, was a coal miner who brutally abused her Cherokee mother, and Doris was fiercely protective of her mom. In fact, in her memoir Doris wrote that marriage just ties you to brutality, and she vowed at a young age to earn her own money and to never depend on a man for support. She was also resentful of the racial inequality she saw in her world. Even tucked away in the mountains of southern West Virginia, she would read the Harper's Bazaar magazines that belonged to her mother, and she knew even then that the flawless models dripping in diamonds on those pages were no better than she was. In fact, it was from those very pages that Doris got the idea that would change her life and the lives of those she loved forever.
Carole Townsend:Make no mistake, Doris had been taught by her mother and the other women in the mining town of Slab Fork how to carry herself. She had been taught how to keep her home and how to conduct herself when among strangers. The families in Slab Fork were African American, native American and European. Yet they all lived together in their small community and there was something different about them. They took Town Country magazine and Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. They cared about keeping themselves trim and well presented. There was just something different about them. Truth be told, doris' childhood set her on the path she chose to take and eventually to blaze.
Carole Townsend:As a child, Doris played a pretend game she called Miss Lady, in which she would dress up as a fine lady with a hat and a purse, and she'd imagine herself far away from the illiteracy, poverty and segregation that defined her world. She got very good at pretending that she was someone else. As her father's abuse of her mother worsened, something became hardwired in Doris, to the core of her being. She knew that she would never become trapped in marriage and in helpless desperation. She would be the master of her own fate. And all the while, those photos in Harper's Bazaar flashed on an endless loop in her mind.
Carole Townsend:One day, when Doris was still a young girl, her father came home from work in a foul mood, and he naturally turned his anger toward his wife. When Doris saw and heard her father beating and berating her mother in an especially brutal manner, she walked into the kitchen and picked up a pot of pinto beans that were boiling on the stove. She carefully carried the pot into the living room and screamed at her father to get off of her mother. When he ignored her, doris poured the beans and the boiling water on her father's back, and after that he didn't ignore her demand. He ran to the bathroom and doused cold water on his back, and when Doris heard his footsteps coming back down the hallway, she braced herself for his wrath. Instead, her father leaned against the doorframe, crossed his arms and said well, I'll be damned. He never punished Doris for defending her mother.
Carole Townsend:When Doris was a teenager, the coal mines had become more of a danger to miners than a way of making a living. Accidents were on the rise, workers began striking and demanding safer working conditions, but the demand for coal was on the decline. So work was unpredictable at best. Doris's daddy began staying home more and more, usually spending the entire day in bed. Her mother had always grown a respectable vegetable garden, but in late fall and winter that food was hardly enough to sustain the whole family.
Carole Townsend:There was a local market that sold eggs, produce, beef and sometimes even livestock. Lines at the market were long and it was usually very understaffed. Families would go to the market, which was near the same place, where the wives would go to pick up their husbands' meager checks. Lines were so long that while wives and mothers stood in line for the checks, their children would stand in line at the market. When it was their turn they'd select the items they were told to get, bag them and then wait for the items to be weighed and totaled.
Carole Townsend:Complete confusion is how Doris described this weekly process, but she paid attention to the process anyway. She learned that by confusing and flustering the market employees she could walk away with all the groceries her family needed for a fraction of what they cost or for nothing at all. Proudly, she would give her mother the grocery items she had selected, along with most or all of the money her mom had given her to pay for them. Doris would smile a sly smile and her mother knew exactly what she was doing. Still, the survival drive in a human is very strong, and mother and daughter never exchanged words about the sleight of hand skills Doris was grooming.
Carole Townsend:A young woman who has known poverty and inequality and domestic abuse very often succumbs to the fallout of these conditions. She will walk in the footsteps of her parents, even as she vows never to be like them. Doris was not one of these women. A logical, level-headed young girl, she knew that the market skills she developed could come in very handy in other situations, like jewelry stores. Cut-out pictures of elegant women frosted with jewels and covered in furs adorned her bedroom walls. Magazine photos of smartly dressed women accompanied them, and they drove Doris. They were the first thing she saw when she awakened every day and the last thing she saw before drifting off to sleep at night. She wrote in her memoir All I had to do was to make people forget. If she could confuse a girl selling vegetables and eggs, then she could confuse a man or a woman selling expensive jewelry, couldn't she? All it took was the right presentation, the right outfit and accessories, the right accent and that attitude she had seen and admired in the pages of Harper's, that attitude that said I like this, but I don't need it. I deserve it. That was the key.
