Sophie Lyons spent the last several years of her life preaching that crime doesn’t pay, but those sifting through the contents of her safe-deposit box shortly after she died were hard-pressed to believe it. Trustees of her estate found a royal stash of brooches, rings, watches, earrings, stickpins, and other pieces of jewelry — all encrusted with rubies, pearls, emeralds, and other gems fit for a monarch’s crown. There was a giant starburst brooch with an 8-carat stone in the center, a 12-carat diamond ring, and a blazing diamond cross. It was said that the reformed “Queen of the Underworld” had amassed as much as $1 million through her activities, both legal and otherwise.
Source : Richard Bak, “From Rogue to Reformer”, Hour Detroit, November 2009.