Newspaper article: The Minneapolis Journal, Minnesota, April 14, 1905

(There’s a spelling error in the debutante’s name, it was Evalyn not Evelyn.)

Photograph: Evalyn and Edward with their son Vinson in 1910

The brother mentioned in the article, Vinson, died later the same year in a car accident, only 17 years old. Her brothers untimely death left her sole heir to her father’s vast fortune. Three years later, in 1908, Evalyn married Edward Beale McLean, who was a mighty heir in his own right, his father being a railroad speculator and owner of The Washington Post. On their honeymoon in Paris Evalyn acquired the Star of the East, made up of a 34 carat emerald, a 32 grain pearl, and a 92 carat diamond, which cost her $120,000.

In 1911 McLean purchased the Hope Diamond from Cartier for his bride, which some believe led to their family’s numerous misfortunes, due to it’s “curse”. 

The couple’s first son, named Vinson after her brother, was struck fatally by a car when he nine years old. 

In 1932 con artist Gaston Means, known for his part in the Teapot Scandal, convinced Evalyn that he knew where the kidnapped Lindbergh baby was being held. He promised for $100,000 he would be able to deliver the baby home safe. To get the money, she hawked the Hope Diamond at a Virginia pawnshop. Means pocketed the money himself, but Evalyn got her diamond back after his arrest.

In 1934 she was mentioned in the Cole Porter song, Anything Goes.

Her husband’s mental illness, which was becoming increasingly apparent, was exasperated by his heavy drinking and he made headlines running away with another woman, and it was discovered he had been selling off his assets due to erratic business decisions. Evalyn filed for divorce in 1931 on grounds of infidelity, while Edward claimed that he had already married another woman, the sister of screen actress Marion Davies. A divorce filed in Latvia by Edward, in an attempt to forestall his wife, was granted in December 1932. Evalyn’s American divorce proceedings were eventually dropped after the forced sale of The Washington Post, when Edward was deemed incapable of managing his affairs and was sent to a mental institution, where he remained until his death in 1941.

That same year, the couples daughter, also named Evalyn, was found dead of an overdose of sleeping pills at age 25.

Evalyn died in 1947 of pneumonia in Washington DC. Following her death, US Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy was called in to collect her jewelry. After picking up the gems, including the infamous Hope Diamond around 11 pm at night, Murphy realized there was nowhere for him to take them at that hour, and spent the rest of the night circling the city aimlessly, waiting for the Riggs National Bank to open.