DeLong Star Ruby

The DeLong Star Ruby is a 100.32 carat oval cabochon star ruby discovered in Burma in the 1930s. Press accounts at the time of its 1964 theft described it as orchid red and called it one of the most perfect star rubies known. Like other star corundums, it displays a six-rayed star, an effect called asterism. The gem belongs to the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Edith Haggin DeLong purchased the stone from gem dealer Martin Ehrmann for $21,400 and donated it to the museum in 1937. On October 29, 1964, Jack Roland Murphy, known as Murph the Surf, and his accomplices stole the ruby along with the Star of India and other famous gems in what newspapers called the jewel heist of the century. When nine of the stolen gems were recovered from a Miami bus station locker in January 1965, the DeLong Star Ruby was not among them.

The ruby's holder demanded a $25,000 ransom, negotiated through an intermediary named Dick Pearson. Florida businessman John D. MacArthur paid it, and on September 2, 1965, the gem was recovered at the designated drop site, a phone booth at a service plaza on the Sunshine State Parkway near Palm Beach, Florida. Pearson was later arrested in Georgia with bills matching the ransom money.