Jan. 4, 1964 - Actress Eva Gabor lost her $25,000 15-carat diamond ring in early today to two young gunmen who knocked “a knot on my head, darling, as big as an egg.” The fiery Hungarian got in the last word before the hotel room bandits tied up her and her New York stockbroker husband, stuffed socks in their mouths, and fled. “I told them it’s a hell of a way to make a living,” Miss Gabor said from her hospital bed where she was recovering from a concussion caused by a blow from a pistol butt, a bruised mouth, and the lump on her head. Doctors said she was progressing nicely. Miss Gabor also reported “one of those nasty boys hit me, darling, in the mouth, with his fist.”
The attack took place at the Racquet Club, an exclusive island hideaway located between Miami and Miami Beach. Miss Gabor’s husband, Richard Brown, said the gunmen, two muscular youths in their twenties, were waiting in their room for them when they returned from the club bar. “We both thought it was a joke at first,” Miss Gabor said. “But then I saw Richard’s face turn white. One of them pointed a gun at his head. I started screaming.” Brown said one of the gunmen grabbed his wife, who started struggling furiously. The bandit then hit her with his pistol and punched her in the mouth. The bandits used cord from a Venetian blind and an electrical extension cord to bind their victims. Then they got down to business. “Where’s the ring?” they demanded. Brown said he finally told them the much-publicized ring, containing a 15-carat diamond set off by 30 smaller diamonds, was in the club’s safe deposit box. The gunmen removed Brown’s bindings and ordered him to get the ring from the club safe downstairs and return immediately “or we’ll kill her.” He did. The bandits bound and gagged him again and left. Brown managed to work loose from his bonds about five minutes later. Miss Gabor was rushed to St. Francis Hospital at Miami Beach.
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