75-year-old jewel thief looks back

Once, when she was in federal custody in Texas, she even escaped from a hospital after faking a medical condition. She simply walked away, said Ron Eddins, an assistant U.S. attorney who was prosecuting Payne for trying to sell a ring when she fled.

The most time she ever served was in Colorado, where she did almost five years in prison for swiping a diamond ring from a Neiman Marcus store in 1998.

Payne had seen the $57,000 gem in Town & Country. She wanted it. And she got it.

She quickly left Colorado, sold the ring and then went to Europe. The FBI searched her Ohio home while she was gone, and found $10,000 in cash — and several passports. Through the decades, she has used at least 22 aliases, among them Audrey Davis, Thelma White, Sonya Dowels, Marie Clements, Donna Gilbert.

The name may have changed, but the persona was always the same. She is charming, pleasant, refined, with a sweet Southern way about her.

“She is a woman and has a stately appearance about her,” Eddins said. “So it’s hard for people to believe she’s a liar, cheater and a stealer.”

During her time for the Denver theft, she served two stints at a halfway house. Denver Police Detective Diane Stack told authorities that this elderly woman needed constant supervision. They found this hard to believe.

“Everyone sees her as this nice little old lady and she gets away with it,” she complained.

And of course that’s exactly what happened. She fled the state while on parole, and authorities say she soon was back at work, relieving jewelers of their jewelry.

Life behind bars
She is 75 now. The white hair that she fluffed into a perfect coif is combed back in a dull way that is hardly a style. Her face is plain. No creamy makeup brightens her eyes and cheeks. No fancy dress. No designer purse.

She looks tired as she runs her hand across her lips and rests her thin fingers on her forehead. Her dress these days is a blue jail uniform.

Doris Payne is again behind bars, this time in Las Vegas’ Clark County jail on charges that she stole a diamond ring from one of her old haunts — a Neiman Marcus store, this one in Palo Alto, Calif. — and sold it in Las Vegas. She also faces charges of stealing another ring from a Las Vegas jewelry store, violating parole in Colorado and skipping town while out on bail from a previous Las Vegas theft at a Neiman Marcus.

She doesn’t dwell much on the past: “I’ve had regrets, and I’ve had a good time.”

It’s been a long journey. It was fun dressing up, fun forging this career all on her own. It was never about making money or spending it. It was about the game.

Once, she swears, she threw a ring in the trash. She didn’t want it. It meant nothing.

She stole diamond rings, she says, because “they’re easier than everything else.” She, herself, wore simple gold earrings. She never much cared for diamonds.

“I don’t know,” she said in a rare moment where she considers her criminal past. “I think the whole thing just got out of hand. It kind of went amok.”

She says she is done with thievery. No more, she says.

But the men and women who tracked her just laugh. “If she’s alive, she’s going to be still stealing,” Kennedy said.

Jean Herbert, a longtime friend, asked Payne about her future: “I said, ’You’re in your 70s, you cannot wear the bars of the jail out.’ I said, ‘Aren’t you tired?”’

She never got an answer.

MORE FROM CRIME & COURTS

Crime & courts Section Front

Police fatally shoot cop-slayings suspect Shooting re-opens Huckabee's clemency record Man charged with killing wife, 2 daughters Competency hearing begins in Smart case Prisoner pulls gun on guards, escapes Ark. officer who Tasered girl, 10, is fired Ex-Ohio autoworker tried for 27,900 deaths Cops: Sharpton daughter said she was in rush 3 boys held in attacks on redheads Man arrested in Salvation Army kettle theft Crime & courts Section Front   Add Crime & courts headlines to your news reader: