DRAMA IN DIAMONDS

The theft of the Oppenheimer jewels, insured at 250,000 pounds, worth 213,000 and recovered to a large extent is a ""ghost story in South African criminal history"" retold here by two men who covered the case. The jewels which were stolen from a safe without a tattletale fingerprint and smuggled out in a pillowcase were supposedly destined to be sold to Lucky Luciano in Italy- had it not been for the intervention of William Linsay Pearson, an ""inventor"" with a shady past and a shaky story who informed- for a price. Two men, along with Pearson, were suspect at the start- Radley, a ""modern Raffles' and Miles, a former war hero, but inconclusive evidence brought only Miles to trial and could not bring in a verdict against him.... A not too cautionary tale, this proves- if anything- that there is no trust let alone honor among thieves, that crime can pay off- up to a point, and the magnitude of the theft- along with its wake of continuing conjecture- will compare it to our native Brink's robbery. It's an interesting case- and the authors do it justice.