Were the McLeans Victims of the Hope Diamond Curse?

/ Kimberly

Today I read a little about the life of Edward Beale McLean (1889 – 1941), the last man to buy the famed Hope Diamond. 

McLean, who was more often known as E.B. or Ned, came from a wealthy family. The city of McLean, Virginia is named for his father, John Roll McLean. He was the heir to the Washington Post and Cincinnati Enquirer fortunes. Young Ned married 22-year-old Evalyn Walsh in 1908.

Ned and Evalyn McLean

Evalyn was a few years older than her husband, and she was not born wealthy. As a matter of fact, she was born in Leadville, Colorado, the daughter of a schoolteacher and an Irish immigrant miner and prospector.  In 1898, her father discovered a gold mine and the family moved to a mansion in Washington, D.C.  In 1900, when she was 14, Evalyn went to Paris to learn to sing. Instead of applying herself to music, she lived a wild life there.  She had one younger brother, Vinson, who died in a car accident in Newport, Rhode Island, at age 17.

As Evalyn settled into her socialite world, Ned McLean amused himself with owning and racing thoroughbred horses and publishing the Washington Post. He would officially become the owner of the paper in 1916 but, even before he was the owner, something very significant happened at the newspaper’s offices. It was there that Ned met with Pierre Cartier in January 1911 and agreed purchased the Hope Diamond for $180,000. 

The Hope Diamond

The stone is a 45.52 carat blue diamond, extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in India. The Hope Diamond is at least as famous for its beauty as for the strange curse that follows it. This jewel will allegedly bring disaster to anyone who owns it.

The curse is demonstrably not true, since several owners lived out their lives with no extraordinary bad luck. But a surprising number did not and suffered spectacularly bad fates, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who were guillotined during the revolution. Others, with less famous names, were forced into bankruptcy, committed suicide, ousted from positions of power, died young, and/or died in poverty. 

E.B. “Ned” McLean

Evalyn McLean (LOC)

McLean was concerned about the Hope Diamond curse and insisted on this clause in the agreement: “Should any fatality occur to the family of Edward B. McLean within six months, the said Hope diamond is agreed to be exchanged for jewelry of equal value.”

Due to the rumors of a curse, Evalyn’s friends and mother-in-law urged her to sell the diamond back to Pierre Cartier but he refused to buy it. It seemingly made no difference as the McLeans seemed to flourish for several years.

The first disaster struck in 1919. By then, the couple had three sons. Their oldest was a 9-year-old son, Vinson. Like Evalyn’s brother, whom he was named for, Vinson McLean was killed in a tragic automobile mishap. The little boy was struck and killed by a car while crossing the street.

Evalyn Walsh McLean appears to be wearing the Hope Diamond in this picture

The McLeans’ remaining sons John Randolph and Edward Beale, were born in 1916 and 1918 respectively. Both of the boys had long lives, which seem to have been primarily occupied with marrying various wealthy women and buying palatial estates.

In 1921, the McLeans had a daughter, Emily Beale McLean.  For reasons I couldn’t discern, Emily changed her name to Evalyn Washington McLean and went by Evie.

The McLeans were friendly with President Warren Harding and First Lady Florence and Ned managed to become a key figure in the disastrous Teapot Dome scandal, which permanently marred his reputation.

The McLean marriage imploded in 1931 and they divorced the following year. Evalyn initially filed for divorce on grounds of infidelity, to which McLean announced he had already remarried, to a sister of the starlet Marion Davies. This was false but Ned, whose behavior was becoming bizarre, moved to Latvia. There, he filed for divorce again. It was granted in December 1932.

Ned was still the publisher and owner of the Washington Post but his erratic leadership led to the forced sale of the paper.  This was followed by a Maryland jury declaring him legally insane and committing him indefinitely to a psychiatric hospital. He was still in the hospital when he died of a heart attack in July 1941, at age 51.

Mrs. McLean and Miss McLean

Three months after her father’s death, 19-year-old Evie became the fifth wife of 57-year-old U.S. Senator Robert Rice Reynolds. Less than five years later, she died of an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Evalyn McLean found her daughter’s body.

Evalyn survived her daughter by one year. In 1947, she passed away at the age of 60 from pneumonia.  She was the last owner of the Hope Diamond. After her death, the Smithsonian purchased it and there it remains.

Did the Hope Diamond curse the McLeans?  I would be more superstitious about naming a child after another person (particularly someone who is still alive) than I would be about the Hope Diamond. ​There’s an old saying that your future is in your name. Though if you have an opportunity to purchase the Hope Diamond, it might be wise to sleep on it before making a decision.  

17 thoughts on “Were the McLeans Victims of the Hope Diamond Curse?”

  2. Interesting idea! I am named after my great aunt and I don’t know much about what sort of person she was. Maybe ignorance is bliss. Evalyn looks like she would be a pistol!

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    • She may have been! I imagine spending your earliest 12 years in a mining camp is bound to leave a strong impression on you, no matter what you go on to do. Probably she was a bit more self-sufficient than her peers.

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  3. That really is an interesting story with some odd characters. McLean probably was a cheating husband with his close affiliation with President Harding. Harding had several affairs while in the White House, one with a suspected German spy and another with a teenaged girl, producing a daughter. I don’t hold with the diamond’s curse. I just think life gives some people more heartaches than others. As for naming a child after a living person, I don’t recommend it. I named my youngest daughter after my sister-in-law and my sister. My daughter and my sister-in-law didn’t like each other until my daughter was about nineteen! Make sure the namesake is long gone! Lol. The photo of Evalyn in the fur is stunning. Neither she nor McLean aged well. I guess money can’t do everything.

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    • That’s true! Harding was a notorious womanizer. Some of his exploits in the White House are known (like Nan Britton and the baby) but I suspect many were successfully covered up. The situation with your daughter and sister in law is probably very common—at least they eventually appreciated each other!

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  4. Apparently, John Roll McLean had little faith in his son’s abilities to run the Washington Post and put ownership in a Trust after his death. “Ned” McLean went to court and broke the Trust. Under “Ned’s” management the “WaPo” almost went into ruin; it was sold in a bankruptcy sale.

    Since 2013, the Washington Post is owned by Nash Holdings LLC, a private investment company owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.

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      • What led me to this interesting article and site, is that Edward Beal McLean Jr is apparently the biological father of actor Jimmy Stewarts adopted sons. I was reading about Jimmys life and his devotion to his wife of 45 (?) years and to her two young sons. Just had never realized that fact and was curious. Wow, what a rabbit hole!

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          • Jimmy Stuart hid his Princeton University four-year degree from his viewing audience through his manner of speaking.

            He was more than patriotic:

            “With his private pilot’s skills, he enlisted in the US Army Air Forces during the war, seeking combat duty and rose to be deputy commanding officer of the 2nd Bombardment Wing and commanding the 703d Bombardment Squadron from 1941 to 1947. He later transferred to the Air Force Reserve, and held various command positions until his retirement in 1968 as a brigadier general.”

            He described is movie role selection in an interview as follows:

            “I have my own rules and adhere to them,” Stewart stated in no uncertain terms. “The rule is simple but inflexible. A James Stewart picture must have two vital ingredients: it will be clean, and it will involve the triumph of the underdog over the bully.”

            Stuart was a Hollywood actor to idealize.

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  6. Our Fam became even bigger Jimmy Stewart fans (Beyond ‘Wonderful Life & Shop Around the Corner, that is 😆) after seeing him in 2nd installment of the classic “The Thin Man”. I think it’s “After The Thin Man”. So young but showing such range!

    I knew he was an exceptional veteran, just because my WWII Pearl Harbor Dad told me so during a “It’s a Wonderful Life” viewing! Dad always called John Wayne a “chicken hawk” cuz he was so Pro War “except if was himself or other people’s kids fighting/dying”!

    The articles I read stated that Edward Beal-McLean readily signed his 2 sons over to Jimmy Stewart for adoption. One article even stated that it was a common practice after a divorce in those times, but not sure I buy that. The oldest son was killed in Vietnam. 😦 The youngest son led a very private life, but was the one who announced to the world Jimmy had passed. (He stopped redoing his pacemaker after his wife died). The younger son is now gone after a battle with cancer. Some articles said neither son reached out to the Beale-McLeans

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    • Adoption of stepchildren was not overly common in the 1940s but it was possible in some States contingent upon specific conditions. If the parents of the children were divorced, parental consent was required for the adoption.

      This is extracted from Yahoo! Entertainment which explains the adoption in a more positive context:

      “Jimmy Stewart [he already had twin daughters] wasn’t just a girl-dad: he also had two sons. Soon after the actor married Gloria in 1949, he adopted her sons from her first marriage to Edward Beale McLean Jr. Michael and Ronald were ages 3 and 5, respectively, when Stewart and McLean met and he quickly fell in love with all three of them.

      Stewart embraced being a father to her sons and was ready to adopt them as his own upon their marriage in 1949. Becoming a father and providing a stable home was a dream of Stewart’s, especially after living a long life as a bachelor.

      Unfortunately, Ronald died at age 24 in 1969 while serving as a U.S. Marine Corps. 1st Lieutenant in Vietnam, potentially influenced by his father’s longtime career in the U.S. Army Air Corps.” 

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