The DeLong Star Ruby is a 100.32-carat cabochon-cut corundum from Myanmar (Burma) and one of the most celebrated star rubies in existence. Deep red in body colour and displaying a sharp, well-centred six-rayed asterism, it ranks among the finest large star rubies on public display anywhere in the world. The stone has been housed in the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York since 1937, interrupted only by a notorious theft in 1964 that briefly made it one of the most sought-after stolen gems in American criminal history.

Physical and Optical Characteristics

The stone is a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide, Al₂O₃) with chromium as the principal chromophore responsible for its red colour. At 100.32 carats, it is a substantial gem by any measure; star rubies of this size and quality are extraordinarily rare, as the conditions required to produce both fine colour and strong asterism in the same stone are seldom met simultaneously.

The six-rayed star — the phenomenon known as asterism — is produced by oriented needle-like inclusions of rutile (titanium dioxide) arranged in three intersecting sets at 60-degree intervals, parallel to the basal plane of the hexagonal crystal. These inclusions, referred to in the trade as silk, scatter and reflect incident light into the characteristic star pattern visible on the domed surface of the cabochon. In the DeLong stone, the star is notably sharp and well-defined, with rays that extend cleanly to the girdle — a quality that distinguishes it from many large star rubies in which the asterism is diffuse or off-centre.

The gem is set in a platinum ring mount accented with diamonds, a setting consistent with the refined taste of the American Gilded Age and early twentieth-century fine jewellery. The mount itself has become inseparable from the stone's identity in the public imagination.

Provenance and Donation

The ruby's precise mining history within Myanmar is not fully documented in the public record, though its characteristics are consistent with material from the Mogok Stone Tract in the Mandalay Region — the valley long regarded as the world's premier source of pigeon-blood rubies and fine star corundum. Mogok's marble-hosted deposits produce rubies with the fluorescent, intensely saturated red associated with the highest quality Burmese material, and the geological conditions there are equally capable of generating the rutile silk responsible for asterism.

The stone came to public prominence through Edith Haggin DeLong, an American collector and philanthropist. In 1937, Mrs DeLong donated the ruby to the American Museum of Natural History, where it joined a growing collection of exceptional gemstones that would eventually include the celebrated Star of India sapphire. The donation placed the DeLong Star Ruby in one of the world's most visited natural history institutions, ensuring that a broad public audience — not merely specialist collectors or auction attendees — could encounter a gem of this calibre.

The 1964 Theft: "Murph the Surf"

On the night of 29 October 1964, three men — Jack Roland Murphy (known in the press as "Murph the Surf"), Allan Kuhn, and Arthur Murph — broke into the J.P. Morgan Hall of Gems at the AMNH by climbing through an open fourth-floor window. The theft was audacious in its simplicity: the museum's security arrangements of the period were wholly inadequate for the value of the collection. The thieves removed twenty-four gems in total, including the Star of India (563.35 carats, the world's largest blue star sapphire), the Midnight Star sapphire, the DeLong Star Ruby, and a number of other significant stones.

The perpetrators were arrested within days, largely as a result of their own indiscretion — Murphy had been boasting of the theft in Miami social circles. The Star of India and Midnight Star were recovered almost immediately. The DeLong Star Ruby, however, became the subject of a ransom negotiation. The stone was returned only after a ransom of US $25,000 was paid by Florida lawyer and philanthropist John "Jack" Cassini on behalf of an anonymous donor — the funds reportedly delivered to a telephone booth in Florida, where the ruby was subsequently recovered. The episode was widely reported in the American press and has since been recounted in books, documentary films, and a 1975 feature film loosely based on the events.

Murphy was convicted and served time in prison; he later became a Christian minister and prison chaplain, a biographical arc that itself attracted considerable media attention in subsequent decades.

Return to the Museum and Current Status

Following its recovery, the DeLong Star Ruby was returned to the American Museum of Natural History, where it remains on permanent display in the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems. It is exhibited alongside the Star of India and other major stones in the collection, forming one of the most remarkable assemblages of gem-quality corundum accessible to the general public.

The stone's combination of attributes — exceptional size, strong and well-centred asterism, fine Burmese red body colour, distinguished provenance, and a dramatic theft-and-recovery narrative — places it in a small category of gems whose cultural significance rivals their intrinsic gemmological value. For students of asteriated corundum in particular, it represents a benchmark specimen: a demonstration of what the combination of Mogok geology, chromium chemistry, and rutile silk can produce at the upper end of the size range.

Significance in the Study of Star Rubies

Star rubies of fine quality present a persistent challenge to gemmologists and the trade alike. The conditions that produce strong, sharp asterism — a high density of uniformly oriented rutile needles — are often associated with a degree of milkiness or reduced transparency in the body of the stone, which can mute the colour. Conversely, stones treated to improve colour transparency (for example, by heat treatment at high temperatures) typically dissolve the rutile silk and lose their asterism entirely. The DeLong stone's ability to exhibit both rich red colour and a well-defined star is therefore a natural rarity rather than a product of optimisation through treatment, and it is this combination that accounts for its enduring status as a reference specimen.

Gemmological laboratories assessing star rubies today evaluate asterism on criteria including the sharpness of the rays, the centring of the star on the dome, the uniformity of ray length, and the visibility of the star under standard lighting conditions. By these criteria, the DeLong Star Ruby continues to be cited as an exemplary specimen in gemmological literature and education.

Further Reading

• GIA Gems & Gemology — DeLong Star Ruby reference
• American Museum of Natural History — Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems