The Cursed Ring of Rudolph Valentino

In 1920, movie star Rudolph Valentino was looking in a jewelery store in San Fransisco when a plain silver ring decorated with a semi-precious stone caught his eye. He was so amazed by it that he promplty bought it off the jeweler, who was a little anxious into selling it. He claimed it was cursed, but that only made Valentino more interested in it. The shopkeeper reluctantly sold it to him.

Valention wore the ring while filming the movie "The Young Rajah". It was a faliure. He wore it in his last movie "The Son of the Sheik", only to die shortly afterwards of acute peritonitis while still wearing the ring.

The ring was passed on to one of his friends, actress Pola Negri. She fell ill shortly after, but recovered. She survived but her career never did. The ring was given to young singer Russ Colombo who reminded her of Valentino. He soon died in a shooting accident, still proud of his ring.

The next owner was Colombo's friend Joe Casino. He placed the ring in a glass case, but succumbed to the temptation to wear it. He was killed in a traffic accident one week later. Casino's brother Del owned it afterwards. He was a skeptic to the ring's murderous history, but put it in a safe after wearing it proudly for some time.

It was robbed by James Willis, who set off the burglar alarm of the house and was shot dead by a policeman alerted by the alarm. In the thief's pocket was the ring. The ring was placed back in Casino's safe, but was borrowed by small-time director Edward Small, who planned to use it in a movie on Valentio's life. An unknown who passed the screen test named Jack Dunn wore the ring during the test only to die a fortnight later of a rare blood disease.

Casino regained the ring, and placed it in a safe deposit box in a Los Angeles bank. The ring is still there, despite several robberies, a strike and a fire after the arrival of the cursed ring!

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