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True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West
On July 9, 1871, two ragged, down-and-out prospectors walked into the Bank of California in San Francisco and approached a dignified-looking clerk waiting behind a giant oak desk. The two hungry-looking men quietly inquired about renting a safe-deposit box. The clerk eyed the unkempt miners suspiciously before answering.
“Why would you need such a box?” he asked impolitely.
The men exchanged a knowing look and, after glancing around the room to see if anyone was nearby, dropped a buckskin bag in front of the clerk. Just as the clerk was reaching for the bag, it tipped over and several sparkling diamonds toppled out. The clerk’s eyes opened wide.
“Diamonds,” he gasped. “Where did you get them?” “Oh, up in the mountains,” one of the men said casually. “We sort of figured we better have a safe place to keep them while we go up and get more.”
The clerk gladly rented them a safe deposit box. The two put the sack inside it and sauntered out of the bank, staring in the window at the splendor of the marble interiors.
Across town, Mary Hamlin, a young woman with a slim figure, a round gamine face, and golden blonde hair, peered expectantly out of her upstairs hotel-room window. When the two miners appeared on the dusty thoroughfare below, she opened the glass, casually took a seat on the sill, and glanced down at the men. She caught the prospectors’ eyes, and they nodded pleasantly to her as they passed.
To learn more about Mary Hamlin and how she acquired the diamonds read
The Lady Was a Gambler: True Stories of Notorious Women of the Old West
