It is said that he stole the gem from his father, a diamond-cutter who suspiciously died of grief over the loss of the gem. However, records vary. It is possible that Fals may have been a legend. Stories also are at odds about Daniel Eliason, a London gem dealer who sold the stone, sometime before 1900, to Henry Philip Hope, who then willed it to his nephew, Henry Thomas Hope, a banker. After the latter Hope's death, the stone passed to the banker's grandson, who proceeded to squander his fortune.
Legend has it that one of the gem's new owners was a Turk who promptly drowned.
The Hope was supposedly sold to a Turkish Sultan. Somehow, the Hope found its way back to France, where, in 1910, it was shown to Evalyn Walsh McLean. And with it came a series of tragic events. But even at her death in 1947, Evalyn Walsh McLean wanted her family to hold onto the Hope. But Harry Winston quickly started negotiating for the Hope, a process that included using such intermediaries as Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.