Diamond Bessie

Early life Bessie was born in 1854 in Syracuse, New York, to a shoe dealer.

After this affair ended, she entered into prostitution (though she kept Moore's name). She later worked at brothels in New Orleans, Louisiana and finally Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Association with Abraham Rothschild Abraham (or Abe) Rothschild (born 1853 in Cincinnati, Ohio) was the son of Meyer Rothschild, a Cincinnati jeweler. He was not a member of the prominent European Rothschild banking family. He was handsome and a capable businessman, and for a time he worked as a traveling salesman for his father's prosperous jewelry business. His future looked bright, but his attraction to fast living and women soon led to alcoholism, and he became an embarrassment to his family, frequenting saloons and brothels. He met Bessie Moore in a Hot Springs brothel in 1876. From this time until her death, they were together. (an autopsy later showed that she was not) and threatened to reveal this scandalous fact to Rothschild's father.

On their way from Chicago to Texas in January 1877, they stopped in Danville, Illinois where they married at the Aetna Hotel. A reporter with the Danville News talked to the couple and published an article about them on January 11, 1877. Later, the Cincinnati Enquirer learned of the nuptials and published the news item from Danville on March 3, 1877: and the couple crossed the bridge at Cypress Bayou, walking away from town along the Marshall road. The last person to see them together was Frank Malloy, who noticed them in the restaurant before 11:00 am; Malloy took special note of Moore's massive diamond rings. About three hours later, Rothschild was seen crossing the bridge back into Jefferson alone.

When questioned about his wife's whereabouts at the Brooks House, Rothschild claimed she had stayed across the Bayou to visit friends.

Arrest and trials In Cincinnati, Rothschild began drinking more heavily and was reportedly becoming quite paranoid, believing himself to be followed everywhere. He tried to shoot himself outside a saloon in late February, but only succeeded in putting out his right eye. Rothschild's later exploits include posing as a wealthy businessman in several southern towns to acquire large quantities of jewelry on credit, and then quickly leaving town before being discovered.

Diamond Bessie Moore became a figure of folklore. Every May since 1955, Jefferson during its annual Pilgrimage Festival, produces a play titled The Diamond Bessie Murder Trial, derived from court transcripts, is performed. Diamond Bessie's grave in Jefferson's Oakwood Cemetery is a popular tourist attraction; unmarked for years, it bears a tombstone, installed one 1930s night by a retired foundry worker, E B McDonald: "I placed it there one night because it did not seem right for Diamond Bessie to sleep in an unmarked grave." Note the date on the tombstone he put is incorrect as she was last seen alive on January 21, 1877, and found dead on February 5, 1877. The Jessie Wise Allen Garden Club later erected an ornate iron fence around the plot.