Carole Townsend:When she was just 16 years old, doris told her friend Lil that she could pull off a jewelry heist. Lil laughed nervously because she never knew if Doris was serious when she said these things or not. Eventually, though, lil agreed to go along with Doris, just to see if she could really pull off such a feat. They dressed up in their best Sunday clothes, styled their hair in chic curls, pulled on their gloves and took the three-hour bus ride to Cleveland. Both girls could easily have passed for grown women, and the thought of that made them giggle. Doris used that time on the bus to show Lil how to cross her feet when she sat, how to place her hands when she spoke to someone or admired an item in a shop window, how to hold her bag just so on her arm, and how to hold her head up and look people in the eye.
Carole Townsend:Strolling across a busy street in Cleveland, the two girls came upon a Woolworth's department store. Doris spotted the jewelry counter and sized up the situation. In an instant. You go in and sit at the malt counter and just watch me, she told her friend. I'm about to make that man forget that I'm wearing his jewelry and I'm about to make him know that that mistake will be his fault.
Carole Townsend:Sure enough, doris sashayed up to that jewelry counter with every bit as much confidence and presence as any of those cut-out models on her bedroom wall. The salesman she remembers looked just like J Edgar Hoover. Would you like to see any of these watches, ma'am? He asked. Yes, she answered, and then the game began. Doris told the man that she was a college student home for the weekend and her parents had told her to go into town and pick out a watch. She would ask that it be set aside and they would come in and pay for it the next day. The two stood there pleasantly conversing as Doris tried on first one watch, then another. They discussed the economy and its impact on the world. The man was impressed with her knowledge and her ability to articulate her thoughts. Her intelligence and her demeanor put him at ease. When the conversation was over, the man told Doris what a nice young woman she was and she thanked him. Walking back over to the malt counter, the two girls locked eyes and Doris pulled a watch out of her glove. Lil nearly choked on her malted and Doris said I told you so. She then turned and walked back to the jewelry counter Excuse me, sir, you forgot that I had this on my wrist. She handed the watch back to the salesman. He thanked her and she walked away smiling. She was ready.
Carole Townsend:But first Doris took a detour. At age 18, she became pregnant by a young man her age. There was a home for unwed pregnant girls near the Cleveland apartment she and her mother and brother had taken. When they finally left Doris' father and she went to live there until she gave birth to her son, ronald. Still, she never lost sight of her ambitions. Besides, now she had her mother, her brother, her baby and herself to provide for. Doris took a job in a nursing home. It was the perfect front for her true calling of being a jewel thief.
Carole Townsend:Four years after Ronald was born, doris became pregnant, again by the same man. They discussed getting married, but Doris never believed that marriage was a good path for a woman to choose, a woman she believed should always provide for herself. Doris gave birth to a little girl named Rhonda and when she was able she went back to work in the nursing home. One day Doris took one of her fancy dresses to work with her. She had befriended a white girl named Norma, and Norma was struggling financially, having a hard time affording her mother's medication. That day, doris told Norma to change into the fine dress she had brought to work and Doris remained in her nurse's uniform.
Carole Townsend:The two young women took their lunch break together and headed down to the May Company department store on Euclid Avenue, taking the elevator to jewelry and accessories. Doris whispered to Norma for her to slump over and shuffle her feet, like one of those sickly Victorian heiresses she had seen before. Doris whispered to Norma for her to slump over and shuffle her feet, like one of those sickly Victorian heiresses she had seen before. The two women approached the jewelry counter and Doris told the salesman that her patient was soon to be married and she wanted to see some wedding sets, in the hopes that she might have some say in the selection. Norma really played the part, her hands trembling as she tried on ring after ring. Finally, doris palmed one of the sets and slipped it into Norma's pocket, telling the clerk that her charge wasn't feeling well and that they'd have to return another time. They took a cab back to the nursing home and Norma couldn't believe what she had just seen Doris not wanting it to get all over town that she had these skills, gave Norma $100 and told her that she'd pawn the wedding set the next day, giving her a little more money to help with her mother's medication. Doris made sure to let Norma know that she did the deed to help Norma and for no other reason. Doris was as good as her word. The very next day she walked into a pawn shop and got $1,500 for the set. Then she went out and bought herself a beautiful dress, a hat, shoes and a bag to match. With $1,300 left over she went to another pawn shop and bought a bigger wedding set with that money. Now she looked like a married, moneyed woman of class. Goodbye Euclid Nursing Home, goodbye Norma, and goodbye to wiping old people's backsides for a living.
Carole Townsend:Doris's first big heist took place in Pittsburgh. She turned heads as she walked through the bus station wearing her recently purchased finery. The tall, exotic-looking woman carried herself well, and when she walked into that Pennsylvania jewelry store she blended seamlessly with the other customers, casting a cool, disinterested look around. Doris approached the jewelry counter and told the salesman she wanted to see a two-carat diamond ring, something that would look nice for evening wear. He nearly tripped over his own feet when he heard that and he went right to work.
Carole Townsend:Another clerk brought over a tray of diamond rings ranging in price from $5,000 to $20,000. Right away Doris knew the $20,000 ring was hers and she set about doing what she had practiced hundreds of times she slipped first one ring on her finger and then another, then two at a time, and then tried the rings on her other hand, all the while chatting up the sales clerks. Before long they had brought out a second tray of rings. The chatter continued, the confusion mounted. Finally Doris slipped the big $20,000 rectangular diamond ring onto her finger. The talking never stopped and then, just like that, she stood up slipping her white gloves onto her hands.
Carole Townsend:As she explained to the clerk that she would discuss the purchase with her husband and they would definitely be back the next day to buy the ring of her choosing, doris maintained her cool as she walked at a leisurely pace toward the door, past the doorman, then out onto the street. The farther she got from the store, the harder her heart pounded. I did it, I got away with it, she told herself. And still walking briskly, she imagined the poor clerk looking for that ring the rest of the day, finally having to tell his boss what had happened. It was his fault. At least that's how the insurance company would see it. Quickly her thoughts turned to the things she could buy with the money the ring would bring and to all the things she could do for her family.
Carole Townsend:Doris stole that $20,000 ring, fenced it and gave the money to her mother to get out of town and away from her father. Clemmie Payne did just that, moving to New York City and becoming a seamstress in a high-end dress shop. This was her first heist and it left Doris feeling so paranoid that she spent the night in a bathroom stall in a Greyhound station. She spent that night feeling guilty and she decided to take the ring back to the store the next day and somehow return it. But as she was walking back to the jewelry store the next day, she happened to walk past another jewelry store store. The next day she happened to walk past another jewelry store. She walked in playing the familiar part of Miss Lady that she played as a child and managed to sell the ring she stole for an additional $7,000.
Carole Townsend:This experience was a heady one for young Doris. She learned a few things that day. She learned that being a successful jewel thief required more than just looking the part of a fine lady. It required more than confidence and luck. What it demanded. Doris learned that long ago day in Pittsburgh was owning the effortless ability to make people forget that she was a black woman. She learned to make the salespeople forget how many pieces of jewelry they had out of the case at one time. She learned that putting people at ease was important, because a person at ease is a person who can be distracted, a person who can be fooled and never even know they'd been fooled until it was too late. Being a successful jewel thief required artistry.
Carole Townsend:Doris practiced this particular heist over and over again, playing the scene in her mind until she knew it by heart. She would walk into a store, ask to see some rings and talk pleasantly with the clerk until he didn't know which way was up. All the while she'd be playing three-card Monty with those rings, eventually slipping one onto her finger to keep. What if I get caught? She thought. What if I go to prison? She pushed the panic down where it belonged. It wouldn't do to have a sales clerk see anything but self-confidence coming from this young woman, would it?
Carole Townsend:Before long, doris was able to provide a very comfortable life for herself and for her mother. At her insistence, her children lived with their father. As everyone knows, a good jewel thief isn't home much. Still, she sent checks regularly to help pay for their care and their needs. Her deeply religious mother never approved of Doris' choice of careers. Those religious beliefs didn't, however, prevent her from enjoying the perks of having several homes, fine clothes and the lifestyle she had always dreamed about.
Carole Townsend:During the late 1950s, stealing jewels became Doris Payne's full-time job. She traveled from Los Angeles to Montreal and she studied both jewels and people with intense scrutiny. In 1957, doris began dating an Israeli with strong ties to the criminal underworld. Harold Braunfield, nicknamed Babe, was a 6'4 Cleveland man with enough legal muscle to protect, pay pain when necessary, and he did. But by the late 1960s, pictures of Doris were being published in newspapers and this forced her to work in smaller cities. Babe had passed away in 1968 from complications of cosmetic surgery, so he could no longer protect her.
Carole Townsend:In the early 70s, doris decided to move her operations to Europe where, as she said, diamonds make their first stop on the black market. Her first destination in the summer of 1974 was Monte Carlo. She brazenly targeted Cartier and made off with a 10.5 carat diamond ring worth half a million dollars, she didn't make it far. Her biggest mistake, she recalls, was forgetting to change her clothes before heading to the airport. The police got to her before she boarded the plane. Amazingly, despite several full-body searches, they never found the ring. She hid it first in some Kleenex, pretending to have a nose cold, and then she borrowed a needle and thread from a guard to fix the hem of her skirt, but she used it to sew the stolen ring into the hem of her girdle, where it stayed for months without finding the stolen ring. Police couldn't hold her forever for the crime.
Carole Townsend:In 1980, just after her 50th birthday, doris went to Zurich. On the way she uncharacteristically consumed too many cocktails, with her driver breaking her hard and fast no-alcohol rule Drifting in and out of consciousness. She had fuzzy memories of wandering into a store that sold Rolexes, she wrote in her memoir. She ended up at a club where she danced till late and was surrounded by police at the coat check. When she tried to leave, the police escorted her to a train bound for the embassy in French, switzerland. At some point that early morning she asked permission to use the bathroom and she jumped off the train during a stop. Wandering through a dark cornfield, she found a taxi to take her to a hotel in Zurich. It was only then that she realized she was in possession of a stolen Rolex, but she had no memory of taking it. This carelessness was not Doris's usual modus operandi. She then thought that she might be slipping, or maybe that she was too old to live the lifestyle of an international jewel thief.
Carole Townsend:Doris Payne eventually did do prison time, but it was only a few years, and that was never for the crimes that made her infamous. In 1999, she was sentenced to 12 years for stealing a $57,000 ring in Denver, but she only served five of those. She was arrested again in 2011, five of those. She was arrested again in 2011 when the then 81-year-old was in the middle of a California crime spree, stealing diamonds from Palm Desert to San Diego. She was arrested for theft while she was wearing an ankle monitor from a previous conviction. She was then arrested again in the summer of 2017 for allegedly leaving an Atlanta Walmart with $86.22 worth of groceries and electronics, and then she was arrested for stealing a diamond necklace from a high-end department store at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, georgia. Today, doris Payne lives alone in a rented penthouse in Atlanta. She lost her Shaker Heights home to foreclosure and her savings have long since been depleted. She enjoys occasional visits from her adult children, perhaps like any retiree.
Carole Townsend:Diamond Doris, as she came to be known, found it hard to fully step back from her 60-plus year career. She can certainly be described as a career criminal, having stolen items ranging from a half-million-dollar diamond ring to expensive watches, earrings, other rings and bracelets, a Burberry coat and Walmart groceries. She's been arrested several times in Greece, france, britain, switzerland and the United States, and she's spent a good deal of time in jail. The thing is, none of that seemed to scare her. Really, as she said in a documentary interview when she was in her mid-80s, she never regretted her life of crime. She did, however, very much regret getting caught.
Carole Townsend:I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at www. caroletownsend,com. As always, thanks for listening, and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen.
Carole Townsend:My team and I used the following sources to put together this story about Diamond Doris the NPR show titled Inside the Life and Crimes of a Career. Jewel Thief dated November 8, 2014. Thief dated November 8, 2014. The book Diamond Doris the True Story of the World's Most Notorious Jewel Thief, by Doris Payne with Zelda Lockhart, and the article Not Sorry, international Jewel.
